#first time and also. i prefer dungeon-crawler kind of levels

[modelxis]

"at least, learn the engine first before actually working on the bg-" "no, i must make asset of my own to fully immerse!"

[endlessdoom]

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #005

bildoom1.zip

THT: Threnody (oh shit)

Heroes 2 (oh fuck)

Hells Half Acre

Demon's Revenge

Dreams

FATE01.WAD "Fate Series"

bildoom1.zip

Uploaded to the archives in 2011, but with real date being 1995. This WAD with 3 maps is probably one of the reasons why so many tenge are afraid to explore the /idgames archives randomly. It is clearly a rather novice WAD from 1995 that has all the kind of bugs and factors that we would find during that decade. Admittedly, 1995 was not a very bright year for WADs, but what can we expect? They were barely a year old with real editors. One way or another, this collection of 3 maps is one that has a certain childish charisma that I can't help but laugh at. It's crap, sure, but even in the crap there's a certain charisma.

The first map is probably the most understandable of them all. It looks pretty ugly and plays pretty ugly. The use of only one type of texture on extremely high walls is quite common, as well as a strange use of linedefs that seems to mimic a kindergarten crayon drawing. On the other hand, the path is understandable enough and the secrets connect well enough to at least deliver some playability.

The second map is a simple combat arena with Mancubus and a few extra enemies. From an objective point of view, it's the best map in terms of quality for the simple fact that it doesn't ask for much and does what it needs to do. And yet it is mediocre.

The third map is probably the most interesting in terms of design, but a headache in terms of path-finding. What we have here is a layout that starts with a hub system that hides a multitude of secret paths in total darkness. We have to search through each of the paths until we find all the keys to escape this nightmare in a final fight. While the beginning gives a certain sense of adventure, it quickly becomes a miserable dungeon crawler with unfair combat and lots and lots of darkness. I don't want to imagine how this looked in the original DOOM.EXE. In conclusion, it's very bad, but I've seen worse.

THT: Threnody

A collection of 20 maps makes this a respectfully large megawad that works in the style of Community Project, with the difference that the authors have managed to work under a fairly cohesive factor that gives a certain palpable identity to THT. Speaking of THT, this is also a WAD in the form of a tribute to one of the legends of the community, one of our greatest pillars and fantastic creator. THT stands for Ty Halderman Tribute, creator of the iconic TNT mappers group and also the maintainer of /idgames archive from 1997 to 2015. That's an amount of effort that very, very few of us in the community will ever manage to encompass. That's a lifetime of providing us with both content and pure hard work. This WAD is a dedication to Ty, a love letter of sorts that without needing to be an exact replica of his past works, has certain monuments to his legacy. A WAD that contains a particularly special essence, let's see what it is all about, shall we? 

While the megawad is designed in the form of a tribute, it does not attempt to replicate Ty's style exactly, nor copy directly from his creations; on the contrary, it chooses a system of references so subtle that they function like little poems whispered in silence. As we move forward, we will see things that remind us of his great contributions, while at the same time we play with the vague notion that we were already in this place once. A kind of dream that we never dreamed, and in that this megawad manages to carry that fantastic tribute idea.

I may have felt quite frustrated at times thanks to the constant hordes of enemies and the pseudo-slaughter gameplay at times, but every stage made it worthwhile. On the other hand, I'm capable of putting up with punishing combat, but confusing layouts? That really kills my patience, but I understand that sometimes the glory and fun lies in this singular aspect, the exploration and the feeling of being lost. On the other hand, don't let my words sound so extreme, this isn't Eternal Doom either, but you will need to pay attention and take note of where you've been and where you're going. If you like that, then you will love it. But even if you don't, let me tell you that I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the megawad. It's a long, but satisfying adventure that ends on a nostalgic note through space and time, like a dimensional goodbye from mirrors we don't see. A fine tribute that I'm sure Ty would love.

Heroes 2

An interesting megawad that works similar to what we would find in the ''shovelware'' discs of the 90s, that is, a compilation of random items united under the desire of commercialization. On the other hand, Heroes 2 doesn't have more than 3000 levels and won't make us regret our existence... that much. It is a compilation of 32 maps for Doom 2 compiled during 1996. What we will find here are maps so 90s that we will breathe both nostalgia and frustration. All the tropes that are common during these times lie in this megawad in such a way that it becomes like a kind of relic museum. It's perfect if you love this kind of WADs, but on the other hand, it's a great punishment if you prefer the life changes of modern times.

Hells Half Acre

From 1996, there is not much to expect in this WAD. It is a map that replaces E2M1 and contains some questionable design decisions. It starts with a simple room that then expands to reveal a pool connected to a multitude of paths. These paths are a marvel. As lost as they are cramped, it feels like I'm playing Daggarfall or a dungeon simulator. Possibly that was the author's intention. There is nothing special about this WAD that seems to set no higher expectations. While the design isn't truly terrible, it isn't great either and falls perfectly in the realm of mediocre in all its features. From the bland gameplay to the extremely confusing path system, the progression is just too boring. You don't miss anything by skipping this map, so it's an experience I'd totally recommend ignoring.

Demon's Revenge

A solid level designed with a theme reminiscent of Thy Flesh Consumend. Quite small but with enough detail and good touch to give it a charismatic essence that successfully unfolds in an enjoyable average time. With a relatively challenging gameplay, the level features an excellent balance between visuals and combat, offering a solid effort that is worth playing, even if it doesn't stand out for much else. Small errors here and there in decision making can be found, but overall, there's nothing major that truly destroys the map. As I said, solid all around. The only strange thing is that it doesn't have any MIDI songs, which makes it feel slightly awkward, but still fun.

Dreams

Simple, concrete and without much appearance. This is a 1996/7 level that doesn't try to be pretentious and delivers what it sets out to. A short level with a dungeon design that combines the classic textures of a hellish fortress with a few tints of absolute darkness. Nothing special but nothing terribly bad. Decent, honestly.

