Instead of weapon charge, call it weapon sharpness/bluntness. When its at its maximum sharpness it deals most damage and then blunts over time to a minimum of it being just a slab of metal that does the least damage. PS: the boss' eye glowing in the dark is a really nice touch
It may work, but may be a bit odd, given that a lot of weapons aren't sharp, like having a torch "sharpness/bluntness" seems weird, but maybe it's fine.
The trouble with the charge system is that it is all negatives still. Players will be hesistant to use something because they'll want to save it for a boss so, like in BotW, the best way to play is to NOT attack enemies unless you have to. You've now pushed players into a situation where they'll spend their time dodging enemies and resent instances when they're forced into a fight where they're not rewarded with fully charged weapons to replace the ones you've made them use. This also creates balancing issues whereby you don't know if a player is using a fully charged weapon or not. One may say, "well its only a small amount of bonus damage" but to that I'd say "Well then why add a feature that is so trivial in the first place?"
I personally think you should have an “inventory” like a spot to hold one weapon. But SPECIFICALLY ONE more weapon to incentivise switching. Also if you have two really cool weapons you want to keep, then you have a slot to have it! Understandable if you don’t want to do this.
I have always thought that breaking weapons could give a certain resource that could repair your other better weapons, still encouraging using other weapons while still allowing your favorites to not be gone forever
This sounds like an excellent idea! Would require an inventory of some sort, to carry more weapons. I think with a very limited weapon inventory, this could work well. Allows the player to use and keep that awesome weapon they like, and encourages the player in a positive way to use AND throw other weapons. Perhaps the throw damage could also be tied to the charge of the weapons, lower charge = more damage.
The Eye boss lacks AOE attacks and laser attacks. Give it the ability to summon minions which attacks you and heals the boss so players are forced to deal with them quickly thus adding tension to the fight also adding traps in the arena that damage both player and boss will make things a lot more interesting
You could also add the ability to recharge/repair weapons. Maybe have a repair kiosk or a repair spell. Maybe have it cost some money. This way, if a player has a weapon they really like, they could hold onto it and occasionally recharge it.
well, yea but that completely ruins the purpose of having weapon energy/ durability which is to throw the weapon and find a new one when it runs out of energy
@@ag1015 It doesn't ruin anything. It adds another dimension to it. You can toss your weapon and find a new one or you can manage your money and look for a blacksmith. The game could even be designed to require a fully charged weapon to defeat higher level bosses. This adds to the strategy. You know you'll need to prepare your weapons before battle. There could potentially even be weapon enhancements you could buy from the blacksmith in later levels.
Maybe adding a system where you can turn certain weapons you pickup into a permanent weapon might be cool. Some people might like certain weapons more than the standard sword and being able to permanently replace it might be cool.
The bar can be referred to players as “Weapon Prime” as you can inform players that using the weapon will cause it to dull or blunt down. Also some ideas you add: -Spear/Lance Weapons deal more throwing damage -Spear/Lance/Axe weapons have more throwing distance -The camera slightly zooms out more when aiming a weapon throw -Shops carry weapons that have increased durability -Visiting a blacksmith or using an anvil to slightly restore weapon Prime hope this helps and your game is looking great
I think giving an incentive to use different weapons is great. A friend of mine loves Doom Eternal, and I'm pretty sure in that game you don't have a pistol with infinite ammo. What if you gave each weapon a "breaking effect"? Like when the lightning rod "breaks", it can do 1 final attack where it creates a thunderstorm area that deals damage every second for a few seconds? Love your stuff, keep going my guy❤
I just found your channel, and as someone who wants to pursue game dev, you actually really inspire me, so thank you. also you should add items that extend weapon charge for certain types of weapons that way if someone really likes a certain type of weapon they don't have to switch as often.
Maybe flip it around? Instead of you losing durability, you start with the bar empty and fill it up with each attack. It still deals less damage when full, but instead of treating it as "It's broke, throw the trash away" you make it feel like "You have charged it up! Throw it for a bonus!"
One way you could encourage players to be more reckless with weapons(instead of just saving them) and encourage variety without negative rewards, would be to implement some way to regenerate, summon, or recall weapons. Imagine a magic skill that spawns a random weapon to be equipped(on a cooldown), or perhaps a specific one, weapons that you can throw and have them come back to you, or an upgrade that lets you pick up a bunch of the pieces of the environment at once to throw(think multiple rocks on the screen, activate the spell, and then all those rocks are magnetized to you and rotate around you mario kart turtle shell style). You could also do some types of projectiles(throwing stars, knives, bombs?) that have amounts you can purchase or pick-up, sort of like arrows in many games. With that type of system, you could encourage players to use them a lot in certain areas, and then switch things up in other areas. Another option could be a way to make it so once you've "discovered" a weapon, you've never truly lost it after durability is gone. Maybe once you unlock a weapon, you can use currency or charge of some type to summon, purchase, or craft them again. A silly option you could try, is having a "magic bag" type thing with endless room. Think of a portal that you can throw tons of random objects into(I think literally throwing them into it would be fun), and then later on you can have it spit them out at random. Maybe you have upgrades that let you change how many it spits out at a time, or how many it can store. I just think the idea of being in a boss battle, and using a skill to spit out a bunch of weapons seems really funny to me. I'm sure you could expand this idea into many different ways. Maybe you throw a torch into it, and then you can summon fire from the portal for a little bit, or perhaps until you throw something else in. Would be a good way to encourage people to get rid of their weapons in the search of new things that the portal does.
I definitely think it’s a good system for weapons, also a unique one that will help your game to stand apart. However I also feel like having just one weapon isn’t a bad thing. Games like Hollow knight and Deaths door both made excellent use of their single weapon while mixing in spells and bows to somewhat vary gameplay, but having that one weapon doesn’t hurt a game it’s just how you implant it along with the enemy gameplay.
It would be cool to have like enchantments or something (name doesnt really matter) where you could empower your base sword with a certain weapon by sacrificing it. It would be a weaker version, like your sword sometimes shoots lightning bolts or has a chance to light things on fire from sacrificing the torch, maybe sometimes you have a heavy attack if you sacrifice a greatsword/axe, the sword becomes bigger if you sacrifice a spear, stuff like that. But it would last for longer so you could decide if you want the short term power from just the weapon or a longer buff thats weaker.
I think one way of incentive to change weapons is making some enemies weaker to a specific weapon, for example a slime might be really resistant to sword hits but would receive lot of damage when hit with a spear
just a quick thought about the lightning boss, you could have the lightning staff's be around the arena, but if the player is holding them they get struck with lightning, you could further reinforce the idea by having all of the staff's be hit by lightning in the arena so the player sees this and knows that they should pick up the staff right after a lightning attack, but also so they know that they have limited time and have to make the most of it on top of the durability!
i think a more unique thing you could do is have the weapon charge up upon each attack. once its fully charged you can then do a powerful throw attack. maybe like imbuing the weapon with your magic power and it becomes unstable?
I personally love the system you came up with as well as someone's proposed idea of referring to it as "sharpness/bluntness". Until hearing your idea though, I was thinking that having a repair system where if you use money/resources, it increases in cost for each repair, but that system works better for weapons with a unique identity, like named Uniques from Diablo. Also, if weapons have different rarities, weapons of higher rarity can get more repairs. For example, commons get 1 repair, uncommons get 2 repairs, rares get 3, etc. PS - Just found your videos and I'm really enjoying seeing gameplay of this so far and I hope it is a great success by your standards!
