If you’re planning to add in spells that are triggered for healing and throwing, maybe you could consider allowing the player to set what spell they want coming from what action? You could also potentially have the spell have different properties based on its trigger, like a fire spell on throw would cause an explosion where the weapon hits, but if it’s on your heal it could instead summon balls of fire that rotate around you as a sort of shield?
It reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it. Selecting spells to buff a specific action and being able to swap interchangeably when needed.
Another customization option that doesn't require player input would be to link different spells to different weapon types. This is the first video on this game i've watched, so I'm not too familiar with weapon variety, but you could make it so each weapon falls into a particular category, and each category has its own spell on breaking, i.e., heavy weapons do a big earthquake or fireburst around you, ranged weapons might do an auto-targeted lightning bolt, short weapons might do light AoE damage but also push enemies away and stun them, or freeze them. This would encourage players to gather a variety of weapons, even ones they don't necessarily like to fight with, as it would give them access to situationally useful spells.
I think a lot of devs don't realize that gameplay variety comes far more from interesting enemies - the kind that require a specific solution to defeat, like learning enemy patterns in a Souls game, or figuring out the puzzle for a Zelda enemy - than weapon variety. You could have one singular main weapon with only a few attacks (Ocarina of Time) but the combat never gets stale because the enemies always keep things interesting.
I really like your solution to the durability situation. Ive never seen a weapon break mechanic like this and I think its going to be great in practice. When you were talking about attacks charging weapons up I kept thinking of the soulreaper axe in OSRS, the more hits in a row you do the stronger subsequent hits become. Excited to see where you take all of this. :)
Its a win more mechanic which is generally considered bad. Good players can play with the same weapon forever, bad or new players will be out of weapons
*the weapon shattered in your hands, as you are filled with the power of moonlight and your health increases. you feel that somewhere, on the other side of the screen, some youtube commenter's mind was blown by the genius of such a mechanic.
Weapon durability works in BOTW and TOTK because they're everywhere, you can hold multiple, and they have unique interactions. Because you can only hold one thing at a time, i think scrapping weapon durability was a good choice. I also like the healing mechanic. Great solution!!
Although, i'll be honest, it leads to -really -bad habits and a few other MAJOR problems as well. I do not think botw or totk weapon durability is healthy by any means due to them leading to bad habits. (I can go into more detail if want but I don't expect a response tbh)
@@amandaslough125 Generally, how I played the game (Like breath of the wild and stuff) Especially for master mode... The game became very grindy and caused bad habits, trying to get the most durability type weapon (Royal claymore go brr) and even then, barely using it, and more cheesing most encounters to not waste weapon durability on most enemies. Turns into that holding until that "Perfect time" thing since weapons is a resource. Espcially for those that understand the game greater, it leads into just... NOT using weapons and using alternative means to kill enemies, which turns into the most cost effective way to kill enemies. Tears of the kingdom added weapon repairing, which only amplified this problem of grinding, which just turns into get best weapons, fight enemies with weapons until nearly broken, then just spend the -way- too long repairing and repeat this. Easily have 200 something attack with high durability within near the start of the game and will just cause the player (Me) to just fill up purely on preferred weapon (Breath of the wild, royal claymore / tears of the kingdom, high damage weapons) Just my experience with it... Now if the game added a system in place to reward the player for breaking weapons (somehow...) it might be a bit more interesting, but would need to be good and compliment am think? Weapon durabiltiy is just a very weird system overall
I think that you can incentivise the player to switch weapons by making enemies more vulnerable to certain types/elements of weapons. One thing I always thought made sense was for spears to be more effective against armoured enemies but naturally less so against crowds
These are some cool mechanics. Btw, I liked the idea of the weapon becoming dull after the durability was lost. The player being able to repair it would solve the presented issues.
Super excited to see where else this project goes! You inspired me to make my own game in the Top Down format, and I am LOVING IT! Thank you! Keep up with the amazing content!
4:35 This is an AMAZING idea! Receiving damage is the player's mistake. So sacrificing your consumables is the trade-off to fixing that mistake. They would have to trade their power and extra money method for restoring health.
Subscribed! You're not like so many other devlog channels who describe their game and how they made it, but not the questions, mechanical interactions, and effects of each decision like you do. It makes the videos interesting without the need for that *_IN YOUR FACE_* fast pace editing style that's too afraid to stay on one subject for over 2 minutes. I feel like I get something of value as you explore a question with each video, and as a side affect of you explaining the mechanical _interactions_ , I feel like I know how the game feels without having even seen a trailer yet! Good stuff 😎
This is super clever and creative. I admire how you're really focusing on crafting a unique experience by tweaking fundamental things like durability - which most games would overlook and default to a standard durability system. Wishing you the best in your journey!
