Hello Heroes, hope you’re doing well!
In today’s blogpost we’ll be talking about how Forgotten Mines’ environment and combat system impact the way we play and strategize. Let’s get started!
Inspiration, innovation
Forgotten Mines takes its inspiration from impactful roguelikes in the indie community such as FTL (Subset Games, 2012) which brings combat in real time where the enemy is always on the move.
Another inspiration is Into the Breach (Subset Games, 2018) which has turn-based combat with a limit to achieving the stage objectives.
And finally Brigandine : The Legend of Forsena (ATLUS, 1998) which features combat between two troops who face each other in turn-based combat over a maximum of 12 turns.
That’s why, while prototyping Forgotten Mines, it became clear that playing defensively made the game boring and easy since the enemies would come to you and you’d calmly eliminate them. A working and functional system but where’s the fun in that?
The turn limit brings the need for action and reminds you that you’re not in a safe position; your units are descending towards the Abyss on a one-way expedition. Time is to be turned into a resource. Therefore, a turn limit (as in Brigandine) was necessary.
Small rooms, big stakes
In Forgotten Mines, each room has its own unique environment, with a composition of randomly placed enemies - each time you start a new room, it will be generated differently so no two runs are alike. One thing remains the same: the size of the room. Its inspiration comes from the classic chessboard, a space divided into 8 x 8 tiles.
And even in such a limited area, the possibilities are countless as they allow you to strategize in a dynamic and dangerous environment, with tiles assuming different conditions to be accessed and some tiles being completely inaccessible. It allows endless unique runs: use abilities to change the tiles and therefore the course of the game!
The room’s environment includes the various objects and details with which we can interact. For example: boulders and chests can be used as a cover, adding a new layer of strategy with a reward/risk situation since both hold resources. Will you use them to protect yourself or destroy them to collect the resources, risking exposing your units?
With all those things in mind, it’s important to prioritize things over others, let’s see which ones.
Focusing, prioritizing
Your objective is to go from one room to another - what effectively prevents you from achieving this? You guessed it; the enemies. Observing the position and surroundings of each foe is essential.
During the fights, you have the possibility to farm boulders which is something you shouldn’t underestimate. Boulders are the main resource: breaking them yields collectible ores that can be used to buy items in the Store or upgrade your equipment with the Blacksmith.
If you manage to leave the room by turn 4 or less, the spoils of war will be greater. Which does raise one question: when you’re done slaying the enemies, will you farm the boulders and chests or save time and leave for the next room?
There is no wrong answer, optimize your time and resources but be careful of reinforcements, they’re no joke!
Limited turns, tactical fights
There is indeed a turn limit in Forgotten Mines, in a normal room, reinforcements will appear after turn 8 and in a Boss room, they will appear after turn 15. To avoid those not-so-cool guys, you’ll have to play offensively to end as quickly as possible. If you don’t, you’ll have to fight them but no worries though, since Forgotten Mines is a roguelite: death is a resource.
Each new run will allow you to change your heroes and amulets to shape new strategies. For example, if you struggle fighting the Undead, the right combination of amulets will help you make your Sniper an Undead exterminating machine. As the run progresses, you will find new equipment and level up your characters.
If some types of enemies are still a problem for you: experiment with other classes, try out new compositions, strengthen your ranks and make sure your characters complement each other.
What will be your strategy?
Thank you for reading, I hope this has helped you better understand the environment and the combat system!
And don't forget: Forgotten Mines will be available on Steam Q1 2024! Until then, you can wishlist the game and play the demo!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238630/Forgotten_Mines/
If you want to chat with the team and other players, you can join us on Discord and Twitter!