Dungeon Diving 10

Just a small update (no build just yet).

Got a TON of great things working. Gear is now component-alized. Meaning I create base skeleton equipment, and can add components to it (which just build into the stats) to reflect some variations instead of building a database of different gear. This is how WoW does their gear (“of the monkey” etc), and is likely how Diablo handles theirs. Gameplay wise, it allows me to structure and add variation, rather than doing them all in one go. As such, a “base” set of gear for my first playable alpha is now in and ready to be used.

Stat system (at least my initial attempt) is complete as well. Stats are POW/SPD/LCK. POW(er) affects how hard your abilities hit (as a multiplier), SP(ee)D affects how fast your abilities refresh and perhaps a dodging component, and L(u)CK affects item drops and critical rates. Item drops will be important because they’ll affect your ability to produce permanent gear upgrades. I purposely did not put in defensive stats for a reason -- #1 your gear has an armor stat on it which directly reduces how much damage you’ll take, and #2 your health is upgraded as you level (and bought outside of the dungeon). Perhaps it’s not the best idea, but I wanted to keep the focus on playing and skills and less on gear/stats. We’ll see how it goes.

I revamped the skill system to be MUCH easier to handle, where you can only use one skill at a time and once the “queue” clears you can add another ability (assuming you can afford it and the refresh is up). This was important for adding a casting system to the game (which I also did) – skills can have a cast time and will display a progress bar over the player’s head. Casts will pay off for being vulnerable to silences/stuns for that time period. For example, there is an enemy that has a 1.5 second cast spell, but at a certain level the warrior gains the bash ability that can stun opponents and cancel anything currently being cast.

The START of status effects are in. It really needs a full-fledged system for maintaining/displaying/acting off buffs/debuffs, and that’s likely my next task. For example, I want to give a skill for damage over time effects, which isn’t possible without this system.

Once that’s in, it’s just a matter of finishing off the skills, adding a few extra enemies, and then we’re at alpha! Excited to share with people, it’s been a long time to get this off the ground

-J

Dungeon Diving 9

Overhauling the combat system today. On the user side it won't be a noticeable change, but on the backend it'll make things much easier. General outline:

-Player enters combat with an enemy, combat starts.
-While in combat, player's skills gain time, when time = requiredtime (per the skill), the button is clickable
-When button is clicked, the skill is fed into the skillQueue class. This skill holds the current skill being used by a player. Before being added, it makes sure that #1 there's currently nothing in the queue (I don't know why I called it a queue, it's not a queue at all...) and #2 player can afford it. If it passes, the costs are paid and it's put into the queue.

Queue is where the magic happens -- if there's anything in the queue, it'll add time to the casting count. Once the casting count is greater or equal to the casting time (which would be instantly if there was no casting time), the skill will execute. The queue will also look for things such as block/dodge/powerups, and have the ability for skills to be removed via stun (and not be added until it's over). Should make for a lot of interesting skills.

-J

Dungeon Diving 8

Latest Build: LATEST!

Okay I said I wasn't going to update without some content in place, but I changed how the camera works. It's now overhead (thanks to Zack's suggestion!), BUT it's now detached from direction. Meaning left just moves you left now, instead of turning you left, and the camera is always facing north. The camera pan for monster fights is still jacked up (I need to have it move based off the direction you encountered the monster now...) but otherwise it looks better I think (:

Real content sometime soon I swear

-J

Dungeon Diving 7

Here's a comparison of my the possible views:


Topleft: "expanded" room
Topright: normal room
Bottomleft: "expanded" room, more top-down view
Bottomright: normal room, more top-down view


Taking opinions on what looks the best. The rooms will eventually be decorated more...

-J

Dungeon Diving 6

Latest Build: Latest

New features;
Camera pans around when a battle initiates
Stats ported over (or slowly ported over) to a more comprehensive system:
POW - attack damage modifier
DEF - damage reduction modifier
SPD - ability speedup modifier
LCK - Critical/luck modifier

Health will not be controlled by a stat, and rather only by skills/level/permanent upgrades

This will likely be my last update for awhile -- not because I won't be working on it, but because I'm going to start the (long) process of adding equipment/skills/enemies to try and make a decently playable dungeon. I don't want to update mid-process (unless just to talk about my current findings) because there's a 90% chance it's gonna suck until it's right

-J

Dungeon Diving 5

Do not fret I'm still alive!
Latest Build

First, my apologies: I took about the last two weeks (some 60 hours of in-game time) to play/beat Persona 4 (which I highly recommend). I might still go back for the platinum trophy, but right now I'm back with my nose to the grindstone on Dungeonsomethingorother.

The first big thing of the week is sort of defining a scope. Scopes are important (especially to an indie developer):
#1 To make projects lean. I'm a firm believer that less is more in video games. You set out with a goal for your game, and you want to accomplish that goal to a satisfactory point in as little features as possible. This makes you emphasize the GOOD features, rather than a dozen mediocre features.
#2 Scope creep makes finishing projects MUCH more difficult, and it's important to set goals and accomplish them. An unfinished game is just as worthless as a game that was never started. So to help that ultimate goal of releasing a game, it's important you set clear boundaries for what you must do to make that happen.

For this game, the focus is on a roguelike design (random content generation, punishing deaths) but with an RPG twist. Characters will learn better skills as they progress, and these skills will help them progress further. Your toolbox of skills you bring into the dungeon is what's ultimately going to dictate how well you do, and collecting as many tools for your toolbox is going to be vital for your success.

With that, here's my current outline:
--Characters when they are defeated in the dungeon will restart from the beginning. They'll lose all their gear they collected, and possibly all of their money as well after they've been given the opportunity to buy upgrades.
--Characters may find skills in the dungeon, buy them outside of the dungeon, or learn them from leveling up.
--Characters will level up, and in doing so receive a health boost, a stat point or two, and possibly new skills
--The only gear slots will be weapon/offhand/armor. Warrior's offhand will be a shield, Mage's will be a tome that'll reward skills and stat points, and a rogue will get a second weapon (etc). You'll find more gear in the dungeon, but you'll likely be able to buy "base gear" (which will always persist over your character), and "entry gear" (that can only be used on the upcoming run).
--Stats will be some combination of brawn/intelligence/dexterity/luck. Brawn will be used for your "non-sp" attack damage, intelligence for your skill damage, dexterity for skill cooldown reducing, and luck for crits/better drops.

I'm gonna start with just one dungeon, and go from there. The goal will eventually be to have more, but I want to get one that progresses like I plan in my head.



As for build updates:
--The UI is quite functional now, you can find/equip gear and they can have tooltips
--Chests now fade away after being looted
--Code was cleaned up quite a bit. Still a lot to go, but it'll be easier to understand down the line
--Minimap completely redone and much easier to expand upon now
--Damage numbers over the player/enemy's head when they're injured
--Stats/Experience/Levels in, although real formulas haven't been designed yet


That's all for now!

Dungeon Diving 4

http://johnakerson.acoders.com/latestbuild.html

New UI is in!
Inventory is in!
Experience gain is in! (But not leveling up)
Chest dialogue boxes are in!
iPhone (pre-5/5s) resolution size in!


Next step: possibly real loot??

-J