Its really Fun. I like the Concept of Rougelike Fire-emblem-like, it fits well together, you aren't as mortified when your Units die, as you're getting new ones constantly, I like that the Enemies aren't just nameless Goons, but have randomized Names, gives them a lot more Personality.
It could use more Variety in Events, and some (generated) Leadup to a mission, a small Briefing or intermission of generated Information why you're there, what brings the Enemies to it, etc.
Portraits and Unitsprites clash, in Pixelsize and in looks. Consider keeping the Portraits greyscale aswell, so you can change their Uniform Color depending on Team. Then add some Heads to swap on your Unit Sprites to more closely match the Portraits, to give them more Personality. Doesn't need to be a perfect match, that'd be stupid, but if the generated Portrait has long hair, give the Unit long hair aswell, if it has a Hat, give the Unit a Hat, and so on.
Also some Dialogue on recruiting a new Unit would be nice, generate them some personality Traits, and based on that a bit of Text, just a few Lines.
That's generally the big Point I have I guess, it needs a bit more Story to it, you could generate that very easily aswell, its just Text. And the UI needs an Overhaul, the Grey around the Playable Map looks bad, but that Stuff is obviously a Placeholder at the Moment.
I didn't play a lot of Missions, but from what I've seen, the Maps are fairly decent, but could be better I guess. You're making some nice Chokepoints and alternate Paths, but scatter Buildings pretty badly.
(Also, if its more Rogue-like-y, consider generating your Maps, even if you randomize Stats and Portraits, you only have so many Unittypes in the End, with a non-ridiculously sized Weapon Triangle, so replaying the same Missions all the Time could get boring quickly. If this has a decently well Map generation tagged onto it, with good intermission between the individual Missions, bigger Battles later on, a Camp to manage your Units in between or something, this could be a very nice Mercenary-Management Game or something like that, where you'd be able to repeatedly just come back to and play one or two Missions if you're feeling like playing a FE-Tactics like, getting a mostly fresh Experience every Time.)
You could also overtime bloat this with a lot of interesting Encounters, wild Animals, mythical Beasts, different Landscapes, Weather Conditions, and whatnot. Theres quite a bit of Potential here I think.
Wow this is such a long and thought out response I don't know how to respond! (I am on a trip so sorry for the long reply time) But thanks so much for trying it and putting so much thought into it.
You really hit the core issue I've been seeing as well, there needs to be *some* kind of narrative. One of my main take-aways from DD was games with a little bit of narrative are far more engaging them ones without. Unfortunately, this is something I am no good or confident at, but it needs to be done. Hopefully I will have something by next DD.
> Then add some Heads to swap on your Unit Sprites to more closely match the Portraits
This is a great idea, and partly not implemented due to my laziness. I have different hair style sprites, but there are all in different sheets. Swapping out the heads is a very good idea, I wasn't sure how to handle that, especially when converting units (this should be handle by greyscale as well now that I think about it)
I'm not sure about map generating, I've made some attempts but nothing compelling. Currently my plan is to just make tons of maps then just pick 1-5 when the conditions are right (5 beach maps, 5 river maps, 5 plains, etc.). But random generation would be a better solution, I just haven't made a random generation script I am happy with.
> Also some Dialogue on recruiting a new Unit would be nice, generate them some personality Traits, and based on that a bit of Text, just a few Lines.
This is a great idea, I loved this in Solasta. Definitely should add this, it could tie into a support system as well.
Thanks again for the super in-depth response, I'll defiantly be checking back here when I get home to build a todo list.
Hello, I was really excited to give this game a try since I'm also a FE cloner, a few comments:
When I hit "load game" without any saves the game just froze up on me
How come when I'm viewing the preview before entering combat, sometimes my unit is on the left and the enemy is on the right but sometimes it's the other way around?
Not sure if this is a pathfinding bug or just unintuitive but I noticed this:
this enemy is supposed to have 5 movement so I'm not sure why he can't move 1 further down path the 4, do bridges cost 2 move? if so that seems an odd choice to me.
I had a bug where an enemy moved to a tile where another enemy is already standing. Luckily it didn't seem to mess anything up since the other unit moved off the tile afterwards with no issue.
Game crashed after selecting my reward for level 4 unfortunately
Overall, besides a few bugs it seems like you've built a good foundation with the base SRPG mechanics, I'm looking forward to seeing how you flesh out the rougelike elements going forward, since I've seen a lot of discussion on whether rouge-like FE could work.
Thanks for playing! I'm sorry to hear about the crash and bugs, hopefully I can get them fixed by next DD.
