Hi!
Welcome to Star of Grandia.
For the past few weeks I've been working on a 2D ARPG game and I'm very excited to show the community the progress I have made.
The game is very heavily inspired from classics like Diablo and Path of Exile, so if you ever played those games, the mechanics will feel really familiar. Gameplay video before focusing on mechanics:
First of all, we have a login screen, yay! :)
Upon clicking Play, you start your adventure in Act 1 town. (Currently we have 2 Acts and side dungeons as well.)
The game can be played both on Desktop and Mobile. It can run directly on Itch.io so you don't need to do anything. Optimized for Portrait mode.
Desktop: You move around with WASD, cast skills by pressing Space.
Mobile: You move around with joystick (360 degrees support), cast skills automatically by toggling them on action bar.
I killed some monsters here to show the Item system. We dropped two Rare items. Let's check out Aspect of Thunder. (a name randomly generated for Rare items)
This is a procedurally generated Rare item! We support Common, Magic, Rare and Unique items.
Rare item modifiers have a system called Potential. The potential of the item affects the rolls of the Modifiers. (Fire Damage is a modifier) The harder the monster that you kill, the more chances you have to receive a better modifier.
Do you notice that this item gives +5 to Fire Damage? Every modifier has a direct effect on your skills. Let's check the stats of one of the most basic skills on any APRG, the classic Fireball. :)
Please note the tags of the skill. It has Fire tag, so any Fire Damage we find in our items increases the damage of this skill. Also, pay attention to Damage Effectiveness. It is 3.0x, so this skill deal 3x Fire Damage but has a caveat that you can only cast it every 2 seconds. It is also Static, which means that we cannot increase it's cast speed.
Some skills can be cast more quickly, if you are into more fast gameplay. Let's have a look at the stats of Spark skill.
This skill is not Static, it means that we can cast this skill more often by increasing our Cast Speed. Instead of just equipping items, we can also Upgrade our stats by spending gold. (A currency which we collect by killing monsters.) Upgrades are used to boost your character's base stats.
On top of this, if you are lucky, you can find and equip some Unique Items. They change the behavior of the skills and gives very different bonuses compared to other item types. Let's have a look at two of them.
Amulet of Titans allows us to increase our Health and take 20% of our Maximum Health as extra Damage. Unlike the +5 Fire Damage on the Rare Item which we found earlier, this item says "Damage". It doesn't have a type associated so it will affect all types of Damages.
Let's have a look at another Unique Item and see how it changes the skill Ice Shot.
Ice Shot demonstration with The Winter Heaven unique:
Ice Shot: https://imgur.com/CtFulKp (Ice Shot throws projectiles on the direction your character is looking. 360 degrees on mobile, 8 directions on Desktop)
Fox: https://imgur.com/RTJllXI (Foxes spawn from this skill deal Damage over Time. You can see how damage indicator is ticking.)
Spark: https://imgur.com/yR0TXKr (Lightning Projectiles which can bounce from walls and objects.)
At this point, I feel like we have the foundation ready. As a gamer, I can tell that the gameplay feels good to play. Trying really hard to make everything smooth as possible.
A few missing features which I would like to add before the release:
- Mana System, Crit System and some extra mods like Mana Regeneration.
- Arena System: Where you challenge waves of monsters to test your character's potential.
- Endgame Map System: Dungeons which you can enter after completing the acts. You can set difficulty higher to get better items with more potential.
- Cloud Save: I don't want anyone to lose their progress.
- Quests: I want NPC's to give quests instead of what we currently have.
- More Polishing: To polish the game before the release, so all maps will feel full.
Depending on the popularity, I plan to add more and more features. Hoping for 10 Acts and 5-6 hours of gameplay in acts, 10+ hours on endgame, procedurally generated dungeons. Even co-op play with sessions. (depending on demand)
Plan is to release it for free, donation based only.
I would appreciate your feedback!
ETA: As of 23 January, I would say a few weeks.
Thank you for reading. :)
Ps. If you are interested in testing and giving feedback, feel free to contact me through private messages. I'm looking for some genuine feedback, to make sure the balance of the game feels smooth, progression feels smooth and drop rates are good etc.