FATE01.WAD "Fate Series"

It looks like this is a 90s marathon this week. A simple, straightforward WAD replaces a single map and offers a system based on three connected rooms on a ''find the key'' basis. Combat is explosive, intense but simple without much tactical tact or any sort of deep mechanics within it. It's not too bad, but I would honestly classify it as mediocre. Nothing special or worthwhile.

[paperanddice]

Tears of the Crocodile God Part 11

Now we get to the brass tacks of the adventure conversion: building the encounters. This will be split into two parts, covering the encounters in 5e and 13th Age in different posts.

For this part, I’ll go through and provide my version of each encounter using 5e rules and stats, with some notes on each encounter once it’s been fully put together if necessary. After a lot of playing around with the math of encounter building and similar setups, I remembered how much I don’t like 5e’s encounter builder math and went back to doing things more by feel. Some encounters will be given one version to run with, while others will have a few variations provided depending on party size. In general larger parties will probably have a bit of an easier time than smaller ones, but the trade off there is the use of the crocodile fonts. Five charges per font goes farther with a smaller group. For smaller groups it would definitely be beneficial to grant the additional benefits from the fonts, letting their more limited resources stretch further. There’s also the factor of the sacrifices, who can participate and add extra damage to the enemies, helping battles go a bit more easily.

Drowning Vaults (Monsters, Hazard)

One manticore per party member creates a reasonable threat. This is one of the most straightforward conversions, there’s nothing more to discuss on this encounter once you combine the trap and monsters.

Howling Hunt (Monsters, Hazard)

If you’re going to convert this right as written in the adventure, a reasonable setup is two tanarukk riding howler dread mounts, and 4 howlers. For larger or particularly well optimized parties consider adding another 2-4 howlers to add to the chaos and pin down vulnerable characters. Keep the shatterspell shields arranged just like they are in the original adventure, with the same number of each type. The encounter does require entirely changing the established shield equipping rules to allow a character to remove their old shield and equip the new one as a single bonus action, because without that you’ll never get anyone making use of them.

If you’d prefer to use my alternate version of this room’s encounter, listed below as Statues in Stasis, the Howling Hunt can still be used as a different kind of encounter. If the characters take too long in the Labyrinth, such as attempting to bunker down and take a long rest, have the howling hunt released into the halls and they track the party down to attack them wherever they stop to rest. Have the tanarukk come in from different directions if possible, they’ll know where the party are if they have any sacrifices with them and can easily plan their path to corner the group. Split the howlers between the two tanarukk.

Statues in Stasis (Monsters, Hazard)

For this encounter, my method was to equip the constructs with some of the more deadly shields to them, and then have the additional shields remain and let the constructs equip them if they get a moment of freedom after the first one activates. My combined setup is 2 helmed horrors and 8 animated armors, each equipped with a spellshatter shield. Equip the helmed horrors with the Fool shield and one of the Dungeon Doors, while the animated armors have two each of the Black Dragon, Carrion Crawler, and Rust Monster shields, and one each of the Mind Flayer and Umber Hulk. For larger groups you can add 2-4 more animated armors, putting them in with some of the other shields scattered around the room. A construct that has its shield activated will attempt to claim another if it can do so without provoking opportunity attacks.

Hag’s Lair (Monsters, Hazard)

Old Beshebra herself attacks alongside her filth hag son. For groups of 6+ players, add another son in. Make sure the hag waits to act when the characters have gotten into the room and try to lure them into moving so that someone has a higher chance of falling into the mud pits.

Mold King’s Crown (Monsters, Hazards)

This encounter is one of the most difficult to frame up. With the constant addition of river crocodiles, the conversion of them to death mold crocodiles, the death mold clumps, it all adds up to a quite complex battle encounter. Parties that take advantage of the death mold zombies’ weaknesses can clear them out incredibly fast, clever tactics and movement can get them in and out much quicker, good use of spells can trivialize parts of the fight, or they could get bogged down in crocodile zombies and dragged to their deaths. The setup I used for it is apparently an exceptionally deadly encounter, but both groups that went through it for me won with only moderate damage, so it’s hard to say. If you want to be on the safer side, use 2 death mold zombies, if you think your players can handle quite the challenge go with 4. No matter how many players, keep the pattern of 4 river crocodiles per round, and any that die while poisoned by the death mold become death mold crocodiles. Just make sure that the living crocodiles throw themselves into the nearest creature, attacking the zombies often and getting caught in bursts of death mold spores.

Chained Hydra (Monster)

Simply use the modified hydra for this. No matter how many players there are, the bars, the more limited space, and the hydra’s ability to duck under water and give itself loads of cover will let the combat play out fine.

Mimic’s Parlor (Monster, the brand)

Another one with high variation. I used the impersonator mimic and 8 regular mimics against 4 characters, which is another very deadly encounter, but the lower level mimics break that expected math by a little bit. For a party of 6 or more, drop at least half of regular mimics a bit and put in a cloaker instead.

I do have another note for this encounter though. It provides a very useful item for the sacrifices to get their hands on, but as written it doesn’t have a way for them to actually get their hands on it. While a few of the encounters don’t have an easy way out (Old Beshebra really hits on that), this one doesn’t have any workaround options when it feels like it should. So for my own amusement, I put together an idea for this room’s purpose in the challenges. When someone enters, the mimic is more than happy to invite them to sit down to a game. The mimic will roll a 6 sided die and add the number of garlands that the sacrifice has on them. If the total of the roll is 7 or higher, the sacrifice gets the brand and can leave. Otherwise their life is forfeit. Of course, the chairs around the table are mimics, meaning that whoever sits down gets stuck and will be devoured the moment the dice don’t give the number they want. Each person plays the game independently, so if all four sacrifices go in its 4 different 1/6 chances, encouraging them to take the garlands from each other and give the remaining member the best odds possible. And of course, anyone who enters without a garland isn’t supposed to be allowed to leave, though the impersonator will absolutely do its best to lure the intruder into sitting down and talking before killing them.