> How come when I'm viewing the preview before entering combat, sometimes my unit is on the left and the enemy is on the right but sometimes it's the other way around? The game does this for attacking from the left vs right. A -> B vs B <- A. But I don't think it helps at all, and I'm just going to color to two sides blue v red so it's obvious from a glance.
> Not sure if this is a pathfinding bug or just unintuitive but I noticed this: Very weird, thanks for the screenshot!
> I'm looking forward to seeing how you flesh out the rougelike elements going forward, since I've seen a lot of discussion on whether rouge-like FE could work. I hope I can make them work, its where I plan to focus for the next month or so.
dodge "or" defense? (on information screen, misspelling)
This shit is hard.
I think there should be more indication of who can equip what weapons.
The level up sounds are oddly dissonant.
broooooo you put my dood off the map I can't move him!!! Edit: Itch won't show it but I have multiple screenshots of this guy chillin at the top corner of every map.
He's there every map...
Just standing there... MENACINGLY.
This game is good shit. I want to keep playing but I have to go to bed. Oh you need music.
Thanks so much for playing, and recording my spelling errors, I know there's a decent amount.
That makes my second "known and fixed" issue not actually fixed lol, thanks for reporting it, I'll check why it's happening still. I think it might have something to do with duplicate names, even though the chance of that happening is small.
Im glad you enjoyed it, and really appreciate the feedback!
Ricken the axeman had a sniper rifle, and wrecked my party :) .
Nice game. I was a bit confused by the UI, but figured it out eventually. Will it be possible to control with the mouse in the future, or will it be keyboard only?
This is the bug I thought it was... basically if the movement code knows it *can* move, but doesn't get a tile to move to it freaks out and just does the attack anyways. Technically a known issue but I thought it was fixed.
>Will it be possible to control with the mouse in the future, or will it be keyboard only? I hope to get mouse controls working for next DD, it's not too difficult in godot.
Thanks again for playing, it was a great time watching it on stream! I really liked how you remembered characters names and they had little stories through the gameplay. It's the same kind of feeling I hope the end result to have.
It's a very good start, and as someone working on something like this right now, it has a lot of potential.
Please don't upscale the sprites like you have here. Outside the trees, it doesn't look too good and very blurry. Having it internally render at a lower resolution for the better looking sprites to fit would be better. It's a great foundation for more stuff in the future and I am looking forward to what you do next with this. I wish you the most luck.
Thanks for playing! I hope I can deliver on any potential it has. Do you have a screenshot of the up-scaling? It shouldn't be happening on anything except the character portraits. But I may be misunderstanding the issue.
I've never played Fire Emblem or similar games. Tutorial would be nice, but it's intuitive enough to get a grasp on basic mechanics. From technical standpoint all seems to work as intended, AI was reasonably smart. Curious to see how you expand.
Like the concept, expecting good stuff from this as it develops. Feedback:
Dunno if the attack UI portraits are meant to be ordered according to map placement or if the ally always goes on the left and enemy on the right, I think the UI should convey this (like with red and blue colors).
Visiting a house doesn't do anything (maybe NYI?).
Menu bugs out and appears on screen if I press enter quickly after inputing the last unit's action.
It looks like last enemy standing avoids the player which if intended its a nice addition.
Thanks so much for playing! I really appreciate the bug report and good reproduction steps.
>Dunno if the attack UI portraits are meant to be ordered according to map placement They are, I was hoping to make things more clear, but colors are a much better idea.
>Visiting a house doesn't do anything It should be a full heal, but this is only a placeholder.
It sure is a roguelike fire emblem. I can see what you're going for and the build was perfectly functional, but it could use polish. There's a bunch of spelling mistakes and the UI could use improvements like showing character HPs on the sprite. This is personal preference, but mouse commands would be a nice addition too. Is there a way to check the terrain a unit is standing on? It's important information.
I'm not too convinced about the roguelike aspect, especially having to do all inventory management, shopping and unit-recruiting while in battle. Green units could join you automatically if they survive and there could be a menu to trade, sell and buy items between missions.
The battles themselves aren't the best, the enemy AI is decent but it does some weird things: I saw archers moving into melee range to attack one of my units, and sometimes enemy units seem to wander around randomly, on the fourth map I had two archers and I only had to pass the turn waiting for the enemy units to wander into arrow range.
Other than that it was a fine demo, it's always good to see tactics game, but I must say it doesn't really stand out from FE at the moment so it feels a little bland.
I really appreciate you trying it out! I'll see what I can do for mouse controls.
A "camp" screen is definitely needed like you said, it's just been daunting to implement. The AI comment is correct as well, to keep enemies from just rushing your in a massive mob I set the AI type randomly, some aggressive, some move randomly, some target buildings etc. Definitely improvements to be made there as well.
