Universal Ms. Spell (By Jason Pickering)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by Boardumb, Apr 19, 2017.

  1. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    I actually have been thinking about something like this. (This is actually all the enemies in the game so far)

    [​IMG]
     
  2. smes3817

    smes3817 Well-Known Member

    Oct 15, 2009
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    I love that! With pages for enemies, tools, spells, etc?
     
  3. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    Not sure. The enemy looks cool
    But the items and spells would just be boxes. So still up in the air. Also I wrote out the bug fix list for the next version and I started on it tonight.
     
  4. rezn

    rezn Well-Known Member
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    Mar 8, 2014
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    Stoked this is finally out! I've been looking forward to a mobile version since Jason first shared his concept. #
     
  5. coolit

    coolit Well-Known Member

    Mar 31, 2017
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    Not a bad game! Fun to play but I think it lacks some basic presentation and content...

    First off you need better menus and dialogues! It only tells you on the first play that you can hold down on something to get a description, but the hold time is so long I thought the feature didn't work. I feel like a lot of people won't know this feature exists because the hold time is so long!

    You have a three bar button that looks like a menu button but in fact it just takes the game to the main screen and deletes your progress... why?? At least have a warning window pop up explaining it's going to reset your game.

    Also there is nothing that explains the game actually has more than the base content you experience on the first play. I finished the game on my second play, was told I won and then the game restarted. It looked the same, played the same and left me thinking "this is it??". It was only out of curiosity that I continued playing, killed 100 monsters and unlocked the snail otherwise I would have just deleted and moved on not knowing there is more.

    Also it was a bit disappointing to finish the game in the dreadwood and restart in the dreadwood. If you don't already, it wouldn't be much work to have alternate tile sets to unlock each time you finish. Maybe you do and I haven't got that far, but if not then that should be a priority since such simple aesthetic changes can add a lot of replayability.

    I think this is a good game and worth the money but with a lack of menus and any real indication of progression it can easily be mistaken half-finished title with about 10 minutes of content!
     
  6. blue rocket

    blue rocket Well-Known Member

    Nov 27, 2013
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    No music in game?
     
  7. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    Working on the first bug update so here is what I am aiming for:

    - pop up for leaving the game
    - Swiping and holding will continue to move the player.
    - Info will pop up faster on touch and hold
    - in game music will now play (I was hoping no one would notice this bug)

    blue rocket: yep you caught me. its a bug, i hoped no one would notice

    coolit:
    1. Hold time decreased greatly 1.5 second down to .5 seconds
    2. I will add that pop up. Maybe try a better icon
    3. should I add a pop up on win that says that, or maybe add an unlock for the first win. I might be able to add a new enemy, spell, or treasure for this update instead of waiting for the first big content update.
    4. I actually have about 5 other tilesets made, I will write up a longer post explaining whats going on. I am at a crossroad where I need to decide which route to go down.
    5. Glad you have enjoyed it so far.
     
  8. coolit

    coolit Well-Known Member

    Mar 31, 2017
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    Even just a splash or pop up with the book saying something like "the dreadwood is changing..." or whatever would help.

    Otherwise nice, sounds like good things are happening!
     
  9. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    Indie Developer
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    The Future of Ms. Spell

    So here are my plans for the future of Ms. Spell. There were a lot of items, treasures, enemies, and mechanics that did not make it into the game. I have been making plans to expand the game with content update packs. Each "Pack" will have 5-8 items. some will be unlocks, some will be added to the game right away, and some will be secret and only unlocked through specific actions that run. but here are the main plans

    New Areas

    Some of the issues I have now that I am working on are how the player will engage with these things. I have worked on several new tilesets and I have a couple ways that these will come into play.

    [​IMG]

    The one way this can work is similar to how the "Special" levels work in Spelunky. That is why I used portals at the end of each level. It would make more sense to be suddenly in a frozen area by warping instead of just walking from one room to another. So the plan is that maybe the player might come across a frozen area in their run. It will have a different group of enemies, and perhaps even special enemies for that area. Of course when the player comes across it there will be a pop up, Like "The air is cold and snow covers the ground". The other idea I had was just straight up separate dungeons. as an example; the player finds a secret cave on floor 4. They enter the cave, battle a bunch of spiders, and then battle a Unique enemy (More on these below). On finishing this they may gain a special treasure, a special spell will be unlocked for that run, or maybe the game has changed (Perhaps there are no more spiders this run). The player will then be deposited back on floor 5, having completed this small sidequest and can continue on to get the book.

    Uniques
    You may have come across him in your battles, but the game currently contains one unique enemy. He is Baron Mortis. If you look in the info he is the late lord Dread's bodyguard and upon defeating him, no easy task with his 4 health. You receive two items, the lightbringer and the Shield of Valor. He can only appear once a run and this is the kind of feel I want from the uniques. They will be special enemies that will grant the player certain items, spells, or boons upon defeat. I will also highlight them better by having a small popup when they are found.

    [​IMG]

    I have several of these planned and I will use the Info screen to flesh out the lore of this world a little bit better.

    Assorted Ideas

    I will also have a plan for a secret dungeon that will extend the game. Right now the game ends on floor 10, but perhaps by completing a certain dungeon the game will now end on floor 15 or maybe even floor 20. This lets the player make the game as easy or as hard as they want.

