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I consider this game to be more of a sequel than a spin-off, though mechanically it won't change a lot. So Don't Starve is a very appropriate example.

The reason why it is a separate game, and why Don't Starve Together is a separate game, is that multiplayer is a completely different beast and unless a game is coded to eventually have multiplayer from the beginning, "adding multiplayer" is rarely a thing. Because now instead of "you click this defeated Automon to add it to your party", it's more like "you click this Automon to tell the server that you would like to capture this Automon to your party, the server tells you if you're allowed to do that and updates the game state accordingly, then tells the client what his new party is". The game objects themselves have no agency or permanence, and the battles are just replays of the story that the server told you.

Also, I want to redo the visuals and change some mechanical aspects of the game, like areas and how legendaries show up, but didn't want those changes in the original game.

I think I know what happens with the reject/capture bug you saw, the server probably checks if the party is full and refuses to act, before it checks if the request is actually a rejection. Will look into it.

Your game seems turn based, if you are early enough in development then it's probably not too late to look into multiplayer development. The way I structured the multiplayer system is probably not even optimal, so you might figure out a way to do it without even going beyond Game Maker - the reason I didn't bother is that I think GM is only peer to peer, and I'm not sure if there's a way to prevent cheating from the host client if you do that (by modifying data in memory through Cheat Engine or something).

If it's your first game, I wouldn't bother though, you'll spend a lot of time coding the network code instead of actually making a game

Thanks for playing, noted!

Thanks for playing!

Adding bots for single player testing is on my to-do for this month, but as a minor priority. I'll try to have it done by the next DD for sure.

I had a pretty good time

I was quite confused at what's going on first. I didn't know how I'm dealing damage - just felt like I just collect a few cards and the battle ends immediately - it did not click with me that the weapons activate after X cards collected. When I understood the game more, it became much more enjoyable.

I still don't get the limit thing fully, I get less SP if I get a big combo going? Is SP used only for card draw?

Player agency felt very low. The best move was always obvious, and I never felt in danger. I'm guessing the shop draft is meant to be the "real" game?

UI and art is nice and meaty, but I t hink the characters could look better

Interesting concept for a puzzle, but the current controls, while accurate for actual gerrymandering, make the game awkward to play, but also too easy. If you want to keep the polygon creating concept, then the points of the polygons should be draggable, otherwise a misclick ruins it

With the freeform polygon creation, I think this game can never be challenging. Maybe the way to go is to have the player place pre-made polygons on the map to create regions, that way it's kind of like a tangram puzzle. Or limit polygon creation to only straight and 45 degree diagonal lines. Both ways would need some verification of solvability though, full random won't do it

You can play solo, it's called Automon. This is just a multiplayer sequel. This game will also have an option to play against bots later, but not a priority for first alphas.

Capturing shouldn't be hard, but areas get exponentially harder the closer they are to the center.

Rest is like declaring a move to the area you're already in, so the other player also needs to move. If both players rest, it just skips the battle phase altogether and goes to the next turn of moving. If that didn't happen, let me know

If timer got stuck, it's quite possible that the server puked out an error - I need to implement some safeguards still, to let the game proceed even if that happens.

Also, I see you streamed it - if you do that agaim next DD, maybe you could get a viewer to launch it and play against them? Could be fun

Thanks for playing.

You can already fight the same Automons or player multiple times, but you must move - resting forfeits a battle unless the other player walks into your node.

Next thing I want to work on is some sort of lives system so that games can end - you'll still be able to fight the same person a few times, but there will be consequences for losing

Thanks for playing, a friend of mine was complaining about performance on wine, did you run into any issues besides lag?

Understandable. This aims to remake the original Automon as multiplayer, but tbh a more manual version would also be interesting (though the problem is, this is meant to be 4 to 8 players eventually, and manual battles would cause severe downtime for the players who chose not to battle)

Thanks for enduring the 15 minutes!

Yeah the UI is ass, I really spent minimal time on it just to get the game functional ASAP.

If you had to let the timer hit 0 to proceed, that could be because the other player wasn't ready, was that the case? Not letting you reject an Automon is also strange, I'm assuming the button is there but just doesn't do anything?

I didn't dare to touch GM netcode, it's actually an external server that manages the whole game, clients can just send their intent, ask for info etc, but the actual battle is really a replay, the Automon objects themselves have no permanence.