One way i'm experimenting with this problem of "hit and dodge only" is to have a "build up" system on most of the skills. So most skills build up momentum in some way, buffs, debuffs, stacks, synergies, etc. So the player can capitalize on it and force himself to just keep hitting as much as possible or turn it around and try to build defense momentum and go into a more passive mode. The main goal is to give the player as much agency as possible and not just be subject to the rhythm of the pre-designed pattern of boss attacks. There's a indie Turn based RPG that did something similar and it's really fun when you play it, while being an incredibly simple system. They had a "heat bar" that builds up as you use skills and changes the output of the skills if it crosses 2 fixed thresholds of heat.
2:50 very smart. One glaring flaw with this system is that it disincentivises actually engaging with enemies. "Why would I engage with enemies if I know my weapon is going to get weaker?" of course, if progression is actually tied to defeating enemies then this wouldn't actually be a flaw. One suggetion as to how you could make combat more aggressive and less passive is to introduce a parry system. Scourgebringer does something like this, where enemies would flash and then you would be able to do a strong attack to stun them. Alternatively you could allow the sword itself to eat up or bounce projectiles. Just a couple suggestions.
i have an idea where whenever you got a new weapon you can craft it for free in a certain machine only found on checkpoints/house (since this is my first video i watch from the channel) and after boss fights (you can't remake the weapon mid-fights) also you need to only have limited amount of weapons in inventory.
I think that the system is good since you have an unbreakable sword that yiu can use if you don't want to waste stuff. But i think there should be a way to swap to the sword without trowing it away, like if you found something cool that you want to use for stronger ennemmies or a boss you can still use your sword for weaker ennemies. Obviously i think that there should only be one slot gor the destructible weapon so you don't hoard them.
Maybe to repair or recharge the weapons or gear would require different things to do that. Like, a magical staff would require finding magic stones to power it up, and swords would require a smithy to fix and collecting metals. You could also do things like improving efficiency or durability to make less trips in the end game, Idk, depends how deep you like your game to get into that kind of stuff. Looking cool, nice work!
This seems like a really good mechanic and a solid saw to bring some variety into the fights! I think another really good way to incentivise players to throw their weapons, and even pick them up and use them in the first place, would be to make the final throw of a weapon deal a much larger chunk of damage/stun an enemy in some way, (obviously scaled based on the type of weapon thrown and their availability.) This would make finding a throwable weapon at the right time feel a lot more powerful and exciting, and give the player a reason to throw away weapons that didn't feel like a punishment because it became less effective, but like they are spending an ability. This could be compacted by making the thrown damage even greater for weapons that are in the last 10% of their charge, so that the player is incentivised to use the weapon normally for a little bit before throwing it, to get the maximum effect. This could lead to very interesting weapons, where the actual attack damage of the weapon is sustainably lower than the base sword, but the thrown damage is massive if it is in that final zone before breaking, leading to players picking up a weapon mid-fight that disadvantages them for a short while, so that they can get the payoff of the throw in order to deal a whole lot more damage. Or temporarily running away from weaker enemies because they are saving their powerful throw for a larger boss and don't want to waste it. It could also play in fun ways with making explicitly ranged bosses that can generate minions, where you would use the minions to drain the throwable weapons until they were ready to deal maximum damage, and then use the throws on the main boss to take away chunks of it's health at a time.
Very nice balance! It reminds me of Wind Waker where you can pick up enemy weapons and chuck them back at them, except now the break. I think calling it something along the lines of "sharpness" would be fitting. I know it doesn't make sense for a wooden staff to be sharp but Monster Hunter has you sharpening your hammers so I think it would work here too.
Maybe instead of a throw you can make the weapons do a certain skill if it's been used past like 80%, like a super skill to make it satisfying to get rid of your weapon :D
That is an awesome System. I always hate it when a Weapon breaks in games when i have grow to it... this way, you keep and play with it. Nice! Maybe a way to 'recharge' or sharpen it back up would be nice. Good job!
Yo Challacade i just wanted to say that you and a TH-camr named Emeral were a huge inspiration for me to start coding and Game dev in general. Right now I'm at the very early stages at learning Unity and in general started with my whole coding 3 months ago. Thats why i still got a bunch to learn but vids like yours kinda remind me why i did the journey in the first place. Also i totally am for the weapon brake system. I personally like being forced to switch things up after a while. TOTK also expanded on this greatly with the Fuse System. Maybe you could do something similar like this for your game?
Thank you for implementing my idea of combat! It would be great to have two types of weaponry though. What I mean with that is that you can get permanent weapons which are in your inventory forever and the temporary weapons which have the abilities you showed in the video. I also think that you could update magic wands by implementing a new menu and a new item: elementary gems. When equipping a magic wand, this wand has a special gem dedicated to it like the lightning gem for example. If you dont want that wand to have the lightning element, you can just go to that new menu, unequip the gem for that wand and put another gem obtainable in another region of the map onto the wand to switch its element. If possible, it would be even better if you could make these gems a throwable object when equipping them in the inventory. When thrown, they cast a high damage burst to their dedicated element. I think that is enough for suggestions from my side because this is your masterpiece you're working on. Im already looking forward to the next update of the game!
You can incentivize it by making it so the more weapons they throw, either unlocks some buff or grants even more gold. If you have this permanent system in place you will ALWAYS want to throw it because it gives you a mechanic with progress you can work towards.
If your still taking ideas I recommend adding a sort of execution time period where after dealing enough damage to an enemy they start to blink and if a player throws there weapon at them it causes the enemy to explode damaging surrounding enemies and supply’s the player with a bit more gold than if they threw it any other time. This encourages the player to throw there weapon when the opportunity presents itself without making it feel like your forcing them to do so
You could potentially add in weapon techniques that are learned over the course of the game that apply to each weapon type you could find- so a spear master could train you on how to use spears more effectively and give you a new move or passive benefit while you're using one by giving you a training scroll in exchange for some money or a side quest. Some of these scrolls could also have applications in puzzles, too. Each weapon type shouldn't have too many of these scrolls. Going with the Tears of the Kingdom comparison, you could also potentially allow the player to apply extra effects to their weapons by combining them with another non-weapon object they find, which can be useful to apply elemental damage to a weapon or to give it bonus properties such as dealing more damage when thrown.
The tradeoff here is that if you have a special weapon you like, you might be less inclined to fight enemies. I'm not sure what direction you're taking with the spells, but maybe having a greater focus on these and making spells not have durability but rather be limited by a mana bar, you'd have to utilize both. Similar to the BioShock series.
I like the idea of using the different weapons, and I think you've perfectly created incentives to use them. My only request would be that you could make any weapon your "main" weapon and perhaps upgrade it. This way you're always getting a benefit by grabbing random weapons you see, but you can see make any weapon a "main" that you keep forever and upgrade as much as the game allows. As for the bosses, although I think it's great to have bosses that have their own "gimmick," I think a boss being just mano-a-mano, you with your present equipment versus the boss with its own equipment, is a good idea too, from a storytelling perspective. Sometimes you just want to feel like a badass going up against another badass, and there's nothing external in the way. In some games, you use the environment to fight the enemy because it works for the CHARACTER, who would be unable to normally defeat a powerful opponent; but in this game you're obviously becoming a warrior, so not every boss, perhaps, would require trickery. Then again, I can see that you could easily fight either of these bosses without the external objects, so as long as the option is there, at least in some fights, to go it without assistance, then I think I'd be happy.
