Battlejewels 1.0.5 For Caanoo!

[skeezix]

Its proven pretty solid on my caanoo and a couple others I've tried it with, so I think we're good to go here; if not, let me know

BattleJewels is an original game I made about 3.5 years ago; its a combination of gem-games like Bejewelled with RPG and Action components -- you play the jewels head to head with an opponent of similar level to yourself (with different class and gearout), and as you defeat opponents you earn experience points based on how you performed. As you gain experience, you level up, and in doign so may buy additional skills and spells (from your class, or others at a higher price), and may spend gold earned in the game on new gear at the store. For instance, as you clear 'skulls' (causing direct damage to opponent's hitpoints, their life decreases; they may in turn cast healing spells (if they have any), or attack you with spells or play the gem skulls back at you. ie: Some classes have 'stealth' (hiding them so you can't hit them), or can cast damage spells or healing spells. The coloured jewels in the playfield when cleared by matching provide mana (or gold or other effects), for casting spells or buying things etc.

I always described it as Streetfighter meets RPG meets Bejewelled

(Arond the same time, Puzzle Quest came out; there are lots of similarities and lots of differences, with theirs obviously having more pollish; Puzzle Quest is more RPG (with overland maps etc), where mine is more about the head to head combat.)

Grab the file here for now:
http://www.walled.ne...caanoo-beta.zip

This is simialr to the Wiz release from a year or more back, though this is the 'full' version (not demo); I may have forgotten to release the non-demo one on Wiz, not sure.. anyway, this one has no built in level-cap.

I'll be working on player to player head to head (over WiFi) multiplayer, for Pandora and Caanoo (and maybe Wiz), as well as against the desktop variations, and if I can sort that out I'll be adding lots more special abilities, and tweaking the classes, maybe adding some effectsw now that we've got some more horsepower these days (this was originally targetting gp2x and Palm devices..)

jeff

This hasn't been publicly released yet, so there well could be issues; the touchscreen works in the main game screen, and the d-pad and buttons work fine for operating the menus; Home to bring up the Quit menu, and the game has some built in help and such.

 

[RupeeClock]

Man I loved puzzle quest on my DS, it was addicting as all hell.
I'm download this ASAP.

 

[RupeeClock]

Holy crap my opponent got a chain of 7 or so in a row.
Actually I noticed something, it resulted in two columns of three gold rings in a row, but only one at a time would take place.
The game also seemed to become unplayable after I brought up the character's menu during a puzzle battle, by pressing L. Not even the home button would respond, all I could do was highlight a single tile green.
There's something else too, the INI file graphics are screwy on the Caanoo menu, the small icon is the Mame icon, and the banner graphic is cropped off with the right half black.

A little feed back on the game itself, it would be nice to at least start out with one or two spells, in any case I look forward to playing this more.

 

[skeezix]

I've got a long list of game design changes I'd like to apply, such as including a few 'cantrips' (basic, but useful trainign tool) spells .. somethign like 'poke for 1 damage' that every class can have, so ou have _something_ to do with mana.

You basicly are forced to level up after the first screen though, and if you forget to buy spells/skills/etc before going to match #2 it hints that maybe you should, so its pretty decent anyway.

The trick is that that first match may go too long, since you really have no way to shortcut it by just blowing up your enemy.

I've considered an easy workaround -- in your first match, make the enemy have many less hitpoints Or something like .. in match 1, he has 5 hp; in match 2, he has 10, and so on up to the default hitpoint count. This way you blow him away hard in your first few matches, get all chuffed, buy some stuff.. then get to the hard meat of the game.

The AI is pretty good at spotting chains the player misses

Theres also the 'pure puzzle' mode in the main menu at the beginning before you make or load a game .. it'll let you just 'bejewelled it out' with no enemy.

jeff

For people who played the Wiz version, theres a few fixes; some of the gear in the Wiz one woudl crash things or corrupt the display etc.

 

[RupeeClock]

There's something I don't get, occasionally it looks like the game randomly buffs or debuffs the players, I don't understand that.

But what I REALLY don't understand is why the enemy seems to frequently not take damage when I match skulls, even though it's only the 2nd match of the game.

Another thing is just a general quirk, when you select a spell that destroys a gem, you expect to activate the spell and then touch the gem you want to destroy, not for it to destroy the currently highlighted gem.

Still, I'm definitely enjoying this bit of software, it just seems to act oddly.

 

[skeezix]

There are a few buffs and debuffs; for instance, if you get a heal-over-time effect on yourself, there'll show a buff. IF you do a poison (damage over time) to a guy, he'll get a debuff.

When your moves are blocked (ie: the other guy is busy chaining and getting free moves) it'll show a debuff on you (a "lock" icon if I remember) to show that you are 'locked up'; thats probably what you're thinking of.

