So I’ve decided to make a game with Flash, and see how it goes. I enjoyed scripting extra things in RMXP so much that I wanted a go at scripting everything about a game from scratch. The basic concept for this game is based on the Ancient Cave, a side quest in Lufia II. The Ancient Cave provides hours of gameplay that was completely separate from the main quest, and was so much fun on its own that I thought it could make a great concept for a game on its own. To keep the game simple, the battles are going to be one-on-one, with only one hero, and battles will be fought directly on the map screen; there is no separate battle screen. This will be very much like a very old puzzle/RPG game widely available for pc download called Tower of the Sorcerer. Tower of the Sorcerer is a very simple game, but is still very enjoyable due to the strategy involved. Based on these concepts, the primary focus of this game is on gameplay.
Gameplay
Map Design
Maps are 11x11 grids, with strategically placed treasures being guarded by monsters. The treasures themselves will be randomly generated every time, and may be treasure chests with items or equipment or maybe gold, stat gems, or possibly hp/mp restore points. Maybe even keys if I decide to implement locked doors. The enemies are also randomly generated, and the type of enemy or treasure will be based on how deep into the dungeon the player is, with stronger enemies and better equipment available at deeper floors. The positions of enemies and treasures, and map design will not be random, however. Enemies will be strategically placed, guarding treasure, and stationary. It will be up to the player to decide if the health lost fighting that monster is worth the item in the chest behind it, or maybe the +1 strength from the strength gem behind it.
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Battles
Battles will be one-on-one, with both the hero and monster attacking automatically. Thus, the player could kill an enemy by just walking into it and not touching anything until the enemy is dead. This is how the battles are in Tower of the Sorcerer, but I’m adding the option to use items or magic in battle, with a little cast time based on the spell or item. Attacking speed will be based on agility, also, so attacks won’t be just equally back and forth if one fighter has a higher agility.
Of course if hp = 0 at any time, it’s game over, and any special treasures found during that expedition will be lost, and the player will have to restart the cave at floor 1. Special treasures discussed in next section.
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Floors, Escape Item, Special Treasures
This is what made the Ancient Cave in Lufia II so immensely enjoyable.
There will be 100 floors. There will be stairs going down, but none going up, only allowing the player to go deeper. Each time the player enters the dungeon, the level of the hero starts back at 1. After a certain floor, probably low, maybe 5 or 10, the player will be able to find an Escape Item in a chest (name not thought of yet, Escape Feather or Wings or something…). When this item is used, the player is warped back out of the dungeon, but upon reentry will still have all of the “special treasures” found from previous expeditions into the cave. Say the player found the “Rocksmasher” sword (which was a “special” treasure) on floor 57 and used the escape item, the next time they entered the cave, they would start with the Rocksmasher, making the first few floors quite a bit easier. This would give the player an extra edge, allowing them to push even deeper this time, even past floor 57, and this would repeat until the player’s equipment was strong enough to make it to floor 100.
Whenever the player uses the escape item while holding some special treasures, these treasures will be kept forever. If they die during the next expedition, they lose only the treasures found that time. Basically, if you die, it’s like that expedition never happened. Harsh, but it all depends on how much risk the player is willing to take.
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Merchants and the Shop
Perhaps every 20th floor would become a shop, and probably a few freebie treasures. Gold acquired from enemies or chests throughout the dungeon can be used to buy supplies from these merchants, who will sell basic equipment and items relative to the floor they are on. Prices may change as well. Items can be sold also. One thing I’m sure on, is that healing potions will be very rare and expensive. This is so that the player will be forced to make those decisions of if the health lost from fighting an enemy will be worth the treasure behind it (plus exp and gold gained from the monster itself). Same for healing spells, of which will be very rare themselves, and will require a lot of MP, and ethers will be rare and expensive.
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Equipment
I want to have a large variety of equipment, so the game will stay interesting through many expeditions, as the player will still be finding new items. That’s why there will be a slot for weapon, helmet, body armor, leg armor, gauntlets, offhand (shield or otherwise), boots, two ring slots, and a charm slot. The rings and charms may do odd things like increase gold or exp earned from enemies, half mp consumption, decrease item cast time, etc. Every piece of equipment may increase attack, defense, intelligence (magic power), agility, or elemental attack or defense.