Comments
Its really Fun. I like the Concept of Rougelike Fire-emblem-like, it fits well together, you aren't as mortified when your Units die, as you're getting new ones constantly, I like that the Enemies aren't just nameless Goons, but have randomized Names, gives them a lot more Personality.
It could use more Variety in Events, and some (generated) Leadup to a mission, a small Briefing or intermission of generated Information why you're there, what brings the Enemies to it, etc.
Portraits and Unitsprites clash, in Pixelsize and in looks. Consider keeping the Portraits greyscale aswell, so you can change their Uniform Color depending on Team. Then add some Heads to swap on your Unit Sprites to more closely match the Portraits, to give them more Personality. Doesn't need to be a perfect match, that'd be stupid, but if the generated Portrait has long hair, give the Unit long hair aswell, if it has a Hat, give the Unit a Hat, and so on.
Also some Dialogue on recruiting a new Unit would be nice, generate them some personality Traits, and based on that a bit of Text, just a few Lines.
That's generally the big Point I have I guess, it needs a bit more Story to it, you could generate that very easily aswell, its just Text. And the UI needs an Overhaul, the Grey around the Playable Map looks bad, but that Stuff is obviously a Placeholder at the Moment.
I didn't play a lot of Missions, but from what I've seen, the Maps are fairly decent, but could be better I guess. You're making some nice Chokepoints and alternate Paths, but scatter Buildings pretty badly.
(Also, if its more Rogue-like-y, consider generating your Maps, even if you randomize Stats and Portraits, you only have so many Unittypes in the End, with a non-ridiculously sized Weapon Triangle, so replaying the same Missions all the Time could get boring quickly. If this has a decently well Map generation tagged onto it, with good intermission between the individual Missions, bigger Battles later on, a Camp to manage your Units in between or something, this could be a very nice Mercenary-Management Game or something like that, where you'd be able to repeatedly just come back to and play one or two Missions if you're feeling like playing a FE-Tactics like, getting a mostly fresh Experience every Time.)
You could also overtime bloat this with a lot of interesting Encounters, wild Animals, mythical Beasts, different Landscapes, Weather Conditions, and whatnot. Theres quite a bit of Potential here I think.
Wow this is such a long and thought out response I don't know how to respond! (I am on a trip so sorry for the long reply time) But thanks so much for trying it and putting so much thought into it.
You really hit the core issue I've been seeing as well, there needs to be *some* kind of narrative. One of my main take-aways from DD was games with a little bit of narrative are far more engaging them ones without. Unfortunately, this is something I am no good or confident at, but it needs to be done. Hopefully I will have something by next DD.
> Then add some Heads to swap on your Unit Sprites to more closely match the Portraits
This is a great idea, and partly not implemented due to my laziness. I have different hair style sprites, but there are all in different sheets. Swapping out the heads is a very good idea, I wasn't sure how to handle that, especially when converting units (this should be handle by greyscale as well now that I think about it)
I'm not sure about map generating, I've made some attempts but nothing compelling. Currently my plan is to just make tons of maps then just pick 1-5 when the conditions are right (5 beach maps, 5 river maps, 5 plains, etc.). But random generation would be a better solution, I just haven't made a random generation script I am happy with.
> Also some Dialogue on recruiting a new Unit would be nice, generate them some personality Traits, and based on that a bit of Text, just a few Lines.
This is a great idea, I loved this in Solasta. Definitely should add this, it could tie into a support system as well.
Thanks again for the super in-depth response, I'll defiantly be checking back here when I get home to build a todo list.
Hello, I was really excited to give this game a try since I'm also a FE cloner, a few comments:
this enemy is supposed to have 5 movement so I'm not sure why he can't move 1 further down path the 4, do bridges cost 2 move? if so that seems an odd choice to me.
Overall, besides a few bugs it seems like you've built a good foundation with the base SRPG mechanics, I'm looking forward to seeing how you flesh out the rougelike elements going forward, since I've seen a lot of discussion on whether rouge-like FE could work.
Thanks for playing! I'm sorry to hear about the crash and bugs, hopefully I can get them fixed by next DD.
> How come when I'm viewing the preview before entering combat, sometimes my unit is on the left and the enemy is on the right but sometimes it's the other way around?
The game does this for attacking from the left vs right. A -> B vs B <- A. But I don't think it helps at all, and I'm just going to color to two sides blue v red so it's obvious from a glance.
> Not sure if this is a pathfinding bug or just unintuitive but I noticed this:
Very weird, thanks for the screenshot!
