DragonDeception

Watch Text Only Jam (8 Bits to Infinity) Feedback Part 1/2 from MrJoshuaMcLean on www.twitch.tv

Wooow, this is the game I always wanted to play! The game that Dungeon Keeper should have been in the first place. A game that requires you to entirely control the psychology of fear and greed and also your economy. I don't even know why I have never even tried to make something like this, and you nailed it in such a short time.

I spent a good 1,5 hours with it and still planning to revisit it because I still want to try out additional combinations.

I thought I figured out the perfect layout with the below one:

Everyone gets a small loot to bring braver adventurers back, but than the swamp-dead body combo gives them the chance to actually escape. If they feel too tough for that over and over again, the deathtrap combo, in the end, will put them in place.

I almost got frightened to death when this guy passed the third fire trap, but then he stopped.

Later I became greedy. I wanted to see the best adventurers. I dug out all the rooms, put all my money in them, and waited for the results.

The day after the next day, five adventurers showed up, laughed out all my traps, took the money, and left with the news that there is no dragon, and apparently, no loot left in my sweet little dungeon.

The next day, I was utterly broke, four adventurers showed up in my completely lootless dungeon. That was pretty much game over for me.

The balance of fear and greed on both sides, I guess.

Improvement ideas:

• Music, screams, sound effects like Joshua said.
• Bigger map.
• Some actual reasons to make it maze/dungeon-like:
• The more dead-ends, the more time the adventurers spend their time in the dungeon.
  • Adventurer patience or the fear of getting lost and starve to death. It can increase deception.
  • No day/turn-based mechanics. Adventurers arrive in real-time, and the room gets built in real-time, so you have to dig out winding tunnels and lots of dead ends to save you some time carving out rooms and prepare your traps in it. Gemcraft nailed this aspect, but they also included the mechanic of cooldown and multiple-use traps. It might be a good idea to add them here as well.
• Different types of adventurers not just tougher ones, just like in TD games. Some fear fire; some fear dead bodies more. Some are the master of pits but fall short on the topic of moving walls, etc.
• Negative effects on the reward factor to prevent exploiting the system by killing the first two adventurers till the end of time with two basic pits and increasing the town tax forever. This way, if more people died than brought back gold, additional adventurers will think twice before entering the dungeon. If no one dies, no one threatens the villagers, so why would day pay tribute anyways.

Ok, I stop right here. I have already added more than I wanted. I guess you already have a pretty good idea on how to improve your game anyways.

Keep it up! Well done!

I like the idea of trying to get villagers to come in while at the same time keeping up the deception that you have a dragon. As said before, the panic lines are a nice touch!