Hi,
The next update is about removing most of the game mechanics.
Why? You may ask.
It's just that while I was working on it, I felt like Ballotoro needed an identity.
Many people suggest familiar mechanics in popular games. I think it's cool to have an ultimate game that is fun and almost has everything we need. As a gamer at heart, I get what you all mean. Realistically, it can be done, but that will require time and a budget. As much as I'm really happy to see people trying the game and leaving feedback, they are useful and some comments were straight up wtf.
I have to be honest, I can't afford to take such a high risk.
I have been making games as a hobby. It was a passion since high school. I love trying out small things, but with my ADHD brain, it's hard to finish anything off consistently. Some people may call it lazy and unmotivated. Let's keep it short, it's just the way ADHD works that we love sprinting and can easily start shiny new things, but doing it consistently? Like, we just no longer feel the fire anymore, and it can be a slog.
Modern games are fun. They give us things we can't see in real life, allowing us to express ourselves. I believe we all love the feeling of being smart and constantly learning. I love it too.
A game is fun as long as there are more things to solve. What happens when a game is "solved"? That depends on each player; some may want to try harder, higher score, faster time or just to get that rare drop and collect everything. For some, it becomes tedious because the novelty wears off. The game is no longer a game; it can feel like a checklist.
I played Vampire Survivor. It is fun for the first few hours for me. Once we noticed few builds are meta and some items are essentially auto-pick, the gameplay keep repeating.
What if a game is infinitely fun and can't be solved? How is that even possible? Roguelike games attempt to do this by shuffling content around; however, each piece (card, enemies, player, path...) is hand-crafted to ensure balance.
Can we achieve even true randomness? A game where each piece is crafted at the start of the run. Whatever worked last time will not work again. Although that also means choices don't matter since it's impossible to predict what will happen next. We can only act based on past clues. Is it fun? For me, I'm intrigued.
Anyway, enough with game philosophy 😮. Just a small thing you will see in my game.