Hello everyone, it has been about a month since the last dev update and I felt that it was about time I updated you guys on the progress of the game since then. So in the last dev update I highlighted a few features I would be cutting and a few that I would be reworking. One month out, I would like to update you guys on a few of them now that I have experimented a bit.
Combat System Overhaul
Overhauling the combat system has been a major focus of my work since the last update. On major thing that has changed is that it has shifted more towards a party based combat system.
Unlike the original system where you would only control 1 character and have an AI companion, you now instead can assign up to 4 characters for your party and are able to switch between them. The goal of this change is to offer unique play styles between characters. I have 3 character done at this point which are currently the original characters, but with new sprites and animations, more closer to the Secret of Mana aesthetic.
Cecilia
Leon
Risette
As you can see each of these 3 characters use different weapons and all play a little bit differently with each roughly falling into the traditional party roles of Damage, Tank, and Support. Attacking, dodging or blocking in combat will use stamina which is the yellow bar in the first picture and will regenerate slower while you are playing the character to encourage switching party members while in combat.
Let's briefly talk about the other mechanics that use stamina.
Blocking allows you to convert all damage taken to stamina damage. "Tank" characters are better at blocking and thus will take less stamina damage while blocking. If you block an attack while you have no stamina, you will instead take double damage and be knocked to the ground.
While dodging rolling your character can't be hurt. The catch is different characters are better and worse at dodge rolling. Essentially the better the character is at blocking the worse they are at rolling.
Item System Overhaul
I have also been working on overhauling the item system. Mainly how the player inventory is being handled. The first thing you may notice is how big the inventory is now! As mentioned in the last development post, I wanted to change the gameplay loop of the game to more of a dungeon diver where players go in and try to escape and survive dungeons with as much loot as they can hold. This new inventory system is the first step towards that vision.
The main things that are changing is how item are placed into the inventory. Before, it would be 1 item per slot. Now items have different shapes and you have to manage them when placing them into your inventory. It's still a work in progress at this point so I am still ironing out this system, but essentially I want people to eventually have to think about what they pick up while exploring dungeons. Currently you can click, drag and rotate items to hearts content to try to optimize your inventory! Going back to how big the inventory is, this is intentional. I plan on allowing you to prepare and add items to your pack as before you enter dungeons. Things like healing potions, bags for gold, and food all all considerations I want players to prep for before entering dungeon. I am still working this part out so hopefully I'll have updates on that when it's done.
Those are the 2 major things I am working on at the moment. Let me know what you think and any feedback is greatly appreciated. These changes will make it into the updated demo, which I hope is coming soon, hopefully in the next few weeks.