At some point I will add a "bot mode" or a visible lobby system so there's no need to juggle windows (or the game will get HUGE and there will always be someone to play against, one can dream). Eventually the plan is to have matches be 4 or 8 player FFA so you'll be more likely to run into someone by accident (but I will not ask people to test the game on 8 windows at once lmao)

Making it a single player experience would indeed be easier, that's why I released that in 2022 as Automon - if you enjoyed this game, pirate the first Automon, you might like it and it'll five you some idea on how this game might play when finished. This new one is meant to literally add multiplayer to the first game

About the Softlock thing - did you have Piggy Bank? That causes an easy infinite against enemies with Greed. I should probably do something about that because it literally locks you out of fighting the Leprechaun

Buffs do expire at the start, but I'm not sure if that's aligned with the player's expectation so might change it

Bosses don't add an extra item, it's probably the "start with free item" thing triggering when it shouldn't

Thanks for playing again!

Fights are indeed meant to get harder as they go on. I feel this is necessary due to an abundance of way to get meta-benefits like money or health during combat. You could in theory set up an infinite fight with Money Shield and some other items and symbols, so enemies need to scale in power

If timing the machine is a detriment, do you suggest to let it just automon it all the way? That turns the game into an autobattler completely and takes player agency down from 33% to 0%.

Or maybe that's appropriate in a gambling-themed game. At the very least, I'll add it as an option in the settings

I agree that not knowing enemies ahead of time makes them dangerous, but this feels unavoidable. I don't know what I can do besides expanding enemy descriptions, or tightening the map to force the player to learn the enemy patterns

Yes, I tried to widen the options for each color. Main motivation for this was the fact that blue was always necessary as the only damage-prevention color. Trying a build without blue would just cause you to rawdog all incoming damage. Green has its damage prevention on dissolving symbols now, so blue is still THE block color

I reversed sponge because when it was one-time use, each new symbol in the build was kind of locked in for good. With reusable sponge, I found myself pivoting into a different color more often, or getting symbols for a specific boss or enemy, knowing that I'll remove them later.

You shouldn't be able to get 2 discount items anymore. Or 2 of any item in fact - I've made them all unique after having some odd runs with triple vest or whatnot

Thanks for playing this game consistently on the demo days, it's been very helpful. Next version that will be available will probably be the Steam release. I'll send you a Steam code for the game when it comes out. Thanks for everything and see you next game!

shit

Will fix

Thanks for playing! Glad you have fun

I'm really struggling with balancing this game, so thanks for the feedback. As the dev I'm quite experienced with button timing and getting the most out of the minigames and I know what the enemies do exactly, so I can't reasonably balance the game based on my own thoughts. I'll tweak the game to be easier with some gut-feeling changes, but I will also implement player data tracking for post-release balancing. First 10 runs being all losses without even reaching chapter 3 is going to be a refund

Money Gun I think is viable as a build-around, but I will concede that healing-based builds and green in general needs some help

Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

That's a nasty bug with the joker, I must make it so the Automon doll doesn't trigger while there's a tutorial pop-up or settings/other overlays

I get a symbol from Invaders quite frequently, which I think is fine since you also get some money back. The other things dropped by the enemies are power-ups. You can get speed, faster fire rate or +1 health

I might need to add more things to the game that make multi-color builds viable, but I'm not quite sure how, without redesigning the color system entirely. Or I could just make monocolor builds more punishable 

Will fix the issues with DJ, Pickpocket and Syringe, thanks

Symbols connect by color. This isn't like regular slot machines so your confusion is understandable

Some symbols have 2 colors. There's only 5 colors, identifiable if you look at your reels (upper right corner button)

During battle, the lines between the matching symbols have the color that they all have in common

I have some idea as to why it froze, probably something to do with RNG again. Certainly not a hardware issue, this game could run on a calculator

Not sure about stuttering issues either, I would understand if it lagged while generating the map, but afterwards it should be doing nothing at all. No one else reported this so I don't know what can I do. Though one guy plays through Vine on Linux and had performance issues with Extra Tooltips enabled only, so maybe that's a clue

There was an issue with copycat's rng always selecting the same things. Fixed now I think

Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback again!

Yeah color balance is a bit off - I noticed after last DD that Red was just severely underrepresented as a color and probably went overboard, it's now too consistent. I will also remove Chieftain's ability to purge himself, I think his Shell is enough of a green counter

Map generation was further improved after this DD - if any two objects would require more than 20 moves to get from one to the other, a shorter path will be carved.

There will be a stat/run tracker eventually, where you can view past wins and failures. Someday

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

Sponge being one-time use is very experimental, I'll let it be like that for a while, maybe I'll lower the price

I'll tune down Malfunction, I experienced some struggles against it as well

Might switch Pickpocket and Tourist around in chapter order, and nerf/buff them accordingly

I'll think about switching some enemies around between chapters if you're saying Red is too good in chapter 3. Maybe Spike belongs there

I'll look into the bugs with all the items mentioned

I don't think a three lane system would be of any help with understanding of the battle system. But I do need to add more tutorial text to highlight the importance of timing the button

Yeah, I usually don't bother recording gameplay footage for agdg, just a bit of a pain to do it.

Thanks for playing!