The amount of polish on all of these ideas is amazing, especially when you’re not sure it’ll stick. That healing animation + sound effect is so satisfying ✨ And congrats on the full time switch!
For me the worst part of the Zelda durability is that it felt awkward in the middle of combat. You either need to look for a weapon on the ground dropped by an enemy or pause the game by going into your inventory. Both of these for me feel weird like tripping in the middle of a fight. Also I just get anxiety about I weapon I found breaking and not being able to get it again. I know I could just look it up online but that doesn’t feel good to me.
The idea is very cool: one thing i feel could work is making it so stronger weapons heal more, otherwise a player might only stick to using weak weapons to heal. however that would probably come with balancing issues
youtube algorithm fed me this one, and as someone who loathes weapon durability, this is a super great alternative for "using up" a weapon! Def following this game's development now
A big improvement getting rid of pointless big numbers for health & damage as that stuff takes away from the simple charm games like this should have IMO. As a suggestion besides weapons healing, you could also consider giving different weapons separate bonus buffs when broken, example is break your axe and get a buff to do double damage for 10 secs.
Like the changes so far! I didn’t even think about the healing, but with the whole positive incentive thing, it seems like it is working out more! Glad my feedback was able to help you with some of your decisions. Can’t wait to see more of the game as it progresses!
Devil May Cry had a mechanic that encouraged weapon swaps mid combat, with style points. In general there a few mechanics that can be introduced. * RPGs experience/expertise bonus can be introduced based on how creative a combat was. * Combat loop (Shields stuns enemys => Swords deals more damage to stunned enemys => Swords can knock them far away=> Bows deals more damage on targets far, etc) * Enemy weakness (Rock monsters only take damage from blunt weapons, flying monsters from bows, etc...)
I like it. Perhaps instead of the weapon breaking you briefly hold it up and it turns white and bursts into magic, either transmuting it into moonlight or sacrificing it to the moon diety. Maybe "moonburn"? Idk how strong the moon theme is. Perhaps moonlight could be healing for you, you regen if you're outside but not while inside, though maybe there could be beams of light coming down from the sky you can heal at, that might be used as respawn points too. Only if that fits with your existing story, idk.
Much love to you and your channel, my friend. I truly believe that by showing so many people your tutorials and ideas, that the indie games industry will thrive
Great idea to use weapons to heal. Also, maybe a fully charged weapon heals for 2... so you might try to get those last few hits in to get some extra healing. Also if there are RPG elements, you could alternatively consume a weapon to gain xp in some skill. With a fully charged weapon giving you more xp. Overall, super fun watching you develop this game!
Think is a pretty good idea, and i have a small one. So what if they were enchanted weapons that can give them more range, speed, effects... but when you use them, you get another thing like maybe a temporary shield or shows down nearby ennemies, but idk it's your game, your choice.
Ok, this is just smart. Destroying items for health is a great mechanic. It's positive as it gains you something, it's tactical and it makes use of all the weapons. That's just smart. I really, really dig that.
the way im seeing it now, instead of having my favorite weapon that breaks and replacements i don't want, now i have my favorite weapon and healing packs everywhere
Just found this series, but I really like your solutions to make the player not feel bad about durability. Besides incentivizing the player it also seems to have added more depth to your core gameplay loop. *chefs kiss*
Great video! Congratulations on going full time. 😊That's a great solution to weapon durability. I really like seeing the process that lead here and how your community helped you improved your game.
i really like the weapon destruction to heal/cast spells! gives a good sense of risk reward to getting those heavy hitting spells in since your also getting rid of a heal, simplifying the health down to one hit does one damage to the player is also pretty smart for making damage feel more meaningful, but i feel like the same being applied to enemies could lead to some balancing issues later, i dont know what youve got planned for balancing things down the line, but i noticed during the clips of the eyeball/beholder boss fight the damage tick of the torch fire was doing huge amounts of damage to the boss since it was applying the same amount of damage as a normal hit with a weapon but without any risk
to make it more clear when an enemy has lost health, you could do something similar to the game “deaths door”. in the game there are no health bars, but enemies gain glowing cracks that cover them more and more until the enemy dies. a visual cue like this may help clear things up, especially when there are many enemies it is useful to know which are lower health.
