Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Combat, part 1


    A huge part of Bounty of Pixels is battling other monster packs. Now I already wrote an article at IndieDB why we choose the JRPG system, but a quick repeat:
- We wanted combats to be quick, so we removed the "moving in battle" element
- But that dumbed down combat too much for our taste, and made "not losing units" impossible, that forced players to go back to recruit units after every combat
- Thus, JRPG combat system gives us both the option that units regain all HP after combat (no more "I lost 3 goblins, I have to go back" feeling), and gives more depth by adding abilities and energy.
Now this is clear, but what about the details?

    We have a pretty vanilla combat system, so units have HP, Damage, Attack and Defense. This is pretty much self-explanatory. If you read this blog, then I pretty much assume you know what these do :)

    Units also have "tags" that affect which spells affect them and what are they vulnerable to. For example an Inquisitor's skill is stronger vs the tag "undead", while a hunter is stronger vs "beast". Some tags also have an innate trait, like undead are stronger at night, flying has some chance to dodge, living is affected by healing more but also vulnerable to poison.

Seems simple this far, right? Trust me, it gets more complicated :) More about the skills next time.

Intro



Sooo, Bounty of Pixels, what is this?

BoP is a pixellated strategy game, where you lead your hero, gather minions and fight increasingly difficult encounters and bosses. Different minions are good vs different creatures and some of them work together well, so building your team composition is an important part of the game. You can also find magic items to further enchant and personalize your minions.

The game will feature a Heroes of Might and Magic style hero advancement where you can choose from a few random traits at each levelup.

The battle system plays like a JRPG, your minions gather energy to execute their spells and abilities. Each monster has at least 2 unique abilities, but most have 4. Custom items can give 1 additional active ability.



Monsters don't only have active abilities, some use passive abilities as well. Quick goblin skirmishers throw spears at a random enemy each round in addition to their attack; Monks blessing increases the energy of an unit each turn; Catapults hit an enemy before the battle even begins.

In this blog I will write some additional info about development, why certain things were designed the way they are, what are the inspirations, and so on.

So, happy reading!

Halloween Progress Report

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