v0.11 - Might As Well Be Glyphscape 2

Around this time last year, I made a push to release a demo version of Glyphscape. It was (and is) in many ways incomplete, but I managed to cobble together something resembling a short roguelite that technically contained all of the elements required for a few hours of gameplay. The quest did not go anywhere, and honestly didn't really start anywhere either. In an effort to get the game into a state that I am happy with, I have committed the last week as part of the Improve My Game Jam 33 to shaping it into something resembling a complete demo.

I have quite a few bugs left to iron out, but I feel that the difference between the Glyphscape of last week and the Glyphscape of today is palpable enough to excuse some rough corners.

The first noticeable difference will be the upgrade from the unbranded 4:3 piece of junk emulator skin to the New and Improved "ASCIIDECK Multitouch Ultra" which snugly fits any 16:9 monitor.

All of the existing buttons have been arranged into one touch panel, making space on the right side for a new panel for viewing combat and region information at a glance.

In the last year I have been dabbling with building systems to allow me to more fully take advantage of the Unity editor, instead of hardcoding everything within the bizarre ASCII sub-engine I've crafted for myself. Additionally, I have thrown out the majority of the procedurally generated aspects of the game, and while I expect said dungeons and wilderness to continue to exist in the game in some capacity, they will not be the focus of the game.

The main questline has been completely scrapped, and some new dialogue was written to give the characters and the world more depth. The plan is to expand this quest-by-quest, dungeon-by-dungeon. The goal of this week's improvements is to refine the various features that I have created, and put together a vertical slice that consists of one tutorial dungeon, a second reworked castle dungeon, and a boss fight.

I started with two existing dungeons, a 8-floor prison and a 1-floor castle that once served as a safe starting region. The prison dungeon contained a lot of unused space, so the tutorial areas that were added are interconnected with some existing areas. I tried to add a sequence of mechanics introductions in this part, so the player can be walked through some manageable fights before being thrown in the deep end. Included in these changes is a vendor, many free weapons, and a variety of small encounters.

The castle was almost entirely reworked, with an entire city and outer walls being added. Additionally, the doors have been locked and hostile enemies have been scattered throughout.

With this change also comes the removal of the permadeath aspect of the game, booting Glyphscape firmly out of Roguelike category. The player now receives checkpoints when sleeping in beds, and I plan to later make this only be paid for beds in taverns. For now, any old bed you find will work. Upon dying, players will be given the option to continue from their last checkpoint, or create a new hero.

I have also added a music manager that transitions between default/combat/boss fight music, which really adds a thread of communication from the game that is independent of the graphical presentation. In addition to making the game feel better, the music serves as a fairly unambiguous cue to whether or not danger is near.

There are several known issues with this version which I will be patching in the immediate future, but this is the version that I have in time for the deadline for the Improve Your Game Jam 33. 

A complete list of changes can be found below:

Change Log

I've fixed a lot of bugs in this update, but tbh I have certainly made so many more that it probably isn't worth writing em out here.

Mechanical Changes

• Added checkpoints when sleeping in beds
• Crates are now pushed by default, instead of smashed.
• Spells are now cast instantaneously, without preparation
• Added many new enemy types, and variants of existing enemies
• NPCs can now have hostile states
• Added dialogue flag for quest states
• Added dialogue flag for distance to player
• Substantially reduced cost of learning new glyphs

Level Changes

1. Prison Dungeon

• Redesigned the dungeon to flow from the bottom up
• Moved the player's starting position
• Added an armory full of basic weapons and some dummies to try them out on
• Added a library to earn some starting LP
• Added a Mage NPC to learn starting glyphs from
• Added some side rooms with higher level enemies and loot
• Added more loot variety in chests
• Corrected possibility that player can miss important areas

2. Castle Dungeon

• Added an NPC for the player to find and rescue
• Added an Innkeeper NPC
• Added a boss fight
• Reworked castle interior layout
• Added additional floor to the castle
• Added an exterior city and walls to surface
• Added a variety of hostile enemies to the castle and city

Audio Improvements

• Added footstep sound effects for many missing materials
• Added a music manager that handles transition into and out of combat

Visual Improvements

• Greatly improved the visibility of cursor
• Improved spell casting info box contents
• Added contextual cursor when a spell is out of range
• Improved contrast of damage motes
• Added a Combat Pane that contains initiative tracker and weapon/HP info
• Added a Region tab that contains local area and weather. Will later include map
• Improved damage motes
  • Added color variation to distinguish monster and player hits
  • Added a slight animated drift
  • Switched to superscript/subscript numbers - easier to read
  • Removed superfluous minus sign
• Added a Boss Health Bar for Important Fights
• Improved the visibility of headstone tiles
• Added crumbled statue variants
• Improved appearance of iron bars