VX - Thrall Demo v0.8.1

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY
Started by Strak 18 posts View original ↗
  1. Strak
    #1 Source
    title_image.png

    SYNOPSIS
    The world is at peril. Creatures that appeared around 400 years ago have dominated the western provinces, forming their own dystopian society, and are a constant threat. Most of humanity does nothing to fight back, and those that do rarely last. A stand must be taken, before the rest of the world is overrun...

    But watch that you don't become that which you fight.

    Warning: This game contains course language, violence, and mature subject matter (17+). There is otherwise no explicit adult content in this game. Player discretion is advised.

    Disclaimer: This game does not contain any usage of generative AI in any form (graphics, music, code, writing, etc).

    SCREENSHOTS
    A Custom Side-view Battle System
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    Battle.png
    Fully Parallax Mapped Locations and Cutscenes
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    Bloodstone.png
    Forge.png
    Eleston.png
    Forge.png
    Hollow.png
    Woods.png
    Custom Scenes include a unique Equip screen, System settings, Full Keyboard Configurations, and a custom Mission/Job System
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    Equip.png
    System.png
    Controls.png
    Branching Skill Trees for each party member
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    Skills.png
    A Random Loot System that drives gameplay, and a custom shop with random stock
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    Shop.png
    Multiple Procedurally Generated Parallax Mapped Dungeons to explore
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    Bloodstone1.png

    FEATURES
    Thrall combines four different concepts into a single game. A rarity based loot system and skill tree system similar to what is seen in the Borderlands series, random dungeon generation similar to the Mystery Dungeon series, ATB sideview combat much like the classic Final Fantasy games featuring an Overdrive system, and a branching narrative story structure, leading to a different gameplay experience every time you play.

    This game is best described as a Roguelike (or Rogue-lite, technically) with RPG elements. This means that the game focuses heavily on gameplay, mechanics, and random loot and dungeon generation, while the narrative is present to tie the game together. This game is intended more for players who appreciate mechanics and gameplay over story, rather than story over mechanics. That said, full effort (of a one-person development crew) is given to every aspect of the game, including story.

    Early on, you'll be faced with a decision that will affect the remainder of your playthrough. Everything from the party you have, the missions you obtain, the cutscenes that play, and the enemies you face will be determined by this single decision. With four different options to choose from, there are essentially four different story paths to follow, not to mention the various builds and loot you'll find on each individual playthrough.

    With that in mind, the loot system will generate random equipment with every enemy you defeat, every chest you open, and every shop you enter. No two weapons or armors will be alike, and many will have unique traits that make for a very different playstyle. Literally billions of different weapons and armors are available for you to find.

    And it's not just the loot you find that will affect your playstyle. Each character in your party has three different branching skill trees to explore. Learn different builds that work with the equipment you have, try new combinations, and find ways to become as powerful as possible!

    The demo features approximately two hours of gameplay, although can be extended considerably longer. The full release should feature approximately 30 hours of gameplay per playthrough, and will feature a New Game Plus mode.

    Here's a partial list of what this game features:
    • A rarity based randomized loot system
    • Branching skill trees for each party member
    • A branching narrative story structure
    • Procedural dungeon generation using parallax mapped segments
    • ATB style sideview combat system
    • Custom menu, equip, shop, item, and system scenes
    • Expansive dungeons and locations created using Parallax mapping techniques
    • Music by Fesliyan Studios (for now, possible custom music at full release)
    WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
    "It's definitely a game." - My Mother
    "This is dope, bro." - My bro
    "This is the equivalent of coding a game in assembly and using paint 3D instead of blender." - some guy on discord
    "I Think that doing all this just for a 2D Default Game Engine is... useless!" - a commenter on YouTube
    "You know, I composed a bunch of music for this game. My mother is very proud." - Tommy Tallarico

    SOCIALS
    Follow the development of Thrall on YouTube.

    CREDITS
    Credits are available in the "Credits" folder, found in the "Notes" folder of the download.

