I made it to Bragnor and then Bragnor beat my ass with straight 6s! I felt like the difficulty was pretty good and I could barely scrape by after crabs, though obviously heavily RNG dependent. I appreciate the simplicity of this game, definitely a big strength. I thought it was really fun trying to figure out a strategy for each boss based on observing their abilities, that was my favorite part. I lost most of my health to the gambler and never figured out how his ability worked that brought my dice down to 1. Like other people noted even some basic enemy portraits and dice rolling animations would really do a lot to enhance the experience. What you have here I think is good stuff, my slop brain goes straight to thinking how much more re-playable the game would be with some deckbuilding/progression elements as well.
Thank you very much for trying my demo! I think you've gotten the furthest of anyone so I appreciate the effort! The final 3 enemies are for sure the hardest. I love that you were trying to strategize and that's what I want players to do, since I added a few different abilities, and I know once I visualize what the bosses do a bit more it will be easier to do so. The gambler and his friend Felix curse ALL dice on the field on the final round, reducing 6's to 1/2 respectively, this is probably the hardest ability anyone could figure out so clarity on my part will be implemented soon. I really want to spruce the game up and add some art and animations but I wanted to avoid the pitfall of spending time and money on art and have no game. I actually am planning on adding some rogue(slop) elements as the final game loop mechanic to give the player a slight edge over time, with various upgrades to dice and powers so I'm glad you mentioned it. TY again for playing and I will be back stronger!
i did a few match against the crabs (lmao). my feedback will be similar to what i've said to solitaire dev in the past, i suggest you to check his game and check the feedback he got in previous DDs. Of course you need to study balatro; and give a try to PuzzleQuest (Challenge of the Warlords). Puzzle quest will be super useful to you if you wanna implement a story in your game.
Random thoughts:
- pls put the title of your game on its folder, prototype 4 is not optimal
- this game needs a lot (A LOT) of graphics, sounds and good telegraph to understand in a blink what's goin on. If you don't wanna mess with art/sound this project will be super hard for you
- for example the crab move that halfs one of my rolls seems totaly random
- overall the idea it's there, it's also mobile freindly, so another way to success
Random rambling conclusion: dunno if this is a project just to get started into dev, or if this wants to become a full paid release. With the right skin, juice and addictive gameplay it could be a success.
PS: for totaly unreleated reasons i was rewatching the original pirates of the carabbean trilogy... a crew of undead pirates that bets years of service on the flying duchman. The possibilities are endless, of couse consider a sexy appeal (strip dice game?) to gather money really fast.
No problem, I'm also still finishing up demos this week as well. I will check those games you've suggested out, as I haven't played most of them. I will change the folder names, I didn't think about it. I for sure want to implement graphics and I agree, I wanted to finish the gameplay loop for the game (which I did, all 12 bosses function) before investing into art and sound, a mistake I've made before. The crab will always choose your highest dice post roll and the tiny crab will turn it into a 3, the bigger crab into a 1. It's clear that I didn't make this more apparent and will work on clarity for sure going forward. I love the mobile idea and appreciate you bringing it to light. This isn't my first project, I have overscoped so many before it and thought a dice game would be of limited scope, but it seems the scope for the art and gamefeel might be bigger than I've anticipated and to answer your question, this is not to make money, just practice make game. I love Liar's dice, so I'm glad you brought that up. The story will come, as there are specific enemies I've written into the game and themed, but I'm gonna work on the more pressing issues first. Thank you so much for playing and giving me feedback on my barebones demo, the comments help a lot!
It's alright, it's a start. Needs better tutorial and better visual cues for stuff.
My general feedback would be - it needs A LOT of visuals. Generally gambling games are not very fun unless they add flair - the suspense of the roulette wheel, wonky physics of the falling dice, spinning slots and fireworks of getting a 777 - that's what fuels the gambling addiction. Without it - it's pretty mindless, at least in my opinion.
It's an alright start, but needs A LOT more meat on the bone.
Thank you for playing and streaming it! I totally agree that it needs more visuals and of course I've just started so it's mostly default boxes, I wanted to finish the core gameplay loop before investing into assets. I think the enemy and spell visuals will amp up the game for sure so I thank you for the feedback. However I would like to mention that I don't consider it a gambling game because there are no monetary stakes or betting, instead a rogue lite, it's just missing an upgrade system that I plan on implementing as the final addition to the core. I also for sure want a scripted tutorial so I'm glad you mentioned it. What did you think of the pixely animation I made? I was planning on making some more. What other visuals do you think I need to prioritize?