You could could try to incentivise "Throwing away" the weapon, not by throwing it, but by triggering a special ability that results in the weapon breaking? IE the magic rod could shoot a bigger ball, or laser, but after that the rod shatters. The axe could be a whirlwind attack, the sword a flurry of strikes, and the spear a large piercing ranged attack. Rather than draining a durability bar, the players could build a special attack bar. That way the player will feel like they are building to a big attack, rather than draining what little durability the weapon has left.
One more thought: This mechanic could play nicely together with the slot system some people were suggesting. After charging up a weapon, you could store it in a slot instead of immediately throwing it away, and then pick a new weapon to charge. Allowing players to unlock more slots as they progress could lead to some juicy mega combo attacks on bosses as the player unloads 5 fully charged special attacks on them
It's really clever to have those torches do more damage against the boss but once it's depleted you lose some visibility in the room. Gives the player pros and cons to different approaches. Looks like a cool game :)
Hey great series and hope you keep it up! Just curious about your attack system. Do you have seperate animations (spritesheets) for attacks in every direction? I noticed you can attack in any direction the mouse is pointing which is a lot of animation files 🤔
There's an attack animation for down-right, and an animation for up-right. Then it mirrors if it's on the left. So it supports any direction, but the animation only roughly matches
U should check out Bloodroots gameplay. For retaining certain weapons, they'll get that weapon's scrap after breaking. Like when a fire rod breaks, they'll get fire rod scrap then they can go to a shop and use the fire rod scrap to build the fire rod again
I þink a “charge” system could work? It’s long shot but maybe using a weapon (in relatively short range) can build up a charge þat, when full: -gives extra damage when þrown -maybe an extra effect when þrown (like multishot or exploding on impact) -But you can overcharge & it empties & þen it recharges half as fast? I þink it could work given human’s preferences to number go up but I’m no expert
Another feature you could use for the lightning rod could be a paralyzing effect, where the enemies slow down after struck with it. Similar to the torch in which enemies catch fire.
I feel like that you should have a "set weapon" which is always blunt but that you can choose and switch whenever then side weapons which lose bluntness overtime, and make it so that each weapon has perks over the other, axes deal more damage, swords are fast swingers, lances have extra range, etc
That’s a really clever way of having the player use new weapons! Instead of having the weapon break entirely, just have it degrade and become less powerful. The player wouldn’t feel as hurt having a weapon lose potency compared to having a weapon destroyed.
Another option instead of discharging the weapon could be charging it. Deals normal damage when picked up, attack enemies to charge it, once charged can be thrown with some extra damage. It doesn’t break after being thrown, you can pick it up again but it won’t charge this time and throwing it again will break it.
I've just played some of the demo! I love it 😄 I'm sure you may already know this, but in your demo, if you change cloak colours, the body disappears when you pick up items (I chose the orange cloak, and when I picked up something it only shows the character's head).
Hi, just my 2 cents for an idea. Also enjoyed the video and look of your game! Like others have said, you can call it 'Weapon sharpness'. The idea of an inventory and stashing an extra weapon could work but it might take away from how you want to design the game/combat. I propose a way of re sharping weapons. Specifically your sword by sheathing it. The catch though is that your little dude can't sheath and draw his sword without first holding a different weapon. Maybe some lore about your dude being cursed or the sword sentient and jealous until you physical "cast" (throw) your other weapon away. Hopefully that'd encourage people to seek out, try and throw weapons as it gives your sword bonus damage back. Down the line you can add skills that change the bonus damage to elemental or simply add it. Maybe a skill that powers your held weapon when your sword is sheathed or heals you when drawing your sword. Also maybe skills that change your main weapon (sword) to different weapons so each run can be a little different, dunno if you are making a roguelike or not though. :) Hopefully these ideas help get your brain chugging again to find something you like!
First time seeing your channel but my suggestion would be a weapon endurance system. Basically every weapon has an endurance like you have shown, these weapons when they are used lose endurance like you shown with your system. However, when your not using the weapon, it gains a little bit of endurance back every few seconds or so, faster when not in combat because why wait outside of combat. This would players to choice to keep there current weapons without being punished for over using it. I would also suggest that if a player does run out of endurance, the weapon recharge rate isn't hindered but its actually increased slightly, though add a required endurance limit for the weapon to be back at its maximum damage. at this point during this stage throwing the weapon should also do more damage then throwing the weapon normally, maybe even more coins with it. If you had an inventory and a ton of weapons, maybe then you could fully prevent a player from using a weapon but from what I can see something like about should be simple enough for players to get, as long as you have the sounds, particial effects and colours right. Also, take a sub!
My favorite method of incentivise weapon change is by far by weapon effectivines, the best exemple that i have is borderlands, were you elemental stats on weapons that have a more specific porpuse , fire is effective against bare skin enemys, while eletricity is effective against shields, shootguns give a lot of damage and a nice wide range making a good choise for dealing with small enemys that attack from close distance but rifles are better for enemys that attack from medium distances and etc.
I think the weapons are a great idea, I just wonder what if there might be other ways to incentivize weapon choice besides breaking them. Giving weapons different properties, damage types, or special attacks might be a better incentive here. I'm reminded of the Megaman system, where bosses and enemies have different weaknesses so players that are trying to play efficiently are forced into using different weapon types. If weapons had special attacks maybe they only recharge their energy to do so when it's not currently in use, so it incentives switching weapons to get higher damage and better flexibility. In this system I think weapons would be permanent and couldn't break though. But great work! And I've been excited to continue seeing this project get done.
Maybe with your “charge” system, to incentivize using up your weapon and wanting to change, make the weapons deal more damage or have special effects when thrown at 0 charge, or maybe even switch it up and make the system work by charging up your weapon to eventually use it up for a big “charged throw” attack?
i think it could be fun if some of your enemies projectiles could be used as a weapon as well like an enemie throwing something at you that you have to dodge and if you are faster than the enemie in picking it back up you can throw it back at them.
Maybe for the Electric boss, you could add an electrified state to metallic weapons, so the player takes damage if they hit it with a sword, encouraging them to throw it (which could bounce off so it can be picked up) or to try using weaker wooden weapons?
My suggestion: Add a way to repair weapons at points (Maybe with a grindstone to sharpen them again?) and allow players to carry 2 weapons at once they can switch between. This way if a player finds their personal favourite weapons, they are not forced to loose it, instead being albe to hold onto it while using a different weapon until they can repair it again.
Since you want to make the throwing really satisfying and you want positive reinforcement, how about making weapons charge up instead? So you have a normal weapon and after a while the throwing attack is empowered. This could have unique effects based on the weapons to make them really stand out as well!
I am also making an indie game (nit nearly at the level you are, but i aspire), and something i am implementing to the mechanic is similar to dark cloud 2. Maybe not quite what your going for, the the ability to put a depleted weapons essence into a new weapon, giving it a slight boost was one of my favorite oarts of playing dark cloud.
When the eye ball boss gets to really low HP it should close it's eye and then it no longer emits it's own light in the dark, meaning you need to track it based on previous movements / moving cautiously to avoid it's attack then hurt it
I personally hated the fact of having to keep an entire inventory of extra weapons so when yours breaks you have back ups. I do like the idea of the durability characteristic. Would there be an option to repair a weapon? Bring the durability bar back up? The way I see the game currently you would have to add a lot of usable objects around the map as extra “weapons.” Would add some so the lightning boss room. Maybe rocks you can hide behind to dodge attacks but also pick up and throw. Game looks awesome. Can’t wait to see more.