    DEMO
    Click here to download Thrall v0.8 on Itch.io!
  2. Strak
    #2 Source
    The demo is up! Thrall v0.7 is available on itch.io, linked on this page! Woo!
  3. hiddenone
    #3 Source
    Heyas, I gave your demo a try but ended up stopping after getting killed by the spider boss battle in the mine.
    Feedback
    I really enjoyed the looks of the maps, even if I felt some of them were a bit big, and the overall look of the battle screen was nice. The story seems deep, though I didn't get to see much of it because I wasn't able to beat the mine's boss. And switching out equipment often based on random finds can be a lot of fun.

    Unfortunately, I didn't get to really experience a lot of the good parts since I was fighting with the battle system itself. Splitting the party into two pairs is a good way to help players learn how each party member fights and how to use them. But the skill cooldowns are way too long! With so many powerful skills taking 20+ turns to be able to be used again, I found the tutorial area teaching me to just spam attack instead of learning how to use skills together. I was planning on using Mel's elemental attacks on the Thralls to see which worked best, but when I realized that it was 30 turns for its cooldown I ended up unable to use them again in the courtyard! As for Brutus, I unleashed Rage and then didn't gain control of him again until the boss fight so I just spent those first fights spamming Mel's basic attack. By the time I swapped to the other pair, I was pretty set on only using the basic attack since the weapon attack for swords, Flurry, was a worse version of the basic attack since even if it did strike twice is was for 40% of normal damage. Cooldowns for skills can work great to force players to think and plan during fights, but I think you either need to seriously cut down on the number of turns or have it reset each fight so players need to decide if they want to spam all their strongest skills right off the bat or save them for later in battles when health could be low.

    Random equipment can be a lot of fun, but me and RNG don't get along well... Which meant that I was mostly finding weapons that were weaker than what I had already equipped. I also kept running into chests that required gold keys in the mine dungeon, which meant I was missing out on stuff that would have really helped. Being able to only hold 10 consumables meant I couldn't stock up on healing items, and my bad luck meant I mostly found bombs sitting on the ground instead of healing items. I think the biggest issue was that enemies rarely dropped items that could have helped. Most fights ended with me just getting experience, which didn't feel worthwhile after a few battles when I was really hoping for some Apples or Grapes.

    The on-map battles are a great idea, but they respawned way too fast in dungeons! I could defeat a snake, leave a room and then realize I meant to go the other way, and in that short time another monster would respawn in the room so I needed to fight again. I couldn't find a way to leave the dungeon without dying (I may have missed that button in the tutorial), so I ended up trying to run away from most fights on the maps just to save my health. I would run during battles, but I found that it took so long for the escape bar to fill that I might as well just fight and possibly die instead of getting hit two to three times by each enemy. Each dungeon level is brand new to me so I wanted to take my time and explore them, but the number of enemies really made me feel like the game wants me to speed through and find the exit quickly without exploring. If that's what you're going for it's fine, but if you want players to spend time on each floor then please don't let enemies respawn so quickly!

    There were a few other bugs and oddities:
    • The font is stylish, but has some thin lines that could make for hard reading after a while so it may be good to have a simpler font for dialogue
    • Is it supposed to be night or day in the intro? The sunbeams make me think day, but they were hanging out around a fire in the intro
    • A minor thing, but the second group has access to the equipment the first group found, so if I left strong equipment there then they'll start with powerful weapons
    Overall, it's clear that a ton of work has gone into this! But I think the skill cooldowns and number of battles end up causing fights to feel boring quickly, which doesn't make for fun when exploring dungeons. Taking some time to tweak skills could go a long way to improving the gameplay loop.
    Good luck with your project! :ptea:
  4. Strak
    #4 Source
    Hey, thanks so much for trying the game, and for the feedback! I'll try to address as much as I can, and I will absolutely take your feedback into consideration!