Damn, I had something to prevent this. Must not be working

There was a bug with life insurance never expiring in that version, been fixed for a while now

The fact that you're even playing out of DD season is quite a compliment

Thanks for playing and for taking so much time to give feedback, great stuff! I'll respond to things point by point

How does the game feel more random? I'm pretty sure 2 DDs ago the 1 reel system was already there. Is it other stuff that feels random?

Starting symbols are a DD afterthought, there will be a better selection system for them in the future, probably locked behind an unlock

Yeah, Malfunction is probably a bit too much at the moment

I will look at the extra tooltips script to see if anything is stinky there, but it's a Wine exclusive problem so it's odd

Not sure if healing in shops is needed, that's the only thing Plinko and Space Invaders have that the shop doesn't. If anything, maybe Plinko should offer health more consistently

I agree with your ordering of things on the minimap. Symbol sheet should probably be cheaper. Space Invaders is still a rough WIP, I don't know if it's staying

I might leave debug functions available for next Demo Day to let people test things freely, it's not great that you felt the need to avoid enemies later

Headache not working with Rainbow is an oversight on my part. Headache (and Photo for that matter) are actually White, while Rainbow has 5 normal colors. I'll add White to Rainbow

I won't cap Money Shield or Shell or anything else if I can help it. The problem here is that some enemies have no scaling at all. Now that I think of it, the Bodyguard item + no ways to attack is a softlock against Blue Crookey. I'll review all enemies and ensure they have some scaling

Sucker Punch not being able to finish enemies is on purpose, probably won't change it

Space Invaders is not really beatable, I kinda just take what I can and leave it at that. Bad game design though. Again, this minigame is very WIP and kind of on the edge of a trash can

Did you not enjoy Pinball mechanically, or find it too slow, not worth the effort?

Unlock screen will be available during the game eventually, full list of symbols and items too. Currently it's just glued together for DD

I also had some cases of map generation going too vertical with the obstacles, forcing me into Bouncers. I might leave obstacles out of the topmost row to ensure it connects there always (though enemies and especially bosses will still block the path sometimes)

I will lower the requirements for Hearts/Diamonds/Spades/Clubs symbols to 6 of the same color, 8 is a bit unreasonable. Might lower total symbol unlock from 15 to 10 as well, since you didn't unlock it and no one ever wants that many symbols

Not sure why this is useful, but sure I guess?

Thanks, found the bug

What's the space invasers bug, not sure I saw it?

Making them scale with each fight is on my to-do

Interesting that you haven't had any luck with Blue. I thought it's the easiest to win with, since you're taking no damage at all, and grind enemies down with Retaliate. You gotta pick your fights though cause enemies that like to set up will end it. I didn't play a lot since the introduction of unlocks however, so it's possible that the Spade symbol is what made it easy, and that being locked now made Blue that much worse.

Bones I think aren't too bad if you get a Power build. They're worse than Fist at the start, but they even out at +1 Power and become better at +2.

The Malfunction boss is meant to be countered by having a large quantity of symbols. Might be too strong however, probably shouldn't give 2 symbols per turn right away.

Avocado is pure green, the core is brown which is not a symbol color. Might make it black or gray to reduce the risk of confusion.

Color-blind mode is absolutely necessary for full release and will be implemented... Somehow. I have no idea how this is going to play out in practice. Reels fly by fast so glance value is important, I don't know if extra symbols or frames will be clear enough unless I slow down the reels. It'll be a headache to implement for sure

To make the game easier to understand, I think just explicitly telling the player in a tutorial that reel timing matters should be enough. I could even do a hand-holdy tutorial that won't progress until the timing is perfect, but I don't like those.

It was useful, yes. I wish you didn't reroll for Darts so much though, it made all those runs Poison themed

Thanks for playing!

Starting builds will be redone at some point, they're currently too random. Might be reworked into a manual choice system, but it will also be an unlockable thing

Unlocking things that start appearing randomly has the purpose of time gating complex mechanics until the player knows what they mean and (admittedly artificially) encouraging trying different builds. This is a first iteration of unlocks so unlock conditions and the actual unlockables are subject to change

I understand why you feel the map is too free. I might crank up the obstacle and enemy counts on later chapters, or as a thing for higher difficulties. I tried generating the map with higher obstacle count and it turned it into a maze with enemies frequently blocking the way and dead ends. It's not necessarily a worse design, but it doesn't work well with Bouncers. Personally I feel like there's enough pressure to min-max my moves - if I mess around too much, Bouncers might kill a shop with an item I was saving for. Perhaps this would be felt more if the balance was tighter

I might add a thing where refusing a symbol or item choice refunds portion of money spent, then it wouldn't feel as bad to get a dud for 100

