State of the Game 1
Mar 29, 2016 17:38:10 GMT -8
Post by DukeFluffy on Mar 29, 2016 17:38:10 GMT -8
Greetings, mortals.
It's been a long several months in the making, but the team and I are proud to finally reveal the first demo for Towergirls: Subtitle Pending. The game is a very rough demo, but it's already way better than any of the other demos I've made in the past. Being backed up by excellent artists, managers, and writers has been a very nice change of pace. With that said, I will be giving you a run-down on the systems that are in place, and the systems that are partially in place. Keep in mind that Towergirls is (will always be) a work in progress. One day I would like for it to be an amusing, relatively deep, heart-warming game.
So, without further adieu.
Functional Systems:
Battles. The standard RPG combat. It works very similarly to other RPG's, except we've got a hastily slapped in stamina resource that needs to be managed. Sort of. It's not that deep, so we will be improving the combat system as we move forward. More alternating, interesting abilities, so on.
Sieges. A similar system to battle, it instead uses a turn-timer that counts down. Units are made up of many individual soldiers, which will be purchased and recruited from your territories on the overmap. Morale is a thing, but it does not have a big enough impact yet. If we manage to solve some problems we may scrap this system entirely and go in a totally different direction, which would be pretty neat. You can see one of the tests here- drive.google.com/open?id=0B78B253ukf3TR2ZraW9QUUdNZmM
Dungeons. We've got frickin' dungeons. Each is a page or so of easily copy-and-pasted code, with seed based decorations and awesome art assets by Unyin and Sera. They are grid based, with each room containing mobs (that move around the dungeon), or chests, or other activatables. Traps abound. Upon completing a dungeon you are rewarded. As the team moves forward we will add more interesting rooms to dungeons and make them more exciting. Also, if you play a Knave, take the Sneak talent.
Character progression. Not a whole lot to say here. Bunch of attributes, derived stats, and talents. I feel that our talent trees are clever and different enough from what others have done. As more content is added we will add higher level talents, and more of them, to keep things interesting.
The Big Book of Stuff. Conceived by everyone else but me, the Big Big of Stuff is the in-game encyclopaedia that keeps track of lore. The idea is that the more you play the game, the more shared info will be unlocked across your save files. As we continue developing the game we'll have more 'sequential' lore bits on similar topics, and add more amusing, plentiful tidbits about the world of Carona. Gats came up with a really cool setting for Towergirls so we'd like to do it justice.
Works in Progress:
Kingdom Management. There has been a lot of back and forth with how the team wants this to be implemented, but we've reached some general consensus. All kingdom management will be done on the overmap- on top of this map will be a bunch of territories. These territories are managed by a character of your choice, and provide various resources (from food, to wealth, to gems). Territories can also produce armies and help contribute to research and the like. Territories will also have a list of buildings and improvements to choose from. While three resources are standard, it is possible to prospect a territory for gold, and then unlock an additional, randomized resource for that territory. Ideally, if the player so chooses, they will be able to focus on murderhobo'ing and leave kingdom management to their ministers. This is mostly working, other than capturing territories, enemy AI, and diplomacy.
Policy Decisions. Because that/those game(s) was/were on the right track with that, dammit. Part of managing your kingdom will be getting random, amusing events. You will then be provided with several (as in, more than yes or no) options on how you wish to handle the situation. Naturally what you choose will impact territory resources, kingdom happiness, and maybe more. With each random event Princesses that you rescued will weigh in and give input on the decision. All of the User Interface, and most of the programming, is in place for this already.
Waifuing: Last, but definitely not least, the waifuing. Waifuing is an important part of the game- it is, after all, why the game is called Towergirls. We'll be needing an army of writers to tackle this, but we want to give each and every princess a bunch of dialogue, and let them be more than stat sticks. Our dialogue system is rock solid and already in place, we just need a lot of writers. (You can paste a page of text into one dialogue line of code, and it breaks it up into however many slides are needed. I am that good.) When speaking in the dialogue system, dialogue choices are marked with tags (Wimpy, smart, brazen, etc.)- depending on present princess strong_likes/likes/dislikes/strong_dislikes this may affect their disposition. Also we have 'Approves and Disapproves' popups, because that's always fun.
What is Next?:
Next up is continuing the story of Towergirls. The player will return with Kobold Princess back to Canopy Kingdom, where upon she will take up control of the territory. A great tournament will be held on the other side of Carona, offering up control of Fisher Kingdom (a great, big plot of land) to the victor knight. We will also be adding in Human Princess and her tower.