What I was trying to say - random numbers and rolling them is not fun at all. Seeing a number pop up on screen without any flair is... meh. So you do want some sort of animation, be it a dice drop or a sword swing. The reason I called it "gambling" is because in my opinion/experience the main appeal of dice rolling is the suspense - and that's a core for any gambling game. Waiting for what number will be rolled, stuff like that. I honestly don't know how to avoid the gambling association if you're gonna have dice for attack. (now that I think about it - tabletop games also use dice, but they also rely on the same suspense as the gambling games, so not that far off imo)
The animation is fine, but it comes out of nowhere and is not well explained. Also it triggers right after the roll, so in regards to the crab claw - I think I didn't even see the original number that I had.
Considering your game is all about combat - I'd focus on that - monster sprites/animations, attack animations (including player attack). Anything that would make the game look more game-y, I guess.
Yeah I for sure need some kind of dice visual which is at the top of my list, and your completely right. The animation timing needs some work and I agree that the number before the claw and other abilities should be shown, so that is also a good point. I might add an enemy indicator for abilities which might make them a bit easier to predict, still playing around with that idea. I seriously appreciate all the feedback and analysis, which is something I sought for this prototype so thank you again!
I want to love roguelikes like this but the game defaulted to full-screen on my ultrawide monitor and I could not view the bottom portion of the interface. Is there a way to make it windowed?
Kept confusing "keep" versus "discard" dice at the beginning, that’s why I played idiotic and kept throwing away my sixes and fives.
Putting aside the fact that this is a very rough prototype - I don’t find the concept itself very interesting. Maybe if there was more crazy stuff to roll? … Well idk where you wanna go with this. Hope the footage helps a bit, may have hit a bug or two, I was not sure.
I watched the video and it did have some helpful insights. It is very early, but I wanted to cast it into demo day since I worked on it for quite a bit and it is a full gameplay loop. I plan on adding passives, ie roguelike elements, to add more depth and fun. Are there any other things I could add to make it more fun? I plan on visually polishing it in the coming months and with it gameplay clarity should be boosted. I don't think there were bugs, but abilities have conditions and it's not very clear why they work and don't work, but I think tooltips will help. TY for playing!
A bit difficult to progress, considering the luck. The boosts/abilities are strong but feel less flexible than the enemy perhaps warrants. Looking forward to graphics. Thanks for the submission.
TY king. It is missing the passive abilities given to the player to make it a bit easier. I had a hard time initially balancing AI (I can beat it for the record), but all the feedback so far has helped. I have big plans, including more UI and graphics, and hope to come back stronger!
Comments
I made it to Bragnor and then Bragnor beat my ass with straight 6s! I felt like the difficulty was pretty good and I could barely scrape by after crabs, though obviously heavily RNG dependent. I appreciate the simplicity of this game, definitely a big strength. I thought it was really fun trying to figure out a strategy for each boss based on observing their abilities, that was my favorite part. I lost most of my health to the gambler and never figured out how his ability worked that brought my dice down to 1. Like other people noted even some basic enemy portraits and dice rolling animations would really do a lot to enhance the experience. What you have here I think is good stuff, my slop brain goes straight to thinking how much more re-playable the game would be with some deckbuilding/progression elements as well.
Thank you very much for trying my demo! I think you've gotten the furthest of anyone so I appreciate the effort! The final 3 enemies are for sure the hardest. I love that you were trying to strategize and that's what I want players to do, since I added a few different abilities, and I know once I visualize what the bosses do a bit more it will be easier to do so. The gambler and his friend Felix curse ALL dice on the field on the final round, reducing 6's to 1/2 respectively, this is probably the hardest ability anyone could figure out so clarity on my part will be implemented soon. I really want to spruce the game up and add some art and animations but I wanted to avoid the pitfall of spending time and money on art and have no game. I actually am planning on adding some rogue(slop) elements as the final game loop mechanic to give the player a slight edge over time, with various upgrades to dice and powers so I'm glad you mentioned it. TY again for playing and I will be back stronger!
Sorry for the great delay:
i did a few match against the crabs (lmao).
my feedback will be similar to what i've said to solitaire dev in the past, i suggest you to check his game and check the feedback he got in previous DDs. Of course you need to study balatro; and give a try to PuzzleQuest (Challenge of the Warlords). Puzzle quest will be super useful to you if you wanna implement a story in your game.
Random thoughts:
- pls put the title of your game on its folder, prototype 4 is not optimal
- this game needs a lot (A LOT) of graphics, sounds and good telegraph to understand in a blink what's goin on. If you don't wanna mess with art/sound this project will be super hard for you
- for example the crab move that halfs one of my rolls seems totaly random
- overall the idea it's there, it's also mobile freindly, so another way to success
Random rambling conclusion: dunno if this is a project just to get started into dev, or if this wants to become a full paid release. With the right skin, juice and addictive gameplay it could be a success.
PS: for totaly unreleated reasons i was rewatching the original pirates of the carabbean trilogy... a crew of undead pirates that bets years of service on the flying duchman. The possibilities are endless, of couse consider a sexy appeal (strip dice game?) to gather money really fast.