Guardian’s Run (Monster)

Another simple encounter. No matter how many party members there are, there’s only one mummified cyclops running around.

Crocodile Tears (Monsters, Hazard)

If the players set off the trap, two mummified crocodiles crawl out to confront them. There’s an interesting idea for what to do if the players successfully solve the trap though. Theoretically the mummies are still present in the passage way once it opens up normally, which could be a really intimidating sight if nothing else. This leaves you a choice; for a group that’s doing incredibly well and has plenty of resources left, you could have the mummies attack any creature that lacks a garland of lotus flowers, while a group that’s struggling a bit may just get a scare before the mummified crocodiles take up a sort of honor guard position and just sit there.

Crocodile God’s Lair (Monster, Hazards)

As with a few other locations, this encounter is the same regardless of anything else. The Crocodile God. For a very small group maybe cut the Crocodile God’s lair actions.

Nephalot’s Quarters (Monster, Hazard)

Nephalot is meant to be a fight that either ends super quickly when the party successfully ambush and wipe out the cult leader, or a deadly, overwhelming fight as unending streams of reinforcements show up. Entering the room finds Nephalot on his own, but he calls for help right away. During the first round, the door bursts open for a crocodile priest and a tanarukk to join in and try to protect him, then every round after that adds four crocodile cult acolytes to swarm the battlefield. For larger groups, if the fight lasts that long bump it to eight acolytes per round, as the goal of the fight is to kill Nephalot and any group that lets themselves get distracted from that needs an alert that this is not a fight they’re here to slog through and defeat everyone. Kill Nephalot and get the hell back out.

And that’s my 5e conversion of Tears of the Crocodile God. This is an outline, so if you want to customize some of the encounters to fit your specific group a little better you definitely should. This setup with mostly these stat blocks functioned perfectly well in both my own runs through the adventure.

[gamepanicplay]

Design Report: Immersion

How enemies help to immerse the player

The importance of in game enemies. this is a detailed explanation on how they important and therefore imperative for immersion in different styles of games.

Enemies can turn the most boring of dungeon crawlers do an exciting impactful adventure and those tense moments and exhilarating action. To make these enemies truly immersive in the gameplay required these three important steps.

·         mechanical Immersion

·         Spatial Immersion

·         narrative Immersion

 Mechanical immersion is usually associated with small Untold Stories that are found in the background. These types of stories are not converted the player by npcs they are visual cues that allow a player to interpret the story differently from what is originally presented these are usually hidden to give the players a semblance of Mystery.

I shall give you a scenario of this "you are in a big dark room all the windows are boarded up from the inside and all the plates and dishes are strewn About shattered on the floor and Scattered around, you see drops of blood leading from the cabinet leading to A Door can you see more blood Pooling under the door frame”.

There are other forms of immersion you can acquire immersion from voice clips or in game files , ones that can be found within a book or notes and most commonly from prodding at npcs and even npcs talking with each other a good example of this is how Skyrim npcs interact with each other and the player and sometimes you can acquire quests by Simply listening to npcs talking and you can outright miss this Quest if not paying attention. And these games these forms of information like they can be found as physical objects you can interact within the games you don't just get a PNG of text you actually get a three-dimensional item that you can look around for more clues.

Spatial Immersion is predominantly described with the featuring of this type experience where players experience seasons and topography of the game like far off mountain treading off into the distance that you are allowed to explore on foot, deep gorgeous that's when you fall in them you gradually increase your speed until you hit the bottom, and endless Fields where the player can experience peace with the calm sounds of nature with the gentle sounds of footsteps on grass. The best way to allow people to experience these forms of immersion or it is better if I say the best say the ways in which this shatters immersion is with the dreaded loading screens the more loading screens and the unexplained invisible game walls where the player is individually told they are not allowed to go there. The player experiences the more it pulls him out of the game.

Some of the player base debate about how far must immersion go?

Some people seem to agree that in some games there is way too much realism, and this type of realism can actually pull some people out of the game a common problem did people like to talk about is carry weights do they help immersion or do they break immersion.

Ideally, if you want a player to go through a specific area and not take any shortcuts you would use the actual enemies themselves to block the players pat through that area to gently lead him to the early wish him to experience first.

 Mentioning the enemies let us talk a little bit about the enemies and what their purpose basic is it is not that simple as enemies stopping the player from proceeding to make it more difficult it needs to be a smart placement so that you do not frustrate the player, everyone knows you cannot just drop an insurmountable wall to your player otherwise they might leave the game.

Now there are games where there extremely difficult enemies but those specific enemies specially were made like that for the purpose of that particular game and the main mechanic of the game like for example:

“shadow the Colossus” (In this game is about gigantic creatures that requires multiple strikes in specifics places while you are climbing them to be able to kill them.)

They are very important criteria to making a good enemy. For the best example, I can present where the grand majority of the ambience of the game is within its enemies Subnautica.

“Subnautica” (A game where you are free-floating through the ocean trying to survive giant sea monsters trying to eat you.)

What Subnautica has is that you first land in the safe Shallows and what this area is a spot where very few hostels to allow to spawn and until the player integrates with this new environment then he can go deeper where he could find bigger and stronger the enemies. In broader terms the enemy should be appropriately levelled of the current level of player it's ok to have weak enemies at the beginning of the game your Player does not know how to play it so you can forgive him that early And this smoothly leads us to narrative Immersion narrative immersion is someone deceiving because it doesn't only refer to immersion from the story but can also be in the way of how your characters are written a good way of doing this is when your enemies have a specific job some people called them enemy classes find the most common ones being The Archer and bruiser there are different varieties of these enemies and because of their specific abilities they look different from each other. To change the player the enemy doesn't just need to be spammed to lose all of its HP there would be intelligent ways of killing enemies with player made traps or with pre-existing traps they make the enemy Trigger.

