Greetings adventurer, and welcome, to the first devlog of Greedventory!
You click with you mouse in different games a lot, right? Well, that's basically what your mouse is built for. This action is all over the place, but you usually don't think much about it. But what if we expand on this particular mechanic, put it front and center of the action and add as many fun additions to it as we possibly can?
There are casual clicker games, right, but what if we build a complex and reactive combat system based on mouse actions and make it work in a hardcore game?
These questions kept us awake at night, and the culmination of several years of brainstorming and designing the combat, surrounding the player in a merciless and inherently selfish world and introducing them to the villains they’ll love to hate resulted in what we now know as Greedventory!
This entire ‘emphasized mouse combat’ thing puts, mildly put, A METRIC CRAP TON of restrictions on how you have to look at things from a design perspective, but as someone smart (god I hope they were smart) once said, ‘restrictions are the heart of innovation’.
Well, let’s see how things turned out. The basics are actually pretty simple.
Here is our Hero (a pair of them actually, we'll cover that in later devlogs) and the enemy:
Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking: ‘is this another damn turn-based game?’
Nah, it ain’t. Keep focused.
The main ‘swift’ strike, my grandma would know this one, left mouse clickkk:
a briefly held left mouse click will execute a stronger attack, but at the cost of more stamina, and less time to react to enemy attacks:
Since enemies are not going to just take your attacks lying down, you’ll need a way to protect yourself against their inevitable fighting back:
Block! Hold right mouse button, although be careful, blocking also costs stamina!
Now that you know the basic fighting techniques, we suppose we’ll have to show you how to use them effectively.
Your enemies aren’t dumb (yeah right lol – editor’s note), but they will mix their attacks to the point that you’re always kept on your toes.
Enemies rarely strike the same place twice, and you’ll always need to keep an eye on where they are aiming to slash you next. Search for the indicators on where they’re about to strike, and hold up your shield over that area.
But wait, there’s more!
We love souls-likes and Sekiro in particular with the way it does repel (or 'parry') mechanics. It makes an almost perfect action and then reaction feel, like a good dance with your enemy. We are but mere adepts of FROM's mastery and the inspiration they cast. So naturally we have 'parry' here!
A well timed shield raise will not only block the attack, but will even deplete some of the enemies’ stamina, which will come in handy later 😉
When we finished implementing the parry mechanic and got around to testing it, it felt soo right we just had to add more to it!
Of course, after a skillful parry, when the enemy is down and you can even FEEL him begging for mercy, what you want most is a satisfying execution, something to complete the fight and make you feel like the warrior you are.
Here you go: remember what we said about the enemy stamina? Here’s where it goes from insane to bat**** crazy: when the enemy's stamina is depleted by your parries the enemy gets staggered and it is the moment when you can send him back to the cesspool from whence he came by performing a riposte.
Make a strong attack on a staggered enemy and reap the fruits of your hard work:
Okay, so you can attack, block and even parry in this game but what about a Souls must have - a dodge? Ripped Magician's cape to the rescue! Just hit SPACE at the right moment:
Now, while some enemies are weaklings and only have a few attack patterns that are easy to learn, there are some, that may, uhhh, absolutely destroy you. If you’re not prepared, that is.
Some enemies not only have access to melee weapons, but also some of the more sophisticated weaponry and equipment: bombs, healing flasks, knifes, etc.
So now you may be wondering: how the **** do I…
Yeah, yeah. I get it. You need something help you stay calm and not rage quit over every single thrown bomb, ye?
If you’re as good a gamer as you think you are, you just MIGHT be able to use that little block ability you have to maybe… uhh… throw the bombs back at them? Idk:
If you’re strapped for time, you can just block the bomb, or try hitting it (what’s the worst that can happen lmao)
After some iterations and internal playtesting of all these little combat mechanics we came to the conclusion that you CAN make something interesting with this idea of mouse-based hardcore combat.
But we didn't stop there. I've always wanted a spell system woven tightly with the attacks. And we tried in that in Greedventory. We'll cover vibrance spells in the next portion of this devlogs!
So, watch closely for the enemy attacks, react accordingly to his moves with blocks, parries and dodges and hit the living hell out of him with your strikes and ripostes.
And see you next time!