[Phaser] Post-Apocalyptic Rogue-Like Game

[Justin_Wang123]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for some feedback on my current (unnamed) project which is nearing completion. This is my 3rd iteration on a rogue-like and as with the previous projects, I want this game to be able to stand on its own while also acting as the base of the next project.

Link:
http://game-test-page.comoj.com/Wasteland/

Screen Shots:

Overview:
- Static overworld with towns, npcs and quests.
- 6 Randomly generated dungeons and a couple of surface locations.
- Skill based character development allowing characters to specialize or generalize in melee, stealth, ranged and psionic combat.
- Approximately 100 items, 50 monsters, and 20 spells.
- Primary focus is on careful resource management and combat tactics.

Controls:
I hope the game is mostly self explanatory (please let me know of any confusion). Most of the controls have yet to be explained in game so I'll list them here:
- Clicking with the mouse moves or interacts (including attacking)
- Clicking any item in the inventory will use it (equip, cast spell, consume potion etc.
- Clicking player (numpad 5) will wait a turn (this is important in combat for positioning)
- There is partial keyboard support with the numpad providing movement and bump to attack (it works the same as clicking adjacent tiles).
- E key will auto explore
- R key will (r)ecast the last spell
- W key will (w)ield the previously wielded weapon
- A key will allow you to target distant enemies using numpad to move the cursor and 5 to click (this works the same as clicking a distant tile).

Feedback
Any feedback is greatly appreciated with the following topics of particular interest to me:

Difficulty
I've been playing this game for so long I no longer have even the slightest clue as to what the difficulty is for other players. Obviously as a rogue-like its intended to be difficult, something that you need to play repeatedly and learn all the little tricks in order to win. With that said, I'm curious as to how the challenge level is for everyone.

Pacing and Length
Similar to the above point, I can rush through the game at a pretty rapid pace but I also find that it gets repetitive at points though this is largely due to having played it hundreds of times. How is the overall length of the game? Are the dungeons to long, to short, or just right? Is new content introduced at the right pace?

Usability
This is a big one. Is it obvious how to play the game. Does the UI give enough information or is there anything missing? How do the controls feel. Does the game give you enough direction that you can figure out where to go next.

Bugs
Obviously I'm anxious to hear about any crashes or lag spikes or unexpected behavior.

Features
Any general suggestions for new features or improvements.

Future Plans:
I'd like to wrap this project up in the next few weeks and then as previously mentioned use it as the base of a larger, more ambitious project. Roughly speaking the direction I want to go in is to create a continuously scrolling over world (getting rid of the world map) dotted with different environment biomes, ruins, highways etc. I want to add crafting, harvesting any all the standard features of a survival sand-box game.

The idea is that the player gathers up resources, equipment, and other consumables on the surface and then tackles one of the large, extremely difficult dungeons. In tackling the dungeon the player uses up most of his supplies, damages his equipment sustains lots of injuries but gains some powerful artifacts, crafting recipes or something which allow him to push out further on the surface.

Generally speaking I want a sort of two-mode game in which gameplay on the surface is survival sandbox in which you prepare to tackle the next dungeon (which roughly increase in difficulty). Upon completing the dungeon you gain something which lets you explore further, craft more, generally experience more of the game. I plan to have an actual end game and victory condition. I'm hoping to overcome the main thing I dislike about sand-boxy games such as mine craft or dwarf fortress which is that generally there is little feeling of progression after the early game has been overcome and I always end up getting board without obvious goals.

[ecv]

Hard to judge for me as it's one of my favorite genres. The game's very well made. It resembles RPGWO. Consider converting this to an MMORPG. When I first opened it I knew I was going to spend a long time playing it so I closed to beat the addiction, then read your description and decided to give it a go... and spent a few hours there 

I found the overall difficulty just right.

When I first talked to the first NPC I found, I chose a dialog line that apparently made me lose the chance to get a job. I'm a bit too used to exploring all dialog possibilities recursively, so I was a bit annoyed I had lost that option. But that's not a bug per se.

I spotted a few typos here and there: "poition", "their" instead of "they're", "like look" instead of "look like" and a few others. I guess you could spell check it, but I'm afraid that'll only help with orthography.

