Tech demo release β

After a long break, here comes the new release. However, it is not a full working game release, but rather a tech demo. I’ve introduced a lot of new game mechanics and I need some feedback from testers. I want to make sure that the game is fun to play before I go too far with some of my new ideas.

While testing, please try to focus on the game ‘feel’ and the potential it has and not so much on the bugs. Some locations and characters are lacking descriptions, but this should not distract you from the gameplay. All feedback is welcome, but this time I’d really appreciate comments on how all game mechanics (old and new ones) play together, whether it is consistent and most of all - what should I change to make it even more ‘juicy’.

List of new mechanics and features ⚙️

• 3 starting classes for you hero 🦸

  • there are 3 hero classes to choose from: 😲 Silver-tongue, 😎 Smarty-pants, 😤 Strong-arm
  • each class has different starting stats respectively empowering: 💬 eloquence, 🐍 agility, and 💪 strength
  • thanks to @ALUS for this awesome idea - it fits perfectly with the game theme title and the three ways of confronting characters in the game

• Level up’s 👑🆙

  • certain actions give your hero experience points 🌟
  • after gathering 500 experience points 🌟, you can level up 👑🆙 your hero’s stats
  • each level up 👑🆙 gives you 20 trait points to spend on your 3 main traits (💬 eloquence, 🐍 agility and 💪 strength)

• Background music and sound effects 🔊

  • The main menu, confrontation screen, and each map have its own background music
  • most of the actions produce sound effects (fighting, resting, quest completed, random events)
  • this was easier to implement than I thought, but it really adds a lot to the game feel. Which is your favorite track? 🎶

• Settings menu 🛠️

  • most settings are now available in a separate menu (press ‘G’), including volume control

• The flow of time ⏳

  • day number 📆 and time of the day ⏳ are now displayed in the header
  • with each move, the time is advancing by 3 minutes, other actions do not change the time
  • you can skip the time by resting (press ‘O’)
  • for now, it’s allowed to rest anywhere, but in the future, you will be able to rest only in certain places - this is purely for testing purposes to quickly skip the time

• The Field of view (FoV) 👁️

  • only the area within a certain distance from the hero (inside the FoV) can be seen clearly
  • The map outside of the FOV is covered with the ‘fog of war’ (colors are dimmed, items, characters, wall symbols and stairs are not visible)
  • brightness of the background and the size of the FoV depends on the time of the day and map type
  • traveling at night is dangerous (see random events) and difficult - you can’t see far, it’s difficult to distinguish objects. This is supposed to increase the tension and make you feel vulnerable, making the game more interesting and feel more real.
  • the size of the FoV is also dependent on the particular map: in dungeons, tunnels, and such, it’s always dark and the radius of view is limited, no matter the time of the day
  • you can see the map that has been already discovered by you by pressing ‘M’ (this map view doesn’t allow yet to pan maps greater than screen size, to be fixed)
  • FUTURE: I want to add torches that will increase the brightness and radius of the FoV so you can see further at night, but first you need to acquire them. Over time torch will burn out and you will need to find a new one.
  • FUTURE: I also want to add campfires on the map. You will be able to rest safely near them and they will increase the FoV around them at night.

• Random events 🎲

  • what used to happen after you searched the location (by pressing ‘P’), now happens randomly when you move to a new location
  • the probability of a random event to accrue depends on the time of the day (more frequent at night) and the location (more frequent and more often with a negative effect in the wilderness, but locations like roads are safe)
  • this gives the player the ability to try different play strategies - you can play safe and move mostly by roads and during the day, or you can take risks and travel at night to achieve more by finding hidden secrets, but you need to be prepared for the consequences

• New maps 🗺️

  • this is the main reason why it took me that long to release a new version. I’ve spent around 2 months building separate tools to make it easier for me to create bigger and much more interesting maps. I’m using 2 techniques of procedural map generation: “Diamond-square” algorithm for landscapes and “Cellular automaton” for dungeons and mazes. More on that in the next devlog.
  • the new maps are much bigger and have open space to explore (as opposed to the old ones with narrow tunnels among walls)
  • those maps are examples of how the new version of the game might look but are not final
  • the game starts now in a temporary hub with “portals” to individual maps with some descriptions of what to expect there

• Friendly characters ☮️

  • now you can also meet friendly characters (without an option to attack them)
  • there are 3 types of friendly characters: harmless animals, merchants, and talking NPCs

