The town layer

This is the persistent layer that sits on top of the Roguelike game play, added as a hub to give a sense of persistence to the user, make the game more casual friendly, and add avenues for rmt that don’t impact the Roguelike game. This post says more about my thinking behind added this extra game element. This post is focused on how the town works. I’ll do another later on how it looks.

There will be no title screen as such instead when the user starts the app they’ll come straight from the loading screen to the town view (obviously if it’s their first time there will be story/tutorial overlays). On entry there will be modal message prompting them to either continue and existing adventure or start a new one. If the player chooses to view the town there will be a persistent ‘adventure’ button.

The town view will also have navigation to get to things like global options, credits, info etc.

Currency

It uses 2 different currency types. Gold, which is created in the town and crystals(or some other unit), which will be the paid for currency, but which can also be found in the dungeon. I may also add other reagents that can only be found in the dungeon.

Areas:

There will be several different areas, all performing different functions. Areas are building that all users have and that cannot be moved. They can be upgraded though. There will also be constructs, which are buildings created by the user than can be moved/upgraded destroyed etc.

Ancient cave (will probably be called something else).
This is where the players go to play the Roguelike game. Can be upgraded to access different game mode – different difficulties, plus maybe a sprint or defense mode in the future. Probably only uses dollars. If the player doesn’t have an existing adventure then clicking the ’adventure’ button take them here, where they choose their character/equipment/mode for the adventure.

Training ground (need a new name)
The way my game and power design will go the build and abilities will be dependant on the cards the player has. When a player chooses a classall they’re actually choosing is the starting cards/equipment. They start off with a basic fighter/assassin/mage selection, then as they player more combinations can be unlocked using this building. There will also be blank slots where players can create their own starting classes. These will be expensive, and bought with the pfc. I’ll also have to be very careful when balancing it so players can’t create OP combinations (though it’s only the starting decks so in the long run it shouldn’t matter).

Blacksmith
Use this to create weapons and armor that characters start off the game with. My idea is that every time a character is sent off into the dungeon you have to equip them first. There will be bog standard weapon choices, which the user will have unlimited amounts of, but other weapons/armor combinations will have to be made beforehand. Most take money on it’s on, but some require better reagents. Again, I should emphasize that the better weapons will help the early game but will become obsolete relatively quickly.

Graveyard
The morgue where you can view your dead characters. I want to make it easy to export and share stats – I’m not doing a hugely intensive file, but enough to be interesting. You can also use it to buy monuments and crypts for characters which are contructs placed in the map.

Bar/general store
This is where a player can buy things. This will mostly be things like extra skins/consumables to take into the dungeon.

Hall of honour
This is the achievements and quests + record of winning characters and where you buy monuments to them. Monuments can be placed around the town.

Buildings:

Gold Mine:
This is a building that constantly generates small amounts of gold. The trick is that it continues to do so in real time while the game is inactive, but there is a cap on how much it can hold before it becomes full. This encourages the user to log back in frequently to collect the gold. Produciton rate and capacity cna be upgraded, with higher ranks being exponentially more expensive, encouraging rmt.
Lumber ill:
Same as gold mine but produces wood.
Steel mill:
Ditto, but creates metal.
Decorations:
Things to make your town look nicer. They don’t do anything, so I can make the nicer ones ridiculously expensive. Also I can slo them in as they are created without worrying about balance etc.
Monuments are a sub catergory of decorations. They’re built to honour fallen (or victorious!) characters. The grandeur of the momument is determined by how far the character got.