Day 2

For this year's 7DRL I'm attempting to build a puzzle/strategy game with higher interactive potential between the player, the monsters, and the environment.

The basic premise is that you play as a volcanic creature that has different rules for being different temperatures. For example, when molten hot, you deals 2x damage, but you also receive 2x damage. Walking over fissures or magma heats you up, walking into water or ice, cools you down.

Yesterday I rebuilt a version of the terminal renderer that I usually use for browser based games and today I worked on creating some of the core mechanics and basic content.

Abilities

Erupting allows you to throw a ball of magma, but cools you down in the process.

Charges create explosions after a certain number of turns and can be used to tactically dispatch pursuers. Planting a charge cools you down.

The grapple can bring creatures to you, but if aimed at a block, or a heavy creature, it will instead take you to that creature.

Dashing allows you to cover lots of ground in one turn, cooling you down in the process.

Enemies

I have a tendency to implement very boring enemies when I make these kind of games, so I tried to make sure that almost all of them have some unique behaviours this time.

Here are some of the enemies I added today.

Snails leave a trail (in this case poison) and move forwards until they hit a wall, at which point they always turn 90 degrees clockwise and continue. They're not hostile, but if you stand in their way they will push you.

Boars will try to get in line with you and then charge. The attack is easy to dodge, but can be dangerous if aren't giving the environment enough attention.

Worms spit poison. The projectiles themselves don't do any damage, but the poison status does 1 damage each turn and can stack with successive poisons.

My personal favourite so far are the lizards, which run after getting hit until they hit something, at which point they explode, making them a great offensive tactic. You also have to watch out for other enemies accidentally hitting lizards your way!

Vestiges

Vestiges are the final thing I've been working on today. These are passive items that change the way the game is played and (hopefully) encourage synergies between abilities and the environment. I haven't quite figured out whether I want randomness here (e.g. 5% chance to do X) or whether it keeps the game feeling tighter if they are completely deterministic.

Next Time

The map generation is pure randomness at the moment, so I'll probably focus my efforts there next. I have ideas for a handful of other enemies and vestiges too, but I want to create a playable version of the game first.