Hello! In the long denouement after releasing Initial Daydream, I jumped from idea to idea, not really sure what to do next. I started writing Secondary Daydream, but even in this early stage I can tell it will be a massive undertaking. I started a sports management sim, an autobattler, and a survival horror demake. I'd like to return to them all at some point, but none of them really stuck in the moment. (And I did some music for orkn's next game Lolife, which is looking REAL good.)
But finally a sticky idea struck: iterate on some of the style and mechanics of Initial Daydream, but take the structure and consistent unlocks/upgrades from a game near and dear to my heart: Vampire Survivors.
You choose your character and location, and then you do a short little dungeon!
When you finish dungeons, you unlock new dungeons and characters and abilities!
I want to make more big RPGs, but I think something like this will appeal more to the Playdate crowd that tends to play in shorter bursts.
Plus, the dungeons will be deliberately pretty short and more focused on systems, which will hopefully mean that additions and iterations will be less work and development milestones will be more frequent (lol). And not worrying as much about story and leaning fully into systems and imagination will be a nice change of pace.
Since the whole project is so open and eager for stuff to fill it, I'd love to include characters and locations from anyone's games who wants to join in! That'll be a little ways off while I get the game to be more functional and fully featured, but I'd love to have a list of unlockable characters and dungeons ready to go!
Hey!
I'm going to attempt to do weekly updates on here.
This last week, I built out two levels with encounters and bosses, with a third level about a third of the way toward functional. The enemies have randomized health and attack, and each area has two different types, though there isn't much difference between them besides aesthetics. I think ultimately I'd like each enemy type to have a range of stats that could be slightly randomized, but the main difference being their abilities. That'll be a little ways out yet, but I think that will be an addition that really takes this combat above and beyond what I had in Initial Daydream. I started experimenting a bit with these ideas in the post-game superbosses, but now it's time to think bigger!
The other major addition from this week is the unlock system. You start with one character and one dungeon. Once you beat it, you get a second character. Once you beat it with the second character, you get a new dungeon. And so on and so on (except that I've only got 3 dungeons and 3 characters right now haha). Ultimately, I'd like this to be even deeper in the vein of Vampire Survivors where there are secrets in levels that you need to find to unlock things beyond just dungeons and characters, but also secondary abilities and consumables. I think it'll be fun to map out a big ol' web of little guys and places for them to go around to discover more and more.
On that note, here's my current to-do list. I've just been using the script of the default computer sprite as my in-engine checklist, which is both convenient for me while working and for doing updates! That's all I got this week.
Well I truly had a hell of a week this week and didn't have much dev energy. However, I got the EXP system working, different stat ranges for different enemies, and started mapping out some ways to make the maps more interesting and involve more unlocks.
I also did a lot of research, aka played a lot of Vampire Survivors again. I did actually have a small revelation that will affect development: a lot of the fun of VS, for me anyway, is the randomness of what weapons you get when you let the run come to you. My original idea was, each character has their own inherent ability, and then as you progress you unlock more that you can equip before each run. But now I'm thinking the levels could stand to be a bit longer, and there could be points at which you can pick up another ability or a temporary stat boost or EXP or bollars or something. Could even borrow from Core Fault a bit, where at a certain point you HAVE to choose a new ability at the expense of one you've got. It's a lot that will have to be worked and reworked and all that, but at the very least I'm glad that even at this early stage the game feels this alive with potential.
Next week is not likely to be much easier than this one, but perhaps I can do a little more chip chip chipping away. Here's the updated todo list, which isn't tremendously different from the previous one haha.
Slightly more productive week, but not by a lot. I'm taking this next week off for my birthday, so that might result in more progress, or it might not haha.
I've been playing the Vampire Survivors Castlevania DLC, and weirdly it actually did function as research and not just me procrastinating. It helped crystalize what I love so much about the game that I want to bring into Missio Survivo: Vampire Survivors doesn't just give you abilities that seem overpowered, it gives you abilities that explicitly "break" the game. So in addition to mapping out the maps and unlocks in greater detail, I'm brainstorming ways in which I can invite the player to "break" the systems.
The first big idea is removing the idea of max health. Each character will have a starting health number, but if you keep finding potions in the field or you have a weapon that leeches health, you can just keep going up. That was the initial idea that then sparked more: what if you could do that with mana? Attack? Actions per turn? Then it starts to get really wild. Dungeons will probably have to become longer and more intricate to accommodate, but I think it's worth pursuing.
As for what I actually did this week, I ran through the game a couple of times, cleaned up a few bugs, added a system for random chests, and started drawing up the first couple dungeons in a way that can act as a tutorials without actually just telling you what to do. The game starts very bare bones, with each unlock adding a menu option, a new character, or a branching path. First couple of Missio will likely be 5-10 total rooms, but ultimately they'll need to be a lot larger to really take advantage of these systems.
Anyway, here's the updated todo list. Not tremendously different, because a lot of the work this week was either in my head or in my notebook. See you next week, perhaps with real strides!
Great strides, as I had hoped, were made this week!
Almost everything on last week's todo list has been addressed to some degree, if not outright finished. The first level is now pretty much entirely functional (only addition is I want it to get a little harder every time you beat it, but that's a system that I think every level will get eventually).
The Laser Factory scientist man, now known as Donktor Bonkter, is somewhat functional! He can make character's innate abilities usable by other characters, and he takes items you find and turns them into new abilities, new Missios, new characters, and new game functions! So far only the first few characters and items, but the system is in place.
One of those items is used in multiple different Missios, which is something I want to do more of. I've only just started mapping out the unlock progression, but that's something I might do more of on my breaks at work.
And just this morning I started figuring out how weapons will work, as well as a system for randomizing chests to give you options of what thing you want to take!
It's really beginning to resemble a game now and I can't wait to see how long it takes to actually do everything that's in there so far. And lastly, here's the new todo list.
