Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[baboogy]

Entered and submitted mine today. Went for a very streamlined, arcade-like approach inspired by Mordor: Depths of Dejenol -- something one would play for 20 minutes when they are tired as fuck but still want a dungeon crawling fix.

https://surt-r.itch.io/dragon-ruins

Looks interesting, I will give this a try. There's definitely a niche for simpler drpgs you can just jump into and play, without thinking too hard about them.

 

[baboogy]

Anyone enter the Dungeon Crawler Jam on itch.io? I was gonna but I misremembered the end date as the start date so there are only ~3 days left.

https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2024

Entered and submitted mine today. Went for a very streamlined, arcade-like approach inspired by Mordor: Depths of Dejenol -- something one would play for 20 minutes when they are tired as fuck but still want a dungeon crawling fix.

https://surt-r.itch.io/dragon-ruins

Played your game for 40 minutes, I enjoyed it. Would have played for longer and tried to finish it but when I launched it again looks like there's no saving of progress. Don't have an itch account so I'll give some feedback here, take it with a grain of salt as always (and understandably some of these points won't really apply well because it's a short jam game) but:

Things I didn't like:

• No saves, if there was a way to save progress I would have played longer.
• Progression feels too grindy when compared against health as a resource and exploration depth. For most of the map I explored, there were a few bottleneck points where getting to the last point I finished exploring from drained me of enough health that I had to turn back after an additional room or two, but didn't have enough gold to level or upgrade equipment, meaning I had to make several long trips back and forth just to get one room deeper each time. Maybe no gold for levels, just equipment would have made this feel better?

Things I liked:

• Your aesthetics/eye for visual, audio, etc. design is on point. Good filter, great art, sounds go well with it, it's simple but solid
• The autobattler idea works really well for the arcade like approach you were going for. I could see it working well even in a more full, fleshed out game.
• How refreshing it felt to just jump into a quick drpg that felt like you could play it for 10-15 minutes at a time

I'm just a sample size of one but honestly, if that was a full game, with more fleshed out mechanics (too simple as it is at the moment) I would most likely buy it and play it on and off for quite a while. Something more roguelite oriented, where you have a stable of characters like the Wiz games you can pick in town, no indepth character/equipment customization but maybe creating your characters/party off a handful of different classes/archetypes, and being able to choose something like feats every few level ups for that characters, and some prestige class options when they're higher levels, procgen maps, some kind of modifiers. The autobattling is really novel to me but a little bit more depth to it would have been perfect. Maybe being able to buy or find some one use consumable/magic items you can put on a "belt" slot next to each portrait and click to use during combat (potions, wands, etc.), or even some special class skills on cooldown buttons. Overall good entry and I hope you win.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Anyone enter the Dungeon Crawler Jam on itch.io? I was gonna but I misremembered the end date as the start date so there are only ~3 days left.

https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2024

Entered and submitted mine today. Went for a very streamlined, arcade-like approach inspired by Mordor: Depths of Dejenol -- something one would play for 20 minutes when they are tired as fuck but still want a dungeon crawling fix.

https://surt-r.itch.io/dragon-ruins

Played your game for 40 minutes, I enjoyed it. Would have played for longer and tried to finish it but when I launched it again looks like there's no saving of progress. Don't have an itch account so I'll give some feedback here, take it with a grain of salt as always (and understandably some of these points won't really apply well because it's a short jam game) but:

Things I didn't like:

• No saves, if there was a way to save progress I would have played longer.
• Progression feels too grindy when compared against health as a resource and exploration depth. For most of the map I explored, there were a few bottleneck points where getting to the last point I finished exploring from drained me of enough health that I had to turn back after an additional room or two, but didn't have enough gold to level or upgrade equipment, meaning I had to make several long trips back and forth just to get one room deeper each time. Maybe no gold for levels, just equipment would have made this feel better?

Things I liked:

• Your aesthetics/eye for visual, audio, etc. design is on point. Good filter, great art, sounds go well with it, it's simple but solid
• The autobattler idea works really well for the arcade like approach you were going for. I could see it working well even in a more full, fleshed out game.
• How refreshing it felt to just jump into a quick drpg that felt like you could play it for 10-15 minutes at a time

I'm just a sample size of one but honestly, if that was a full game, with more fleshed out mechanics (too simple as it is at the moment) I would most likely buy it and play it on and off for quite a while. Something more roguelite oriented, where you have a stable of characters like the Wiz games you can pick in town, no indepth character/equipment customization but maybe creating your characters/party off a handful of different classes/archetypes, and being able to choose something like feats every few level ups for that characters, and some prestige class options when they're higher levels, procgen maps, some kind of modifiers. The autobattling is really novel to me but a little bit more depth to it would have been perfect. Maybe being able to buy or find some one use consumable/magic items you can put on a "belt" slot next to each portrait and click to use during combat (potions, wands, etc.), or even some special class skills on cooldown buttons. Overall good entry and I hope you win.

Thanks for giving it a try.

 

[CryptRat]

Some cool thing just happened. I'm making a game with Might & Magic 3-4-5 combat, and when testing I realized why in these games the enemies play either after you walked, which is intuitive, but also, and it was not intuitive to me before testing and realising what I did sucked, after your first character played (ok I'm not 100% sure but I think it works that way in these games ), it's exactly how you want to do it so that you can't shoot and walk back and prevent melee enemies from ever playing (you could at first in my game when the monsters played when all your characters played).

