Mystery Dungeon
I’d like to make a Mystery Dungeon styled game! In it, I want to explore a few gameplay features I’ve never done before.
Key Features
Most of these features are standard for the genre, but there are some twists I’d like to add to some of them.
Tick-Based Turn Economy
I’d like to have a simple tick-based turn system. This allows actions to take a variable amount of time, which can give the game more strategic depth. The “stronger” moves will take time, which can telegraph to the player (or enemies) that they should get out of the way!
Spelunky-Style Dungeon Generation
Most Mystery Dungeon games follow the dungeon generation style of Rogue, which is randomly placed rooms, with paths connecting them. I want to avoid this by using more spelunky-styled dungeon generation Game Makers Toolkit does a great overview of how it works, and I think it should be fairly similar to implement this in a dungeon map
Four-Direction Movement
I hate diagonals.
- They complicate controls
- They make me rethink every step I take cause I could be more efficient by using diagonals Diagonal actions are fine, just not movement.
Unique Mob Loot
Mobs can sometimes blend together as bags of XP and money. I think it would be more interesting to follow Monster Hunter’s loot system, where creatures can drop a variety of items, some generic and some unique. You’d have a large collection of items to store and manage, sell for money, or hoard as a safety net in case you die.
Gear-Based Progression
XP and scaling enemies feels bad in a lot of ways. In most games it can make all encounters feel the same, and I don’t want that.
The Gear-based progression found in games like Monster Hunter make progression feel earned, and eliminate the problem of grinding early enemies, because the gear they’ll gain you are only effective in early areas.
I’d like to borrow from that. Defeat enemies, collect their drops, create gear from it.
Death Matters
I want death to have an impact, but not so much of an impact that you restart from scratch. When you die: You’ll drop all held items and your gear. In your “home” or base camp or whatever, you’ll have your items from previous explorations, and hopefully be able to put together gear that would allow you to recover your lost gear from before.
Rescues
I do like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon’s rescue system, and if possible I’d like to implement that
Fishing Minigame
I just wanna fish.