I'm generally a fan of RPGs with automatic combat systems (Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy XII) and I've always wanted to try my hand at writing one, so I used this Ludum Dare theme as an excuse to throw together a crude prototype of an RPG where the only control the player has is over what members join the party, and each phase of the game lasts only 10 seconds. The result is, I hope, something like some random Windows 3.1 shareware game you might have downloaded from a BBS.
If you get frustrated trying to finish it, don't worry. There is no ending.
I think there's something to this, though the 10-second Epochs (at least for party selection) seem to be working against you. I've kind of always wanted to do a puzzle game about RPG mechanics, and I think this goes in that direction.
"Diablo's minion grows stronger" OMG gotta kill 'em all! I really didn't know what the fuck was going on, but then I read your notes, and it became easier to abstract the concept. This game is pretty much automatic and you could add some instructions in the main menu or whatever. But you know f*ck it! My wizard's name is Ygritte AND THIS MUSIC IS TOO AWESOME! P.S.: Gotta ask, did you use flixel? P.S.S.: I laughed my ass off with raincole's commentary LOL
Making an idle game with the 10 second theme seemed like a gamble as those are notorious for having you sit through them for days, but it seems to work ok. It would have been nice to have more than 10 seconds to assemble the party though.
Thanks for referencing Progress Quest and Candybox! I hadn't played either of those before, but they're amusing. :)
If I make a successor to this game, the 10 second limit for party selection would definitely be gone. It's a fun experiment and addictive to the right kind of player, but overall I think the player needs to have more options / control.
A fun concept, but in the end the game just isn't quite clear enough. The player needs to know way more about the game (like what the classes are and what the different stats do) before the choice of party actually starts to become meaningful.
Great concept but there really is no gameplay. Quickly selecting a party and watching them go is kind of boring. Most auto-combat rpg's give you control over the role of individual characters allowing you to change them based on the state of the combat. Well balanced ones actually make this an important strategic requirement.
Intresting, but I'm not sure what did what, I just clicked on loads of dudes then stuff died? or what? A nice concept and if I'd taken the time to understand it it would have been great, nice work
At one point in the game, 2 of my characters started one-hitting bosses with 5000-10000 dmg hits. :p
To be honest, why would you ever want to change characters if they level up? You just stick to your first characters anyway. That makes for 20 seconds of waiting with nothing to do. Otherwise it's fun to watch the monsters get wiped out.
Comments22
OMG gotta kill 'em all!
I really didn't know what the fuck was going on, but then I read your notes, and it became easier to abstract the concept.
This game is pretty much automatic and you could add some instructions in the main menu or whatever.
But you know f*ck it! My wizard's name is Ygritte AND THIS MUSIC IS TOO AWESOME!
P.S.: Gotta ask, did you use flixel?
P.S.S.: I laughed my ass off with raincole's commentary LOL
If I make a successor to this game, the 10 second limit for party selection would definitely be gone. It's a fun experiment and addictive to the right kind of player, but overall I think the player needs to have more options / control.
I like your ideas.
To be honest, why would you ever want to change characters if they level up? You just stick to your first characters anyway. That makes for 20 seconds of waiting with nothing to do. Otherwise it's fun to watch the monsters get wiped out.
Good concept, could use some fleshing out!