 

[Dorateen]

I'm making a game with Might & Magic 3-4-5 combat

This is good news!

 

[CryptRat]

I'm making a game with Might & Magic 3-4-5 combat

This is good news!

The small game I'm making for the Game jam does not even features party creation but I will likely reuse the combat system for my real, bigger project since so far I've mostly drawn things, I've not put any system into it yet and I'm happy with the result.

 

[CryptRat]

I should release the game later today (not that there's much more time).

Main mechanics is that you start with 7 characters each with an important ability (miniap, can see traps, medkits heal everyone instead of only one character ...) and you lose them one after another.

 

[CryptRat]

Here we go : https://cryptrat.itch.io/to-death-and-beyond

 

[Dorateen]

Here we go : https://cryptrat.itch.io/to-death-and-beyond

Gave this a spin. It is a really neat concept, running a party of expendables who disappear one by one (allowing the player to make tactical decisions about who to drop). I made it down to the fourth level with Soldier and Miner, before they perished. I could see this approach in a full fledged RPG, with characters becoming separated and then later regrouping.

Loved the sound design, and the squiggly art has its charm. I also had a Might & Magic 3-5 moment when I didn't see enemies in a room, but heard them. The atmosphere reminded me of the ghost ship from Countdown to Doomsday.

I'd call this a fun dungeon crawler with some high-level concepts. I'll go back to a previous save and resume.

 

[CryptRat]

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Thanks for the suggestion too, I did not even think about separated parties when making this one but separated parties is something I should work on someday, sometimes I think about it but so far I've always abandoned the idea.

 

[JB_0x0003]

Chipping away at DLR Gaiden since I wasn't satisfied with the early version, which felt less like a step forward and more like DLR 1.1 with a few extra bells and whistles.

It slowly transforms from the initial plan to make a standalone expansion into a testbed for a true sequel.

Looks awesome. I have the first one wishlisted on steam but haven't gotten around to it.

 

[rap2h]

I am trying something, sorry for your eyes

 

[CryptRat]

I am trying something, sorry for your eyes

Looks super cool.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I am trying something, sorry for your eyes

UE5?

 

[rap2h]

CryptRat Thanks! It's the early steps currently, hopefully it will be published on Steam early 2025

The_Sloth_Sleeps

 

[Kev Inkline]

You're 3 years too late to make it a blockchain game especially one with nft avatars. You'd be a millionaire if not a billionaire now.

 

[rap2h]

You're 3 years too late to make it a blockchain game especially one with nft avatars. You'd be a millionaire if not a billionaire now.

:D I missed something I guess! To think I could be rolling around in a pile of cryptocurrency....

By the way, I don't know where to ask: can I create a forum thread for my game? Thus, I won't pollute this one with my awkward (yet cute?) illustrations.

PS: just changed my avatar tweet tweet

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I am trying something, sorry for your eyes

The storybook look is underrated. Reminds me of The Sea Will Claim Everything. There's something more genuine about it than a lot of the more childlike/cutesy games you see around these days, where it seems less like a genuine choice and more like someone who sucks working around their suck.

 

[Tyranicon]

You're 3 years too late to make it a blockchain game especially one with nft avatars. You'd be a millionaire if not a billionaire now.

:D I missed something I guess! To think I could be rolling around in a pile of cryptocurrency....

By the way, I don't know where to ask: can I create a forum thread for my game? Thus, I won't pollute this one with my awkward (yet cute?) illustrations.

PS: just changed my avatar tweet tweet

Your game looks good, it has style. You can make a thread either in this subforum or in General RPG if you're feeling brave enough.

 

[Strig]

PS: just changed my avatar tweet tweet

Your avatar combined with your location makes me hear this in my head:

 

[rap2h]

You're 3 years too late to make it a blockchain game especially one with nft avatars. You'd be a millionaire if not a billionaire now.

:D I missed something I guess! To think I could be rolling around in a pile of cryptocurrency....

By the way, I don't know where to ask: can I create a forum thread for my game? Thus, I won't pollute this one with my awkward (yet cute?) illustrations.

PS: just changed my avatar tweet tweet

Your game looks good, it has style. You can make a thread either in this subforum or in General RPG if you're feeling brave enough.

Let's go then: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...awn-tribute-to-classic-rpg-and-comics.149992/

I hope to see you there!

 

[Twiglard]

Is Itch actually a good site to publish your game on and expect it to generate some interest, or is it a SourceForge-like ghetto? What about games that have more scope and complexity than an average Itch game?

 

[Tyranicon]

Is Itch actually a good site to publish your game on and expect it to generate some interest, or is it a SourceForge-like ghetto? What about games that have more scope and complexity than an average Itch game?

Itch is good as long as you don't expect it to be some form of Steam. There is an audience there but its small.

I prefer it because it has no DRM whatsoever, you just upload straight zip files lol, and also it has a super-friendly rev split with devs, it's completely voluntary (I mistakenly left it at 0% itch side before I realized it wasn't automatic).

That being said, it's mostly for tech demos and porn. That's what's most popular on the site.

 

[Twiglard]

super-friendly rev split with devs

Sorry, what's that?

 

[Tyranicon]

super-friendly rev split with devs

Sorry, what's that?

How much devs get paid per game. By default (unless they changed it) Itch gives devs 100% of revenue. You have to manually adjust it if you want to give Itch some money.

It's completely voluntary.