7DRL: Kaiju Roguelike

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

I am making a graphical roguelike in flash(I was going to convert it to iOS, but I dont have time to get it uploaded for people to play. Maybe after the competition). You are a giant monster, and your child has been stolen. Rampage across islands trying to get your baby back, while punching buildings and stomping tanks.

My main goal, was to make a small roguelike and the idea is to focus on instead of normal combat, but the wave of tiny tanks coming at the monster, like you see in most monster movies. Tanks spawn from the spawn points and never stop. Tanks are easily destroyed and do little damage but its easy to become overwhelmed. so the game focuses more on pushing forward then fighting enemies.

and here is a picture
http://tinypic.com/r/rargxt/5

[Adam Piskel]

Looks interesting. Good luck!

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

Here is what I have so far. I was hoping to get a little farther.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Kaiju/Kaiju_001.swf

Still need a few more animations. You can move using the arrow keys and use a fireblast attack by hitting A. which damages all around you. punch out buildings to fill up your special attack. I was hoping that the combat would be more exciting then it currently is. I wanted a feeling of constantly pushing forward after your baby. any suggestions?

P.S. I haven't got the game ending at level 10 yet, and I havent got dying working yet and there are a few bugs which still cause problems.

[Radomir Dopieralski]

I really like both the theme and the graphics, but I have to admit that
the game currently feels very static. I have some ideas that might help,
but for obvious reasons I didn't test them in this particular game (but
some of them worked very well speeding up the game in z-day).

* limited-time invulnerability -- there is nothing giving you better feeling
of power and encouraging demolition than being a god for a limited time. The
time limit also encourages fast acting, while being invulnerable lets you do
less planning. In Z-Day there was a Chainsaw item that automatically killed
any zombie that tried to attack you -- but it only had fuel for 3 uses in
total and was quite a rare find.

* diagonals -- currently the game is mostly about staying out of the shooting
line of the tanks by moving in rather intricate and well-planned patterns
and doing the usual "let them come first" dance, which is even harder without
the wait command (fortunately destroing a building works well for waiting).
Diagonal attacks (not necessarily movement) minimize the amount of dancing
that you must do and let you play much faster.

* running/jumping -- another way of breaking the cursed dance, but without
removing the tactical challange in the process, is to allow some special
movement modes. In Z-Day I had a "vault" command that let you move by two
squares at a time, but used up a little of your precious life (actually
stamina, as the health system was weird there). This lets you concentrate
on attacking for a while, and then run away from the hot area.

* healing -- make moving forward safer than staying where you are. I just
had a map like this generated:

#.... >
#..==...
@...=#..##
. .. .=

Where "=" mark the spawning points, that immediately spawned one tank each.
I can't see any way of playing that wouldn't earn me at least 3 hits, especiallywithout the "wait" command. So it would be nice to be able to say "OK, there
is no way to avoid getting hit, so I will just storm forward and that will let
me recover that health".

* destroying spawning points -- right now when you pass a spawning point, it
still poses a treat -- especially since the spawned tanks can get you from
across the whole map. The only defense against it is to carefully plan your
way to leave as many buildings standing as possible to shield you from them.
That's not what the monsters do! If you can disable a spawning point, at
least temporarily, then moving directly towards them makes much more sense.

* shielding -- another solution to that problem would be additional shielding.
Either trees that let you pass without demolishing them but shield you from
the missiles, or some rubble you could throw behind you to give you some
cover, or maybe some of the ruins would burst in fire and smoke that blocks
the line of sight...

* timeout -- a direct way to make the player hurry -- just keep a timer and
make his life difficult when it runs out -- maybe have some small airplanes
or helicopters appear above your head and nib at your health counter slowly?

Of course those are all just suggestions and you have to test them to see if
any of them is any good in your particular game.

From the few games I played so far it seems that the most precious resource
you have to manage right now are the buildings to demolish -- because that
allows you to skip a turn without moving and gives you an edge in the dancing.

Also, if you use the fireball a second time, the game stops responding to keys.
Probably some bug you have there.

Can't wait to play the finished game!

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

wow thanks for the excellent feedback. so some of the ideas I have right now are.

healing: in the original mockup there was a red building. buildings will act as potions. punch a Red One and it will give you back some health. I might also add in healing between levels.