Just found this channel and your game looks pretty cool. Love the design of the protagonist. On the topic of having to balance weapons for the new system, you don't have to have weapons only deal 1-2 damage. Since enemy HP seems to be hidden in this game, you can have enemies have numerical HP while still having the player have hearts as health.
I'll speak from my experience. Your idea reminds me a lot of Panzer Paladins. There are a lot of melee weapons with limited durability, that can be thrown at enemies or broken for their special effect like small healing or temporary buff. This didn't actually stop me from hoarding them, especially the unique weapons dropped by the bosses which I kept as my trophies. Keep in mind fomo-perfectionists like me.
I absolutely love the idea of healing using weapons. It would add so much unique strategy. However, I am not very fond of the damage spells breaking weapons. To me, it feels unnatural, and like you shouldn’t use the lightning spell anymore. It makes it feel less useful. But the healing breaking weapons is perfect.
I do like Terraria's mana mechanic where it will eventually need to recharge and you'll need to switch to melee weapons because of that. Your limited-use torch reminded me of that.
The way health, damage, and durability is now makes the game look really fun! I fully admit I wouldn't buy the game it was before, but I absolutely would buy the game it is becoming now!
My idea is that if weapons break they become an item in your inventory that cannot deal damage BUT you can use it to repair a diffrent broken weapon that will make players use diffrent weapons and not make them lose their favourite weapon
Really good idea for the weapons, giving more uses for them, maybe a mechanic where the player can do the inverse could also be interesting, sacrifice a bit of health to summon a random weapon, giving the player the choice of having a bit more danger in exchange for some damage.
For incentivizing weapon changes you could have a system where the weapons evolve over time. One game I think that did this really well was Rogue Galaxy for the PS2, where a bar would fill the more you used the weapon, and if you fill the bars of two-like weapons you could combine them into a third new and stronger weapon. This way you are always changing weapons, and are incentivized to do so, but you also recycle the previous weapons so you're never losing them and they don't feel like you're throwing them away.
Very cool mechanic, great job! I also recommend changing your invulnerability transparency effect for the player, it's looks cheap and it's much less noticeable (since you are blending your character with the background). Flashing with the brighter looking sprite (e.g., color *= 1.2) would be much more noticeable and would look better in general. Flashing outline could also work.
It would be cool if you add a "darkness" meter where its a op ultimate ability but if you use it to much you get like a bad ending if the game has a ending
I asked myself how to make weapons breaking fun when playing Zelda. So in that games context, where you have a stockpile of them, I came up with this. Imho weapons are supposed to be used until they are used up, that's kinda the loop, use-break-replace. The break part hurts people and they want the ability to stick with something they grew fond of. But giving the players something permanent removes the purpose of all the other weapons lying around. So my suggestion is, to make it possible that weapons are repaired. The one way to do this is by picking up some ressource, "energy spheres" or "shards" or whatever. This ressource drops each time a weapon breaks. The player can then switch to another weapon and absorb this ressource, repairing whatever damage it had taken. This loop creates an incentive to use new weapons even if only to abuse them until breaking. Further more, I think it would be cool if people had an incentive to not just break weapons as soon as possible, but also get some actual use out of them. So the amount of dropped ressource increases the more damage the sacrifical weapon dealt, maybe add some simple timed combo meter. This way the player can regularly return to their favourite weapon, maybe they can even keep two or three around. But they also regularly have to cycle through randomly found weapons and thus get into the use-break-replace loop. In the context of your game, it seems like you can only carry one weapon and then you have one permanent weapon as a backup. I think my idea does not really work here. But I find it good to see that we think alike in terms of getting actual use out of breaking a weapon. The concept of not only taking away, but instead giving the player something as a reward for using the weapon up.
Maybe a sweet spot (spear tipper, axe close range, etc) could be fun for some of the weapons so theres still variety that carries thru the universal magic/throwing mechanics
Love the way this game is going!! Maybe an idea for incentivizing throwing your weapon could be to get a short burst of movement speed. That would help you to get to other weapons faster so you aren't defenseless after you threw your perfectly good weapon. It makes sense to have an aggressive option aswell as the more passive one. You could even throw in some extra attack speed so if you have a new weapon right next to you you wouldn't feel like you wasted the advantage of throwing your weapon.
