Unity Spire of Slime [Demo v2] [Houtamelo]

[TipTap]

The losing condition for most fights is having characters reach their orgasm limits (default : 3) - they get knocked down permanently if that happens.

Due to my own lack of foresight the game ended up with not-very intuitive mechanics. The next update will include tooltips explaining how each stat works and I'll also be making several changes to give the player more information to hopefully make the game easier to learn.

I know, I was trying to lose against a wolfhydra, however when the wolfhydra defeated the one character with orgasm counts, it refused to let go of them, and when I bonked it on the head with the staff, it let go, but then refused to grapple the other character at all. I let the timer up in the top left hit 180 seconds (I alt-tabbed) before giving up, the second character is just immortal against single enemies like that.

EDIT: By the way, with only 2 damage and a 58% chance to hit, it takes a very long time to kill a wolfhydra.

EDIT 2: I just tried to lose against a full enemy party, one tree and three pitcher plants, and I think the problem is that the enemies refuse to grapple a knocked down character. I had to let the fight run for 80+ seconds (using the battle timer) to actually lose.

 

[TipTap]

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You're the first one to report this, tomorrow I'll double check to see if anything went wrong - I'll quickly post a hotfix here if I find any bugs.

I got this exact same bug. I went to the grove, got the cutscene where they picked up the dragonkin, and when I tried to go back to the chapel I fought my way back to it, only to be unable to enter the chapel when I reached it.

I have the logs, but I cannot attach them here as they're not a supported file type. How do you want them?

 

[timo103]

Great first impression with that iron gauntlet shit.

You're making a porn game, get over yourself.

 

[Houtamelo]

Best part about a game with only a single auto save is when your save file gets corrupted and refuses to load.

There should be backups on: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Houtamelo\Spire of Slime\Saves

I would appreciate the logs on %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Houtamelo\Spire, Slime\Player.log should provide me necessary info to fix the problem.

I'll gladly fix your save file manually if you send it to me>

I'm paying especial attention to the save file system in order to avoid those problems as much as possible so a fix should be out as soon as I manage to reproduce it (though I issue some very helpful messages on the logs that usually point to the source of the problem straight away)

 

[Houtamelo]

I think I just got Darkest Dungeon'd. The very first attack the starting dogs hit me with on the first turn on my first playthrough was a crit for 21 dmg.

Yep, you did, their crit is not that high!

 

[Houtamelo]

Haha. I love when you beat the dogs a message pops up. "Wow you win?" Yes I had a magic called cheat engine. It is an instant victory for all battles.

At least I know I don't have to make it even harder . Did you try winning just to see if the game would crash or something?

 

[Houtamelo]

I don't think we're supposed to win that. I later ran into a single one as a supposed more dangerous encounter.

Also, I've no idea wtf any of the stats/perks/status in this game do and how I'm supposed to progress. I get sent into the woods to look for fruit, but I've no way to deplete lust other than tediously trying to outheal it, and there isn't any way to do the equivalent of increasing the light level other than leaving and coming back into the map. It's frustrating because anyone that's played Darkest Dungeon has been conditioned to minimize risk and retreat when shit looks ugly. I have no idea if dying straight up ends my run or there's severe consequences for letting Lust max out.

And speaking of fruit, I hate how your only choices are to either take 30 lust damage or look like an asshole.

Thanks for the feedback, we are working on those issues and I'll always do what I can to make the game as fun possible!

Those parts are definitely in a rough/raw state - the next update will include a lot of information/explanation about how the mechanics work.

As for the exhaustion problem - the hexagon dungeon is currently not balanced since it was designed with 2 extra features that aren't fully (or at all) in the game yet:

1. A lot more random events (question mark on a tile): a lot of the outcomes will help you while traveling. The code is implemented but the only event we have now is that plant one.
2. Inventory system: We are working on a minimalist item system centered around rechargeables (aka consumables that recharge under certain conditions)

More events will come on the next content update, the inventory system might take a few more.

Losing battles does not result in death - there will be no way to die in the game, but losing will have consequences that accumulate over time. In the current build losing means just going back to your original location on the map - the actual consequences will be introduced together with the corruption system.

Letting lust max out has consequences - but they aren't immediately severe and you can outplay them.

As for the fruit event: there are hidden consequences that don't have time to manifest yet since the story content is still short.

 

[Houtamelo]

I know, I was trying to lose against a wolfhydra, however when the wolfhydra defeated the one character with orgasm counts, it refused to let go of them, and when I bonked it on the head with the staff, it let go, but then refused to grapple the other character at all. I let the timer up in the top left hit 180 seconds (I alt-tabbed) before giving up, the second character is just immortal against single enemies like that.

EDIT: By the way, with only 2 damage and a 58% chance to hit, it takes a very long time to kill a wolfhydra.

EDIT 2: I just tried to lose against a full enemy party, one tree and three pitcher plants, and I think the problem is that the enemies refuse to grapple a knocked down character. I had to let the fight run for 80+ seconds (using the battle timer) to actually lose.

