Draconis (OROW puzzle game with level editor)

Radiant · Fri 19/07/2013 11:39:17

From the latest OROW contest, Fizzii, Diamond16 and I present Draconis. A cunning puzzle game, it puts you in the role of Sir Flamington the dragon, who has to recover his precious gems from the knasty Knights of Knuisance. And, as any dragon worth his salt, you can set things on fire and cause nice explosions while you're at it.

Now this is a concept that deserves some expansion before we'll release it as a full game (eventually, because Heroine's Quest takes priority). We're looking at scrolling rooms, some more puzzle elements, better sound, and of course many more levels. In the meantime, you can play around with this early build and tell us what you think. Also, you can edit the customlevel.txt file in any text editor to create your own levels, and share them here. Enjoy!

Download beta version here.

Radiant · Fri 19/07/2013 11:42:30

Let me collect all feedback so far in this thread. Yes, the first thing on my to-do list will be to implement save points.

Quote from: AJA on Mon 15/07/2013 20:34:05
Draconis!
At first I was slightly concerned that the game would be just about running around with the dragon, collecting some gems and burning up some knights, but I was happily surprised to realize that it was actually a proper puzzle game. The second level was quite hard, it took quite a few tries to completely understand the different gameplay mechanics and how they worked together. (Some of the stuff was probably mentioned in the help screen but I forgot about most of it quickly.) The third, and sadly final (proper), level was much easier than the second. The biggest issues I had with the game were that you couldn't save the game and that the dragon moved so damn slowly. But overall it was lots of fun!

Quote from: Pablo on Tue 16/07/2013 08:39:00
Draconis! - Very impressive programming! I was pretty shit at this game though so I didn't get past the first level.

Quote from: Sunny Penguin on Tue 16/07/2013 15:49:29
Draconis!
The coding here makes this game a great little number. It's a real eye opener and great example of how flexible the AGS really is. Like others I did find the second level hard and didn't manage to complete it, but I did enjoy playing it. The level maker gives the game great replay value.

Quote from: tzachs on Tue 16/07/2013 19:14:04
Draconis-
Cool game, very impressed that it was programmed in one week. Level design was spot on, there were some challenging puzzles there. Nice graphics too, the dragon and the gems with their sparkling animations were very cute.
I eventually quit without finishing because I was frustrated with two things:
1. Every time you die (or get stuck) you start from the beginning of the levels. Since the levels were long, this was frustrating.
2. You die a lot and the game is not very forgiving. It seems that firing at the enemies was not always as quick as anticipated...
Hardcore gamers might like this, but if you want to approach a more "casual" crowd, then this would have to be amended by sleeker controls and shorter levels (or long levels with save points).

Quote from: cat on Wed 17/07/2013 11:17:29
Draconis!
Well coded Digger-clone. It took me several tries to beat the first level and I gave up on the second. I didn't much like the original, either. I guess this is just not my type of game.

Quote from: oraxon on Thu 18/07/2013 08:40:09
Draconis- Hard but clever. Really shows off great, experienced puzzle planning. I had no idea we could do this with AGS. Fun to be the dragon for once, and deal with pesky knights.

Ghost · Fri 19/07/2013 12:13:54

You had me at knasty Knights. Very well done little game, and a whacky premise.

Vince Twelve · Fri 19/07/2013 14:32:27

Missed one!

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Mon 15/07/2013 14:38:23
Draconis:
Some more great scripting on display here! It took me a while to get used to the rule set. It seemed weird that falling gems would kill you and you could only collect them while they were still. Using fire was a little weird too. But the concept is good! I liked the first two levels, but they were a bit hard. I'd like to have a couple simple ones to teach the basics as you build up to the harder ones with lots of ways to die. It also feels really bad when you get really far in a level and then make a dumb mistake and have to start over. Bad enough to make me not try that second level for the fourth time! But I felt like I played enough to get it and it's pretty great. This could be refined into a very cool thing. And you have a custom level editor text file! That's pretty great! A little more and it could be an in-game editor! Sweet! Good job!

Glad to see you continuing on this! Promising start!

Radiant · Fri 19/07/2013 17:48:12

Thank you. Save points are first on my list, that should help playability a lot. Can you tell me what you mean that using fire seems weird? After all, you play as a dragon, and dragons breathe fire

You're right that this needs a longer tutorial (and a playable one, as opposed to a help screen), I just ran out of time during the week. Perhaps either of you would be interested in crafting a nice level for this?

Vince Twelve · Fri 19/07/2013 19:44:04

Oh, I meant the controls for using fire felt weird. I kept accidentally moving into the bad guy instead of using fire on him. I guess my arrow key finger was faster than my space bar finger. I understand why you do it this way, and don't really have a suggestion for improving it. I just didn't play long enough for me to not be screwing up the controls.

Carry on!

Nikolas · Sun 21/07/2013 23:25:09

I think that the gameplay was great. It sure reminded me of older games (Boulder dash anyone?) and this made 4 levels that I played dead easy. In fact the very fire breathing solution made the game too easy for me... No chasing? I would like to feel a little more like an arcade game, when right now it still feels too... slow somehow. Not sure if it makes sense...

PS. Where's the exit on level 4, please? It did say winner, but there was a sfx for a door to open... :-/

Radiant · Tue 23/07/2013 16:18:15

Quote from: Nikolas on Sun 21/07/2013 23:25:09
PS. Where's the exit on level 4, please? It did say winner, but there was a sfx for a door to open... :-/

That's because it's the victory screen

Radiant · Tue 30/07/2013 13:45:39

Update: the current version of the game has more levels, save points, and music courtesy of Diamond16. Enjoy!

Nikolas · Tue 30/07/2013 18:51:41

Nice. All levels beat...

It's great that the knights won't kill you unless they are looking at you... I think you should note that somewhere in the game perhaps.

Also, if there are more levels in this game, it would be wise to have a way to save your progress, not only in the current level, but also the general progress of how many levels you've beaten, etc... I mean it's not like bubble bubble where you have 99 levels and one coin, is it?

Radiant · Tue 30/07/2013 22:24:02

Quote from: Nikolas on Tue 30/07/2013 18:51:41
Also, if there are more levels in this game, it would be wise to have a way to save your progress, not only in the current level, but also the general progress of how many levels you've beaten, etc... I mean it's not like bubble bubble where you have 99 levels and one coin, is it?

Does that mean you're going to make some levels?