More will be clear when you can acgtually bring up the character screens .. not delivering damage could be a few things (armor spell, healing spell negating the damage, high armor value on his gear, a dodge ability causing him to avoid the damage reception, etc.) Its possible you got bad luck for the second match and got a 'tough guy' .. ie: I think it distinguishes only first and not-first match (so 2nd is like any other), and it rolls a dice to figure out what oppinent you get (based on your level and progression) .. ie: it'll pick an AI-style (mean, passive, caster, goes for skuls at al cost-er, etc), and their class/type (monster or class), and what level they are, and what gear out. Each die roll can go 'exceptional', which causes weirder effects; ie: normally their gear is within a certain range of yours (worse or better or the same), but sometimes they get really crappy or really awesome gear; likewise, once in awhile they get a level above or below you, or maybe in extreme rolls, more than a level or so above/below you. It helps mix things up, and tries to give you a feeling of progression -- if all the enemies were same level and gear-toughness etc as player, it'd always "feel the same" despite levelling up; so it tries to varying the loadouts so it is different and interesting and feels cool.

So maybe on your 2nd match you got a level 2 guy.. or maybe a level 3 or 4 guy that you didn't stand a chance against.

I'm almost tempted to make it so the enemies can never be healer until the player hits a certain level and gear loadout .. the worst is when you're against a healer enemy (or one who sucks your hitpoints etc), and you don't have the firepower to keep him down.. those guys can end up healing so far ahead of you that it takes hours to beet them.. sucks

Thi game is the one I really got familiar with the idea of 'balance' and 'what sucks' and 'design' .. trying to get it to feel right. I thnink I got a pretty good hit, all things considered. (triply so, as this was actually entirely written during dimentia .. we'd just had a baby, and we were only getting a couple hours sleep a night each, and thus totally dysfunctional, just surviving to support the newborn; the weird thign is, the newborn would eat, then be awake for 30 mins before falling asleep, then sleep for 45 mins, and repeat.. that sort of schedule day and night for awhile; so it wasn't enough time for me to get any sleep, so I just decided to write a game; most of the core logic was developed purely after midnight, living on 2 hours sleep a day and a looooot of caffeine. I'm amazed the game works at all sometimes, but it wors verywell. Then my budy Ste (of this very board!) came in to help with the artwork and we pulled it all together.

jeff

 

[Chuckowski]

I'm having the same trouble with the L button. It seems any time you press it to go into the status menu the game freezes. Other than that the game seems just dandy to me so far

 

[glezmen]

hey skeezex,

this stuff is REALLY great, thanks!
although it has several quirks and some bugs (as the shoulder buttons, mentioned above)
i was surprised when i made a 'T' form, and only 3 tile in a row were removed, the two others not. is this intended to work this way? :-o

 

[RupeeClock]

Okay, some more feedback.
The quick puzzle minigame is really buggy, messages like 4-in-a-row and chain never disappear, obscuring the game grid.
It also didn't seem to respond to the home button very well.

Equiping items is annoying, if you want to equip something to one part of the body, it displays a list of ALL equipment, and inventory items.
The equipment screen should only display items that can be equipped on the chosen location, having to load a list, and manually check each item with (Y) is a chore.
Better yet, make better use of that huge screen, use the lower half of the screen to display information about the highlighted item automatically!
Also, display your current equipment level, and do things like grey out items that are too high of a level for you to equip (or maybe red out items that can't be equipped to that body location)

All sorts of things like that would make the game much more usable.

As for battling in game, stealth in an incredibly annoying spell to encounter so early in the game. It basically grants them several turns of invulnerability, (or until they avoid one turn of damage), that's incredibly annoying.
It's unbalanced that on the 2nd battle, my enemy have about 30 hp, and then in the next battle have 60 hp.
Edit: It just seems to pick an opponent at random without any consideration for the user's level.
My 5th max, and it pits me against a dragon with 80HP dammit.

Anyhow best of luck in improving this game.

Edit: I just tried using a Tome of Craft, that I had won during a battle from a wild-card chest.
It says in the inventory that I need to somehow equip it, despite clearly being labelled as inventory, that's cheeky.

I would have to say my main complaint about the game is the fact you can avoid taking damage.
Things like stealth or dodging only make the game take needlessly longer, it drones on when you match skulls and NOTHING HAPPENS.

Also as far as I can tell, Thrust 2 is an absolutely useless spell, it has the same effect of destroying a piece, but causes more damage to you, and costs more mana!

 

[skeezix]

Wow, very concise feedback .. awesome thanks! There are a lot of UI tweaks that could be done, for sure. (Always wanted to show a ragdoll with icons for the gear items in the various places, with drag and dro pto equip/unquip a la old school RPGs, but needs way too much artwork so we couldn't pull it off.)

I'll look into the shoulder issue soon, and why its borking up the display in puzzle-mode.

It does have some logic to limit the types of opponents you get early on, but perhaps its not limiting enough (ie: is too variable when extreme dice rolls occur, etc.) Theres some subtle tricks you can do, but they're not likely available earlier on (ie: if a guy is in stealth, you can use spells to bring him out, etc, but stuff like that is down the road.)