Maybe make a boss use an attack that spawns weapons for the player to use. Maybe the boss makes spears rain down from the sky or something? Seems like a really neat idea to me!
So about your weapon charge system; Currently it has a negative consquence (reduced damage) to nudge players into changing weapons-which I think is fine and well. What if there were a positive aspect to it as well? Maybe the throw could have some additional splash damage could be increased the more the weapon was previously used. That way, the narrative of the system won't be 'I'm being punished for using weapons I like' (which is what a lot of players took away from BOTW/TOTK's systems), but something more akin to 'if I use this weapon a lot, I'll be rewarded with a satisfying finisher'. EDIT: I also think that you could do a lot with this throw finisher in terms of synergy. I imagine some weapons like the lightning rod could inflict special status afflictions when thrown, that would in turn synergize well with other weapons (throwing a torch could set the enemies on fire, inflicting a burn effect, that would lead to increased damage for a weapon like a wind sword or a broom)
I like the way soul knught does it where different weapons take yo different qmounts of energy, with the basic ones tlaing up none and the super missiels taking up 100+ but kill everything on screen
You could (and I know this might take a decent bit of effort to impliment) give enemies weaknesses to certain weapon types or damage types. That way the player is encouraged to experiment a bit and find what weapon works best for what enemy.
I'd do the opposite. Everytime you hit the bar increases and once it's full you can do a special move/throw that either does more damage or has other effects, like throwing multiple spears, or the sword flies around you in an arc etc.
I think a lot of it depends on what you want with your game. but whatever you do go all in. if you just go for a normal combat system just make it super freaking good and if you use the charge/weapon system make that the hook of you game. use the weapons for everything, puzzels, bosses, NPCs, platforming. have it feel like the core piece of your game.
The weapon charge system feels like a really good idea if you have the ability to swap between them. It shares similarities with Ultrakill's style system. Possibly the player has a limit to how many weapons can be held if there's no durability. If there is durability then to make it work an abundance of weapons is usually needed.
That's a great system, you might need to add a sound when a weapon is close to be broken since throwing the weapon with the bar empty will do way less damage and most people will sacrifice an attack for 6 damage if it means doing 12 damage by throwing it. Also, if you add more elemental weapon, would a fuse system between normal weapon like greatsword, spears and elemental weapon like torches and scepter be a good idea ? That wouldn't add a lot on the normal weapon but just the elemental effect (and maybe restoring the durability of the weapon if you want, but I don't think that's a good idea), meaning you could put less elemental weapon needed in a dungeon since you could fuse uncharged elemental weapon on charged normal weapon to keep the effect, it would make think the player on how and when to use their elemental weapon to have an advantage on the dungeon without destroying every single weapon for the boss. And I saw Kydrausc comment that want to add another weapon slot, and I 100% think that's a great idea, especially with my idea of fusing elemental weapon with normal weapon (but it's also a great idea without it of course)
Hey man love your content! I might be little late here and maybe you are already done with this problem, but to make player use different weapons I think it would be good idea to add another weapon system like give already existing weapons one more characteristic and make some enemies immune to this characteristic. Kinda like god of war had ice type enemies which was immune to leviathan axe. Wish you best of luck!
i have an idea when you break a weapon next time you find or get that same weapon it gets an upgrade so your kinda happy that you broke it i mean i would
you allready have everything in place: Let me tell you what I see- Bossfight -> Weapons to pick are placed around the arena, boss goes out of range of the sword -> you start pickinng up and throwing it. so you can deal real damag with your sword.
The point of breaking weapons is to incentivize the use of multiple different weapons. In this, they are outclassed; I have learned from trading card games that players simply want to use what they have, and just saying No is almost always a bad idea. What you need to do is somehow make the use of multiple different weapons optimal. Maybe some sort of Debuff/Buff Alchemy, with certain enemies being immune to certain debuffs?
Most of the weapons in Breath/Tears function identically. I'm convinced durability stands mainly as a reward, then as soft level scaling (based on inventory size), and lastly as a means for variety.
The electric boss could make a ring around himself in the distance. Than the ring grows towards him but stops 3 steps away from him. This way you force a near distance fight for the time the ring exists. Also you could consider a jump which gives weapons a cooldown until the player can use these again. Because the character needs to find its balance after landing. The heavier the weapon the longer it takes. Another boss could have a push away 360degrees which makes you foggy while you can't move. This boss should be invulnerable to distance attacks. While another one is the other way around. One boss could leave behind some bombs. A big crab maybe could take you with its hand and hold you while attacking. So distance is key here...
I definitely think your weapon crack mechanic is great. Just played the demo and I actually found myself swapping and testing out weapons more frequently than I would have, if it didn't drop anything or add extra damage. I feel it should give you a ressource instead of money though, as I just farmed money in town and broke all of the training guys weapons until I got the lantern. So let it drop a fitting ressource instead, e.g. a staff would drop wood, a sword drops metal shards, etc. Then, if you want to upgrade a weapons sharpness/durability/damage upon pickup, you can use your "enhance weapon spell" and spent the 10 metal you collected earlier and select a perk. More durability, more damage, extra charge, wider aoe, added fire damage. Something you can learn the skills to in the world, just to mix stuff up. But you can never hold more than a certain amount e.g. 10 metal at once and also just upgrade once. So you can spent it if you think it's the right time to upgrade your weapon for a bossfight or to cut through a tree that blocks the way that needs an extra sharp axe, etc. But with the ressource stack capped, as well as weapon upgrades maxed to one, you would use it tactically and also wouldnt run around and break everything all the time, just to farm ressource stacks to 999. Also, love the visuals and animations already. Game looks cute.
Instead of weapon charge, call it weapon sharpness/bluntness. When its at its maximum sharpness it deals most damage and then blunts over time to a minimum of it being just a slab of metal that does the least damage.
PS: the boss' eye glowing in the dark is a really nice touch
Monster Hunter GANG
It may work, but may be a bit odd, given that a lot of weapons aren't sharp, like having a torch "sharpness/bluntness" seems weird, but maybe it's fine.
The trouble with the charge system is that it is all negatives still. Players will be hesistant to use something because they'll want to save it for a boss so, like in BotW, the best way to play is to NOT attack enemies unless you have to. You've now pushed players into a situation where they'll spend their time dodging enemies and resent instances when they're forced into a fight where they're not rewarded with fully charged weapons to replace the ones you've made them use.
This also creates balancing issues whereby you don't know if a player is using a fully charged weapon or not. One may say, "well its only a small amount of bonus damage" but to that I'd say "Well then why add a feature that is so trivial in the first place?"
Like Monster Hunter and lies of P
Yes!! And then you could have a blacksmith in town you can pay to re-sharpen, or find whetstones as items for one-time sharpening.
I personally think you should have an “inventory” like a spot to hold one weapon. But SPECIFICALLY ONE more weapon to incentivise switching. Also if you have two really cool weapons you want to keep, then you have a slot to have it! Understandable if you don’t want to do this.
or maybe also a chance to get rare items that are boss themed items from which boss the player kills
@@reedle132smart!
I agree with this because that is something a zelda four swords did, and it worked, but to make you own spin on it would be fun
maybe not 1, but a limited amount
@@montageofchips9704 I said one MORE slot. For example you could have great sword and spear but that’s it.