    You can currently drop an item, which is not really explained well in game (I am looking for a place to add in game tips) but I also want to add cursed items. These will not be able to be dropped and will always have a big risk reward with them. as an example a cursed blade. It will kill any enemy with one hit, but changes your max HP to 1.

    I am also looking at alters. Bump into them for a blood sacrifice and they will give you a spell. DO NOT DESTROY THEM.

    different costumes. These are an idea I had that would allow the player to alter the game. These are more likely just different game modes. Perhaps a wizard costume would make it so the player can not melee attack any more and can only use spells. Or a knights suit that only lets you find treasures. you would select these on the title screen.

    So any and all questions about this please let me know. I love feedback on all this stuff and I really want to make this game as exciting as possible.
     
  10. meponder

    meponder Member
    Patreon Silver

    Apr 23, 2013
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    Any thought to add portrait orientation? For those of us on the go it is far more convenient. It seems that the game field above with actions below would work well. That would easily triple the amount of time I can put into the game. Thanks again for your responsiveness!
     
  11. LordGek

    LordGek Well-Known Member
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    Feb 19, 2009
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    Saratoga, CA, USA
    Any plans for local leaderboards...although if content slowly unlocks overtime or new stuff can be added to the game at any time, I guess this could be tricky to keep fair.
     
  12. awheywood

    awheywood New Member

    Apr 25, 2017
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    This is a very pleasant game, though in its current state it seems too easy--I've made multiple dumb mistakes that felt like they should have killed me, but my win rate after my first game is 100%, and I almost always eliminate all enemies and finish at full health, which means I'm going well beyond the actual victory condition. At first, I thought the problem was Blessed Heal (especially in conjunction with the shield), since it restores multiple health while most of the early spells basically prevent one point of damage, but other spells (e.g. Haste and Earthquake) can have a similarly large impact. Perhaps there are just too many spells on each level--I frequently end up wasting several mediocre spells at the end of a level hoping to luck into the better ones.

    I agree with suggestions that the unlock conditions be listed somewhere; I think I'm missing the upper-right-most creature in the posted image, but I have no idea how/if/when I'll unlock it. One of the advantages of achievements/unlocks is they can direct player experience and extend the game, but right now there's little incentive for me to play any more Ms. Spell (other than the innate pleasure of puzzle-solving, of course, but it's not difficult enough to remain compelling in the long term).

    I said my win rate was 100%, but technically, this isn't true; this morning I tried an experimental run where I cast no spells. I died on the 5th or 6th floor after getting cornered by a snail and a skeleton, though if I'd gotten lucky with my freeze dagger I could have made it out alive. Anyway, after it was obvious I was dead, I used haste, and when I died the game crashed with "FATAL ERROR in action number 1 of Step Event0 for object Eff_Haste_Trail: Unable to find any instance for object index '29' name 'Obj_Player' at gml_Object_Eff_Haste_Trail_Step_0." This seems unlikely to come up in actual play, because intelligent Haste use is pretty much invincible, but I thought you should know. I believe the exact sequence was: activate Haste, enemies advance, attack skeleton twice, get killed by snail.

    Despite any negative comments above, I enjoy this game a lot and think it's a bargain. I like the ideas about uniques, cursed items, and special dungeon levels a lot--increased run diversity is always a good thing.
     
  13. coolit

    coolit Well-Known Member

    Mar 31, 2017
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    I think this all sounds great! However you decide to implement the new content is up to you, there's no wrong way to do it!
     
  14. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    So this has kind of gotten away from me. We recently moved so most of my time had gone into work there, but I am finally getting back into regular programming. So I have picked this back up again and I am starting small. So the first "Expansion" for Ms. Spell is underway again. The 1st expansion will be ice based and have the following things.
    - it will have 2 new enemies
    - it will have 2 new spells
    - it will have 1 new treasure.

    So I have 1 spell and 1 enemy done and the design for the other 3 are done, but need to be programmed and entered in.

    right now I am also working on making the game better, so anything you do not like about it, please speak up now. I am going to be going back through this thread and look over what everyone has written to see what I can fix.
     
  15. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    Indie Developer
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    Still working. I have 2 new enemies in the game, and 1 spell. I am working on the new Item at the moment. Getting closer to a beta build.
     
  16. JasonHPickering

    JasonHPickering Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2011
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    So the expansion is almost done. I even added an extra enemy class, the slime. Slimes will be element based and always have some strange interaction on death. The first one in game is the ice slime. On death it creates an ice wall at its location, the same used in the new spell "Ice wall" I have also added the new item the ice cloak which has a chance of freezing an enemy that hits you. While play testing I was luckily enough to get the frost cloak and the frost dagger. It allowed me to freeze most of the enemies on screen, but it did not help against the ice enemies and a frost giant killed me.

    the next addition will be the ice siren. She will have a random chance of singing, which will freeze one of your item slots. This is the new interaction system I have added and I hope to improve on this as I go. The system works like this:
    different slot effects can be cast. they only effect that specific slot though. A frozen one can not be used the rest of the floor, but lets say you wanted to use the spell in slot 4 but it was frozen, you could use the spell in 1,2,or 3 and it would move down the spell from slot 4 to slot 3, you could then use the spell. the other interactions I have planned are:
    Cursed - deals one damage to you when cast
    Blessed - heals you one damage when cast
    I am also planning one that doesn't use that spell so you basically get two copies of it. and possibly, a wild magic that changes that spell with a random one each turn till it is cast.
     

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