> I'm looking forward to seeing how you flesh out the rougelike elements going forward, since I've seen a lot of discussion on whether rouge-like FE could work.
I hope I can make them work, its where I plan to focus for the next month or so.
misspelling "Seletions" on controls screen.
dodge "or" defense? (on information screen, misspelling)
This shit is hard.
I think there should be more indication of who can equip what weapons.
The level up sounds are oddly dissonant.
broooooo you put my dood off the map I can't move him!!! Edit: Itch won't show it but I have multiple screenshots of this guy chillin at the top corner of every map.
He's there every map...
Just standing there... MENACINGLY.
This game is good shit. I want to keep playing but I have to go to bed. Oh you need music.
Thanks so much for playing, and recording my spelling errors, I know there's a decent amount.
That makes my second "known and fixed" issue not actually fixed lol, thanks for reporting it, I'll check why it's happening still. I think it might have something to do with duplicate names, even though the chance of that happening is small.
Im glad you enjoyed it, and really appreciate the feedback!
Nice game, commenting here to not forget it: The axeman attacked a rock or something, and hit Ashe who is far away, is that a bug? https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2024480033?t=6h5m30s
Ricken the axeman had a sniper rifle, and wrecked my party :) .
Nice game. I was a bit confused by the UI, but figured it out eventually. Will it be possible to control with the mouse in the future, or will it be keyboard only?
This is the bug I thought it was... basically if the movement code knows it *can* move, but doesn't get a tile to move to it freaks out and just does the attack anyways. Technically a known issue but I thought it was fixed.
>Will it be possible to control with the mouse in the future, or will it be keyboard only?
I hope to get mouse controls working for next DD, it's not too difficult in godot.
Thanks again for playing, it was a great time watching it on stream! I really liked how you remembered characters names and they had little stories through the gameplay. It's the same kind of feeling I hope the end result to have.
It's a very good start, and as someone working on something like this right now, it has a lot of potential.
Please don't upscale the sprites like you have here. Outside the trees, it doesn't look too good and very blurry. Having it internally render at a lower resolution for the better looking sprites to fit would be better. It's a great foundation for more stuff in the future and I am looking forward to what you do next with this. I wish you the most luck.
Thanks for playing! I hope I can deliver on any potential it has.
Do you have a screenshot of the up-scaling? It shouldn't be happening on anything except the character portraits. But I may be misunderstanding the issue.
As you can see, the sprite themselves are a bit blurry with the building walls a little bit.
Ahhh, I do see. I've pushed an update, this should be fixed, for the cursor as well.
Good start to a fire emblem like. Can't wait to see more!
It was so great watching you play it on stream! It was great info to see someone else play it.
glad I could help! I actually wanted to offer help a few weeks ago when you asked for sprite help but my hands were full at the time.
I've never played Fire Emblem or similar games. Tutorial would be nice, but it's intuitive enough to get a grasp on basic mechanics. From technical standpoint all seems to work as intended, AI was reasonably smart. Curious to see how you expand.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate you trying it out!
Like the concept, expecting good stuff from this as it develops. Feedback:
Thanks so much for playing! I really appreciate the bug report and good reproduction steps.
>Dunno if the attack UI portraits are meant to be ordered according to map placement
They are, I was hoping to make things more clear, but colors are a much better idea.
>Visiting a house doesn't do anything
It should be a full heal, but this is only a placeholder.
It sure is a roguelike fire emblem.
I can see what you're going for and the build was perfectly functional, but it could use polish.
There's a bunch of spelling mistakes and the UI could use improvements like showing character HPs on the sprite.
This is personal preference, but mouse commands would be a nice addition too.
Is there a way to check the terrain a unit is standing on? It's important information.
I'm not too convinced about the roguelike aspect, especially having to do all inventory management, shopping and unit-recruiting while in battle.
Green units could join you automatically if they survive and there could be a menu to trade, sell and buy items between missions.
The battles themselves aren't the best, the enemy AI is decent but it does some weird things: I saw archers moving into melee range to attack one of my units, and sometimes enemy units seem to wander around randomly, on the fourth map I had two archers and I only had to pass the turn waiting for the enemy units to wander into arrow range.
Other than that it was a fine demo, it's always good to see tactics game, but I must say it doesn't really stand out from FE at the moment so it feels a little bland.
I really appreciate you trying it out! I'll see what I can do for mouse controls.
A "camp" screen is definitely needed like you said, it's just been daunting to implement. The AI comment is correct as well, to keep enemies from just rushing your in a massive mob I set the AI type randomly, some aggressive, some move randomly, some target buildings etc. Definitely improvements to be made there as well.
Thanks again for playing!