I have always thought that breaking weapons could give a certain resource that could repair your other better weapons, still encouraging using other weapons while still allowing your favorites to not be gone forever
This sounds like an excellent idea! Would require an inventory of some sort, to carry more weapons. I think with a very limited weapon inventory, this could work well. Allows the player to use and keep that awesome weapon they like, and encourages the player in a positive way to use AND throw other weapons. Perhaps the throw damage could also be tied to the charge of the weapons, lower charge = more damage.
I know it's not much but anything to add one more pixel to this lovely project. Thanks for keeping Love2D alive for us upcoming developers.
Thank you!!
The Eye boss lacks AOE attacks and laser attacks. Give it the ability to summon minions which attacks you and heals the boss so players are forced to deal with them quickly thus adding tension to the fight also adding traps in the arena that damage both player and boss will make things a lot more interesting
You could also add the ability to recharge/repair weapons. Maybe have a repair kiosk or a repair spell. Maybe have it cost some money. This way, if a player has a weapon they really like, they could hold onto it and occasionally recharge it.
Yes, I subscribe to this idea of weapons becoming "dull" after some use and the ability to repair them.
Good way to insert a blacksmith in the game (everybody love blacksmith !)
@@davidrudpedersen5622dull is great, doesn't make it useless just cost money to be the best it can be.
well, yea but that completely ruins the purpose of having weapon energy/ durability which is to throw the weapon and find a new one when it runs out of energy
@@ag1015 It doesn't ruin anything. It adds another dimension to it. You can toss your weapon and find a new one or you can manage your money and look for a blacksmith. The game could even be designed to require a fully charged weapon to defeat higher level bosses. This adds to the strategy. You know you'll need to prepare your weapons before battle.
There could potentially even be weapon enhancements you could buy from the blacksmith in later levels.
I think the name “Hood” would sound good sense it describes the characters design and just sounds cool!
Maybe adding a system where you can turn certain weapons you pickup into a permanent weapon might be cool. Some people might like certain weapons more than the standard sword and being able to permanently replace it might be cool.
Honestly, the weapon charge mechanic is a really good idea in my opinion!
the torches making the boss catch on fire, which lights it up, is a nice touch :D
The bar can be referred to players as “Weapon Prime” as you can inform players that using the weapon will cause it to dull or blunt down. Also some ideas you add:
-Spear/Lance Weapons deal more throwing damage
-Spear/Lance/Axe weapons have more throwing distance
-The camera slightly zooms out more when aiming a weapon throw
-Shops carry weapons that have increased durability
-Visiting a blacksmith or using an anvil to slightly restore weapon Prime
hope this helps and your game is looking great
I think giving an incentive to use different weapons is great. A friend of mine loves Doom Eternal, and I'm pretty sure in that game you don't have a pistol with infinite ammo.
What if you gave each weapon a "breaking effect"? Like when the lightning rod "breaks", it can do 1 final attack where it creates a thunderstorm area that deals damage every second for a few seconds?
Love your stuff, keep going my guy❤
That sound really cool.
Love this idea! This also insensitivities switching weapons so you can get another “break attack” on an enemy!
I think the route you are going with this is very good sounding!
im in lack of time to get into programming but seing your devlogs litterly making my dream like game makes my day, keep it up
Really love the look of this! The game design around combat is looking nice :D
I just found your channel, and as someone who wants to pursue game dev, you actually really inspire me, so thank you. also you should add items that extend weapon charge for certain types of weapons that way if someone really likes a certain type of weapon they don't have to switch as often.
Maybe flip it around? Instead of you losing durability, you start with the bar empty and fill it up with each attack. It still deals less damage when full, but instead of treating it as "It's broke, throw the trash away" you make it feel like "You have charged it up! Throw it for a bonus!"
I recently joined your channel and your videos are so motivating for me to finally work seriously on my own game in pygame ❤
One way you could encourage players to be more reckless with weapons(instead of just saving them) and encourage variety without negative rewards, would be to implement some way to regenerate, summon, or recall weapons.
Imagine a magic skill that spawns a random weapon to be equipped(on a cooldown), or perhaps a specific one, weapons that you can throw and have them come back to you, or an upgrade that lets you pick up a bunch of the pieces of the environment at once to throw(think multiple rocks on the screen, activate the spell, and then all those rocks are magnetized to you and rotate around you mario kart turtle shell style). You could also do some types of projectiles(throwing stars, knives, bombs?) that have amounts you can purchase or pick-up, sort of like arrows in many games. With that type of system, you could encourage players to use them a lot in certain areas, and then switch things up in other areas.
Another option could be a way to make it so once you've "discovered" a weapon, you've never truly lost it after durability is gone. Maybe once you unlock a weapon, you can use currency or charge of some type to summon, purchase, or craft them again.
A silly option you could try, is having a "magic bag" type thing with endless room. Think of a portal that you can throw tons of random objects into(I think literally throwing them into it would be fun), and then later on you can have it spit them out at random. Maybe you have upgrades that let you change how many it spits out at a time, or how many it can store. I just think the idea of being in a boss battle, and using a skill to spit out a bunch of weapons seems really funny to me. I'm sure you could expand this idea into many different ways. Maybe you throw a torch into it, and then you can summon fire from the portal for a little bit, or perhaps until you throw something else in. Would be a good way to encourage people to get rid of their weapons in the search of new things that the portal does.
this game looks so awesome i love this art style and everything ill definitely buy when it comes out!!!
Man i am learning a lot. Thanks for this videos
I definitely think it’s a good system for weapons, also a unique one that will help your game to stand apart. However I also feel like having just one weapon isn’t a bad thing. Games like Hollow knight and Deaths door both made excellent use of their single weapon while mixing in spells and bows to somewhat vary gameplay, but having that one weapon doesn’t hurt a game it’s just how you implant it along with the enemy gameplay.
I love how the games doing bro!
i love this. its unique, and its both fun for people who dont really like switching and people who do.
this looks so good!
It would be cool to have like enchantments or something (name doesnt really matter) where you could empower your base sword with a certain weapon by sacrificing it. It would be a weaker version, like your sword sometimes shoots lightning bolts or has a chance to light things on fire from sacrificing the torch, maybe sometimes you have a heavy attack if you sacrifice a greatsword/axe, the sword becomes bigger if you sacrifice a spear, stuff like that. But it would last for longer so you could decide if you want the short term power from just the weapon or a longer buff thats weaker.
I think one way of incentive to change weapons is making some enemies weaker to a specific weapon, for example a slime might be really resistant to sword hits but would receive lot of damage when hit with a spear
just a quick thought about the lightning boss, you could have the lightning staff's be around the arena, but if the player is holding them they get struck with lightning, you could further reinforce the idea by having all of the staff's be hit by lightning in the arena so the player sees this and knows that they should pick up the staff right after a lightning attack, but also so they know that they have limited time and have to make the most of it on top of the durability!
i think a more unique thing you could do is have the weapon charge up upon each attack. once its fully charged you can then do a powerful throw attack. maybe like imbuing the weapon with your magic power and it becomes unstable?
I love your game and the way you have to play i have so much fun
I personally love the system you came up with as well as someone's proposed idea of referring to it as "sharpness/bluntness". Until hearing your idea though, I was thinking that having a repair system where if you use money/resources, it increases in cost for each repair, but that system works better for weapons with a unique identity, like named Uniques from Diablo. Also, if weapons have different rarities, weapons of higher rarity can get more repairs. For example, commons get 1 repair, uncommons get 2 repairs, rares get 3, etc.
PS - Just found your videos and I'm really enjoying seeing gameplay of this so far and I hope it is a great success by your standards!
One way i'm experimenting with this problem of "hit and dodge only" is to have a "build up" system on most of the skills.
