Update 08
I took the day off yesterday, so I wanted to hit a big milestone for this update to make up for it. Today, I got damage calculations working.
The calculation takes a base attack stat and multiplies it by a number based on how much of the shape you filled and a number based on how much time you had left in that round. I forget exactly what I did because I kept fiddling with the maths until it felt okay, but you need to fill in most of the shape to do any worthwhile damage. If you fill in every shape but one, you get a x2 multiplier, and if you get an exact match, your damage output is boosted like crazy:
Other changes since last time:
- There's a Defend button now. It doesn't do anything except skip the player's attack for now, but when I implement enemy attacks, it'll be useful. Mostly, the Defend button is there to help me build a command menu structure which can disappear and reappear.
- The tetrominoes for this turn show up in the battle menu now. The idea is that if the player can remember what the enemy's target shape is (there's the game jam theme!!!), they can decide whether it's worth attacking or whether they'd be better off defending. It's not going to be balanced in this prototype - I'm pretty sure it'll always be better to attack than to defend - but it helps me pin down the gameplay loop of the battle system.
- Enemies support multiple possible target shapes. You don't see it in the above GIF, but Dragonman has an alternate shape that's the mirror image of that one.
- Blocks have different textures as well as colours. I don't know if they're the most colourblind-friendly or readable, though, and I'm not happy with some of them. They'll do.
- That big red bar is the player's health bar, which might do something later.
- Enemies are now front and centre, in proper Earthbound-like style. I'm very happy with how that placement looks, and the big black square behind the target shape makes the battle screen still readable. Plus, putting the sprite there supports extra-large sprites for bosses.
- I found the option in GameMaker that makes large sprites look terrible and turned it off. Everything's a lot crisper now.
We're now in the last few days of the game jam, so it's time for me to think about finishing this off. There's a few odd glitches and imperfections I want to fix as well, though. Below, I've written a list of what I'd like to get done by Friday, in order of priority. This is just me thinking out loud, but I thought it might be nice to show the state of the project here:
HIGH PRIORITY (need these done before I submit):
- Finish off the core battle loop: allow enemies to attack, implement player damage and time-up scenarios, allow victory and game over states
- Put enemies in the title screen so that the player can choose what to fight (at least two to demonstrate the battle system)
- Make a how-to-play / about / credits screen
MIDDLE PRIORITY (highly desirable):
- Implement the music and sounds I made
- Intelligent snapping: keep tetrominoes within the playing area, and stop them from overlapping
- Better rotation and placing: the blocks lag just slightly behind the mouse so that when the player clicks to rotate or place, they might not click on the block, which could be frustrating when the player is against the clock
LOW PRIORITY (not really necessary but they'd be nice to do):
- Some way for the enemies to show damage (a health bar would be easiest, but damage sprites like in Mystic Quest would be much more fun (also I forgot how wild it is that the tutorial monster of that game can score a critical hit and murder you))
- More sounds
- Better backgrounds
- Particle effects for Maximum GameFeel
- Maybe remember to remove the Refresh button before I publish
Sorry for all the text - thanks for keeping an eye on my devlog! Here's one more GIF of a secret bonus enemy I made a few days ago just to push the battle system:
