The Daily Click

::. ::.

Project Started:	19th December, 2010	Last Update:	5th March, 2017
Project Owner:	HitmanN	Project Members:
Project Type:	Dungeon Crawler Platformer	Project Progress:

Screw the weekend update.

Posted 24th Feb 11, by HitmanN

I update today.

Just a couple of screenshots showing a few new decorative backdrops (a large batch of vines, for instance, which comes in two varieties so far) and some crafting material deposits. Most of the deposits work like breakable containers. Just whack 'em to shatter them into a few crafting material items. There's no use for the materials yet, but I figured I'd make a few first, before starting on the crafting (and town) elements. I've also added a new sub page to the inventory, called Resource Bag, which holds crafting materials. It's possible to browse the items by type, to view their description and bonuses for crafting. However, this part is still under work, and thus not shown in the screenshots yet. It's just lacking a few aspects though, so should be good by next update.

I also removed the torches and pitch-black levels for now. It just wasn't working out as I hoped originally. I might bring it back for later levels down the line though. Maybe the latter half of the upcoming Catacombs area could use it, for a creepy effect.

Also, one thing I have to say. You can definitely expect a game to turn out something good when you get lost playing it even though you're supposed to be testing something specific.

I often find myself grinding through levels even though I'm just supposed to test something simple, like how a decoration looks or whatever.

Been playing with the same character too, through the first ten levels again and again. Level 11 character so far, as seen in the screenshots. I don't take much damage against the puny enemies anymore, when my best hammer has a DEF+3 bonus, and I've been using hammers for a long while, so my base DEF stat has grown high to begin with, heh.

Posted by alastair john jack

24th February, 2011

Nice, keeps looking better.

Obviously I don't like your mention of grinding, though there's little you can do to prevent that with a design like this (unless you had a "persistent" world (no respawning) and something like a hunger system which would force players to keep progressing).

Posted by HitmanN

24th February, 2011

alastair john jack:
Grinding isn't quite as bad here as it is in most dungeon crawlers. Leveling up is relatively quick if you keep pushing into the harder dungeons. Though it is likely that the game will be too hard to finish without replaying some areas another time at least. That's the part that needs a lot of content though. There must be enough stuff to find and do for the 'grinding' to be interesting. Crafting material deposits are just the first step to adding stuff to do.

Posted by Del Duio

24th February, 2011

If you have Super Unique enemies like in the DIablo series you should make their levels and stats all scale to that of the character and grinding would get negated a bit. It'd force the player to rely more on skill perhaps.

Posted by Strife

24th February, 2011

In my experience, grinding is best when it's seamlessly integrated into the gameplay - in other words, when the player doesn't even consider it to be grinding. In my FQ project, for example, it's possible to keep pushing forward and still gain enough experience to fight off boss monsters, without any backtracking or camping in a single area. If the player has trouble with a boss fight, they have the option of backtracking and gaining a few more levels to make things easier, but it ultimately isn't a requirement. Final Fantasy games have always been pretty good at this, especially the more linear ones (since, y'know, it's not like the player has much choice but to keep going forward).

MMORPGs use grinding because longevity is important with online games; The longer a player must take to gain levels, the more money the developers make from subscription fees and the more time they have to build extra content before players get bored with what's there. This isn't necesssary with offline games, and it can even be detrimental to the experience.

To sum it up, try to find other ways to increase the longevity of your game first, and then use grinding as a last resort.

It seems like you're in pretty good shape right now, considering how the player will backtrack once or twice to return to town. That, and I don't think you'll have any trouble with longevity because of how the dungeons are randomly generated.
Comment edited by Strife on 2/24/2011

Posted by HitmanN

24th February, 2011

Strife:
I'm definitely trying to avoid the MMORPG formula in more than one way. For instance, I don't want to restrict the player's access to areas based on their character's level, or their capability to battle enemies that are a few levels higher in difficulty than the player. Enemies always give you the same amount of experience, so you don't need to grind in areas that are close to your character's level in difficulty in order to get worthy amount of experience. Leveling up is also meant to be much faster. Instead of playing an hour to gain a level in an MMORPG fashion, I want the same to be achievable in 5-15 minutes. Ultimately, I do want grinding to be somewhat necessary in very small doses, but I don't want it to become a time-consuming task. More like a detour before going to the harder levels. Focusing character development properly can also help to avoid having to do grinding. In the end, if you have enough DEF to withstand enemy attacks, and means to damage the enemies effectively (high ATK or MGC), your odds at surviving are much greater.

Del Duio:
Not sure about unique enemies yet, but I've been pondering on the topic lately. I doubt I'll make them scale to the player's stats though. I suppose I could make a larger quantity appear at once though. Like, if you're the level intended for the area, you'll get 1-2 harder unique enemies, and if you're of higher level, you'll get 3-4. They'd always be close together, so it'd be relatively harder to fight them. That's one solution that doesn't fiddle with the enemy stats, but provides greater difficulty and greater chances at rewards.

Posted by Shiru

24th February, 2011

I love the way the cristal shines. It looks very nice ! How many levels do you plan to do finally ?

Posted by HitmanN

24th February, 2011

Shiru:
The number of levels in total is still undecided. It pretty much depends on how the game is received. I plan to release it in chapters of roughly 30 levels each. I have up to four chapters planned as possible locations, but if the game doesn't turn out popular enough, I might just cut the total to 2-3 chapters. Time will tell. Looking good so far though, so high hopes all around.

Posted by Shiru

24th February, 2011

Ok thx for the answer. Well good luck with the levels !

Posted by Jess Bowers

4th March, 2011