I will have to check up on your other points, see what the spell (and Tome) definitions are; Been awhile since I looked at the Tome, I seem to recall that one should 'pop' right away and not go to inventory, so there oculd be a timing issue. (The game used to use the gp2x second core for doing AI and various things, but the code was designed to work in single-thread or multi-thread, and both have been worked over pretty heavily over the last coupe years, but possibly I blew it with the caanoo port

I'm very glad you're enjoying the game though I'll report back in a bit..

jeff

 

[RupeeClock]

Yes I've definitely been enjoying it, I've been playing it for a good few hours since i'd love to see this flourish.
It really needs rebalancing though, things like stealth and dodging attacks gets tedious in general.
Honestly, like Puzzle Quest, attacks should never miss under any circumstances. Maybe blows can be softened or repelled but NEVER miss.

I forgot to mention, I love that wild-cards give out bonus gold and equipment, that's inventive.

 

[jutleys]

Yes I've definitely been enjoying it, I've been playing it for a good few hours since i'd love to see this flourish.
It really needs rebalancing though, things like stealth and dodging attacks gets tedious in general.
Honestly, like Puzzle Quest, attacks should never miss under any circumstances. Maybe blows can be softened or repelled but NEVER miss.

I forgot to mention, I love that wild-cards give out bonus gold and equipment, that's inventive.

cant we have some nude babes like when you do a combo move like

 

[RupeeClock]

I found a problem with selling inventory.
When you describe an item you're going to sell, it only gives the descriptive text, not the effect it has.
It makes it difficult to know what you want to sell.

 

[RupeeClock]

I'm up to level 5 on Battle Jewels now and I've been enjoying it, but I still can't figure out what mana mastery is supposed to do...

It says it grants bonus mana, but even upgrading my steel mastery to 10, I don't notice myself getting more than 3 blue mana.

 

[derdritte]

This is the game I have been playing the most, its awesome, but I do not know what to do with all the money.
Also the overview could be better, with the spells and the items. but the system is awesome.
Maybe some special blocks as an update?

 

[RupeeClock]

I found a calculation glitch in the game.
Say you have a vertical column of 2 skulls, something else, and another skull or maybe two skulls, and you destroy the middle piece with a spell like thrust, to complete the column.

For some reason it doesn't calculate the damage dealt properly, 4 skulls linked this way only deals 4hp damage. I think it forgets to apply damage bonuses from your equipment.

Edit: Another glitch, a 4-in-a-row done with a wild-card doesn't seem to count as a free turn.

 

[skeezix]

Busied up a lot, so need to catch up on the thread here; will take me awhile to do changes to the game, as I'm spread too thin across too many projects

Money can be spent on gear, but if you have enough gear, then it may be hard to spend; usualyl theres enough stuff to buy for awhile (ie: level up, and more gear becomes available.)

Rupee -- I needed you on the tester list a couple years ago it seems I think some spells allow for +dmg buffs, but some do not; I don't recall offhand right now, however (ie: if I intended this, or if it should always be consistent one way or the other.) Level 5 though, nice I think I have gear and such to either level 10 or 20, will have to check; theres a fair number of spells in there to tie folks up for quite a few levels. (I do need to clarify though .. spells that are off-class do cost more, simply being due to off-class, not necessarily potency; a few people get tricked and buy a level off off-class spell thinking it must be very potent due to cost, not realizing its just due to being off-class per se; but it does let you (Expensively) pick up a few abilities you may have wanted, so is handy.)

jeff

 

[RupeeClock]

Ah, so that's how the spell pick works, off class spells take more than 1 pick.

Edit: I don't know why I didn't mention this sooner.
Messages like "4-in-a-row" and "Chain!" will disappear soon enough when you are in control, but whilst the opponent makes a series of movies these messages quickly get stuck on the screen and obstruct your view of the grid.
They need to fade out of view right away, instead of waiting for your turn.
I just got the spell lunge, and it looks like this spell gives you a LOT of tactical advantage, when used right.
I still can't figure out how to use these two Tome of Quick skill that I have, I got them from wildcard chests.
Edit: Okay, I see the problem here. The Tome of Craft/Quick Skill are immediately consumed after their purchase. HOWEVER, I have won three tomes during my battles. That's a pretty annoying glitch there.

More feedback, I think the dragon's Wind Buffet spell is over-powered, granting too many extra turns in which it can easily gain enough mana to use the spell again. In the event that it has a stockpile of mana, it could spam wind buffet enough times to get 10, maybe even 20 consecutive turns.
The spell needs a cool-off period, no recasting of the same spell until your opponent has made a move.
The spell itself also needs greater mana consumption than just 6R 1G.

 

[HeWhoCorrupts]

Yeah, Wind Buffet is broken, and some times on fighting a healing class, it can take far too long to take him down. Plus the whole Tome of Skill/swiftness thing is kinda bad, I got those through a wild-card chest. Can you speed up the cursor also?

 

[skeezix]

I'm jotting these ideas down in my todo-lists, but it'll be awhile as I've got a lot on the go.

I've always thought it could get out of control when against a healing opponent; an idea I had was always to have a certain minimum amount of damage always get through, but that didn't feel right either; it might be the best way is to just make it so the opponent cannot be a pure-healer (except perhaps in player2player head to head), but creeps with healing sidfe effects would be okay provided its not out of control.

Ahhh, balancing, what a PITA

jeff