How I made a game I actually like to play myself

I made a few things different when making this game

Using assets

This has always been a big no no for me since I use to value originality over finishing a game. But this time I found a lovely spritesheet by Kenney.nl and stuck to it. This decision allowed me to get very far with my prototype in only two weeks. It also had the benefit of limiting my scope and forced me to get creative with what I had. For example the cave plant is a combination of a pot, several stocks and a head.

Roguelike inspiration and design pillars

I set up a few design pillars based on some cool roguelikes like Brouge and Cogmind. My game is nothing like them but there is something with these games that makes them both appealing and replayable.

• Medium tempo gameplay - I wanted a sandbox to experiment with, I want you to be able to stop and think. 
• Emergent gameplay - Every system I add to the game must interact in interesting ways with atleast one other system.
• No metagame progression - I want reward you getting better at the game and learning more about how to use systems to your advantage.
• Short runs - a few minutes for a bad run when you die and up to 20 minutes when you are doing well and covering the whole map.
• Easy to understand goal - Getting 100 gold is easy to understand and also each run you know exactly how close you are. This goal also builds tension when you get close and dont want to die.

These pillars made the process of choosing what features to include very smooth. I was surprised that one monster type was enough as more of them would not add to the emergent gameplay.

Examples from the game

Another interestion choice was to make the bombs non lethal for the player. There is a lot of things that can kill you in a game but a bomb that can provide recoil movement to a player that can't move is much more interesting.

Living gold coins

I also added a little life and movement to the gold coins. This made them feel more alive and it also enabled you to make tunnels for them to channel them to yourself or to a cave plant as fertilizer.

A cave plant that can be fertilized with gold

The cave plant is a complex character. It grows horisontally blocking your movement. If you slash it by the head it is defeated but if you wait for it to grow it can eat other enemies and give you one gold per stem if you cut it at the base.

A goblin bankir

The goblin bankir provides another dimesion of risk and reward to the game. If you find the goblin in the level he will borrow all your money and dissapear. If you find him again you will get double your money. 

Future of the game

I have made many games but this is the first one I find myself playing over and over again and that is good enough for me. 

But it would be super fun if posting this on itch could spark some interest and I could get some feedback from people who "get it".

• Please let me know if you have ideas or find bugs. 
• I am also really interested in seeing your score, I rarely make it above 100.
• Hearing about strategies and technices to get more gold would also be super cool.

I hope you will enjoy Grail - Dungeon faller

Best regards!

Michael