Hey there! Newcomer to your channel, rn I'm starting a course for game dev, so I'm pretty new in programing. The thing is that I love gamedesign and I've readen a lot about it, so maybe I can tell an interesting ponint. The thing is that about what did you say about Zelda, the durability mechanic is to make the player think out of the box, like: Do I have to fight them, can I? Or maybe, do I try to steal his weapon, etc. It's a cool mechanic and a great way to make the player use all sorts of weapons, but it's not a must have, so you can just not implement it. Even with that, I love the idea that breaking your weapon heals you or casts a spell! Keep on going!
Another approach you can take is to charge a weapon using hits, or even kills. When you spend it with a spell, the power of the spell is proportional to the amount of charge present on the weapon. This charge can only go up to a certain limit before the weapon is simply saturated. Certain special weapon classes (or spells) can take it a step further, and have violent reactions to being saturated (I,E: your weapon could explode in your face)
I think it'd be really cool to keep the concept you currently have, but still have a durability for weapons, but if you reach the final hit of your weapon, you do bonus damage, or maybe activate some cool unique spell depending on the weapon type. All this while still having the option to break your weapon at any time to heal. Maybe if you have some sort of visible way to show your weapon's durability (sprite changes with ie 3 stages), you could change the amount of healing a damaged weapon gives, compared to a new shiny weapon. Maybe only some weapons heal if you break them, and some give you some other sort of bonus! Just my idea tho. First video i've watched by you, it looks very interesting! Goodluck on your game dev journey :D
I really like the changes, the encouragement to get rid of a weapon is smart and could lead to some really fun OP builds. The fun of ability usage should be encouraging enough on its own for people to not just spam the same attack
I always look forward to watching these now. I think you're doing a great job exploring designs for the weapon system. One piece of feedback from me, though, is that I LOVE damage numbers, especially if they're small, like in the range of 0-100. Something about seeing those numbers pop out is really satisfying to my ape brain, and it lets you add progression into the game. It's kind of a "cheap" tactic, but it works nonetheless. Vampire survivors is an example of a popular game that did this well, where your damage starts out at ~10 and ends at ~100, making you really feel like you're getting stronger. Another one: Runescape starts you out at 1-2 damage per hit, and the dopamine hits progressing to hitting 50+ at endgame was kind of wild. It definitely depends on the scope and style of your game, though. It's just one decision out of many, but it affects a lot of systems. Good luck on your designs!
If you’re planning to add in spells that are triggered for healing and throwing, maybe you could consider allowing the player to set what spell they want coming from what action? You could also potentially have the spell have different properties based on its trigger, like a fire spell on throw would cause an explosion where the weapon hits, but if it’s on your heal it could instead summon balls of fire that rotate around you as a sort of shield?
This! This was what I was immediatelely thinking about!
It reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it. Selecting spells to buff a specific action and being able to swap interchangeably when needed.
Another customization option that doesn't require player input would be to link different spells to different weapon types. This is the first video on this game i've watched, so I'm not too familiar with weapon variety, but you could make it so each weapon falls into a particular category, and each category has its own spell on breaking, i.e., heavy weapons do a big earthquake or fireburst around you, ranged weapons might do an auto-targeted lightning bolt, short weapons might do light AoE damage but also push enemies away and stun them, or freeze them. This would encourage players to gather a variety of weapons, even ones they don't necessarily like to fight with, as it would give them access to situationally useful spells.
Also, different weapons could have different effects, the stronger weapos having bigger spells
I think a lot of devs don't realize that gameplay variety comes far more from interesting enemies - the kind that require a specific solution to defeat, like learning enemy patterns in a Souls game, or figuring out the puzzle for a Zelda enemy - than weapon variety. You could have one singular main weapon with only a few attacks (Ocarina of Time) but the combat never gets stale because the enemies always keep things interesting.
I really like your solution to the durability situation. Ive never seen a weapon break mechanic like this and I think its going to be great in practice. When you were talking about attacks charging weapons up I kept thinking of the soulreaper axe in OSRS, the more hits in a row you do the stronger subsequent hits become. Excited to see where you take all of this. :)
Its a win more mechanic which is generally considered bad. Good players can play with the same weapon forever, bad or new players will be out of weapons
*the weapon shattered in your hands, as you are filled with the power of moonlight and your health increases. you feel that somewhere, on the other side of the screen, some youtube commenter's mind was blown by the genius of such a mechanic.
Weapon durability works in BOTW and TOTK because they're everywhere, you can hold multiple, and they have unique interactions. Because you can only hold one thing at a time, i think scrapping weapon durability was a good choice. I also like the healing mechanic. Great solution!!
