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Thanks again for all the feedback! Really appreciate the Xeno breakdown as well. They all seem to come across how I intended when assigning the moves and stats spread so that’s great info! My main goal with Xenos was to make a battle system that wasn’t about just spamming one strong move and giving you a chance to react which is why healing and buffs are so strong. I love the idea of a status that halves healing and I definitely plan to limit healing from damage to a max of the enemies remaining hp. That one slipped by me on demo release.


The battle speed setting and showing Xeno moves from storage are great suggestions but are both a little complicated due to how some systems are set up in the code but I should be able to change those as well but it will likely be closer to full release. 

I decided to remove  pp style system to avoid needless running back to healers or having to stock up on items. I have considered increasing the cost of nap though so that may be a good middle ground for that situation. Healing in general I tried to make a little pricey to prevent straight up heal stalls. The idea was that if you can’t put damage a 25% heal then you could use a Xeno with good status moves or debuffs to break through. That way you have a reason to very your movesets. It’s definitely something I’ll take another look at though since it seems like it can be a bit overpowered.


I fixed the town 2 house but and the stasis description and hope to update the demo in the next hour or so! Thanks again for all the great feedback. I’ll be checking in on this comment as I work on the game for sure. So many good ideas! Sorry I didn’t get to all of them in detail but the most I would have to say to a lot of them is “I agree and I’m going to do that” haha. 

The only outliers being the stun immunity for bosses. I have always disliked when games make boss rules different than the rest of the game, ultimately making some abilities totally unpractical. But I do have some tough bosses coming up with preset stats, movepools, and high levels for their areas and in some cases variants. People didn’t play the demo much when the forest was in it but once I’m done updating it I will put that portion back in. It features the first real boss.

Variant Xenos do give boosted xp on defeat but I agree it can be higher, same for wild evolved form and that is definitely something I can address pretty easily in the near future!


If you have any more thoughts I would love to hear them! I really appreciate you putting in so much time with the game to gather all that feedback

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I looked up the game on Youtube and saw an original demo playthrough with Punky: all my moves have recoil, Jeldritch, Rover, Glarp, Voodude, Leafy, Frump, Mantex, Sprout, and Mush.

Jeldritch and Mush look really cool. And that Suspicious Goo makes me think some Xenos will have branching evolution: one by level-up and another by item.

Enemy AI will use Heal moves even if they're at full/barely damaged. You can see with how Voodude kept using Cauterize.

I think the way healing is balanced is pretty good. Just that Nap needs to cost more since it's leagues better than the rest. Full heal + curing status (for just 6 MP) means it invalidates multiple actions' worth of MP.

Regeneration is 25% HP per turn, 1-4 turns, for 6 MP. Incredibly efficient considering Heal is 25% for 4 MP. You "lose" if it's only 1 turn, but win if it's longer by a mile (up to 16 MP worth).

Gaia Burst is technically a healing move... if you survive. Though it's only a finisher move and even for enemy use it would fall off after early game. A boss with Gaia Burst would just heal you after you have defenses to survive.

I do think bosses with stall/debuff/DoT strategies would make sure your team isn't just brute force. Life drain attacks would fall off against high defenses or blind/accuracy reduction.

The issue that Poison/Burn to beat bosses is you just need to inflict them once and just survive because it ticks off 10% their HP every turn. Immunity just removes options, resistance makes it harder to stick. The best solution would be options to cure status without cure-all like Nap.

Psychic Screech: 6 MP. Deals medium energy damage. Cures Loony status; inflict Loony on enemy.

Shocking Grasp: 8 MP. Deals medium energy damage. Cures Paralysis status; inflict Paralysis on enemy.

Noxious Gift: 6 MP. Deals medium energy damage. Cures Poison status; inflict Poison on enemy.

Tranquil Mind: 6 MP. Heal 25% HP, cure Blind/Loony status.

Holy Water: 6 MP. Heal 25% HP, cure Poison/Delayed status.

Nature's Blessing: 6 MP. Heal 25% HP, cure Burn/Paralysis status.

Purification Ritual: 8 MP. Due to your body feeling weak from expelling all maladies within it, permanently increase damage taken by user by +10% (+10% for each additional use) until the end of the battle (Brittle status; cannot be cured). Cure all status.

Burning Spirit: 6 MP. For 4 turns, gain a Shield that absorbs 5% max HP damage per turn (refreshes each turn). Gain 1 stack of Burn resistance; cure yourself immediately if Burned, then remove 1 stack. Cannot be used if already Shielded.

Assassinate: 7 MP. Deal high physical damage. Ignore enemy's positive defense buffs and shield.

Wow, totally forgot to get back to this! Branching evolutions are definitely going to be a thing, and there is already a branching evolution of sorts in the demo but it branches in reverse. I definitely want to adjust the AI and do some combat tweaks once I get a little further a long in development. I was really putting off building the world because its probably my weakest point in my game dev toolset right now. Once I am done with building the world out and adding all the quests, I am going to spend a lot of time on just looking at the combat and nothing else. I will definitely be coming back to these posts when I do. If you have any other ideas, always feel free to drop them here