So most skills build up momentum in some way, buffs, debuffs, stacks, synergies, etc. So the player can capitalize on it and force himself to just keep hitting as much as possible or turn it around and try to build defense momentum and go into a more passive mode.
The main goal is to give the player as much agency as possible and not just be subject to the rhythm of the pre-designed pattern of boss attacks.
There's a indie Turn based RPG that did something similar and it's really fun when you play it, while being an incredibly simple system. They had a "heat bar" that builds up as you use skills and changes the output of the skills if it crosses 2 fixed thresholds of heat.
Interesting new update. Keep it going!
2:50 very smart.
One glaring flaw with this system is that it disincentivises actually engaging with enemies. "Why would I engage with enemies if I know my weapon is going to get weaker?"
of course, if progression is actually tied to defeating enemies then this wouldn't actually be a flaw.
One suggetion as to how you could make combat more aggressive and less passive is to introduce a parry system. Scourgebringer does something like this, where enemies would flash and then you would be able to do a strong attack to stun them. Alternatively you could allow the sword itself to eat up or bounce projectiles. Just a couple suggestions.
I think a good name for it would be something like "shinnyness", it's what popped into my head when you talked about it
i have an idea where whenever you got a new weapon you can craft it for free in a certain machine only found on checkpoints/house (since this is my first video i watch from the channel) and after boss fights (you can't remake the weapon mid-fights) also you need to only have limited amount of weapons in inventory.
I think that the system is good since you have an unbreakable sword that yiu can use if you don't want to waste stuff. But i think there should be a way to swap to the sword without trowing it away, like if you found something cool that you want to use for stronger ennemmies or a boss you can still use your sword for weaker ennemies. Obviously i think that there should only be one slot gor the destructible weapon so you don't hoard them.
Maybe to repair or recharge the weapons or gear would require different things to do that. Like, a magical staff would require finding magic stones to power it up, and swords would require a smithy to fix and collecting metals. You could also do things like improving efficiency or durability to make less trips in the end game, Idk, depends how deep you like your game to get into that kind of stuff. Looking cool, nice work!
I think the charge idea is fantastic.
This seems like a really good mechanic and a solid saw to bring some variety into the fights!
I think another really good way to incentivise players to throw their weapons, and even pick them up and use them in the first place, would be to make the final throw of a weapon deal a much larger chunk of damage/stun an enemy in some way, (obviously scaled based on the type of weapon thrown and their availability.)
This would make finding a throwable weapon at the right time feel a lot more powerful and exciting, and give the player a reason to throw away weapons that didn't feel like a punishment because it became less effective, but like they are spending an ability. This could be compacted by making the thrown damage even greater for weapons that are in the last 10% of their charge, so that the player is incentivised to use the weapon normally for a little bit before throwing it, to get the maximum effect. This could lead to very interesting weapons, where the actual attack damage of the weapon is sustainably lower than the base sword, but the thrown damage is massive if it is in that final zone before breaking, leading to players picking up a weapon mid-fight that disadvantages them for a short while, so that they can get the payoff of the throw in order to deal a whole lot more damage. Or temporarily running away from weaker enemies because they are saving their powerful throw for a larger boss and don't want to waste it. It could also play in fun ways with making explicitly ranged bosses that can generate minions, where you would use the minions to drain the throwable weapons until they were ready to deal maximum damage, and then use the throws on the main boss to take away chunks of it's health at a time.
Very nice balance! It reminds me of Wind Waker where you can pick up enemy weapons and chuck them back at them, except now the break.
I think calling it something along the lines of "sharpness" would be fitting. I know it doesn't make sense for a wooden staff to be sharp but Monster Hunter has you sharpening your hammers so I think it would work here too.
You should make monsters more resistent to certain damage types, these in turn would prepare you for the boss.
Maybe instead of a throw you can make the weapons do a certain skill if it's been used past like 80%, like a super skill to make it satisfying to get rid of your weapon :D
That is an awesome System. I always hate it when a Weapon breaks in games when i have grow to it... this way, you keep and play with it. Nice! Maybe a way to 'recharge' or sharpen it back up would be nice. Good job!
Yo Challacade i just wanted to say that you and a TH-camr named Emeral were a huge inspiration for me to start coding and Game dev in general. Right now I'm at the very early stages at learning Unity and in general started with my whole coding 3 months ago. Thats why i still got a bunch to learn but vids like yours kinda remind me why i did the journey in the first place. Also i totally am for the weapon brake system. I personally like being forced to switch things up after a while. TOTK also expanded on this greatly with the Fuse System. Maybe you could do something similar like this for your game?
Thank you for implementing my idea of combat! It would be great to have two types of weaponry though. What I mean with that is that you can get permanent weapons which are in your inventory forever and the temporary weapons which have the abilities you showed in the video. I also think that you could update magic wands by implementing a new menu and a new item: elementary gems. When equipping a magic wand, this wand has a special gem dedicated to it like the lightning gem for example. If you dont want that wand to have the lightning element, you can just go to that new menu, unequip the gem for that wand and put another gem obtainable in another region of the map onto the wand to switch its element. If possible, it would be even better if you could make these gems a throwable object when equipping them in the inventory. When thrown, they cast a high damage burst to their dedicated element. I think that is enough for suggestions from my side because this is your masterpiece you're working on. Im already looking forward to the next update of the game!
2nd
Also, great update, using only a sword does seem a bit boring, this was a good decision :)
Cool devlogs and also thanks for your Monogame course. Can you add the devlogs to a playlist so we can easy watch the older ones?
I will do this today!
Exceptionally adorable play
You can incentivize it by making it so the more weapons they throw, either unlocks some buff or grants even more gold. If you have this permanent system in place you will ALWAYS want to throw it because it gives you a mechanic with progress you can work towards.
I like this idea a lot. Maybe weapons get stronger the more times you've broken that type of weapon before?
If your still taking ideas I recommend adding a sort of execution time period where after dealing enough damage to an enemy they start to blink and if a player throws there weapon at them it causes the enemy to explode damaging surrounding enemies and supply’s the player with a bit more gold than if they threw it any other time. This encourages the player to throw there weapon when the opportunity presents itself without making it feel like your forcing them to do so
You could potentially add in weapon techniques that are learned over the course of the game that apply to each weapon type you could find- so a spear master could train you on how to use spears more effectively and give you a new move or passive benefit while you're using one by giving you a training scroll in exchange for some money or a side quest. Some of these scrolls could also have applications in puzzles, too. Each weapon type shouldn't have too many of these scrolls.
Going with the Tears of the Kingdom comparison, you could also potentially allow the player to apply extra effects to their weapons by combining them with another non-weapon object they find, which can be useful to apply elemental damage to a weapon or to give it bonus properties such as dealing more damage when thrown.
The tradeoff here is that if you have a special weapon you like, you might be less inclined to fight enemies. I'm not sure what direction you're taking with the spells, but maybe having a greater focus on these and making spells not have durability but rather be limited by a mana bar, you'd have to utilize both. Similar to the BioShock series.
You could have the weapons get dull. Then find a stone to sharpen them
I like the idea of using the different weapons, and I think you've perfectly created incentives to use them. My only request would be that you could make any weapon your "main" weapon and perhaps upgrade it. This way you're always getting a benefit by grabbing random weapons you see, but you can see make any weapon a "main" that you keep forever and upgrade as much as the game allows.