The most important thing an enemy need memorable is personality good ways to give your anime personality are physical differences in the different jobs said they are assigned this is not just a stylistic choice this can also help players in coming up with different tactics according to the enemy you could have an enemy type does run away from the player when alone but the text to player when in a group. It is very important that is your characterisation of the enemy is very closely related to how they look and that their weaknesses are clearly visible for it to be easy for the player to realise this week point these weak points don't need to be obvious they just need to be clear.

 While making an enemy be very careful of how the enemy looks within the level design  you may you could have designed one of the most beautiful and creative enemies but it doesn't matter if they don't fit the place you've put them in or if the level is not built for them and with this you need be very careful the enemy needs to fit in the overall narrative and game play style you have created, if you have a very slow-moving game where the player needs to be slow and cautious to go through puzzles do not throw in a quick enemy where do player doesn't have time to react to it. It might be frightening yes but it could completely ruin the player’s experience.

While making the games enemies keep in mind when you are making these enemies of how they will react with each other will they be hostile, or will they be friendly or will they team up to kill the player. Enemies do not necessarily need to be hostile to the player they can also be there to serve as a problem for the player to solve.

Now let us talk about how to make a game enemy while using these four aspects difficulty, specific, personality, synergy.

 CHARACTER CREATION

 Let's begin by talking about the environment you're in some kind of cave, now let's say that at the beginning of the game this is going to be a 2 hit kill enemy, where the enemy lets you do a mistake in you getting hit by him immediately kill you the best way to convert these enemies dangerous, is by making him big and angry-looking preferably with big claws that face towards the player now we will start by doing something that will go against realism instead of making our enemy dark give him a bright colour so the player can see him early this will not make the game easier it will make the game fairer for the player.

Now we have a basic description of how the character looks, now we should ask how he will act. The enemy should be aggressive and following player true out the Maze with him giving up after a short while with more of an aggro range this will allow the player to be able to Backtrack if they are in the wrong section of the Maze.

Now we have a description of an enemy. Is only one I know you could create word create synergy with this character I would suggest small but quick anime does very little damage to the player that would not attack the player when alone what would group up and attack the player.

Another section I put focus on is by designing the characters sound like for example the addition off enemies that make insects sounds start the insect phobia of some people and for the bigger enemy large booming steps to show how large this creature is compared to the player this will also help the player not necessarily see the anime first but rather hear him first.

References

Design Report: Immersion

Cheng, K. and A. Cairns, P., 2005. Behaviour, realism and immersion in games | CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [online] Dl.acm.org. Available at: <https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1056808.1056894> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

Youtube.com. 2017. Before you continue to YouTube. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2gIE5gyA6s> [Accessed 3 May 2021].

Frasca, G., 2010. Rethinking agency and immersion: video games as a means of consciousness-raising. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/digc.12.3.167.3225> [Accessed 3 May 2021].

Katelyn, P. and Clint, B., 2011. An Examination of Flow and Immersion in Games. [online] SAGE Journals. Available at: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1071181311551455> [Accessed 3 May 2021].

Calleja, G., 2011. In-Game. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.com.mt/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KIQKV_MXvBAC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=immersion+in+game+enemy&ots=ykriU7XAE2&sig=VRgi57MxF2RLFdKMYuv_4dusnvc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false> [Accessed 4 May 2021].

Youtube.com. 2017. Before you continue to YouTube. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhU4xywyWU4> [Accessed 7 May 2021].

[electricdice]

Dad Mod: Proud Papa

So this is a short story for you all, but I wanted to share it with you, and since my job is playing games with kids, I thought it kind of appropriate.  My son is playing in a D&D game in his after school program.   We made his character Barty the Bard about a year ago, but we have never played it together.  I have run him through a few games of FATE, which I prefer for smaller, one-on-one gaming, but he finally got a chance to use his character.  He’s now level 3, and is asking me to play D&D with him as just a game of imagination.   Now I’ve had my job for a few months and I have gotten to play and run games with other people’s kids.  One of the coolest things I’ve seen is parents, dads and moms, come in and buy RPG books for their kids, but not only for them but also their family.  One of the first retail gigs I worked, I taught a father and his daughter about playing with 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons.  They sat at a table after buying a book, made a character and ran her through a combat.  It was family bonding that is inspiring.    We also have a family game program where the whole family can come in together and learn board games, inspired by places around the world.  It’s something that makes me happy just to see, that a family can still sit around and play a board game together and enjoy the time shared. Seeing my son’s eyes shine with delight as he tells me about his bard simply on the dungeon crawler’s shopping trip in town is great.  Having a hobby you share with your family is something that I can appreciate, and it really brings us closer.   Now I can’t wait to run him through another game myself, soon.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Children of Morta Review

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/children-of-morta-review/

Children of Morta Review

Children of Morta is a game about family. Mechanically, it’s a satisfying dungeon crawler where you grind through bad guys, level up your characters, and unlock better abilities so that you can face off against a series of increasingly difficult bosses. But really, at its heart, it’s a compelling game about what it means to be a part of a family, and how being surrounded by loved ones can make you a better, stronger person.

The Bergson family, six of whom you’re able to play as, is made up of warriors, mages, and inventors all tasked with holding back the Corruption–which has, at the game’s opening, started to spread across their homeland. Their house sits atop a shrine, and to battle against the evil forces of the demonic Ou they need to travel through portals and conquer dungeons, in order to awaken three spirits that can guard against the Corruption.

It’s a cliched fantasy setup, but Children of Morta makes the most of its tropes by making sure that you’re invested in the Bergsons and their plight. Between runs of the dungeons, you’re treated to cutscenes and vignettes of the family interacting with one another, and you get to know the beats of their lives and what they get up to when they’re not enduring dungeons. You start with two playable characters, family patriarch John and his eldest daughter Linda, but the other four are introduced within the game’s opening half. Seeing them train and grow in cutscenes, and getting a sense of their place within the family, means that you’re already attached to the characters before you get your hands on them.