That wraps up this first state of the game.
It's been a long several months in the making, but the team and I are proud to finally reveal the first demo for Towergirls: Subtitle Pending. The game is a very rough demo, but it's already way better than any of the other demos I've made in the past. Being backed up by excellent artists, managers, and writers has been a very nice change of pace. With that said, I will be giving you a run-down on the systems that are in place, and the systems that are partially in place. Keep in mind that Towergirls is (will always be) a work in progress. One day I would like for it to be an amusing, relatively deep, heart-warming game.
So, without further adieu.
Functional Systems:
Battles. The standard RPG combat. It works very similarly to other RPG's, except we've got a hastily slapped in stamina resource that needs to be managed. Sort of. It's not that deep, so we will be improving the combat system as we move forward. More alternating, interesting abilities, so on.
Sieges. A similar system to battle, it instead uses a turn-timer that counts down. Units are made up of many individual soldiers, which will be purchased and recruited from your territories on the overmap. Morale is a thing, but it does not have a big enough impact yet. If we manage to solve some problems we may scrap this system entirely and go in a totally different direction, which would be pretty neat. You can see one of the tests here- drive.google.com/open?id=0B78B253ukf3TR2ZraW9QUUdNZmM
Dungeons. We've got frickin' dungeons. Each is a page or so of easily copy-and-pasted code, with seed based decorations and awesome art assets by Unyin and Sera. They are grid based, with each room containing mobs (that move around the dungeon), or chests, or other activatables. Traps abound. Upon completing a dungeon you are rewarded. As the team moves forward we will add more interesting rooms to dungeons and make them more exciting. Also, if you play a Knave, take the Sneak talent.
Character progression. Not a whole lot to say here. Bunch of attributes, derived stats, and talents. I feel that our talent trees are clever and different enough from what others have done. As more content is added we will add higher level talents, and more of them, to keep things interesting.
The Big Book of Stuff. Conceived by everyone else but me, the Big Big of Stuff is the in-game encyclopaedia that keeps track of lore. The idea is that the more you play the game, the more shared info will be unlocked across your save files. As we continue developing the game we'll have more 'sequential' lore bits on similar topics, and add more amusing, plentiful tidbits about the world of Carona. Gats came up with a really cool setting for Towergirls so we'd like to do it justice.
Works in Progress:
Kingdom Management. There has been a lot of back and forth with how the team wants this to be implemented, but we've reached some general consensus. All kingdom management will be done on the overmap- on top of this map will be a bunch of territories. These territories are managed by a character of your choice, and provide various resources (from food, to wealth, to gems). Territories can also produce armies and help contribute to research and the like. Territories will also have a list of buildings and improvements to choose from. While three resources are standard, it is possible to prospect a territory for gold, and then unlock an additional, randomized resource for that territory. Ideally, if the player so chooses, they will be able to focus on murderhobo'ing and leave kingdom management to their ministers. This is mostly working, other than capturing territories, enemy AI, and diplomacy.
Policy Decisions. Because that/those game(s) was/were on the right track with that, dammit. Part of managing your kingdom will be getting random, amusing events. You will then be provided with several (as in, more than yes or no) options on how you wish to handle the situation. Naturally what you choose will impact territory resources, kingdom happiness, and maybe more. With each random event Princesses that you rescued will weigh in and give input on the decision. All of the User Interface, and most of the programming, is in place for this already.
Waifuing: Last, but definitely not least, the waifuing. Waifuing is an important part of the game- it is, after all, why the game is called Towergirls. We'll be needing an army of writers to tackle this, but we want to give each and every princess a bunch of dialogue, and let them be more than stat sticks. Our dialogue system is rock solid and already in place, we just need a lot of writers. (You can paste a page of text into one dialogue line of code, and it breaks it up into however many slides are needed. I am that good.) When speaking in the dialogue system, dialogue choices are marked with tags (Wimpy, smart, brazen, etc.)- depending on present princess strong_likes/likes/dislikes/strong_dislikes this may affect their disposition. Also we have 'Approves and Disapproves' popups, because that's always fun.
What is Next?:
Next up is continuing the story of Towergirls. The player will return with Kobold Princess back to Canopy Kingdom, where upon she will take up control of the territory. A great tournament will be held on the other side of Carona, offering up control of Fisher Kingdom (a great, big plot of land) to the victor knight. We will also be adding in Human Princess and her tower.
That wraps up this first state of the game.