GL
No problem, I'm also still finishing up demos this week as well. I will check those games you've suggested out, as I haven't played most of them. I will change the folder names, I didn't think about it. I for sure want to implement graphics and I agree, I wanted to finish the gameplay loop for the game (which I did, all 12 bosses function) before investing into art and sound, a mistake I've made before. The crab will always choose your highest dice post roll and the tiny crab will turn it into a 3, the bigger crab into a 1. It's clear that I didn't make this more apparent and will work on clarity for sure going forward. I love the mobile idea and appreciate you bringing it to light. This isn't my first project, I have overscoped so many before it and thought a dice game would be of limited scope, but it seems the scope for the art and gamefeel might be bigger than I've anticipated and to answer your question, this is not to make money, just practice make game. I love Liar's dice, so I'm glad you brought that up. The story will come, as there are specific enemies I've written into the game and themed, but I'm gonna work on the more pressing issues first. Thank you so much for playing and giving me feedback on my barebones demo, the comments help a lot!
It's alright, it's a start. Needs better tutorial and better visual cues for stuff.
My general feedback would be - it needs A LOT of visuals. Generally gambling games are not very fun unless they add flair - the suspense of the roulette wheel, wonky physics of the falling dice, spinning slots and fireworks of getting a 777 - that's what fuels the gambling addiction. Without it - it's pretty mindless, at least in my opinion.
It's an alright start, but needs A LOT more meat on the bone.
Thank you for playing and streaming it! I totally agree that it needs more visuals and of course I've just started so it's mostly default boxes, I wanted to finish the core gameplay loop before investing into assets. I think the enemy and spell visuals will amp up the game for sure so I thank you for the feedback. However I would like to mention that I don't consider it a gambling game because there are no monetary stakes or betting, instead a rogue lite, it's just missing an upgrade system that I plan on implementing as the final addition to the core. I also for sure want a scripted tutorial so I'm glad you mentioned it. What did you think of the pixely animation I made? I was planning on making some more. What other visuals do you think I need to prioritize?
What I was trying to say - random numbers and rolling them is not fun at all. Seeing a number pop up on screen without any flair is... meh. So you do want some sort of animation, be it a dice drop or a sword swing. The reason I called it "gambling" is because in my opinion/experience the main appeal of dice rolling is the suspense - and that's a core for any gambling game. Waiting for what number will be rolled, stuff like that. I honestly don't know how to avoid the gambling association if you're gonna have dice for attack. (now that I think about it - tabletop games also use dice, but they also rely on the same suspense as the gambling games, so not that far off imo)
The animation is fine, but it comes out of nowhere and is not well explained. Also it triggers right after the roll, so in regards to the crab claw - I think I didn't even see the original number that I had.
Considering your game is all about combat - I'd focus on that - monster sprites/animations, attack animations (including player attack). Anything that would make the game look more game-y, I guess.
Yeah I for sure need some kind of dice visual which is at the top of my list, and your completely right. The animation timing needs some work and I agree that the number before the claw and other abilities should be shown, so that is also a good point. I might add an enemy indicator for abilities which might make them a bit easier to predict, still playing around with that idea. I seriously appreciate all the feedback and analysis, which is something I sought for this prototype so thank you again!
I want to love roguelikes like this but the game defaulted to full-screen on my ultrawide monitor and I could not view the bottom portion of the interface. Is there a way to make it windowed?
I'm sorry there is no such setting at this time, but I will add it to my to do list when I work on a settings menu. TY for playing!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2291816761?t=0h48m39s
Kept confusing "keep" versus "discard" dice at the beginning, that’s why I played idiotic and kept throwing away my sixes and fives.
Putting aside the fact that this is a very rough prototype - I don’t find the concept itself very interesting. Maybe if there was more crazy stuff to roll? … Well idk where you wanna go with this. Hope the footage helps a bit, may have hit a bug or two, I was not sure.
I watched the video and it did have some helpful insights. It is very early, but I wanted to cast it into demo day since I worked on it for quite a bit and it is a full gameplay loop. I plan on adding passives, ie roguelike elements, to add more depth and fun. Are there any other things I could add to make it more fun? I plan on visually polishing it in the coming months and with it gameplay clarity should be boosted. I don't think there were bugs, but abilities have conditions and it's not very clear why they work and don't work, but I think tooltips will help. TY for playing!
A bit difficult to progress, considering the luck. The boosts/abilities are strong but feel less flexible than the enemy perhaps warrants. Looking forward to graphics. Thanks for the submission.
TY king. It is missing the passive abilities given to the player to make it a bit easier. I had a hard time initially balancing AI (I can beat it for the record), but all the feedback so far has helped. I have big plans, including more UI and graphics, and hope to come back stronger!