Gameplay in Children of Morta involves battling your way through hordes of enemies to reach each dungeon’s boss, exploring thoroughly and nabbing as many temporary boosts as you can along the way. Each character has three main abilities they’ll unlock as they level up: a standard attack that can be used continuously, a special attack with a cooldown, and a more defensive ability (although some of these can still do damage). The combat isn’t necessarily super deep, but it’s a lot of fun thanks to some extremely satisfying animation and the strategic possibilities that become available as you level up. Dungeons consist of multiple levels and are generated anew each time you enter, so finding the entrance to the next level will always require some exploration. Occasionally I’d find myself frustrated when the path to the exit ended up being very elaborate, but this also kept the game feeling fresh when some dungeons took a long time to clear.

There’s an imbalance between the number of melee and ranged characters–four melee to two ranged–which is a shame, because playing the ranged characters changes the rhythm of the game significantly by encouraging a slower, more thoughtful playstyle, and only having two of them feels like a missed opportunity. I found that Linda (who uses a bow and arrow) was the character I most often managed to beat bosses with, since so many bosses are primed to punish you for getting too close, and I would have loved to have another option beyond her and Lucy, the family’s youngest daughter.

Each character plays differently, and you’ll no doubt have your favorites. Lucy can shoot a continuous wave of fireballs while standing still, and can be upgraded to withstand three hits without damage; Kevin, the youngest son, can dramatically increase his speed and strength by building up “rage” with continuous knife attacks, but he needs to get very up-close to do so before using his power of invisibility to get out of danger. Some characters are less interesting; for the life of me I can’t figure out how to make Joey, who swings a huge hammer, effective. But it’s still fun trying out a character you haven’t played for a few runs and getting into the groove with each of their distinct rhythms.

You need to switch characters regularly, too, as any member of the family who is used too many times in a row begins to suffer from corruption fatigue, which lowers their overall health until they’re given time to recover. Each member of the family can also unlock new abilities that benefit every other family member as they level up (like higher rates of critical attack or even assists in certain situations), and later abilities in their skill trees can be very useful–I initially dismissed John for being too slow but found his shield and wide swing arc extremely useful later in the game, and was ultimately glad that the game encouraged me to use every character and discover their strengths (in five cases out of six, at least).

The plot’s focus on the family, paired with the tremendous art and beautiful animation, makes it easy to love the Bergsons. Lucy is so full of energy that she’ll jump in the middle of her run animation (which doesn’t interrupt your pathfinding at all but adds personality to her sprite), while eldest son Mark’s Naruto-style run is a perfect complement to his martial arts fighting style. Charming touches like this are everywhere, and they give the characters more personality. You feel those unique traits come through in combat, too; there are few things more satisfying than seeing Kevin shimmer with rage and rip through a huge mob of enemies.

And as with any family gathering, Children of Morta will encourage and then test your patience. It’s a grind-heavy game; it was very rare for me to beat a dungeon on my first shot, as most required that I level up and learn the boss’ attack patterns, which requires storming through the dungeon to get to them a few times. You can get away with running right past most enemy mobs, but to stand a chance against the boss at the end, you want to be armed with powerful buffs, and growing stronger requires farming experience and gold to unlock new abilities and improve your stats.

However, it takes a long time for the grind to start wearing you down. The combat is meaty and intense, and the allure of growing stronger is so compelling that dealing with huge crowds and collecting all the gold they spill can hold your attention for hours. There’s a sharp increase in difficulty right at the end, but I could always identify what had gone right–which fights I’d avoided, which charms I’d made use of, how I’d thought about my character’s relative strengths and weaknesses to the boss–and adjust my strategies accordingly to continue to do well. The grind helped make me a better player, instead of simply acting as a level gate.

There are special buffs that are only active for that session, and you have a much better chance of beating the boss if you go in after thoroughly exploring the dungeon and powering up. There are many different kinds of buff you can unlock, some temporary, some permanent; I found that I did far better against bosses when I went in with a lot of them active. You can find the various items and objects that make you more powerful throughout each dungeon, or buy them from shopkeepers that pop up, and I found myself getting excited whenever I found a good combination. Going up against a boss that has beaten you several times, now armed with a combination that you think will give you an advantage, is a great feeling.

Your dungeon runs are also broken up by numerous subquests that can appear throughout each dungeon, which expand on the game’s lore, introduce new NPCs, and result in significant upgrades or rewards. A few even have major narrative impact–there are a series of quests early on that end with the Bergsons adopting and raising an adorable puppy, for instance. But if one dungeon is really giving you grief, eventually it can feel like the game’s ready for you to move on before you’re ready yourself–you’ll stop getting cutscenes and character vignettes after missions, and you’ll find that you’ve run out of subquests to complete. But then, the feeling of eventually taking down a boss that was troubling you is extremely satisfying, especially knowing that you’re going to get more lovely character moments as you try to beat the next one.

You also have the option of playing the whole game in co-op, and the game balance differs depending on whether you’re alone or not. However, I found myself preferring to stick to solo play–it’s annoying for a friend to talk over cutscenes and the difficulty scaling makes co-op more complicated.

Children of Morta’s fantastic art style and enjoyable storytelling take what would have been an otherwise fun roguelike dungeon-crawler and elevate it a great deal. Taking down enemies and eventually triumphing over bosses is enjoyable, but what kept bringing me back was the connection I felt to the Bergsons, and my sincere desire to help them push back against the Corruption. After all, it’s a lot easier dealing with dungeons full of monsters when you have a family to come home to.

Source : Gamesport

[entergamingxp]

Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl

March 10, 2020 4:00 PM EST

Snack World combines a tongue-in-cheek story with dungeon crawling, a loot system, and roguelike mechanics to make one surprisingly fun package.

Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold is the enhanced Nintendo Switch port of the original title Snack World: Trejarers, which was released in Japan in 2017 for 3DS and in 2018 for the Switch. This version includes all the DLC and expansion packs from the original version.