There are a few NPCs with no dialog. This is okay but I'd include several "moo"s, etc. for the cattle, and a variety of random dumb sentences for human NPCs.

The quests panel doesn't seem to work. So it's hard to take several at a time if your memory's not good.

I'm missing music and some FX.

I spotted a minor bug after getting healed by the doctor over the pass (since games are random to an extent I don't know if pointing this out will help, but I hope so). When I headed to the next seller and hovered the cursor over him, it wouldn't show his name, but as if the cursor was over the character panel icon (I think). Unfortunately I wasn't able to reproduce it.

And kind of a big bug: When I was going to the mutant lab, I clicked on it still from near the pass and when the character got there the game just froze. I was quite annoyed, but relieved at the same time as I could finally stop playing. Now, while writing this, it occurred to me to try to reload the page and hit "continue", and yes, the character's still there outside the mutant lab, but upon trying to enter once again the game will freeze. I feel kinda lucky I won't spend the whole evening playing this. 

 

Cheers,

Eneko

 

Edit: Obviously all other features you asked feedback for that I didn't address are just right.

Edit2: Oh, yes, there's (are?) a number of tiles which display as a green box with an X inside. I think this is what Phaser shows whenever an image asset is missing? I'm not sure.

[Justin_Wang123]

Thank you very much for all the feedback Eneko!

I've got lots of time this weekend so I'll be busy on getting all the issues you listed fixed.

You didn't actually lose any jobs with the first guy, he would have just told you to talk to the sheriff and doctor.

Quest panel is not implemented yet.

The mutant lab crash is definitely a big problem, I was fiddling with generation code in that area so hopefully I just did something silly that's easy to fix.

Thanks again, I'll post back here with updates once I get everything fixed up.

[Doc Obvious]

Okay, I hope you're still checking for feedback because I created an account here for the sole purpose of giving you some. I thought it would be helpful. I just found your game today while I was looking at Phaser. It caught my attention because it reminded me of the Fallout games.

• I like the simplicity. One click to do everything. It's addictive. I like the open layout of the inventory, minimap, and everything. It makes it easy to play because nothing is hidden from me as far as I can tell. The simple nature of it appeals to me.
• I didn't realize the game was turn based until I played it for a bit. I kept clicking, clicking, clicking and dying a lot. It doesn't have the obvious player turn, enemy turn distinction you'll see in a lot of turn based games unless I'm missing something.
• I didn't understand how to use ranged weapons at first. Took a while to figure out. One click, one shot. Well, except for the time I somehow couldn't figure out how to unequip my psi flame burst when I ran out of mana. I didn't know that I just had to click on it again. Instead I clicked on my spear and unequipped it...
• On the Welcome to the Karhakas Mountains text, and all dialogue text, the text overflows past the yellow surrounding border until it is completely outside of your box. I'm using Firefox, on Linux Mint if that helps you figure it out at all.
• The intro and dialog text looks slightly blurry because of the style. It's hard to tell if that was intended or not. Other text is fine.
• It feels a little jerky when you move. It's quite weird really. The only massive complaint I have with your game. It makes me feel slightly dizzy. I wish I knew a way to fix that. It could be as easy as slowing down the movement of the character. I have no idea.
• The harsh black edge of the map when you're in a dungeon or other encounter is really severe. I feel like it could use polish. The fog of war is fine for me, but it wouldn't hurt if that harsh black was softened near the edges either.
• It's definitely difficult though I'm sure it's just that I'm not used to the game. It probably gets really easy after you get used to it, so I don't mind dying repeatedly. It does come with the territory in these kinds of games anyway.

I spent more time playing this than I intended. I certainly didn't intend to start an account here to give you feedback. That says something about your game. There's fun here, and if you can keep that fun, and release a polished version of it in your next game, I'm excited to play it. Thank you.

[ecv]

Any updates?

[igor.kroppli]

Hm, the game with this name already was created by Interplay team in 1988. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_(video_game)

Suggest to rename your game because 'Wasteland' is a well-recognized name in RPG game world (particularly after Wasteland 2...).