Monster Living in A Cave Terrorizes Nearby Village! by Enrymion
Game about attacking villagers while they try to run away during the turn-based combat.
You pick 3 actions out of 6 semi-random options to do each turn and can also see the options that the enemy has.
Use wasd or arrow keys to move around the map and mouse or 1-6 and space in battles.
Swallowing enemies heals you a tiny bit and eating them in your cave after you've "cooked" them for 1 battle heals bit more, both adjusted by difficulty.
Post-compo adds new enemies, improves battle UI and some other things.
You pick 3 actions out of 6 semi-random options to do each turn and can also see the options that the enemy has.
Use wasd or arrow keys to move around the map and mouse or 1-6 and space in battles.
Swallowing enemies heals you a tiny bit and eating them in your cave after you've "cooked" them for 1 battle heals bit more, both adjusted by difficulty.
Post-compo adds new enemies, improves battle UI and some other things.
Ratings
| Coolness | 69% | 3 |
| Overall | 2.91 | 669 |
| Audio | 2.54 | 538 |
| Fun | 2.56 | 764 |
| Graphics | 1.98 | 883 |
| Innovation | 3.09 | 405 |
| Mood | 2.70 | 645 |
| Theme | 3.74 | 234 |
Now obviously, the graphics and audio aren't quite at that level, however, they are serviceable.
The game has some pretty weird behaviours: lots of NaNs, you can make moves while the success music plays, etc. The biggest problem I think is that there is no way to heal, and the game is pretty difficult because of this. Enemy counters will drop you really quickly, which doesn't really fit with the theme: they countered my spit acid and did 10 dmg? Why did my spit acid only do 10 dmg and them countering it did the same amount? Throwing a rock sometimes does 15!
All in all though, I really like the battle system. Congrats on the entry.
If it was a little more refined, this could have been really good!
Pros:
-Really complex for a 48h game
-Fits the theme
Cons:
-Some screens seem a little unorganized
-Some bugs
-Really hard
I think I fixed the NaN's during submission hour so do tell if they still appear.
Really liked the combat system. While there are lots of little details that could be ironed out (as other comments have mentioned), I think it's a great product for 48 hours. I was left confused about some ability descriptions (especially the support-y yellow abilities, many of which seemed to have similar effects), but again, it's a great idea.
In terms of implementation: how are abilities for the player and enemy chosen? Is it totally random? The enemies seemed to have a lot of defensive skills, which makes playing against them difficult. Also, while I'm guessing there's some secret, super-good strategy, combat usually left my health bar drained, and it doesn't seem like there's a way to replenish it. Maybe once you eat a defeated enemy it could heal you some? Just a thought.
I'd like to see this game with even more RPG-type elements. Also, I LOVE the title!
And more RPG type elements are planned, mainly some sort of leveling up and changing your abilities.
One small point I haven't seen mentioned in the comments below, at first I found the health bar very confusing. I kept glancing at it and wondering why I wasn't doing any damage. Turns out this was because the entire health bar shrinks and there is no indication as to how much health the enemy had at the start of the fight. Having a second bar that lies behind the red health bar and remains constant would be a useful reference for when you want to check how much damage you've done.
HThomson: Good point about health bar, made a post-compo version already just so I can add that(and reduce health of enemies).
Halleflux: Did it stop in the battle screen or did it switch to black one? Latter I could probably prevent from happening easily.
It is hard to know what the enemy will do, but if you are able to do that, I can see this being like a crazy chess/RPG experience. This would be super awesome with more development.