Walpurgamingtako

i had some time at the start of my semester and noticed the gmtk jam was going up soon so i impulsively decided (and commited!) to making a game for it. i decided to quickly try and make a small thing in gamemaker to like, feel around for it. i'd used it in the past (way back then) but never got far. i actually kinda liked what i did even if it was super basic movement and camera

i planned to put screenshots of the actual project but i've got school work and family stuff to get through so i'm gonna make the rest of this quick to put it out before the jam rating ends

my darling and i stayed up to 1 to see the theme and it was: "Built to Scale." nice. i had zero idea what to do. we brainstormed as i spiraled into a deep, deep depression hovering over the "Leave Jam" button and eventually they convinced me that we had a few ideas to work with that were, broadly, in theme

adam millard's arctic eggs video was still fresh in my memory, which was probably the main thing that pushed me to make an "unconventional platformer" like getting over it. but also i've never played that game, so my brain was leaning more to the bennett foddy game i had played, QWOP.

brainstormed a few control schemes but found that the one i stuck with (because barb sticks to well, heh) to be one most feasible in the time i had with my skill level. i was actually planning to make it more similar to either game.

initially i wanted to have the player press QWERUIOP to select a tentacle, then have them use the mouse to control it, and sorta force them to feel their way through a maze. but i couldn't get that to work...

so i started working on the sticky thing. which, actually did work out. it was at this point i was considering that there were too many buttons to press, so thought of splitting the controls to QWE / IOP, with the innermost making the legs "flex," the outermost making them stick, and the middle doing uh, something. i never decided. but i did decide this was a bit too much work for me at the moment

so, here's barb and their jump. it took me a bit to make it feel uh, that decent. level design was initially pretty jank, where it was easiest to keep your momentum jumping upwards. so i changed it at the last minute to have those turns and more intentionally placed obstacles. a comment on my itch page did mention that this decreased the difficulty, which, yeah, you essentially have checkpoints on the long stretches of floor

overall, i feel like i did the best i could given i'm still a student doing student things, having uh relatively little time to myself nowadays, and i knew barely anything about gamemaker starting out (especially its physics world, which i hadn't ever touched even when i played around with gms as a kid). so uh, i feel like i did learn a lot. i'm definitely more motivated to make games now too. that's it, i think

oh yeah play some games on the jam

gameplay

this game has this neat announcement graffiti transition before every battle. really gives the homey cartoon vibe, i like it

after you play a tutorial battle (which is just the two of you spamming your one attack, y'know like how two jank robots would duke it out) and more system-introducing events, the game opens up

sitting. this game features a surprisingly large amount of customization that we'll see a bit later

the game revolves around managing your robot girl's (default name Thin) finances and life decisions. first very important thing to note is that you need 100 Nem for food everyday or you start to lose energy and perform worse in battles. fail to eat for 3 days and it's game over

to get money you need to work. to start, you can only scavenge for scrap, which gives around 300~400 Nem and a random item, so it's not actually that bad. you unlock opportunities for different jobs as you play (hint: visit the recycling plant with more than 5 karma)

you can also choose to go somewhere and meet new people (trigger events) or shop. you can only either work or go out, though. i found myself having trouble to do everything i wanted to do in a single playthrough, so i imagine you have to really manage your decisions in the full game

starting a new game lets you pick between the full, a short, or entirely skipping the prologue. skipping actually removes an opportunity to put 10 Nem in the collection box of the garbage shop and get +1 karma so, that's interesting

customization

one of my favorite parts about this game is thin's sprite changing based on the outfit you're wearing. this applies in battles, events, and the main home screen. sounds like a bit of a nightmare for the artist, especially in the full game with more items but honestly it's super nice to see

different parts give stats, skills (passives), and tech (actives). some parts have a set bonus, like the maid and gothic lolita outfits. both of those give a new tech for wearing the full set

there's a skill tree, too. you get "memory" from remembering things. this usually happens in events, or by talking to people. some of this resource is missable btw (for example, you can get memory by talking to the tournament champion in battle iirc). it's super valuable though, providing permanent buffs for thin. i've only ever upgraded the knife so far (because i like using the maid and gothic lolita parts). i've since tried that grayed out 5 memory in the screenshot and it gives you a gun and gloves that's actually really great (and invalidates a point i make later), highly recommended to use. you can practically only get like 15 memory in the demo i think? since you get some memory for talking to people after the demo boss

battles

battles take place on a 1D grid. that is to say, on a line. you can move every turn, but can only perform an attack if it's within range after movement. also you can talk to your opponent, which can give some useful stats/resources (though you do lose the turn, which could cause you to lose)