    Spoiler
    I'll try to address as much as I can, but ultimately I may need to make some adjustments as well. I'd love to know your thoughts on ways that the game could be improved while maintaining the core vision of the game.

    1. Skill cooldowns: So yes, the cooldowns are quite long, but this is actually somewhat by design. Each party member has skills within their skill trees that can reduce cooldown times if focused on, and Mel in particular has an Overdrive that resets all skills cooldowns on a chosen ally. In addition, there are armors that can generate with a COOLDOWN accessory, reducing skill cooldowns by 3 turns for each piece equipped. The idea is that as you get stronger and develop certain builds, those skills will become more useful, but initially they aren't intended to be overpowered. It is the early game, after all.

    Having said that, I could see the turn counter being reduced somewhat. Maybe 20 turns instead of 30? At higher levels of play, that could be a little TOO low, but by then you may have other builds in mind. I could also change some of the skills in the skill trees to focus on other aspects of gameplay, and have the cooldowns more balanced by default. What do you think?

    2. Flurry and weapon skills: Yes, the Flurry skill that comes with swords is actually pretty weak. If both attacks hit, you'll still only do about 80% of the damage of a normal attack. This is also by design. Some of the weapon skills do offer a power boost, but others are more situational. For example, the Spear special hits all targets for reduced damage. Great for finishing off a crowd of weakened enemies, or inflicting statuses on all of them at once. For Flurry, the idea is that it's a wonderful way of applying multiple stacks of Burn or Freeze status with an elemental weapon at once, or doubling your chances of applying those statuses. It's not exactly a high damage dealer, but when used strategically with the right build, it can really help survivability and damage output.

    I could see about buffing the damage, but I would like to keep some elements of strategy with those skills, and not just have them be a better version of Attack. Otherwise, what's the point of using Attack? Anyway, I'll put some thought into how to make those more effective or useful.

    3. Healing items: This has been a huge challenge to balance. My number one focus with the battle system in this game was "I don't want players to spam the heal option. I'd like them to find creative ways to stay healthy." This was why I implemented a number of health regen options, as well as the Cover command, which removes the actor from combat and regenerates their health while under Cover. I could probably have explained or tutorialized that a bit better though. I'll think about that for the next update.

    On the other hand, I'm also curious as to what types of items you were finding. Grapes, Oranges and Apples are certainly the primary healing items, but did you know that the status healing items also heal 20% HP? Weak Herbs, Shock Roots, Fire Cherries and Ice Berries all heal elemental statuses, but also restore a small portion of HP. Maybe I could have explained that better as well, or made that a more prominent feature of those items. I could also potentially reduce the drop rates of Bombs, which may help with finding more healing items. I'll take that into consideration.

    4. Respawn rates: So the way that enemies respawn is not by time, but rather distance. If you move too far away from a defeated enemy, they'll respawn. Maybe I should increase the distance? Or maybe add a timer as well as a distance meter? The idea was that I didn't want enemies to respawn while on screen, so I needed to have the player a certain distance away, but in certain situations you can still get horded. I will work on this as well.

    5. Font: Yeah, I think I picked this font early and didn't actually consider whether or not it made sense from an accessibility standpoint. I can try to find other fonts, and maybe add an option in the System menu for which font you'd like to use.

    6. Sunbeams at night: Oops. Um... they're moonbeams? Lol, no. That's an easy fix, thank you for pointing that out.

    7. Equipment carry-over: Yeah, this was both intentional and not. "It's not a bug, it's a FEATURE!." Basically, fixing this would require coding in separate inventories for the two parties for what is essentially 10 minutes or so of gameplay. I didn't think it was worth it. So, hey! You can apparently teleport your found loot between party members. Maybe eventually I'll patch this, but it's kinda low priority right now, since it doesn't really break anything.

    At any rate, I hope that wasn't coming across as defensive or anything. I just hoped to explain the design choice behind some of that stuff. I really do appreciate the feedback, and I will take it to heart and find ways to fix some of the issues while keeping the vision of the game, wherever possible. Thank you so much!