Red Wine indeed dissolves, I forgot to update its custom description

Yes

I thought starting games with intros is fairly common, no? But fair enough, maybe at least volume settings should be accessible during the intro somehow

I can probably add support for resizing windows freely, I'll look into it and see if the game doesn't look gross when resized imperfectly

Good suggestions for the silver platter, enter button and symbols window, will add to my to-do

Space Invaders is a WIP, I haven't fully committed to giving it graphics and sounds as I'm not sure if it's staying

Enemy and opponent are indeed the same, I gotta do some proofreading. Cheese is actually not bad - enemies don't get overhealed so at the start of the battle it's just free 3 Poison. It will sometimes annoyingly save the enemy, but it's pretty good overall

Slot machine is semi-randomized. You can stop the first reel manually and time it perfectly once you get the hang of it, but 2nd and 3rd are fully random

Bouncers move up every 10 moves, there's an indicator on the left side of the screen (appears once first warning shows up). The ghost bouncers show up when there's less than 5 moves left

Thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing!

The slot machine being completely reflex-based was tried before and not popular at all. People were getting tired of trying to constantly time it, and it became a game where you're constantly in Quick Time Event mode, and the payoff between timing it right or not was so huge that you couldn't just give up on it. Making it fully automated would make the game a complete auto battler, with no player agency in battle. The current system is the best middle ground I could find, where you can time the first reel to nudge the odds in your favour, but the quality of the follow-up spins are random, lifting the pressure from the player significantly. Players who want an autobattler already have the choice to just mash the button immediately

Randomized starting loadouts will be an unlockable feature, and yeah, they probably need some refinement

Stacking one color is indeed one of the best ways to go, however there are enemies in the game designed to counter a specific color so I usually like to go 2-3 colors. Going for more than 4-5 colors will end up quite inconsistent unless all symbols are 2+ colored

I considered making money equivalent to health, so that you're trying not to go "broke" instead of having generic health, but I think that would take away too many health-based interactions.

Unlocks are completely arbitrary with no thematic reason. Kinda imitates Binding of Isaac in that way, where things just show up because stuff happened. Not the best in terms of integrating the theme, but I think it's an acceptable standard in the genre

Thanks for playing!

I've had that bug happen a few times, just didn't get around to debugging it because I haven't implemented a seed system and therefore can't consistently cause it

1st chapter is probably too hard indeed, I'm usually finding myself with a broken build mid-chapter 2 if I reach it and just roll over everything from there. I'm aware of this imbalance, just didn't focus on fixing it yet.

Thanks for playing!

There is a main menu, with the lady sitting at the table, and New Run/Quit/Unlocks. It's not much of a menu, but it is there

Yes, there is a lot of randomness in the game, both in actual battles and the map generation

Glad you liked the game

That's an interesting idea. I wouldn't want too many of them due to complexity creep, but something like Diamond but off color (like, a Red symbol that deals damage depending on how many Green you have) or something that scales with the number of different colors in your deck would at the very least provide more support for rainbow decks (which are currently only held by the actual Rainbow symbol)

Damn, thanks for the thorough review

When you press the stop button, the first reel will stop nearly instantly, the rest are up to RNGesus. So you're not exactly in control, but timing the first reel right can be a difference between blocking and hitting Spike with a Beetroot. I understand why this is not clear though, and a better tutorial tooltip is needed. Rusty Cog just lets you time all of them, which lets you pretty much select each turn by hand if you have the patience and enough eye drops.

I haven't "beaten" space invaders ever, that game is kinda unfinished as I'm on the fence about it.

The crash you got probably has something to do with the Perfume item since it appears to be activating, thanks for reporting that

As for the color balance:

It wasn't my intention to make mono colors the best, but they are the most consistent due to how matching works. However, going into one color should hold you back in some other areas, as the only color that has access to everything is Purple, but that has its own problems. My ideal outcome of balance would be that builds focusing on 2 colors, or 3 colors with strong duos, end up being the best. I'm also trying to add enemies, especially bosses, that counter specific weaknesses in builds. For example, if you have no Blue at all, King of Clubs will slap you down. If you have too much Red, Spike will out-retaliate your damage. If you have a meandering slow deck, Queen of Spades will end you. There's  a boss in chapter 2, DJ, that gains strong color-themed buffs that can only be removed by activating that color, meaning that a mono-colored deck will only be able to remove one of the five.

Admittedly, I probably haven't done enough to deal with Green. The only thing that comes close is Chieftain boss, as he purges Poison off when it goes above 10, and since Poison is just a single instance of damage per turn, a Shell will negate it. But he's a Chapter 1 boss so if you can get past that (or just happen to see Malfunction instead)  you're fine for the rest of the run. I should probably give the debuff purge action to a few more enemies.

I have not designed final bosses yet, so I might aim to counter mono-colored decks with them.