Really enjoyed the concept! I play DND with my friends so this was super interesting! A couple of observations: 1) My first two playthroughs ended with starting champion dying in the first quest. As a first introduction, it seemed frustrating. I didnt understand hovering over the difficulty would show the possibility of success. Also, (small sample set) but it doesnt seem like there is an escape possibility where the quest isnt successful and the party still lives. 2) Is there a way to refresh quests? This is especially frustrating when all possible quests have a 7% or 0% or very low chance of success. Also, there were times when there were only two available quests after one had been completed. 3) Do more parties show up periodically when there is a slot open? I hadnt seen that and had progressed ~30+ days from when the party died. 4) When assigning equipment to each character after accepting a quest, there is no indication what class each character is. Having to switch back and forth from the party members screen to the inventory screen could be streamlined. Also, the order of characters in the party screen and the equip screen for quests is different. 5) Several of the final screens for the quest returned <null> and I'm not sure if that's because there was no fight data but it didn't provide much info to the player. 6) It would be helpful to be able to organize the inventory either by slot, etc. or to be able to equip the party somehow so I dont have to reallocate items each time... this would provide visibility into the progression, what items I should sell, etc.
A couple of suggestions: Quest progression for each location, rarity of item drops based on CR or difficulty (otherwise I'm just spamming the highest success chance and am able to gear up that way with no real incentive to try a higher difficulty). Gating the slots based on level provides some progression for each character but maybe having ability score (strength, dex, etc) dictate being able to use an item would be helpful. Empty slot shows an icon but a popup saying what it is could be helpful (potion, ranged, etc) the top left of each item shows what slot but not what it's used for, etc. Specializing different weapons to do different damage (piercing vs slashing vs bludgeoning) and showing what class each is best for (two hand for champions, dagger for thief, etc). Gold quickly becomes superfluous if there is nothing to spend it on. Gold sinks of being able to reroll the shop, reroll missions, add party members/reroll party members, purchasing a new party, purchasing "slots", all would be good.
Overall: Very fun concept and great execution up to this point. The progression of getting the characters kitted up with better and better items is always fun. I think there could be some work on the quest progression and perhaps gating some of the harder quests behind activity in a certain area or something like "renown" would strengthen the story aspect of the party and create more emotional investment of the player with the party members. I know a lot of what I have suggested is potentially increasing the scope so feel free to take it or leave it. Looking forward to the progress!
Hey, thanks for the great feedback, appreciate the detail and time you put into it!
I've got a fix for failing the first quest, that should no longer be possible. Alongside that I've 10x the hp across the board to make things less swingy.
I think using gold to re-roll quests and shop contents is an excellent idea so I will add that in next thing.
There's only a handful of preset parties at the moment. Either automatically generating new ones or letting you create your own would be the next step. I also need to add a tonne more quests for various reasons. More to come!
The % success is simulated combat without any loaned items so even a 0% can jump right up to 100%. I'll add more info to make that clear. It was kind of a debug thing initially.
I've got some UX improvements to do clearly so will take a look at the areas you highlighted.
And then hopefully that'll give a good base to explore other ideas like damage types which I had thought about also. Thanks again!
Awesome response! I find myself coming back to the game, even in the current state, because the underlying concept and current state are very fun to play! Great job and I look forward to the progress! I hit a snag in developing my own game and continue to deal with my own scope creep. I really appreciate you putting up with my essay and can't wait to see the progress you make!
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I've update the version to 0.1.2 with the following changes:
Really enjoyed the concept! I play DND with my friends so this was super interesting!
A couple of observations: 1) My first two playthroughs ended with starting champion dying in the first quest. As a first introduction, it seemed frustrating. I didnt understand hovering over the difficulty would show the possibility of success. Also, (small sample set) but it doesnt seem like there is an escape possibility where the quest isnt successful and the party still lives. 2) Is there a way to refresh quests? This is especially frustrating when all possible quests have a 7% or 0% or very low chance of success. Also, there were times when there were only two available quests after one had been completed. 3) Do more parties show up periodically when there is a slot open? I hadnt seen that and had progressed ~30+ days from when the party died. 4) When assigning equipment to each character after accepting a quest, there is no indication what class each character is. Having to switch back and forth from the party members screen to the inventory screen could be streamlined. Also, the order of characters in the party screen and the equip screen for quests is different. 5) Several of the final screens for the quest returned <null> and I'm not sure if that's because there was no fight data but it didn't provide much info to the player. 6) It would be helpful to be able to organize the inventory either by slot, etc. or to be able to equip the party somehow so I dont have to reallocate items each time... this would provide visibility into the progression, what items I should sell, etc.
A couple of suggestions: Quest progression for each location, rarity of item drops based on CR or difficulty (otherwise I'm just spamming the highest success chance and am able to gear up that way with no real incentive to try a higher difficulty). Gating the slots based on level provides some progression for each character but maybe having ability score (strength, dex, etc) dictate being able to use an item would be helpful. Empty slot shows an icon but a popup saying what it is could be helpful (potion, ranged, etc) the top left of each item shows what slot but not what it's used for, etc. Specializing different weapons to do different damage (piercing vs slashing vs bludgeoning) and showing what class each is best for (two hand for champions, dagger for thief, etc). Gold quickly becomes superfluous if there is nothing to spend it on. Gold sinks of being able to reroll the shop, reroll missions, add party members/reroll party members, purchasing a new party, purchasing "slots", all would be good.
Overall: Very fun concept and great execution up to this point. The progression of getting the characters kitted up with better and better items is always fun. I think there could be some work on the quest progression and perhaps gating some of the harder quests behind activity in a certain area or something like "renown" would strengthen the story aspect of the party and create more emotional investment of the player with the party members. I know a lot of what I have suggested is potentially increasing the scope so feel free to take it or leave it. Looking forward to the progress!
Hey, thanks for the great feedback, appreciate the detail and time you put into it!
And then hopefully that'll give a good base to explore other ideas like damage types which I had thought about also. Thanks again!
Awesome response! I find myself coming back to the game, even in the current state, because the underlying concept and current state are very fun to play! Great job and I look forward to the progress! I hit a snag in developing my own game and continue to deal with my own scope creep. I really appreciate you putting up with my essay and can't wait to see the progress you make!