    P.S: I just noticed your username. Hiddenone. That name is familiar. Am I using one of your resources? Did you make the sprite for the Spider Boss? Or am I thinking of Hiddensomeone else?
  5. ATT_Turan
    #5 Source
    I haven't played your demo, but just to offer a few thoughts on the design questions:

    Strak said:
    1. Skill cooldowns: So yes, the cooldowns are quite long, but this is actually somewhat by design. Each party member has skills within their skill trees that can reduce cooldown times...In addition, there are armors that can generate with a COOLDOWN accessory...The idea is that as you get stronger and develop certain builds, those skills will become more useful, but initially they aren't intended to be overpowered.
    It sounds like you need to find more of a balance between "overpowered" and "basic usefulness." Even 20 turns is a huge cooldown - I'm curious what game you've played that had anything like that, which you thought worked well? Using a skill once every 20 of that actor's turns is...probably once per dungeon? Like, that's a lot of turns.

    Do some play testing - how many turns does an actor get in an average combat? How many skills do they have to use? Do they actually have an interesting choice to make on each (or most) of their turns, or is the choice "Do I blow this for the rest of the dungeon right now?"

    Instead of working backwards from saying "Eventually you can do this, so it needs to start here," it might be more playable if you said "What should you be able to do at the start, then how can I improve it?" Worry less about 3 turn differences as a benefit, make them decrease by 1 turn or slightly increase the damage/effectiveness.

    Strak said:
    Yes, the Flurry skill that comes with swords is actually pretty weak. If both attacks hit, you'll still only do about 80% of the damage of a normal attack....the idea is that it's a wonderful way of applying multiple stacks of Burn or Freeze status with an elemental weapon at once, or doubling your chances of applying those statuses.
    Is that on your beginner weapons at the start of the game? If not, maybe it should be a skill that is learned later on, once those effects are common. It seems like it's easy to create a frustrating experience by telling the player "You have these skills to use right now, but they're not actually any good until later."

    Strak said:
    I would like to...not just have them be a better version of Attack. Otherwise, what's the point of using Attack?
    Isn't that the whole point of having skill cooldowns? If you can't use them every turn, and when to use them is a strategic choice, they should be better than Attack. All the time. The point of using Attack is when you don't want to put something better on a cooldown.

    Strak said:
    P.S: I just noticed your username. Hiddenone. That name is familiar. Am I using one of your resources? Did you make the sprite for the Spider Boss? Or am I thinking of Hiddensomeone else?
    Yes, you are probably using at least one of her resources :wink:
  6. Strak
    #6 Source
    Hey thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. For the cooldown thing, I should mention this game uses an ATB system, not the traditional turn based system. In this system, every action from any actor or enemy is one turn. So 20 turns is only about 5 rounds of combat if every actor and enemy takes an action.

    As for the weapon skills, those don't actually have cooldowns. It's only the characters unlockable Action Skill that has a cooldown. Different weapon types offer different weapon skills, so they'll be available dependant on your equipment, both at the start of the game and throughout.

    I do like the idea of working forwards instead of backwards though. Reversing the way of thinking does make a huge difference in development, in any aspect, be it code, mechanics, balancing, heck even music! I'll put some thought into that!
  7. hiddenone
    #7 Source
    1. Skill cooldowns
    A thing I think you need to keep in mind is that the early game will teach players how to deal with the whole game. So by having skill cooldowns be so long (and it is long for a player unfamiliar with the battle system), you're accidentally teaching them to hoard skills until they really need them. I didn't run into any armor that reduced cooldowns, so I only had the passive skills as an option and in the early game it felt better to try to buff my normal attack and defense.