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Achievements
I plan to make an achievements page with the game as well, just to give the player an extra reward. Something like “50th floor reached” or “Attack Stat >= 200.” These seem to be pretty popular in flash games. There will also be unique items, that when found, will reveal a certain aspect of monsters in you click on them before fighting them. One item may show their hp, another their defense, etc. These will also be "special," so you get to keep them. These unique items will end up having something to do with the story.
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Other important notes
Each attack’s damage will be slightly varied, say plus or minus 5 or 10%, to prevent the player from simply calculating precisely whether they would survive the battle or not.
After great special items are found, the first few floors may be a bit more boring now that the player is so much stronger, but will definitely go quicker, as each enemy will probably just take one hit or two to kill.
Enemies on deeper floors will be intentionally made to be too hard to beat on the first run. Ideally, I want the player to progressively make deeper runs before having enough special equipment to allow them to make it to the end.
There will be a “Save and Quit” option only. This will save the game exactly where the player is at, and upon load, the file will be deleted. This will allow the player to save and take breaks from playing whenever, but prevent them from cheating by saving before a tough enemy and loading their game back if they die.
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Story
I need to think of one. Haha. I've just been thinking of gameplay so far. Basically, the ultimate goal is to defeat the ultimate evil that lurks on floor 100. It will be linked to those special items that allow the player to see monster’s stats. Bits and pieces of the story will be revealed as the player travels deeper into the dungeon. Those mysterious merchants that appear on certain floors may be tied into the story. As for specific details, I haven’t thought of them. It doesn’t impede development progress like a normal RPG, however. I have so much of the gameplay to script and icons and animations to design that I will be busy for quite a while before I begin on implementing the story.
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Characters
Well there’s the main hero, but as with the story, he has no background as of now. I may even have an option at the beginning to choose the sex, for those that want to use a female hero. Maybe base statistics would be different. Or customizable base stats upon hero creation.
There’s also the evil force at work on floor 100 as a character, and those merchants who have decided to set up shop in a very odd dungeon.
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Screenshots
Added a few treasures and monsters (just have one graphic at the moment)
Well, if you’ve read all of that, thanks a lot, and feel free to give any comments and criticisms on anything you see. If you just skimmed, feel free to comment on what you skimmed. I know that it’s a lot of text and not a lot of pretty pictures to look at.
Gameplay
Map Design
Maps are 11x11 grids, with strategically placed treasures being guarded by monsters. The treasures themselves will be randomly generated every time, and may be treasure chests with items or equipment or maybe gold, stat gems, or possibly hp/mp restore points. Maybe even keys if I decide to implement locked doors. The enemies are also randomly generated, and the type of enemy or treasure will be based on how deep into the dungeon the player is, with stronger enemies and better equipment available at deeper floors. The positions of enemies and treasures, and map design will not be random, however. Enemies will be strategically placed, guarding treasure, and stationary. It will be up to the player to decide if the health lost fighting that monster is worth the item in the chest behind it, or maybe the +1 strength from the strength gem behind it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Battles
Battles will be one-on-one, with both the hero and monster attacking automatically. Thus, the player could kill an enemy by just walking into it and not touching anything until the enemy is dead. This is how the battles are in Tower of the Sorcerer, but I’m adding the option to use items or magic in battle, with a little cast time based on the spell or item. Attacking speed will be based on agility, also, so attacks won’t be just equally back and forth if one fighter has a higher agility.
Of course if hp = 0 at any time, it’s game over, and any special treasures found during that expedition will be lost, and the player will have to restart the cave at floor 1. Special treasures discussed in next section.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Floors, Escape Item, Special Treasures
This is what made the Ancient Cave in Lufia II so immensely enjoyable.