i haven't actually checked what the stats do exactly, you can kinda just wing it if you know the general amount of damage you and your opponent can deal. there's systems like overheating to keep track of too (move/act too much and you lose a turn)

i find that upgrading your knife with memory twice to turn slash into double slash helps a lot with your damage output. though, that alone isn't enough to beat the boss. the reversible slash seems like it's good in theory because it provides spacing but 2/3 of the bosses in the tournament have ranged attacks, and even if they didn't they could just... move... though some moves can only be performed if you don't move, so it's mainly countering that (which does apply for the second tournament boss)

your main disadvantage is that nearly all your attack options are melee (i found one ranged attack in the shop but it's a one-time use so...), which feels super unfair against bosses that not only have ranged options, but can knock you back as well. fortunately, you can move while using defensive tech (which usually don't use a turn) so in practice it doesn't feel horrible

above is not true. you get a gun from unlocking something in the skill tree. it's really good paired with the combo gloves you get, i can beat battles without being at full health

closing thoughts

i'm gonna choose not to talk too much about the characters, but they're all a treat (especially the last two bosses). oh another thing i like about this game is the care that goes into the events, and specifically the interaction between thin and the other characters. there's a meeting after the first tournament boss that goes differently depending on whether or not you were able to meet the character beforehand. little things like that make the game really feel, uh alive i guess? i'm struggling to think of a better term, but you know what i mean. it's that rpg magic

i found the music a bit weird at first but it's grown on me. i am pretty excited for the full game too

OH also there's a sentai cartoon in one of the events (do the babysitting job) and it's conceptually glorious

this game is really cute and has a lot of potential. it's very japanese doujin game, if that makes sense (probably because it is one). if you like robot girls and fighting other robot girls, give the demo a try. wishlist the game on steam, it helps the devs

gameplay

you place the dice on a board to determine what actions you take for the round. dice typically cost energy, too, so you have to pick and choose for the best placement for the turn. your dice are discarded at the end of the turn (which i personally don't like coming from origins). it does make highroller strategies feel less bad though, since you aren't gonna use the 0 roll anyway

you get a choice of dice sometimes (after battles i think..? i didn't note it). some do more than just the basic actions (like, poison dealing DoT, or mirror dice copying a die at another square. prism dice enabled nutty strats in origins at least, i've not encountered them here much yet). as a side note, regeneration and barrier are really good for the boss (basically just healing and shielding over time, respectively)

some dice have special properties (see above). i find hollow to be the most useful the most often, free action is expectedly pretty good. another notable combo is flash and terrain, to essentially snapshot the boosts it gets to keep the really big terrain boost on the board (strat built around those and prisms carried me through origins)

enemies can have modifiers too (see above). they make the game a lot more interesting, and it's fun to play around the restrictions they may impose (see below)

the little square comes from the beetle-lookin guy, and boosts them when you boost that tile. y'know, aside from blocking your own dice from being played

this one is usually the run killer if you're not prepared for it. well, at least the way i play it, since i stack boosts a lot (which stacks boosts for them and their allies). it's not a problem later in the game if you have relics and good dice to burst it

other roguelike stuff

not sure what to title this section, but this is for those non-combat stuff

map with branching paths, it's the usual. you use movement dice to move (naturally). you're incentivized to think about how you use your dice so you land on event tiles, since most tiles don't do anything. some tiles give small effects (like healing or damaging you). you have to land on battle tiles, but get to move as much as you were supposed to right after. rerolls cost a soul (currency, typically get one after killing an enemy, understandably) and is honestly pretty worth doing

speaking of currency, they added shops. not much to say, it's a nice shop. the relics are usually worth it

relics seem to be given out a bit more sparsely here, so i feel it's worth to pick a few up from the shop

some tiles have dungeons, which are a gauntlet of a normal battle, a shop, an event, an elite battle (two waves), and treasure. i find these pretty worth to land on

this is from a different dungeon but its a lot of loot (there was souls too but did not screenshot)

rest tiles (campfires) are really good. if you have full hp it lets you increase it too

i really like this redistribute values thing

lets you play how you like (safer or more highrolly)

events are great, but i don't like how they're guaranteed passes now. in origins, you used the dice you have to roll to pass/fail a check (like in dnd or smth). now it's balanced by giving a drawback for the particularly strong ones, which, fair enough but i don't really like it as much

closing thoughts

i am very excited for the full game. i wanna try different builds (and hopefully the full game lets us get numbers as high as origins). i don't have much more to say about the game other than that i really enjoy it and i think the devs are doing a great job with it

if you like frogs and roguelikes and dice then you will probably like this game too. wishlist it and try the demo here if it seemed fun