As for the bosses, although I think it's great to have bosses that have their own "gimmick," I think a boss being just mano-a-mano, you with your present equipment versus the boss with its own equipment, is a good idea too, from a storytelling perspective. Sometimes you just want to feel like a badass going up against another badass, and there's nothing external in the way.
In some games, you use the environment to fight the enemy because it works for the CHARACTER, who would be unable to normally defeat a powerful opponent; but in this game you're obviously becoming a warrior, so not every boss, perhaps, would require trickery.
Then again, I can see that you could easily fight either of these bosses without the external objects, so as long as the option is there, at least in some fights, to go it without assistance, then I think I'd be happy.
You could could try to incentivise "Throwing away" the weapon, not by throwing it, but by triggering a special ability that results in the weapon breaking? IE the magic rod could shoot a bigger ball, or laser, but after that the rod shatters. The axe could be a whirlwind attack, the sword a flurry of strikes, and the spear a large piercing ranged attack. Rather than draining a durability bar, the players could build a special attack bar. That way the player will feel like they are building to a big attack, rather than draining what little durability the weapon has left.
That's a cool idea!!
This was also along my thinking. Loving the suggestions for special abilities!
One more thought: This mechanic could play nicely together with the slot system some people were suggesting. After charging up a weapon, you could store it in a slot instead of immediately throwing it away, and then pick a new weapon to charge.
Allowing players to unlock more slots as they progress could lead to some juicy mega combo attacks on bosses as the player unloads 5 fully charged special attacks on them
It's really clever to have those torches do more damage against the boss but once it's depleted you lose some visibility in the room. Gives the player pros and cons to different approaches. Looks like a cool game :)
Hey great series and hope you keep it up! Just curious about your attack system. Do you have seperate animations (spritesheets) for attacks in every direction? I noticed you can attack in any direction the mouse is pointing which is a lot of animation files 🤔
There's an attack animation for down-right, and an animation for up-right. Then it mirrors if it's on the left. So it supports any direction, but the animation only roughly matches
U should check out Bloodroots gameplay. For retaining certain weapons, they'll get that weapon's scrap after breaking. Like when a fire rod breaks, they'll get fire rod scrap then they can go to a shop and use the fire rod scrap to build the fire rod again
I þink a “charge” system could work?
It’s long shot but maybe using a weapon (in relatively short range) can build up a charge þat, when full:
-gives extra damage when þrown
-maybe an extra effect when þrown (like multishot or exploding on impact)
-But you can overcharge & it empties & þen it recharges half as fast?
I þink it could work given human’s preferences to number go up but I’m no expert
Another feature you could use for the lightning rod could be a paralyzing effect, where the enemies slow down after struck with it. Similar to the torch in which enemies catch fire.
I feel like that you should have a "set weapon" which is always blunt but that you can choose and switch whenever then side weapons which lose bluntness overtime, and make it so that each weapon has perks over the other, axes deal more damage, swords are fast swingers, lances have extra range, etc
That’s a really clever way of having the player use new weapons! Instead of having the weapon break entirely, just have it degrade and become less powerful. The player wouldn’t feel as hurt having a weapon lose potency compared to having a weapon destroyed.
Another option instead of discharging the weapon could be charging it. Deals normal damage when picked up, attack enemies to charge it, once charged can be thrown with some extra damage. It doesn’t break after being thrown, you can pick it up again but it won’t charge this time and throwing it again will break it.
I've just played some of the demo! I love it 😄 I'm sure you may already know this, but in your demo, if you change cloak colours, the body disappears when you pick up items (I chose the orange cloak, and when I picked up something it only shows the character's head).
I released a new version (0.1.6a) that fixes a ton of bugs, including this one. Thank you for testing!!
Hi, just my 2 cents for an idea. Also enjoyed the video and look of your game!
Like others have said, you can call it 'Weapon sharpness'. The idea of an inventory and stashing an extra weapon could work but it might take away from how you want to design the game/combat.
I propose a way of re sharping weapons. Specifically your sword by sheathing it. The catch though is that your little dude can't sheath and draw his sword without first holding a different weapon. Maybe some lore about your dude being cursed or the sword sentient and jealous until you physical "cast" (throw) your other weapon away.
Hopefully that'd encourage people to seek out, try and throw weapons as it gives your sword bonus damage back. Down the line you can add skills that change the bonus damage to elemental or simply add it. Maybe a skill that powers your held weapon when your sword is sheathed or heals you when drawing your sword. Also maybe skills that change your main weapon (sword) to different weapons so each run can be a little different, dunno if you are making a roguelike or not though. :)
Hopefully these ideas help get your brain chugging again to find something you like!
First time seeing your channel but my suggestion would be a weapon endurance system.
Basically every weapon has an endurance like you have shown, these weapons when they are used lose endurance like you shown with your system.
However, when your not using the weapon, it gains a little bit of endurance back every few seconds or so, faster when not in combat because why wait outside of combat.
This would players to choice to keep there current weapons without being punished for over using it.
I would also suggest that if a player does run out of endurance, the weapon recharge rate isn't hindered but its actually increased slightly, though add a required endurance limit for the weapon to be back at its maximum damage. at this point during this stage throwing the weapon should also do more damage then throwing the weapon normally, maybe even more coins with it.
If you had an inventory and a ton of weapons, maybe then you could fully prevent a player from using a weapon but from what I can see something like about should be simple enough for players to get, as long as you have the sounds, particial effects and colours right.
Also, take a sub!
My favorite method of incentivise weapon change is by far by weapon effectivines, the best exemple that i have is borderlands, were you elemental stats on weapons that have a more specific porpuse , fire is effective against bare skin enemys, while eletricity is effective against shields, shootguns give a lot of damage and a nice wide range making a good choise for dealing with small enemys that attack from close distance but rifles are better for enemys that attack from medium distances and etc.
I think the weapons are a great idea, I just wonder what if there might be other ways to incentivize weapon choice besides breaking them. Giving weapons different properties, damage types, or special attacks might be a better incentive here. I'm reminded of the Megaman system, where bosses and enemies have different weaknesses so players that are trying to play efficiently are forced into using different weapon types.
If weapons had special attacks maybe they only recharge their energy to do so when it's not currently in use, so it incentives switching weapons to get higher damage and better flexibility. In this system I think weapons would be permanent and couldn't break though.
But great work! And I've been excited to continue seeing this project get done.
Maybe with your “charge” system, to incentivize using up your weapon and wanting to change, make the weapons deal more damage or have special effects when thrown at 0 charge, or maybe even switch it up and make the system work by charging up your weapon to eventually use it up for a big “charged throw” attack?
Dude well done.
i think it could be fun if some of your enemies projectiles could be used as a weapon as well like an enemie throwing something at you that you have to dodge and if you are faster than the enemie in picking it back up you can throw it back at them.
Maybe for the Electric boss, you could add an electrified state to metallic weapons, so the player takes damage if they hit it with a sword, encouraging them to throw it (which could bounce off so it can be picked up) or to try using weaker wooden weapons?
You could have golden weapons level down when you use it and pay gold to level them up again for example.
My suggestion:
Add a way to repair weapons at points (Maybe with a grindstone to sharpen them again?) and allow players to carry 2 weapons at once they can switch between.
This way if a player finds their personal favourite weapons, they are not forced to loose it, instead being albe to hold onto it while using a different weapon until they can repair it again.
Since you want to make the throwing really satisfying and you want positive reinforcement, how about making weapons charge up instead? So you have a normal weapon and after a while the throwing attack is empowered. This could have unique effects based on the weapons to make them really stand out as well!
or maybe that whenever you throw it, it charges up the meter a bit.