    Mel had a lot of bad luck in my playthrough, she kept dying as soon as she got her ultimate skill available so I never actually got to try it in battle. :rswt Personally I think being able to use at least one skill per battle would help make skills feel more useful, so either lowering the cooldowns or setting up more skills that offer high chances for inflicting states but lower damage with a 5-10 turn cooldown alongside the default skills would make for more snappy combat. But your idea of focusing the skill tree on other things and having shorter set cooldowns would also work.
    2. Flurry and weapon skills
    My luck is terrible, so I mostly found swords when I did find weapons. So I didn't really get to try out other weapon skills, and by the time I did find a spear it ended up being way weaker than the swords I had so I didn't bother equipping it. Flurry was the main skill I got to see and it just didn't feel worthwhile so I didn't have much hope for any other weapon skills. One thing that I think could help with weapon skills is to offer 2 or 3 different skills each, so that there are more options and possible skill combos to keep your players thinking. Maybe swords have the current Flurry skill but also a skill that puts an enemy off-balance so that it's more likely to land a critical hit on them. That way players fill feel like Flurry is a good move if used alongside the other one, instead of just looking at it and thinking it's a weaker version of attack.

    I also never found any elemental weapons, so I couldn't see how states from weapons could affect battles...
    3. Healing items
    I didn't realize Cover could heal, since when I did use it the healing was so low and didn't have a popup it didn't register in my mind. Maybe later in the game I could have found creative ways to stay alive, but at the start the only real option I had was to not fight since I didn't have healing items and kept getting into fights that chipped away at my health.

    I mostly found bombs, with weak herbs being the second most-found item. I did use the herbs to heal as much as I could, but when I was getting stuck around 50 hp and found myself totally out of healing items. I do have terrible luck, but it felt like the drop rate for items was really low.
    4. Respawn rates
    Respawn definitely needs a timer attached! You want players to explore dungeons, but when the enemies respawn too quickly it will chase players away from searching for goodies and make them want to just rush through the maps to reach the boss before they run out of healing items.
    7. Equipment carry-over
    Yeah, that was mostly just something I noticed and I wasn't sure if you meant it to be the case or not. Honestly, it's probably best for players to be able to buff the new team with decent equipment right away.
  8. Strak
    #8 Source
    Thank you for the in depth response! I find a lot of players who've played the game and struggled mostly say things like "your combat system sucks" and don't actually offer insight as to why it didn't feel good, or how to fix it. I will definitely take your feedback to heart.

    For consistency, I'm hesitant to add more skills, since the skill trees are designed to enhance your starting skills, rather than grant new ones. But I can definitely look at balancing cooldowns, reducing them initially and altering skill trees to require less focus on cooldown reduction and more on unique traits.

    Sadly, the downside to a game that offers entirely randomly generated loot is that RNG can hurt your experience if you get a bad run. It sounds like you had a pretty rough go, and hopefully if you try it again you'll have better luck! I can definitely look at tweaking drop rates for enemies, and making healing items appear at a higher rate than bombs. I think a higher drop chance would also make battles feel more rewarding, if you're more likely to get something out of it other than just exp, as long as it doesn't become too overwhelming. Inventory management and loot flooding was a problem in the first release.

    Two weapon skills per weapon type could be interesting! I'll put some thought into that. I also like your idea of making an enemy "vulnerable" but I'd have to really fiddle with that to find a good method.

    And I will absolutely be putting in a better enemy respawn method! I have some ideas that I'll play with, but I think reducing the number of enemies in the first dungeon may also be necessary. I'm later dungeons, it's easier to avoid enemies, but the mine has single tile wide passages that make avoiding encounters nearly impossible. Even taking one respawning enemy out would probably make a huge difference.

    At any rate, thank you so much for the feedback! I've got some work to do!
  9. Strak
    #9 Source
    Thrall has been updated! V0.8 is now available on Itch, link in the main post!

    This version addresses a lot of the above feedback (although not all). Cooldown rates have been reduced, combat has been balanced, healing items are more common, drop rates are higher, and a lot more.