Although, i'll be honest, it leads to -really -bad habits and a few other MAJOR problems as well. I do not think botw or totk weapon durability is healthy by any means due to them leading to bad habits. (I can go into more detail if want but I don't expect a response tbh)
@@catmaster42 I'm interested!
@@catmaster42Please share this youtube comment essay.
@@amandaslough125
Generally, how I played the game (Like breath of the wild and stuff) Especially for master mode...
The game became very grindy and caused bad habits, trying to get the most durability type weapon (Royal claymore go brr) and even then, barely using it, and more cheesing most encounters to not waste weapon durability on most enemies. Turns into that holding until that "Perfect time" thing since weapons is a resource. Espcially for those that understand the game greater, it leads into just... NOT using weapons and using alternative means to kill enemies, which turns into the most cost effective way to kill enemies.
Tears of the kingdom added weapon repairing, which only amplified this problem of grinding, which just turns into get best weapons, fight enemies with weapons until nearly broken, then just spend the -way- too long repairing and repeat this. Easily have 200 something attack with high durability within near the start of the game and will just cause the player (Me) to just fill up purely on preferred weapon (Breath of the wild, royal claymore / tears of the kingdom, high damage weapons)
Just my experience with it... Now if the game added a system in place to reward the player for breaking weapons (somehow...) it might be a bit more interesting, but would need to be good and compliment am think? Weapon durabiltiy is just a very weird system overall
Does this mean, more Devlog's now? :O Hyped! Love to hear you are working on your passion full-time now!
I think that you can incentivise the player to switch weapons by making enemies more vulnerable to certain types/elements of weapons. One thing I always thought made sense was for spears to be more effective against armoured enemies but naturally less so against crowds
These are some cool mechanics. Btw, I liked the idea of the weapon becoming dull after the durability was lost. The player being able to repair it would solve the presented issues.
Super excited to see where else this project goes! You inspired me to make my own game in the Top Down format, and I am LOVING IT! Thank you! Keep up with the amazing content!
The way your aprocing your game, mechanicaly first, then everything else is really fascinating,
I keep on admiring the art work. The animations are so smooth and satisfying to watch. Amazing to see!
4:35 This is an AMAZING idea!
Receiving damage is the player's mistake. So sacrificing your consumables is the trade-off to fixing that mistake.
They would have to trade their power and extra money method for restoring health.
I stumbled upon these devlogs a few months ago and I've been following along ever since! Keep up the great work!
Subscribed!
You're not like so many other devlog channels who describe their game and how they made it, but not the questions, mechanical interactions, and effects of each decision like you do. It makes the videos interesting without the need for that *_IN YOUR FACE_* fast pace editing style that's too afraid to stay on one subject for over 2 minutes.
I feel like I get something of value as you explore a question with each video, and as a side affect of you explaining the mechanical _interactions_ , I feel like I know how the game feels without having even seen a trailer yet!
Good stuff 😎
I think that in general these changes are very cool and the animation of regaining life looks great.❤
The consume to heal is good game design, I like it!
This is super clever and creative. I admire how you're really focusing on crafting a unique experience by tweaking fundamental things like durability - which most games would overlook and default to a standard durability system. Wishing you the best in your journey!
The amount of polish on all of these ideas is amazing, especially when you’re not sure it’ll stick. That healing animation + sound effect is so satisfying ✨ And congrats on the full time switch!
For me the worst part of the Zelda durability is that it felt awkward in the middle of combat. You either need to look for a weapon on the ground dropped by an enemy or pause the game by going into your inventory. Both of these for me feel weird like tripping in the middle of a fight.
Also I just get anxiety about I weapon I found breaking and not being able to get it again. I know I could just look it up online but that doesn’t feel good to me.
_Oooh_ that weapon snap animation looks so satisfying!! Good luck on doing game dev full time! :D
The idea is very cool: one thing i feel could work is making it so stronger weapons heal more, otherwise a player might only stick to using weak weapons to heal. however that would probably come with balancing issues
I LOVE simplified damage and health systems. And I think breaking your own weapons to heal is very elegant. Great ideas!
The weapon durability was the one aspect I was worried about but I think this new system works so much better!
Your solution to encourage using different weapons feels truly unique, kudos for accepting feedback and bringing something brand new to the table!
I liked how Hades incentivized switching your weapon. In every run, there's a different weapon getting a boost
I like the sound of your solution too 😊
I like hearing your in depth thought process on these. I think you're taking it in a good direction!
Very inspiring stuff
youtube algorithm fed me this one, and as someone who loathes weapon durability, this is a super great alternative for "using up" a weapon! Def following this game's development now
Honestly- that's a cool idea. Love the idea of breaking weapons to cast spells- like- it's a component. Nice work!