I am also making an indie game (nit nearly at the level you are, but i aspire), and something i am implementing to the mechanic is similar to dark cloud 2. Maybe not quite what your going for, the the ability to put a depleted weapons essence into a new weapon, giving it a slight boost was one of my favorite oarts of playing dark cloud.
When the eye ball boss gets to really low HP it should close it's eye and then it no longer emits it's own light in the dark, meaning you need to track it based on previous movements / moving cautiously to avoid it's attack then hurt it
I personally hated the fact of having to keep an entire inventory of extra weapons so when yours breaks you have back ups.
I do like the idea of the durability characteristic. Would there be an option to repair a weapon? Bring the durability bar back up?
The way I see the game currently you would have to add a lot of usable objects around the map as extra “weapons.”
Would add some so the lightning boss room. Maybe rocks you can hide behind to dodge attacks but also pick up and throw.
Game looks awesome. Can’t wait to see more.
I have a secret plan, where every save point will be able to spawn any weapon you want. I think this will help out a lot.
Maybe make a boss use an attack that spawns weapons for the player to use. Maybe the boss makes spears rain down from the sky or something? Seems like a really neat idea to me!
LEZ GO NEW VIDEO
So about your weapon charge system; Currently it has a negative consquence (reduced damage) to nudge players into changing weapons-which I think is fine and well. What if there were a positive aspect to it as well? Maybe the throw could have some additional splash damage could be increased the more the weapon was previously used. That way, the narrative of the system won't be 'I'm being punished for using weapons I like' (which is what a lot of players took away from BOTW/TOTK's systems), but something more akin to 'if I use this weapon a lot, I'll be rewarded with a satisfying finisher'.
EDIT: I also think that you could do a lot with this throw finisher in terms of synergy. I imagine some weapons like the lightning rod could inflict special status afflictions when thrown, that would in turn synergize well with other weapons (throwing a torch could set the enemies on fire, inflicting a burn effect, that would lead to increased damage for a weapon like a wind sword or a broom)
I like the way soul knught does it where different weapons take yo different qmounts of energy, with the basic ones tlaing up none and the super missiels taking up 100+ but kill everything on screen
At first I was like I wouldn't like the idea but when I saw the charge feature and they don't actually break I love it
You could (and I know this might take a decent bit of effort to impliment) give enemies weaknesses to certain weapon types or damage types. That way the player is encouraged to experiment a bit and find what weapon works best for what enemy.
I'd do the opposite. Everytime you hit the bar increases and once it's full you can do a special move/throw that either does more damage or has other effects, like throwing multiple spears, or the sword flies around you in an arc etc.
maybe you get weapon shards when the item breaks? then you can use those shards to recreate the weapon or to make a new one entirely
I was thinking something similar to this, but decided just for now to go with money. I like the shards idea though...
@@Challacade ty, its an idea i had for a long time but idk how to code so i'd love to see it in a game
this game is looking awesome already. Maybe a cool name for the weapons' meter could be something like "essence".
I think a lot of it depends on what you want with your game. but whatever you do go all in. if you just go for a normal combat system just make it super freaking good and if you use the charge/weapon system make that the hook of you game. use the weapons for everything, puzzels, bosses, NPCs, platforming. have it feel like the core piece of your game.
Durability is also a nice feature, but I chose the number of attacks for each weapon both ranged and melee (it's like ammo in a gun).
The weapon charge system feels like a really good idea if you have the ability to swap between them. It shares similarities with Ultrakill's style system. Possibly the player has a limit to how many weapons can be held if there's no durability. If there is durability then to make it work an abundance of weapons is usually needed.
That's a great system, you might need to add a sound when a weapon is close to be broken since throwing the weapon with the bar empty will do way less damage and most people will sacrifice an attack for 6 damage if it means doing 12 damage by throwing it.
Also, if you add more elemental weapon, would a fuse system between normal weapon like greatsword, spears and elemental weapon like torches and scepter be a good idea ? That wouldn't add a lot on the normal weapon but just the elemental effect (and maybe restoring the durability of the weapon if you want, but I don't think that's a good idea), meaning you could put less elemental weapon needed in a dungeon since you could fuse uncharged elemental weapon on charged normal weapon to keep the effect, it would make think the player on how and when to use their elemental weapon to have an advantage on the dungeon without destroying every single weapon for the boss.
And I saw Kydrausc comment that want to add another weapon slot, and I 100% think that's a great idea, especially with my idea of fusing elemental weapon with normal weapon (but it's also a great idea without it of course)
Wait I got an idea for the name: battle charge or adrenaline !
Hey man love your content!
I might be little late here and maybe you are already done with this problem, but to make player use different weapons I think it would be good idea to add another weapon system like give already existing weapons one more characteristic and make some enemies immune to this characteristic. Kinda like god of war had ice type enemies which was immune to leviathan axe. Wish you best of luck!
i have an idea when you break a weapon next time you find or get that same weapon it gets an upgrade so your kinda happy that you broke it i mean i would
you allready have everything in place: Let me tell you what I see- Bossfight -> Weapons to pick are placed around the arena, boss goes out of range of the sword -> you start pickinng up and throwing it. so you can deal real damag with your sword.
The point of breaking weapons is to incentivize the use of multiple different weapons. In this, they are outclassed; I have learned from trading card games that players simply want to use what they have, and just saying No is almost always a bad idea. What you need to do is somehow make the use of multiple different weapons optimal. Maybe some sort of Debuff/Buff Alchemy, with certain enemies being immune to certain debuffs?
Most of the weapons in Breath/Tears function identically. I'm convinced durability stands mainly as a reward, then as soft level scaling (based on inventory size), and lastly as a means for variety.
you could make more hitting animations for different weapons and adda hint of randomness to their swing
The electric boss could make a ring around himself in the distance. Than the ring grows towards him but stops 3 steps away from him. This way you force a near distance fight for the time the ring exists.
Also you could consider a jump which gives weapons a cooldown until the player can use these again. Because the character needs to find its balance after landing. The heavier the weapon the longer it takes.
Another boss could have a push away 360degrees which makes you foggy while you can't move. This boss should be invulnerable to distance attacks. While another one is the other way around.
One boss could leave behind some bombs. A big crab maybe could take you with its hand and hold you while attacking. So distance is key here...
I definitely think your weapon crack mechanic is great. Just played the demo and I actually found myself swapping and testing out weapons more frequently than I would have, if it didn't drop anything or add extra damage. I feel it should give you a ressource instead of money though, as I just farmed money in town and broke all of the training guys weapons until I got the lantern.
So let it drop a fitting ressource instead, e.g. a staff would drop wood, a sword drops metal shards, etc. Then, if you want to upgrade a weapons sharpness/durability/damage upon pickup, you can use your "enhance weapon spell" and spent the 10 metal you collected earlier and select a perk. More durability, more damage, extra charge, wider aoe, added fire damage. Something you can learn the skills to in the world, just to mix stuff up. But you can never hold more than a certain amount e.g. 10 metal at once and also just upgrade once. So you can spent it if you think it's the right time to upgrade your weapon for a bossfight or to cut through a tree that blocks the way that needs an extra sharp axe, etc. But with the ressource stack capped, as well as weapon upgrades maxed to one, you would use it tactically and also wouldnt run around and break everything all the time, just to farm ressource stacks to 999.
Also, love the visuals and animations already. Game looks cute.
Thank you for testing, and I appreciate your thoughtful feedback!