This seems like not an alternative Velgress... but an alternative sequel to Velgress, keeping the roguelike climbing aspect instead of turning into an arena game like Overbold. I love it.
Interesting enemy modifications, I like the idea of enemies that latch onto you (though this might feel annoying in practice), and also shooting an enemy to put it in a vulnerable state. Certainly these changes would make for a much more hostile and organic feel than what I feel from Velgress. Interesting choice to also replace the currency with souls. There was no explicit mention of this but I'm assuming any "souls" you don't spend are preserved when you decide to jump back in, and are lost when you die? Or does it work some other way? In any case, I'm excited to see you validate these ideas with a prototype!
Thank for your thoughts! Yeah I'm hoping that the latching on enemies won't be annoying but it's very possible... Good question about the souls. I was thinking that you would keep unspent souls until you die. That way you can save up to spend on more expensive upgrades. Something I haven't decided on is that when you complete the hard ending, Tress still wants all those souls. Does she just hope you spend them all? Or take them from you? Or offer to take you home in exchange for your remaining souls? Because in my mind, Tress needs all the collected keys and all the souls to be freed.
I'm thinking I'll keep the design doc as it is and use side notes or something to fill it out or make changes as I find them necessary. That'll be maybe an interesting study from concept to reality.
Oh and also: interesting that your comment is that the changes will make it more hostile, I was actually going for less hostile. Or at least less a feeling that control is being taken from you like when a bat hits you and you go flying in the original game.
I'm probably biased by how much time I've spent playing Velgress but I feel like all the enemies in Velgress are basically neutral or borderline friendly. Like especially in stage 3, the lack of platforms really encourages you to bounce on enemies heads, so the "enemies" start feeling like friends. I think this goes for Spelunky too but I think the reason I don't feel the enemies are particularly evil in Velgress is because they follow fairly predictable rules and they often have traits that can be helpful instead of being unilaterally harmful to you.
Comments
This seems like not an alternative Velgress... but an alternative sequel to Velgress, keeping the roguelike climbing aspect instead of turning into an arena game like Overbold. I love it.
Interesting enemy modifications, I like the idea of enemies that latch onto you (though this might feel annoying in practice), and also shooting an enemy to put it in a vulnerable state. Certainly these changes would make for a much more hostile and organic feel than what I feel from Velgress. Interesting choice to also replace the currency with souls. There was no explicit mention of this but I'm assuming any "souls" you don't spend are preserved when you decide to jump back in, and are lost when you die? Or does it work some other way? In any case, I'm excited to see you validate these ideas with a prototype!
Thank for your thoughts!
Yeah I'm hoping that the latching on enemies won't be annoying but it's very possible...
Good question about the souls. I was thinking that you would keep unspent souls until you die. That way you can save up to spend on more expensive upgrades. Something I haven't decided on is that when you complete the hard ending, Tress still wants all those souls. Does she just hope you spend them all? Or take them from you? Or offer to take you home in exchange for your remaining souls? Because in my mind, Tress needs all the collected keys and all the souls to be freed.
I'm thinking I'll keep the design doc as it is and use side notes or something to fill it out or make changes as I find them necessary. That'll be maybe an interesting study from concept to reality.
Oh and also: interesting that your comment is that the changes will make it more hostile, I was actually going for less hostile. Or at least less a feeling that control is being taken from you like when a bat hits you and you go flying in the original game.
I'm probably biased by how much time I've spent playing Velgress but I feel like all the enemies in Velgress are basically neutral or borderline friendly. Like especially in stage 3, the lack of platforms really encourages you to bounce on enemies heads, so the "enemies" start feeling like friends. I think this goes for Spelunky too but I think the reason I don't feel the enemies are particularly evil in Velgress is because they follow fairly predictable rules and they often have traits that can be helpful instead of being unilaterally harmful to you.
True enough!