Nocero by Empty Set
Explore a dungeon as "Nocero" in this turn-based RPG.
Be sure to check the readme for a primer on how to play, because there is no tutorial.
Have fun!
- 1.1 version added, fixes a bug that caused a game crash
- 1.1 link moved to itch.io page, since I intend to continue work on this project post-jam
| Youtube | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwpRrsUoFrf_ilgCVgZEyapS_ujWwcIY/view?usp=sharing |
| Youtube | https://empty-set-games.itch.io/nocero |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/nocero |
Ratings
| Overall | 295th | 3.703⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 391th | 3.486⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 446th | 3.351⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 415th | 3.514⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 256th | 4.014⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 188th | 3.703⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 343th | 3.162⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 330th | 3.632⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 57🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
Nice job. Could be a real charmer if fleshed out more.
I like the combat too, it's nice and simple, and the differences between enemy types adds a good amount of strategy.
I'd absolutely love to see a more complete version of this.
I enjoyed the idea of starting with no attacks and having to learn them along the way. It would be cool if you had to learn the attacks from other enemies who had attacked you rather than just going through the menu, because the current system feels like just a more elaborate way of selecting an attack and I think it might have connected more in regards to how Nocero thinks of the attacks (rather than just thinking of them out of nowhere). It's a good entry overall; I enjoyed learning how all the moves worked against the enemies. I like their appearances a lot, particularly the surprise ones that aren't even in the main overworld.
I've uploaded a 1.1 version which fixes this crash for new players or anyone who wants to play again. The crash occurred due to there being no more moves to learn, though, so if you got to the point where it crashed there may be little more to experience.
Thank you for your in-depth feedback! I'm still mulling over the best way to deal with visual indicators on damage - I want to find the right balance between "feeling around in the dark" and "being told exactly what to do" so that players can learn and master the timings at a fair pace. It's hard to know if a timing will "make sense" when I'm the one who programmed it, so feedback on this issue is particularly valuable to me. I'm definitely considering some sort of visual indicator on at least some moves in the future.
Expanding the system for thinking of attacks and making it more dynamic and fun is one of the biggest things I want to do - I had a TON of ideas for it that unfortunately never came to pass due to time constraints. Attacks taking inspiration from enemy moves is one that would definitely be cool to include.
@psiv I was worried about the balloon enemy - I wanted to include him because there was otherwise no specific use for the moves which specifically targeted flying enemies, but due to time constraints all I was able to do was try and make it more likely that you'd encounter him late enough that you'd be likely to have a move to hit him. Looks like my fears were correct - sorry I was so careless and you had to watch Nocero get slowly whittled down by a balloon with no recourse.
@suvrik You make a good point with your comment on enemy formations - looking back, the average enemy party size was too large, and fights have a tendency to become battles of attrition.
@peachtreeoath It's quite encouraging to me that you were able to figure out the armor mechanic intuitively - it means implementing it didn't go to waste. I really wanted to include an in-game explanation of the armor and pierce mechanic, as well as a straightforward indicator of how much armor an enemy had, but I wasn't able to do so in the end.