    In addition, I've increased the default resolution from 544x416 to 608x480! This means the game has a full extra tile border visible at all times. I've updated all the menus and UI elements to accommodate, including all the minimum sized maps! This has also allowed me to add features such as rebindable movement controls, a font changer for readability, and a window resizer that increases the actual window while stretching the graphics to fit (intended for larger monitors with a sharper image quality). Go check out the new version!

    Old save files SHOULD be compatible with this version, simply move the old saves into the new folder. To prevent save file corruption, I would strongly recommend against copying and pasting, or renaming the saves. Just move them and they'll work fine.
  10. ATT_Turan
    #10 Source
    Strak said:
    I would strongly recommend against copying and pasting...Just move them
    What does that mean? :unsure: The only way to move files in Windows is to copy (or cut) then paste.
  11. Strak
    #11 Source
    It just means to click and drag the files from one folder to the other. I suppose copying and pasting would work too, but renaming the files may corrupt them. This game uses a validation system to prevent save duplication, thereby preventing item duplication.

    Bit of explanation. There's a feature in this game called the "locker." By using the locker, you can transfer equipment between different save files. If you could copy the saves, you would be able to duplicate items, granting yourself copies of legendary loot or infinite money. That's why the system is in place.
  12. ATT_Turan
    #12 Source
    Strak said:
    It just means to click and drag the files from one folder to the other. I suppose copying and pasting would work too
    Okay. Drag-and-drop is purely a bit of interface functionality - in terms of what the operating system actually does, it's identical to cut and paste. And cut in paste, in turn, is identical to copy and paste except it deletes the original afterward.

    I don't intend to derail your game thread, I hope you get people trying your new version and giving you valuable feedback.

    Good luck with your project :smile:
  13. Strak
    #13 Source
    That's fair, I've never thought of it that way before. And thank you!
  14. Strak
    #14 Source
    After receiving a bug report and reviewing the issue, it appears that v0.7 save files are NOT compatible with v0.8. Movement controls will not work due to changes in the Input module, and certain equipment will not function as intended. For these reasons, please do not use v0.7 save files with the new version. Either start a new file, or continue to use v0.7 if you still have it downloaded.

    Steps will be taken to ensure better backwards compatibility moving forward. Apologies for the inconvenience.
  15. Strak
    #15 Source
    The demo has been updated! This update includes a brand new dungeon, a new story mission, side mission and keep member to recruit, improvements to the accessibility settings, a complete overhaul on the job system, and a brand new travel system! Have fun!
  16. Strak
    #16 Source
    V0.8.2 is now available! See the devlog for more details! Huge thanks to Graeldon for doing a livestream of Thrall, and giving me much needed feedback.
  17. Silver_Crusader
    #17 Source
    I'm a huge sucker for rougelikes and this really hits the mark with it.

    Each run is not the same gives it a nice change, along it puts you at the mercy of RNG, I just really like putting my luck to the test, and this game could be a Souls-Like Rougelike, cuz the healing is near non-existent that makes you play carefully.

    I personally like hard games, but not the ones with no balancing whatsoever.

    I really like how you built your world and characters, each one with a different personality, the world under constant threat of Vampires only to skyrocket when Dracula and Vlad comes along and kidnaps the member you choose to be the lookout.

    I really like the game, I hope it gets finished!
  18. Strak
    #18 Source
    Silver_Crusader said:
    I'm a huge sucker for rougelikes and this really hits the mark with it.

    Each run is not the same gives it a nice change, along it puts you at the mercy of RNG, I just really like putting my luck to the test, and this game could be a Souls-Like Rougelike, cuz the healing is near non-existent that makes you play carefully.

    I personally like hard games, but not the ones with no balancing whatsoever.

    I really like how you built your world and characters, each one with a different personality, the world under constant threat of Vampires only to skyrocket when Dracula and Vlad comes along and kidnaps the member you choose to be the lookout.

    I really like the game, I hope it gets finished!
    Thanks so much! It's a work in progress, but I have a vision for the finished product, so I will definitely get there. Hopefully sooner rather than later.