The idea of breaking weapons to heal is genius! I love it 😮
A big improvement getting rid of pointless big numbers for health & damage as that stuff takes away from the simple charm games like this should have IMO. As a suggestion besides weapons healing, you could also consider giving different weapons separate bonus buffs when broken, example is break your axe and get a buff to do double damage for 10 secs.
This is an amazing solution to the design goal of weapon durability. Congrats and cracking the code there!
I love the weapon consumption for health idea so much that I actually gasped out loud.
Gaur plains. Nice👌
Great music choice
Like the changes so far! I didn’t even think about the healing, but with the whole positive incentive thing, it seems like it is working out more! Glad my feedback was able to help you with some of your decisions. Can’t wait to see more of the game as it progresses!
Thank you for the comment that made it into the video 😇
Great video! And seriously congrats on going full time. It feels like a pipe dream for me, so it’s inspiring to see people find success
Devil May Cry had a mechanic that encouraged weapon swaps mid combat, with style points.
In general there a few mechanics that can be introduced.
* RPGs experience/expertise bonus can be introduced based on how creative a combat was.
* Combat loop (Shields stuns enemys => Swords deals more damage to stunned enemys => Swords can knock them far away=> Bows deals more damage on targets far, etc)
* Enemy weakness (Rock monsters only take damage from blunt weapons, flying monsters from bows, etc...)
This is a great solution, I think you should change some of the feedback so the player knows that the damage is much higher when you throw it.
I like it. Perhaps instead of the weapon breaking you briefly hold it up and it turns white and bursts into magic, either transmuting it into moonlight or sacrificing it to the moon diety. Maybe "moonburn"? Idk how strong the moon theme is. Perhaps moonlight could be healing for you, you regen if you're outside but not while inside, though maybe there could be beams of light coming down from the sky you can heal at, that might be used as respawn points too. Only if that fits with your existing story, idk.
Much love to you and your channel, my friend. I truly believe that by showing so many people your tutorials and ideas, that the indie games industry will thrive
I saw this devlog series and noticed it was super similar in style to my own game I’m working on. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation :D
Mate you really know how to make satisfying animations/sounds! The healing from the weapon is so satsifying dude!
Great idea to use weapons to heal. Also, maybe a fully charged weapon heals for 2... so you might try to get those last few hits in to get some extra healing. Also if there are RPG elements, you could alternatively consume a weapon to gain xp in some skill. With a fully charged weapon giving you more xp. Overall, super fun watching you develop this game!
I think you should add moon crystals that give you more hearts like the life crystals in terraria
Think is a pretty good idea, and i have a small one.
So what if they were enchanted weapons that can give them more range, speed, effects... but when you use them, you get another thing like maybe a temporary shield or shows down nearby ennemies, but idk it's your game, your choice.
Ok, this is just smart. Destroying items for health is a great mechanic. It's positive as it gains you something, it's tactical and it makes use of all the weapons. That's just smart. I really, really dig that.
I just saw this and even though I'm not a fan of pixel art, I love how smooth & fast your game looks! I would actually love to play this
the way im seeing it now, instead of having my favorite weapon that breaks and replacements i don't want, now i have my favorite weapon and healing packs everywhere
Just found this series, but I really like your solutions to make the player not feel bad about durability. Besides incentivizing the player it also seems to have added more depth to your core gameplay loop. *chefs kiss*
I keep being surprised by how creative and smart these design solutions are. Love it, I think this system has a lot of potential!
Great video! Congratulations on going full time. 😊That's a great solution to weapon durability. I really like seeing the process that lead here and how your community helped you improved your game.
Well done 👍
You are too underrated
that's honestly such a creative solution! First video I've seen of yours, immediate subscribe
i really like the weapon destruction to heal/cast spells! gives a good sense of risk reward to getting those heavy hitting spells in since your also getting rid of a heal, simplifying the health down to one hit does one damage to the player is also pretty smart for making damage feel more meaningful, but i feel like the same being applied to enemies could lead to some balancing issues later, i dont know what youve got planned for balancing things down the line, but i noticed during the clips of the eyeball/beholder boss fight the damage tick of the torch fire was doing huge amounts of damage to the boss since it was applying the same amount of damage as a normal hit with a weapon but without any risk
to make it more clear when an enemy has lost health, you could do something similar to the game “deaths door”. in the game there are no health bars, but enemies gain glowing cracks that cover them more and more until the enemy dies. a visual cue like this may help clear things up, especially when there are many enemies it is useful to know which are lower health.
