Update (09-Sept-2022)
Hi All,
I still don't really feel the excitement for Delivery Pilot, so I didn't do any work on it last week. I did feel a pull towards my previous game, Darkmorrow Arena, and so I played it a bit. I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I think I like Darkmorrow Arena more than Delivery Pilot. D: I think Delivery Pilot is much better coded. But Darkmorrow Arena had a lot more heart and passion behind it. Maybe that's because Darkmorrow Arena was my first game.
Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about another game, too. For the last couple of months, I had an intense desire to make a game inspired by Path of Exile, specifically the skill tree system and the item mechanics. I think if I spend some time on that, I'll feel the pull towards Delivery Pilot, again.
I started prototyping it, and I used a new interface layout, that I thought about after development of Delivery Pilot had already begun. What do you think?
The UI is obviously inspired by the Corruption of Champions game. I like the mechanics and gameplay loop of that game, but I didn't like how scenes became longer and longer over time. I think my game would have a similar loop, but far shorter scenes. Also, a big difference between this game and my previous games is that it won't have permadeath. Instead, if you fail a dungeon, you don't get the loot you found in the dungeon so far, and you lose some experience points (kind of like maps in Path of Exile). But, you can still continue the game with the same characters.
Cheers!
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Heya!
Due to holidays, I almost missed one version of Delivery Pilot. So I haven't played verson 0.6 yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
I hope you will only take a break from the game, and not completely abandon it. It has reached the state of "almost finished". When the VIP scenes and the higher level obligations are written, everything else that might come feels like bonus.
About your future project:
- I cannot say much about the UI. You have to play it to see how it feels. However, I have one point that I didn't like in the Delivery Pilot UI, and you could avoid it in your next game. The doll view (where you want to look) and the control area (lower right, where you have to look) are too far from each other. Maybe place the doll view closer to the buttons.
-Another thing you could learn from Delivery Pilot: you spent a lot of time for refactoring. Of course, you will always need refactoring, as a lot of things have to be tested by playing. However, you often refactored well working things just because you weren't 100% happy about how they looked. I normally keep this perfectionism for the fine tuning when the main features are done. Without rewriting some of the scenes, you might already have a first version of all scenes.
- Consider keeping the GUI and the data / game logic apart. If done right, you can replace the GUI by a simple AI, which can help a lot during game balancing.
- About permadeath: I'm a big fan, but most people do not like it. If you remove it, you should have a clear idea of how to replace it. Either your missions become harder over time, so that you can reach the point where you will fail all your missions if your strategy was wrong and you did not keep up the pace. It is a kind of game over, but not as harsh as permadeath where some unlucky dice roll can finish a well going run. The other option is that the missions get harder as you get stronger. That is, with a bad strategy, you have to grind a lot on the easier missions before you can go on more difficult missions and unlock more content. With enough patience, you will see everything in the end. Both approaches are valid, but I think you should decide which one you want for your game.
Welcome back! Thanks, yeah, I think those are all good points.
I think you're describing the MVC pattern, is that right? I think I'm starting to appreciate it more. You might already know, I currently separate out the data, because it made saving and loading the game easy and reliable. However, I still coded the view and controls sometimes pretty close to each other. It's definitely something I'll be more conscious of next time.
I think you have a really good point about how to replace permadeath, too. Before Darkmorrow Arena, I actually worked on another RPG, called Mournholm Castle. That game was modeled after Dark Souls, and you can re-spawn back at base, as many times as you want. The next game will probably be modeled after Path of Exile which also has the same thing. Using both of those games as design models, I think I'm going for the second approach you mentioned. The player can always continue after a failure, and accumulate power and equipment over time. They can take their time. But, they will need a strategy or find good equipment to challenge the later levels. That way, there won't be any pressure to perform, but there will also be something bigger to strive for. I think then players who want to see scenes are happy, players who want to collect neat items and try different builds are happy, and players who want to take on a challenge are also happy.
Yes, I mean the MVC pattern. Especially keeping the view separated from the rest is quite useful.
I also think the second approach to non-permadeath is what most players would prefer. You will never get stuck, it only could feel like a grind if your strategy is bad. The other approach is more frustrating for the player. It might be even more frustrating than permadeath because it takes some time until you realize that you are stuck.
I like the ui. also, I've been paying attention to delivery pilot updates, but haven't really commented or played much recently as I think in terms of gameplay, the game is close to if not done, however it seems it might be a little while till the events and art are finished so I've been holding off. Either way, I hope you don't get burnt out on making delivery pilot and I look forward to more updates or a revamp of Darkmorrow arena.
Also I do agree that delivery pilot feels better to play (although there is still a lot of clicking) but that arena has more heart in it. I think this is due to arena actually having characters and conversations where as delivery is mostly watching the pilot get degraded with little to no character. Not saying that it's bad, but that arena does have a spark that delivery doesn't have.
Thanks! Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I think the spark is there in Darkmorrow Arena, because its scope was intentionally small. That, and the fact that characters are not randomly generated, meant each character could be fleshed out a lot more. That's a good lesson for me for the next game I work on. I think that makes me happy, because I see both Darkmorrow Arena and Delivery Pilot as proofs of concept, and ways for me to learn how to make games.