Terminal Attractor: dev thread

[pjbebi]

It'd be really cool if any of you all wanted to try my game as it is and tell me what you think, especially regarding what it needs and what doesn't work. I won't post it as-is, but if you DM me, I'll send you a link to the game. I think it would be really helpful to have an (credited) advisory team, so I can use my modest skills to make a great game. I may not take every piece of advice, but I can handle a tough crowd, especially if it will improve the game.

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Things Already on the To-Do:
- Your inventory is going to show up alongside the shop's inventory, so you don't have to check what you have.
- More graphics: battle animations/explosions (nothing too crazy), varied portrait expressions, more refined but still simple map tiles
- Music and varying voice samples (like Tough Girl Gina but less so and with a very different personality).
- Complete the maps, 4 mini dungeons, fill in the friend/stranger houses to loot

If you didn't read my last post, This is the Premise: In the future, the outside world is occupied mainly by robots. Humans spend their lives in preservation pods until they meet someone special (through the friend network) whom they want to spend the rest of their lives with, in the flesh. So Rei, our hero, sets out to join their love interest, Hana, in a distant pod. To do so, Rei needs a team of robots to fight alongside them on the treacherous journey.

The mechanics:
With a maximum party of nine robots, you can fight with three at a time. Battles are turn-based and super fast, because your bots are programmed outside of battle. Order and frequency of turns are determined by speed stats. Also, bots can be swapped in and out of your party whenever it's Rei's turn. Instead of receiving experience, each enemy bot leaves behind a certain amount of scrap, depending on how you fight them. Hacking an enemy bot will destroy their computational power, leaving behind more working parts (scrap) as opposed to straight-up busting them, which uses less energy. Scrap is then used at a terminal to purchase blank bots or upgrade the bots in your party. Resource management and strategic upgrading is key. Instead of taking temporary, physical damage, your bots receive permanent damage to their computers whenever you're attacked in battle. High defensive stats can slow the deterioration of your bots, but can't stop the inevitable.

Battles are random, but each level of fight becomes less frequent with each victory, and even less frequent after an unavoidable boss fight.

Some houses have a scrap depository, which you can assign a home defender bot to, passively collecting scrap while you're out fighting. In this linear game, exploration is key if you want to build bots powerful enough to make it through to the end. Most of these rare depositories can only be used after finding the terminals in these (smallish) dungeon-like houses.

The story is told through Hana's blog, which you are expected to respond to. These responses have a mild effect to the outcome of the game.