Glad I found these devlogs, I really loving this artstyle
I always love seeing how other devs get around a problem, great thinking!
Really cool, just stumbled on to this video but I've never seen a durability mechanic as interesting as this!
Just found this channel and your game looks pretty cool. Love the design of the protagonist. On the topic of having to balance weapons for the new system, you don't have to have weapons only deal 1-2 damage. Since enemy HP seems to be hidden in this game, you can have enemies have numerical HP while still having the player have hearts as health.
Congrats on going full time! The magic almost “upgrading” the mechanics throughout the game is a cool concept :)
I'll speak from my experience.
Your idea reminds me a lot of Panzer Paladins. There are a lot of melee weapons with limited durability, that can be thrown at enemies or broken for their special effect like small healing or temporary buff. This didn't actually stop me from hoarding them, especially the unique weapons dropped by the bosses which I kept as my trophies.
Keep in mind fomo-perfectionists like me.
the fact that devlogs of games i see are generally forgiving, i now want to see devlogs for getting over it
I absolutely love the idea of healing using weapons. It would add so much unique strategy. However, I am not very fond of the damage spells breaking weapons. To me, it feels unnatural, and like you shouldn’t use the lightning spell anymore. It makes it feel less useful. But the healing breaking weapons is perfect.
your game looks really cool and i will definitely be coming back for more devlogs
You're putting a lot of effort into this project, and I'm very curious about the future! Keep up the good work!
this is really cool, your approach is very good its clear the game design will benefit from the thoughtful approach. very very interesting
I do like Terraria's mana mechanic where it will eventually need to recharge and you'll need to switch to melee weapons because of that. Your limited-use torch reminded me of that.
I love this idea of a trade off between using the weapon you want and getting some life. Game looks great btw!
i played the demo ! this is my new favorite game 1
Moons as healthbar is freakin inspired game dev congratulations
This is a dev log I’m actually interested in. Great work
The way health, damage, and durability is now makes the game look really fun! I fully admit I wouldn't buy the game it was before, but I absolutely would buy the game it is becoming now!
Great fixes and with potential abilities to enhance the heal and throwing abilities sounds very incentivizing. Well done good sir
Superb graphics! I like the moons instead of hearts health system, looks pretty cool and is quite memorable. Thanks for sharing your progress! :D
My idea is that if weapons break they become an item in your inventory that cannot deal damage BUT you can use it to repair a diffrent broken weapon that will make players use diffrent weapons and not make them lose their favourite weapon
Really good idea for the weapons, giving more uses for them, maybe a mechanic where the player can do the inverse could also be interesting, sacrifice a bit of health to summon a random weapon, giving the player the choice of having a bit more danger in exchange for some damage.
For incentivizing weapon changes you could have a system where the weapons evolve over time. One game I think that did this really well was Rogue Galaxy for the PS2, where a bar would fill the more you used the weapon, and if you fill the bars of two-like weapons you could combine them into a third new and stronger weapon. This way you are always changing weapons, and are incentivized to do so, but you also recycle the previous weapons so you're never losing them and they don't feel like you're throwing them away.
Very cool mechanic, great job! I also recommend changing your invulnerability transparency effect for the player, it's looks cheap and it's much less noticeable (since you are blending your character with the background). Flashing with the brighter looking sprite (e.g., color *= 1.2) would be much more noticeable and would look better in general. Flashing outline could also work.
Good luck in journey man! Love to see more progress keep up the good work
That's insane that you recognized you had the system backward, and fixed everything with a single concept!
It would be cool if you add a "darkness" meter where its a op ultimate ability but if you use it to much you get like a bad ending if the game has a ending
First thing that popped up in my head was after using a weapon enough, being able to "absorb" it for some permanent stat improvement
I asked myself how to make weapons breaking fun when playing Zelda. So in that games context, where you have a stockpile of them, I came up with this.
Imho weapons are supposed to be used until they are used up, that's kinda the loop, use-break-replace. The break part hurts people and they want the ability to stick with something they grew fond of. But giving the players something permanent removes the purpose of all the other weapons lying around. So my suggestion is, to make it possible that weapons are repaired. The one way to do this is by picking up some ressource, "energy spheres" or "shards" or whatever. This ressource drops each time a weapon breaks. The player can then switch to another weapon and absorb this ressource, repairing whatever damage it had taken. This loop creates an incentive to use new weapons even if only to abuse them until breaking. Further more, I think it would be cool if people had an incentive to not just break weapons as soon as possible, but also get some actual use out of them. So the amount of dropped ressource increases the more damage the sacrifical weapon dealt, maybe add some simple timed combo meter. This way the player can regularly return to their favourite weapon, maybe they can even keep two or three around. But they also regularly have to cycle through randomly found weapons and thus get into the use-break-replace loop.