There will be 100 floors. There will be stairs going down, but none going up, only allowing the player to go deeper. Each time the player enters the dungeon, the level of the hero starts back at 1. After a certain floor, probably low, maybe 5 or 10, the player will be able to find an Escape Item in a chest (name not thought of yet, Escape Feather or Wings or something…). When this item is used, the player is warped back out of the dungeon, but upon reentry will still have all of the “special treasures” found from previous expeditions into the cave. Say the player found the “Rocksmasher” sword (which was a “special” treasure) on floor 57 and used the escape item, the next time they entered the cave, they would start with the Rocksmasher, making the first few floors quite a bit easier. This would give the player an extra edge, allowing them to push even deeper this time, even past floor 57, and this would repeat until the player’s equipment was strong enough to make it to floor 100.
Whenever the player uses the escape item while holding some special treasures, these treasures will be kept forever. If they die during the next expedition, they lose only the treasures found that time. Basically, if you die, it’s like that expedition never happened. Harsh, but it all depends on how much risk the player is willing to take.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Merchants and the Shop
Perhaps every 20th floor would become a shop, and probably a few freebie treasures. Gold acquired from enemies or chests throughout the dungeon can be used to buy supplies from these merchants, who will sell basic equipment and items relative to the floor they are on. Prices may change as well. Items can be sold also. One thing I’m sure on, is that healing potions will be very rare and expensive. This is so that the player will be forced to make those decisions of if the health lost from fighting an enemy will be worth the treasure behind it (plus exp and gold gained from the monster itself). Same for healing spells, of which will be very rare themselves, and will require a lot of MP, and ethers will be rare and expensive.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Equipment
I want to have a large variety of equipment, so the game will stay interesting through many expeditions, as the player will still be finding new items. That’s why there will be a slot for weapon, helmet, body armor, leg armor, gauntlets, offhand (shield or otherwise), boots, two ring slots, and a charm slot. The rings and charms may do odd things like increase gold or exp earned from enemies, half mp consumption, decrease item cast time, etc. Every piece of equipment may increase attack, defense, intelligence (magic power), agility, or elemental attack or defense.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Achievements
I plan to make an achievements page with the game as well, just to give the player an extra reward. Something like “50th floor reached” or “Attack Stat >= 200.” These seem to be pretty popular in flash games. There will also be unique items, that when found, will reveal a certain aspect of monsters in you click on them before fighting them. One item may show their hp, another their defense, etc. These will also be "special," so you get to keep them. These unique items will end up having something to do with the story.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Other important notes
Each attack’s damage will be slightly varied, say plus or minus 5 or 10%, to prevent the player from simply calculating precisely whether they would survive the battle or not.
After great special items are found, the first few floors may be a bit more boring now that the player is so much stronger, but will definitely go quicker, as each enemy will probably just take one hit or two to kill.
Enemies on deeper floors will be intentionally made to be too hard to beat on the first run. Ideally, I want the player to progressively make deeper runs before having enough special equipment to allow them to make it to the end.
There will be a “Save and Quit” option only. This will save the game exactly where the player is at, and upon load, the file will be deleted. This will allow the player to save and take breaks from playing whenever, but prevent them from cheating by saving before a tough enemy and loading their game back if they die.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Story
I need to think of one. Haha. I've just been thinking of gameplay so far. Basically, the ultimate goal is to defeat the ultimate evil that lurks on floor 100. It will be linked to those special items that allow the player to see monster’s stats. Bits and pieces of the story will be revealed as the player travels deeper into the dungeon. Those mysterious merchants that appear on certain floors may be tied into the story. As for specific details, I haven’t thought of them. It doesn’t impede development progress like a normal RPG, however. I have so much of the gameplay to script and icons and animations to design that I will be busy for quite a while before I begin on implementing the story.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Characters
Well there’s the main hero, but as with the story, he has no background as of now. I may even have an option at the beginning to choose the sex, for those that want to use a female hero. Maybe base statistics would be different. Or customizable base stats upon hero creation.
There’s also the evil force at work on floor 100 as a character, and those merchants who have decided to set up shop in a very odd dungeon.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Screenshots
Added a few treasures and monsters (just have one graphic at the moment)
Well, if you’ve read all of that, thanks a lot, and feel free to give any comments and criticisms on anything you see. If you just skimmed, feel free to comment on what you skimmed. I know that it’s a lot of text and not a lot of pretty pictures to look at.