Jumping: this allows you to move 2 spaces ahead. but it has another use if you land on a spawner it will crush it and becomes disabled. i also might try that on a land, a shockwave is sent out like in the fireblast that only destroys tanks. making it ideal to jump into groups of enemies. this will probably be a special action so will be refilled by punching down buildings.

Timer: I like the idea of a timer per each level forcing the player to hurry along. that could be a good idea. maybe its a bomber coming in or something. I might also try an idea where its a number slowly counting down and that is the amount you are healed at the end of a level meaning rushing through is the best idea.

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

Doing more work. Currently testing some mechanic ideas. The main Focus I wanted to do was smashing buildings, so I thought about what if I removed the tanks that harmed you and made smashing buildings combat. usually in combat you come out with a little less health and maybe an item. so I figured why not the same here. so each building has a cost associated with it, and knocking it down cost you some "energy" its worked out kind of nice, As you look for the path of least resistance now.

basically I felt that my original idea wasn't really working all that well. so I decided to take the day to try some other stuff out. which is a shame because I spent some time planning it all out, but you never know how its actually going to feel until you get it working. Most likely though I will revert back to the earlier version of smashing tanks and punching buildings and try and salvage that. any suggestions.

[Adam Piskel]

Here's what I would do to fix it, given what I experienced playing around with it:

Make smashing buildings give an energy resource that allows you to do a projectile attack to destroy tanks from afar. Something that has at least three tiles of range, and can be used at any angle. Then, change your charge up attack to fill from destroying tanks. Finally, make the area attack hit a wider area. Two-three square range centered on the player. OR make the area attack a buff of sorts that protects you from tank fire for 3-5 turns and allows you to walk into buildings as you crush them.

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

so tonight is my last day. I started Saturday morning. (Although I don't know how bug fix versions count) so the plan is general clean up and get the last spell in. I ended up changing a lot for simplicity and time.

you have to destroy all buildings to move onto the next island and now an island fits on one screen. you have 3 spells. roar which gives you invinicbility for a few turns. The second spell is a fireball which travels in a straight line wrecking buildings, spawners, and tanks. and the last is fireblast which is pretty big and destroys most of the island.

you only get one spell at a time and its based on your health. so as you get lower health, you get more powerful spells.

I also have added red buildings which give health and blue ones which recharge your current spell, but these are only activated if you wreck them by hand not with spells.

Tonight will be just powerhousing through my to do list. getting as much done as possible.

[Darren Grey]

That sounds like a nicely designed set-up. I especially like the "more power at low HP" thing - I have something similar implemented.

Looking forward to playing! Love the cute graphics too :)

--
Darren Grey

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

Alright so I actually finished. Tomorrow will be doing some memory tweaks. A balance pass and making the help file. I don't think that counts towards my 7 days right?

It's a very quick game. A total match being about 8 minutes. Some things I didn't have time to do were music and another playable character. but there is always the future

[Radomir Dopieralski]

On 2012-03-17, jasonhp...@gmail.com <jasonhp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Alright so I actually finished. Tomorrow will be doing some memory tweaks. A balance pass and making the help file. I don't think that counts towards my 7 days right?

I'm afraid it does. Think about it as releasing a commercial game. But then
again, we will not be nitpicking, you made a nice game and that's what counts.
Also, the publishers aften add things to their games after the release
nowadays...

> It's a very quick game. A total match being about 8 minutes. Some things I didn't have time to do were music and another playable character. but there is always the future

Coffeebreak roguelikes are great.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl

[edenicholas]

On 3/17/2012 1:13 AM, Radomir Dopieralski wrote:
> On 2012-03-17, jasonhp...@gmail.com<jasonhp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Alright so I actually finished. Tomorrow will be doing some memory tweaks. A balance pass and making the help file. I don't think that counts towards my 7 days right?
>
> I'm afraid it does.

I'm gonna disagree here. I think a post challenge bug fix and balance
release, as long it doesn't add features and isn't terribly far out of
challenge, is a good idea, and everyone who plays your game will
appreciate it.

Time spent on a help file should definitely not count against.

[Radomir Dopieralski]

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/7DRL#So.2C_I.27ve_done_a_7DRL.2C_but_now_I_want_to_make_it_better.21

You are supposed to prepare a complete release within 7 days.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl

[edenicholas]

"That being said, the only true judge of your "Winnerness" is yourself."