Immediately upon starting Snack World, you’ll notice the subversive, fourth-wall-breaking style of humor. It’s on similar levels to a game like Half Minute Hero. The game’s extremely meta introduction begins in which King Papaya points out all the issues that would realistically come with taking in some random adventurer passed out on the road outside his Kingdom and how doing so would put his people in danger. This, of course, is then thrown completely out the window once his incredibly spoiled daughter, Princess Melonia, decides that she needs a little excitement in her life and that this mysterious and amnesic adventurer, your customizable player character, is her ticket to alleviating her boredom.

However, once you’re all settled and medically treated, Melonia proceeds to completely forget about your existence as she goes on about a gem that she wants. The caveat is that this gem is located in an extremely dangerous area in which the normal kings’ guard cannot traverse. So, since your character clearly has nothing better to do at this point, they are tasked with retrieving this gem.

“It’s refreshing to delve into an RPG that doesn’t overly concern itself with some super epic, complex tale of world conflict.”

This entire ridiculous scenario reflects the overall plot of the game — if you can even call it a plot. To be fair, there is an actual story to Snack World, as the player and their party are eventually tasked with taking down the evil Sultan Vinegar as he attempts to resurrect the Deodragon, Smörg Åsbord. Yet, there’s such an intentional lack of urgency in actually achieving this goal that it becomes an almost running joke itself.

To be honest it’s refreshing to delve into an RPG that doesn’t overly concern itself with some super epic, complex tale of world conflict, an oppressive religion or government, or one that spends hours navel gazing about the duality of man. It’s a simple tale about an adventurer going on adventures because the princess wants things and then sometimes you fight a bad guy.

Joining you on your quest is Chup, the actual main character of the media franchise, and his party comprised of an inelegant witch, Mayonna; a muscular warrior, Béarnaise; a goblin-like creature, Gobsan; and a female pig-nosed dragon, Pigsy. Naturally, they’re as fun and dysfunctional as you’d imagine. That applies to the NPCs populating the world as well, as they often have witty, fun, and humorous dialogue that’s a blast to watch unfold as they interact with each other and your protagonist.

Snack World combines the genres and mechanics of action RPGs, dungeon crawlers, loot games, and roguelikes. So not only is the exploration and battling the main focus of gameplay, but there are also other systems that have a huge influence on how you play.

Because it’s a roguelike, dungeons are procedurally generated, which requires you to adapt to a brand new map and adjust your exploration accordingly. This gives the dungeon crawling a sense of tension and exhilaration and also pairs well with the loot system.

The loot system the title implements is one where item drops are randomized, which encourages repeated visits back into those randomly shifting dungeons in the first place, especially if you’re aiming to complete your collection or to optimize your equipment. The complementary nature of these two mechanics working in tandem creates this synergy that makes for very addictive gameplay all around.

Combat is action-based, normally implying fast-paced, no turn-based frills that allows players to dive right into the fray. However, you’ll find that before you can even begin to learn the fighting system, you need to adjust to the game’s clunky and cluttered UI. Players first have to overcome the obstacle of learning how to read and parse through the information that the UI displays on the screen, and then you realize that the gameplay system is actually pretty simple, making its presentation that much more frustrating.

Then there’s adjusting to the combat itself, as the controls — both attacks and the targeting system — can be a little slippery. But once you get past that hurdle, the actual combat system offers some great strategic depth. You’re allowed to carry six types of weapons, called jaras, on you at all times, along with two kinds of items. And you’ll find you’ll be needing to switch out jaras frequently thanks to the main mechanic: JP.

JP is measured in a gauge that goes down with every attack. It does recharge on its own but very slowly. Once you use up the JP for that jara, your wielding becomes compromised; your blows are much slower and much weaker to the point of being nearly completely worthless. Each jara has a type and foes are strong and weak to different types. For example, some enemies may be weak to swords but strong against hammers, or vice versa. This means that you have to constantly switch out jaras depending on enemy weaknesses as well.

These are simple mechanics but brilliant ones that prevent Snack World from being a mindless hack-and-slash. You have to think about what weapons you’re using and how often you’re using it, forcing you to pay attention to the information presented on the screen as you’re fighting. And if you choose to ignore this and dive headfirst, enemies, and especially bosses with their excellent AI, will absolutely punish you for it as early on as the tutorial levels.

The “Snack” mechanic, which is what the franchise is named after in the first place, allows you to summon whimsical creatures to aid you in battle. You can even trade these snacks with other real-life players. And though it’s a cute mechanic, I feel that it could have been more thoroughly utilized in battle, as it’s not difficult to ignore. Though you can make a case for these mechanics being easy to avoid, since it lets players fully customize the kind of experience they want to have. As a side note, Snack World also has online multiplayer and local four-player co-op for those who prefer to battle alongside friends instead.

Your character uses two types of equipment, which ties right back to the loot system. The first equipment type is the normal armor that denotes your offensive and defensive stats. The second type is your casual wear, which has a unique purpose. Located in the main menu is a tracker that informs players of the current daily fashion trends in the Kingdom, such as the most popular name, brand, or color. If you’re invested in collecting items, it’s imperative to pay attention to these trends because by properly outfitting your character with what’s most chic, you get a free percentage bonus on rare item drops.

And if you’re not that keen on the whole gear optimization because you simply enjoy the combat and exploration — a more than viable path as the game doesn’t punish taking the more conventional route — you’re free to almost completely ignore the more complex aspects. But if you decide that you want to collect rare and valuable items or equipment, these easy to obtain extra boosts are always available to you. Also, I find it a nice extra bit of world-building as it gives you a glimpse into the Tutti-Frutti Kingdom’s daily functions and routine.

“Overall, Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold is a fun title. It’s exactly what it sets out to be and it does so surprisingly well.”

