Post-Compo Copycat

Terry Apr 28, 2015 9 Comments

Copycat is better now. Yay! I’ve also made downloadable versions! Play it here:

The new version has the blue title screen – if you still get the old black one, try refreshing your browser with CTRL-F5.

I changed LOTS of little things for this – too many to list – but here are the highlights:
– Turn order is set in stone – everything’s more predictable and fair.
– Swords are much more powerful now – they block guns, and the point of a sword is always dangerous.
– Sword versus sword combat is also very different – you need to hit sword enemies from the side.
– Dasher enemies have changed!
– You can see where enemies are going to spawn from next!
– Enemy spawn rate is faster!
– Lots of tiny edge cases have been tinkered with.

Some things are harder, some things are easier, but overall it’s probably harder than it was. However, I think it’s also a lot more solid and fun. Enjoy!

One more thing

Terry Apr 27, 2015 3 Comments

Been working on a post-compo update for Copycat today. Really I should have done this last week, but better later than never!

Basically, I felt like Copycat could be quite a lot better than it is with a few tiny changes – and it’s looking like I was right! I’ll go into some detail about what I’ve changed when I finish up and upload the new build tomorrow…

Copycat

Terry Apr 20, 2015 26 Comments

Something small for Ludum Dare.

Turn based action game.

Defeat enemies to absorb their power.

Destroy the mimic crystal to ascend.

Weapon Game

Terry Apr 19, 2015 0 Comments

Ok, I guess I’m making something for Ludum Dare!

This is an idea I had for 7DRL, which probably would have been much more doable in 7 days – it’s got the same ranged combat stuff as my bigger current roguelike, but whenever you take out an enemy, you take their weapon!

It’s feeling pretty fun and releasable right now, but I wanna smooth a few rough edges tomorrow and do some non-ascii graphics for it before I upload…

Day by Day

Terry Apr 16, 2015 4 Comments

Sorta can’t believe I’m still working on this. Officially more than a month, now! It’s unbelievable how many things I work on that only exist because I thought they’d take 48 hours, 7 days, whatever. If I knew how long half of what I worked on would end up taking, I’d never start. I guess it’s a good failing, in that sense.

It looks like I’ll be taking a break from this for a while to go to AMAZE, where I’ll be giving a talk about how’s it come together so far, and where it’s going.

Day 29

Terry Apr 9, 2015 10 Comments

More progress!

Ended up spending too long today messing with graphics, but I finally like how it looks. The final version will probably look more or less like this, I think.

The next big thing on my list is to rethink inventory management – the basic idea is that I want items and gadgets to be pretty scarce over the course of the game, and a limited inventory is a pretty good way to solve that problem while still letting you discover lots of new things as you play. But thinking about it, I’m not sure I want the hassle of stuff to pick up bringing up a menu and asking you to drop stuff and etc… this is really feeling like much more of an arcade game than a roguelike at this point, and I don’t want get in the way of that feeling.

Thinking of trying different solutions, like clearing your inventory after every tower or just giving you a hard limit on what you can bring into a new one – which is a hard thing to wrap a game fiction around, but solves a lot of the same problems for a lot less work. Maybe better solves them, actually. Hmm.

Day 28

Terry Apr 8, 2015 3 Comments

Everyday I work on this, it gets slightly better. Today has been particularly good for little changes suddenly clicking into place, making every unrelated thing around it make sense.

I really like how this is shaping up.

Day 27

Terry Apr 7, 2015 5 Comments

Doop doop doop, still working on this. Work work work!