• Merchants 💹

  • you can buy and sell items from them (duh!)
  • in general, each merchant applies a different margin to the price of items, but for now, there is only one you can meet
  • FUTURE: I want to make the margin depend on your reputation with the character

• Characters movement 🚶

  • YES! It’s alive! 🧟
  • finally, there is more action on the map: some characters have the ability to move around
  • for now, there is only one type of moving algorithm: gamedev professionals call it ‘drunkard’s walk’, but it’s just a fancy name for a random walk. It was super easy to implement, but remarkably effective. Fun fact: this algorithm can be also used to generate maze maps Random walk.
  • FUTURE: Naturally, I will add different walking algorithms in the future (to pursue the hero, to run away from hero, to patrol, etc.)

• Dialogs with NPCs 💬

  • this was the second most time-consuming feature to implement. Here, I also built a separate tool to make it easier for me to write dialog flows. More on that in the next devlog. For now, I just want to say that it surprised me how complicated this can be. The only currently implemented dialog is quite short to play, but it consists of 22 nodes and 42 links. You can only imagine how difficult it is to test it by a single developer.
  • dialogs have branches, to make the game plot go in different directions
  • dialog options have conditions, so you can ask the same question in different situations and get different dialog options
  • dialog options have results, so you can get some items or money after talking to someone or give items to someone
  • characters have ‘memory’ so they can remember if you’ve talked to them before and what was the outcome of the conversation
  • FUTURE: I want to add a reputation system, so available dialog options will depend on your past actions

• Road signs 🪧

  • you can now see road signs on the map that will give you directions
  • In the beginning, I implemented signs only because the maps started to get really big and it was difficult to navigate and felt so natural to put a road sign on the crossroads
  • now, I see a much bigger potential in them: they can be used to give the player hints about the plot, or even to start some quests. For me, this is also a new form of communication with the player. Quite neat, isn’t it? 🤔
  • FUTURE: This also might be a good way to introduce the player to game mechanics. I’m thinking about adding a tutorial that will be based on reading signs and completing a series of quests. This is going to be a separate map, that will reveal to the player, step by step, what you can do in the game and teach some keyboard shortcuts. Not everyone likes tutorials so there will definitely be an option to skip them. What do you think?

• Changes to UI 🖥️

  • layout
    • now, by default, the location panel at the top is very short and the side panel is not visible
    • with bigger maps I wanted the player to be able to see more of the map
    • you can change it back if you want to (press ‘[’ to toggle location panel, ‘TAB’ or ‘]’ to toggle side panel)
  • persistent messages
    • messages are now displayed in the bottom panel and are not cleared after each move
    • this way, you can see all the messages that happened since you last moved
    • you can clear the messages by pressing ‘C’

Things that are known to be broken 🐛

• game save and load are broken (resuming saved game by pressing ‘K’ on the main screen will crash) - playing the game with a single run is safe
• new mechanics need to be balanced (the bonuses and losses on random events, experience points, character stats, etc.)
• the help menu (accessed by pressing ‘I’) is not updated yet
• big maps sometimes glitch on small terminal size - the only workaround is to decrease the font size (press ‘CTRL -’) to fit the map on the screen
• The map preview (accessed by pressing ‘M’) always shows the upper left part of the map and only what currently fits the screen. The ability to pan the map is not implemented yet, but definitely needed.
• some text messages are temporary and some messages aren’t translated to Polish yet, so it’s better to play in English (only the first part of the dialog with ‘Madame Sarcasmia’ is in Polish), use ‘F5’ to toggle language
• messages while trading with merchants are not displayed (e.g. when you don’t have enough money to buy something)

Deprecated features 🗑️

• searching the location (by pressing ‘P’) will probably be removed - this is now replaced with random events, and only searching near the fountain to restore health is still available
• location description - now, they are shown only when location panel is extended (by pressing ‘[’), but from what I’ve seen, very few people bother to read them anyway

What now? 🤔

I’d love to get as much feedback as possible. Hearing from you - players - has always been very inspiring for me. Whether it’s a bug report, a suggestion or just a comment, it’s always interesting see different point of view. I’ve already implemented many things suggested by ou. So please, let me know what you think about the new version. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

After fixing some of the temporary solutions and nailing annoying bugs, I want to focus on building up the plot. I have the scratch of main plot ready, now I want to add more key characters and their dialogs. So I guess ahead of me is more time for writing using MARKDOWN and less for coding in Python.

Get inspired 💡, share 📣 and create 🏗️!