The art style and graphics are, for lack of a better term, adorable. The use of a bright and vibrant color palette reflects the playful nature of the world well. Not to mention, the simplicity of the designs complement and enhance the simplicity of the plot as well as the style of humor. The variation in each dungeon’s designs, as well as the general environments, stand well on their own, too.

Snack World has a solid soundtrack, with each piece well suited for the setting, mood, characters, and scenery. While there’s no single track that’s worth writing home about, that’s no demerit. As an example, until Dragon Quest XI came by, the franchise had been using simplistic and retro-sounding tracks that never detracted from the overall experience. Although Snack World has higher quality music, it’s a similar scenario in the sense that the music is composed solely to compliment the game and not to be grand pieces that will be heralded as classics for years to come.

Overall, Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold is a fun title. It’s exactly what it sets out to be and it does so surprisingly well. While it’s not particularly complex in terms of either gameplay or story, there are surprisingly layered mechanics worth delving into if you enjoy light dungeon crawlers, roguelike games, or loot-based systems. Because of its jack-of-all-trades nature, each individual component isn’t as fleshed out as it would be in games devoted solely to one mechanic. However, when these components are combined, Snack World creates a unique system more than capable of scratching that itch for fans of those genres. In other words, it’s a game that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

March 10, 2020 4:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/snack-world-the-dungeon-crawl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=snack-world-the-dungeon-crawl

[recentanimenews]

Rebuilding the World is Way More Fun With Friends in Dragon Quest Builders 2

When I told a friend that Dragon Quest Builders 2 was one of the games I was most looking forward to this summer, he asked me if I was a Minecraft fan or a Dragon Quest fan. Surprisingly, I answered neither. I played Minecraft back in its early beta days and enjoyed the freedom, but the lack of formal structure left me wanting more to do. I decided to leave the game to those who would happily reconstruct the Great Pyramid of their own volition. Dragon Quest had the opposite problem. Having missed the earlier titles, I never developed the fond nostalgia for what seemed to be fairly rigid, if charismatic, JRPG dungeon crawlers. But when freedom of Minecraft is combined with the structure and goals of a Dragon Quest? There's an incentive structure I can get behind!

    What Dragon Quest Builders really reminds me of is the long vanished "restore the world" JRPG genre that Enix specialized in with titles like ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, and TerraNigma. In these games, you usually played an emissary of God tasked with restoring life to a blasted wasteland filled with demons. Nothing quite matches the power trip of turning a poisoned wasteland into fertile fields and building a thriving community where death once reigned. Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2 were the last of the genre, which seemed all but dead until Dragon Quest Builders came to revive it in 2016.

  Where the first Builders based itself off of the first Dragon Quest, with its setting of Alefgard and great enemy the Dragonlord, Builders 2 references the second Dragon Quest. Here the foes are the evil cult the Children of Hargon, who despise builders and forbid anyone from improving their lot in life. Also making an appearance from the classic title is NPC Malroth, who assists the main character in their journey. As with the first game, at no point does knowing the Dragon Quest lore become necessary to enjoy the adventure. Fans however will have plenty of in-jokes to appreciate and some foreshadowing of the direction the story will take.

    Development duties for Dragon Quest Builders 2 was handed off to Omega Force of Dynasty Warriors fame, and quite fitting, as as the game progresses a ton of characters and action is happening onscreen. The name of the game for Builders 2 seems to be teamwork. Builders was often a solitary affair, with the hero traveling from stage to stage in a  linear fashion, sometimes making allies they would leave behind to continue in their quest. Builders 2 takes a page from the open world playbook, with a hub world called the Isle of Awakening and three other major islands from which to recruit villagers and building materials. The first Builders had some artifice in its world construction, as portals warped you to stages within stages. It felt very much like a game, but there was always something interesting to do. Builders 2 makes the tradeoff to make the world feel more authentically real, but with most open world games, there's an awful lot of space between points of interest. A lot will come down to player preference.

  Like, for instance, the first game you're given a giant hammer for brute work and gloves for finer work. With the hammer, you can bash up rocks, items, and trees into raw materials. Gloves allow you to pick up and put down individual blocks. Material blocks when set down build walls, and when you enclose a space with a wall two blocks high and a door, you create a room. With crafting stations you can create furniture and accessories, creating specific rooms to your villagers' or your own personal preferences. When you start out on an island, most resource collection, crafting, and building from blueprints is a solo effort. A lot has been streamlined and improved this time around, with blocks and items specially marked if they're needed for a quest, to prevent having to check the quest requirements for a specific building over and over again. Additionally, you're given more inventory storage space early on, meaning you're never at the mercy of having to build chests like the first game. As you complete quests, you get hearts of happiness from the villagers which allow you to level up the town itself. As the level increases, villagers will gather resources, cook, maintain the village, and take care of a lot of the tedious busywork. I never had to go on fetch quests for specific ingredients or rebuild the village after an enemy attack after I had showed the villagers how to do it themselves.

    You can also sail to smaller Fortune Islands where you play a scavenger hunt for plants, materials, and animals for a great reward: Infinite resources of a specific type. Early on I traveled to one of these randomly generated islands for a story quest, but stuck around and searched the island thoroughly for the reward of infinite wood. For the rest of the game, I never had to put my construction plans on hold to go chop down yet another tree. Having all of the minor busywork automated away once it no longer presented an interesting or novel challenge was a wonderful upgrade and made the process of creating these towns much more rewarding.

  One problem that does emerge from this is that near the end of a island's story quest, there is usually an incredibly elaborate building that is constructed with all of the villagers' help. Supermassive, with three floors and over 500 blocks per floor, these projects are not ones you'd want to complete on your own. While you often have missions of your own to complete while the villagers work, you can end up having to wait for the villagers to complete their task. Still, it's a minor nuisance, especially compared to a similar issue with combat.