In the context of your game, it seems like you can only carry one weapon and then you have one permanent weapon as a backup. I think my idea does not really work here. But I find it good to see that we think alike in terms of getting actual use out of breaking a weapon. The concept of not only taking away, but instead giving the player something as a reward for using the weapon up.
Maybe a sweet spot (spear tipper, axe close range, etc) could be fun for some of the weapons so theres still variety that carries thru the universal magic/throwing mechanics
The healing + spells idea is AWESOME!
Whoa, I randomly stumbled on this video and I'm so glad I did - This game looks great!
I wish I had seen this video sooner! Very interesting solution for a difficult problem
Love the way this game is going!! Maybe an idea for incentivizing throwing your weapon could be to get a short burst of movement speed. That would help you to get to other weapons faster so you aren't defenseless after you threw your perfectly good weapon. It makes sense to have an aggressive option aswell as the more passive one. You could even throw in some extra attack speed so if you have a new weapon right next to you you wouldn't feel like you wasted the advantage of throwing your weapon.
Hey there! Newcomer to your channel, rn I'm starting a course for game dev, so I'm pretty new in programing. The thing is that I love gamedesign and I've readen a lot about it, so maybe I can tell an interesting ponint. The thing is that about what did you say about Zelda, the durability mechanic is to make the player think out of the box, like: Do I have to fight them, can I? Or maybe, do I try to steal his weapon, etc. It's a cool mechanic and a great way to make the player use all sorts of weapons, but it's not a must have, so you can just not implement it. Even with that, I love the idea that breaking your weapon heals you or casts a spell! Keep on going!
Another approach you can take is to charge a weapon using hits, or even kills. When you spend it with a spell, the power of the spell is proportional to the amount of charge present on the weapon. This charge can only go up to a certain limit before the weapon is simply saturated. Certain special weapon classes (or spells) can take it a step further, and have violent reactions to being saturated (I,E: your weapon could explode in your face)
them mechanics you got there are pretty damn slick (sticks notes in pocket)
I think it'd be really cool to keep the concept you currently have, but still have a durability for weapons, but if you reach the final hit of your weapon, you do bonus damage, or maybe activate some cool unique spell depending on the weapon type. All this while still having the option to break your weapon at any time to heal. Maybe if you have some sort of visible way to show your weapon's durability (sprite changes with ie 3 stages), you could change the amount of healing a damaged weapon gives, compared to a new shiny weapon. Maybe only some weapons heal if you break them, and some give you some other sort of bonus! Just my idea tho. First video i've watched by you, it looks very interesting! Goodluck on your game dev journey :D
I like your weapon-for-healing exchange. If you need an alternative Dead Cells has an option where you can sell any weapon from the inventory.
I really like the changes, the encouragement to get rid of a weapon is smart and could lead to some really fun OP builds. The fun of ability usage should be encouraging enough on its own for people to not just spam the same attack
I always look forward to watching these now. I think you're doing a great job exploring designs for the weapon system.
One piece of feedback from me, though, is that I LOVE damage numbers, especially if they're small, like in the range of 0-100. Something about seeing those numbers pop out is really satisfying to my ape brain, and it lets you add progression into the game. It's kind of a "cheap" tactic, but it works nonetheless. Vampire survivors is an example of a popular game that did this well, where your damage starts out at ~10 and ends at ~100, making you really feel like you're getting stronger. Another one: Runescape starts you out at 1-2 damage per hit, and the dopamine hits progressing to hitting 50+ at endgame was kind of wild.
It definitely depends on the scope and style of your game, though. It's just one decision out of many, but it affects a lot of systems. Good luck on your designs!
Thank you for the feedback!
UA-cam recommendation made me discover this promising game 😊 can't wait to see how this progress :D
Very new to your channel and your game, but the art style is AMAZING
Good job man! I’m excited to see how this turns out!
Really fun deisign decisions here! Glad this got reccomended to me :)
Weapon switch combos. Incentives switching and you can make switching routes which have more or less effectiveness against particular types of mobs.
I love this system, it makes breaking weapons feel good somehow.