On a personal level, we all set out to achieve a self set goal after 7
days. Sometimes we get damn close to meeting that goal, but maybe we
made a few missteps, which might be easily fixed without significant
change to the final product. So if you met your goals feature-wise, I
would rather play a version of your game with major bugs fixed and
imbalances tweaked, just as long as it's released within a reasonable
time frame and doesn't add significant features (aka stuff you didn't
have time to add).

[Radomir Dopieralski]

To be honest I would much prefer to play a game that had months or years
of work put into it and had all bugs fixed (as far as possible) and a lot of
significant features added. The time limit is not a good thing from the
player's point of view. Then again, such a game wouldn't be finished as
surely as a 7drl, so that's where the time limit comes into play. If you
plan to release something barely working and confusing, and want to just
fix it all later and add documentation, then it doesn't work so well
anymore.

Of course, in the end you set your own goals and nobody will claim that you
did not succeed if you yourself feel that you did.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

Wow Guys probably what I will do is create two sets of Files. a 7Day version and a bug fix one. yeah I don't intend to do any new features or anything like that. I just want to make sure no one has an memory leaks or anything.

but for now here is an online version of my 7DRL
http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1332002033

and here is a zip file containing a readme and the swf file.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Kaiju/KaijuKing-JasonPickering.zip

I want to thank everyone, this has been a really fun competition and hope you like my game.

[edenicholas]

It's really good! The way the abilities are tied to health while also on
a cooldown is awesome and makes for some interesting decisions. The
sprites make me feel really bad when I lose though... poor little dino.
Grats on your success!

[Adam Piskel]

I had a couple tries of this, and because of the orthogonal movement, it could really, really use some sort of 'wait' function. Having to take a hit if you're on the diagonal from a tank really hurts with such limited life. Additionally, orange buildings never seemed to refill the final attack, even though my life was in the same place as when I used it. It refilled the other two just fine. As a QoL improvement, highlighting the current ability would help, as would refilling other spells if the one your life is currently at is already full.

Otherwise it's a fun little game and it's neat to see improvement from the first version I played.

[Radomir Dopieralski]

On 2012-03-17, jasonhp...@gmail.com <jasonhp...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's a really fun coffeebreak roguelike. And great graphics.
It's a shame the little monster screaming "mommy" had to go, it was very cute.
The lack of wait action is really challenging -- I wasted my special attack
a couple of times just to make it wait. It's even worse now that destroying
buildings doesn't stop you from moving. But I think it's a fair challenge and
it makes the game harder and more interesting.

By all means do continue the development. As I said, the time limit makes sense
when you are planning your game -- once you have actually released it it serves
no purpose.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

Thanks Guys. I am writing all this down, for when I release a build fix.

Edwin: Yeah I might add stars over the head, so its just knocked out, not dead.

Adam: I tend not to like Wait commands because usually people just wait for stuff to get close to get the first strike especial here where one hit kills an enemy. but I might try it out for the sole fact that the tanks are ranged and having a wait will only give you first strike on tanks around corners. I will also check that orange building bug. Also I was hoping that the amount of health a player had would highlight the current skill? does that not read. also I thought about doing the refilling of other skills, but was afraid it might make the game a little less strategic.

Radomir: yeah I might add the baby back in story wise. I do think I might continue working on this, after I finish my current big Roguelike. The main thing I like though is with the simple controls, I can transfer this over to an iOS device pretty easily. especially since the current Roguelike I am working on is for the iOS and the engine is so similar. I like coffebreak roguelikes on the go.

[Hamish]

hey man, nice work. A really tidy little game, my urge to stop is fully satisfied.

O particularly liked the powers, awesome. only real complaint is that it seemed to take a few key presses to make my move.

[jasonhp...@gmail.com]

so fixing starts up now. I have pretty much not touched any code for that last few days as a break and I am ready to get back into this and release a proper bug fixed version. I will be keeping things posted here as I go, and hope to make the game really good. I also plan on adding an in-game instructions screen. how do you think the text file I included in the zip is? did it seem to work pretty good? anything else I should add for it?

[jonath...@gmail.com]

Le jeudi 22 mars 2012 18:11:56 UTC+1, Jason Pickering a écrit :
> so fixing starts up now. I have pretty much not touched any code for that last few days as a break and I am ready to get back into this and release a proper bug fixed version. I will be keeping things posted here as I go, and hope to make the game really good. I also plan on adding an in-game instructions screen. how do you think the text file I included in the zip is? did it seem to work pretty good? anything else I should add for it?

The links for your game do not work anymore. Do you intend to republish it ?