    Combat has never been Dragon Quest Builders' big draw. The boss battles are fun, but routine combat involves one or two kinds of attacks at best, running away to dodge, and smart use of healing items. In the first Builders, you were often the strongest member of your party due to your ability to craft weapons and armor, and a few NPCs lent a helping hand. Here, you are second best. Your game companion, Malroth, blessed with the powers of destruction, is a much stronger fighter than you. While you, being a creative builder, have a powerful ally of destruction is fun for the story, it doesn't add much to the gameplay. When it works out, it can be convenient to have Malroth take care of persistent mobs for you, or to deliver finishing blows to weakened enemies. When it goes badly, and you have no healing items, you can run around waiting for Malroth to defeat your enemies. Fixes to this would have been reducing the incidence of combat overall, or letting you control Malroth in high stakes combat situations. Playing second fiddle is just no fun.

  The tower defense segments are slightly better, as there you have a group of villagers fighting a group of enemies. Battles are often lost or won ahead of time by making sure your villagers are equipped with the best weapons. You can play a supporting role by carrying wounded villagers back to a bed to rest, but your inventory of offensive building projects like spikes or flame-breathing gargoyles have been reduced from the first game. Again, if a fight goes wrong, you can end up waiting for your allies, especially Malroth to carry the day. I died a lot less in combat in Builders 2 than I did in the first game, but I also can't say I enjoyed battling outside the boss battles, where you always play a central role.

    Considering the mechanics on paper is one thing, but Builders 2 also has a massive amount of charm going for it. It's a beloved world for a good reason, and Akira Toriyama's goofy loveable characters allow you to overlook combat shortcomings. Traveling to an island, seeing the dismal state of the village when you start, and seeing just how vibrant and lively the village is when you leave is a lot of the appeal of the game. On an island, you have a Story Quest necessary to defeat the Children of Hargon, and villager quests, necessary to level of the village itself. These tend to be fairly structured and linear, but there are still secrets to find and bonus puzzles to solve if you check for hidden areas. A new auto-map and fast travel option make this easier than ever. Building the most bare-bones structures to reach the goal, the main story took me over 40 hours to complete. If you work hard to make your villages look pretty and cohesive, this could take even longer.

  The game doesn't end with the story islands, however. You still have the Isle of Awakening to build on, with missions to both improve the landscape of the island with rivers, forests, and greenery, and a variety of building projects, both tiny (an item shop) and massive (a giant pyramid). I haven't had a chance to even dent this postgame content. Although I wasn't able to try out this feature in the review copy, the Isle of Awakening has a portal to allow 3 friends from over the internet visit and work together with you on building projects. You can also take pictures of scenes that impress you and share these on the game's bulletin board system. For dedicated builders and veterans of multiplayer Minecraft servers there's a lot to love here.

    Reservations about the combat aside, I really enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest Builders 2, and I look forward to tackling more of the endgame content. There's something really satisfying about building work that keeps me coming back for more. The addition of a farming village on the first island also gave me some of the same satisfaction I got from the Harvest Moon series back in the day. If you enjoyed the first Builders, you'll probably enjoy this as more of the same, and if you've been looking for a series like Dark Cloud or Actraiser you owe it to yourself to try Dragon Quest Builders 2.

  REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Keeps the fundamentals of the first Dragon Quest Builders

+ 40+ hour story mode plus even more post-game content

+ Building has been streamlined to make completing quests and gathering resources easier

+/- Levels constructed to be like game stages have been replaced with a more open world

- You're the second fiddle in combat, which makes combat less fun

  Are you a seasoned Dragon Quest Builder or still a Child of Hargon? Will you be giving this building thing a try? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

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Thomas Zoth is a features writer for Crunchyroll, blogs occasionally at Hungry Bug Diner, and appears on podcasts at Infinite Rainy Day. You can follow him on Twitter at @ABCBTom.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[dungenz-blog]

Dungeon Hunter

Development

Development has continued on the game. We’ve started to design the dungeon. Starting off with a simple map designed within Photoshop, we will need to greyboxing it out within Unity 3D. 

It’s hard to know where to start with designing a dungeon. I admittedly have not done it before. When designing something, I always like to have a theme. My initial thought was to design the dungeon in the shape of a skull, and you might get a bit a sense of that from this draft map.

Dungeon Hunter 5

As I mentioned last week, it’s been a while since I’ve played much of a dungeon crawler, top down, hack n slash, action rpg. Probably the closest to this I’ve played a lot of in recent times is Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (which is awesome by the way).

So part of the development of this game, I’m “researching” this genre of games, including playing some games that come under this banner. The first I’ve started playing is the free to play mobile game, Dungeon Hunter 5.

For a mobile game of this style, it’s a good looking game. Not the best, but good enough for this genre. The mobile controls working well for an action game of this nature. I only occasionally found myself struggling with the controls. Relating to do the design of our game (which won’t be mobile), I noticed the camera zooms in and out depending on the scene. I believe the camera for our game won’t be this fancy, it will likely be static, which presents the challenge of finding the perfect angle, position and zoom level that will work with all scenes. Stylistically, Dungeon Hunter 5 is fairly generic fantasy. This is to be expected, and it is likely going to be a challenge for our game. Is there any way to escape the cliche’s of a genre? 

From a mobile game perspective, I find issue with the fact that the game has to be always connected. This would be argued being for the reason of multiplayer, but it kind of defeats the purpose of mobile. On my first play of the game, I was on the train, a common place for people to play mobile games, and as I travelled through a dead spot, the game cut out due to the loss of connection. Not only did this interrupt play, it also loss my progress, so I had to replay through the scene again. I am also skeptical as I’m waiting for the freemium side of the game to kick in at some point. You don’t get a game of this calibre for free. So at some point in the game, there will be pressure to pay up. Reading a bit online, it sounds like a paywall comes up later in the game. This is offputting to me. I don’t like the concept of my progress being determined by if I pay up or not. I prefer games to be “premium” and be upfront about their cost and then I don’t have in the back of my mind all the time, “when is the paywall going to pop up”.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully I’ll get some time to play some Diablo 3 for the next blog post and show some dungeon development progress.