We are working on some design changes that will hopefully make the grapple system a lot more fluid and intuitive. Enemies refusing to grapple downed characters is a bug - the next hotfix will deal with it.

 

[Houtamelo]

I got this exact same bug. I went to the grove, got the cutscene where they picked up the dragonkin, and when I tried to go back to the chapel I fought my way back to it, only to be unable to enter the chapel when I reached it.

I have the logs, but I cannot attach them here as they're not a supported file type. How do you want them?

You can either:

• Put them in a zip file and attach it to your post here.
• PM me with the file.
• Send me the file on discord.
• Send the file to our email: houtamelo@pm.me

 

[Ven95]

Wow, this is really bad

This first fight takes way too long, is way to hard, and when you finally think you get to the end the opponent start to dodge like there is no tomorrow. Everything alongside that fight takes forever, you don't need 10 seconds to inform me of a freaking debuff.

Kicked it in the trash at that point, what a waste of time

 

[16Shadows]

Okay, the game looks interesting and different from all those jRPGs.
That said, there are some things that I personally found contribute to a bad UX:

Combat:

• It felt somewhat slow due to it running on a timer-based model. It just adds unnecessary pauses between turns which are not engaging and hamper the pace. I believe a better options would be immediate consecutive turns (the first example that comes to mind is turn-based mode in pathfinder games) with turn order based on the currently implemented mechanics (there can actually be separate entries in turn order for when a character selects their action and when they execute their action). Or an even simpler alternative within the current system would be to just immediately skip combat to the next action (or some combat event, I guess, given that poison can tick in-between turns).
• When multiple characters are expected to take a turn around the same time, one character's portrait can cover another's (here ethel is supposed to take her turn between nema and crabbra but its rather difficult to tell
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  ), making it hard to understand when you characters will take turns. One solution I can think of is (just as I have mentioned before) turn-based-rpg-like turn order. Another, which can be implemented with the current system in mind, would be to move one of the portraits down (under the turn order bar) if two portraits are too close (if there are three, move the third two steps down, etc).
• If there are multiple enemies of the same kind (like in the image above), it can be difficult to determine when each one takes their turn. There are at least two ways to solve it that I can suggest: add numbers/letters to the enemies of the same kind and draw it on top of the portrait or highlight the enemy when the cursor is hovering over that enemy's portrait.

Exploration:

• I'm not really sure what is the point of multiple empty hexes between events on the map, you are just making the player click for nothing. It would be much better to have the player click events they want to go to and increase lust/exhaustion based on the distance.

Lewd stuff (the reason we usually play this games for):

• So, you have mentioned corruption system and consequences. There is something I noticed in a couple of games and wanted to address in general regarding consequences. If you want to have consequences for doing lewd stuff its fine but you must really think them through. You definitely do not want them to be debilitating because you do not want to punish the player for wanting to experience the content they have most likely came for. The reason most defeat-sex jRPGs work is because either the consequences are non-existent (you just respawn/reload and carry on) or positive in terms of player's intentions (increasing lust/corruption/whatever you call it and unlocking new content). You also want the consequences to be more or less explicit or heavily hinted at, so that players can make guided choices instead of hoping for the best.

I guess that's about it. Of course, take it with a grain of salt, after all, I am by no means a game dev, I just play games.

 

[Ritsujin]

Oh shiiiiiiiiiit, a Darkest Dungeon type game?
FINALLY.
Nobody ever wants to make this type of game, for some reason, very sad.
Will be rooting for you, dev.

 

[Castelier]

stats of the characters are surely difficult to understand but other than that everything else is very promising. Story, art style, Mechanics need a rework, good H. I only have one question is that if this version only demo will the save compatible with later versions?

 

[ZenEvadoni77]

This looks different from the bog standard fare I'm used to seeing here and of the same format.

Will be keeping my eyes on this for a bit.

 

[HornedScorpion]

Stats need a tooltip or something, I think I know what most of them do but it is not always clear. Also that iron gauntlet shenanigans was too funny, needs to be nerfed, I spent five minutes just clicking through the same button before remembering
I had a game to play.

 

[EroSoul]

Not sure if bug, but the mage could only cast heal. Skills that target enemies didn't work until stuff started dying/ it's the last enemy in the group.

 

[Flargnock]

Too much lag. I wouldn't even play Darkest Dungeon if the attacks took as long as this.

Concept is okay, but it's missing too much on fluffing the corruption and mind control aspects too. There's no burn to the corruption.

 

[tofumen]

Darkest Dungeon hentai game? I'm down

 

[Houtamelo]

Not sure if bug, but the mage could only cast heal. Skills that target enemies didn't work until stuff started dying/ it's the last enemy in the group.

Could you specify which skills?
Nema's other skill "gawky" should be usable from everywhere.

 

[McDerp22]

You asked for feedback if the first fight was beaten without insane luck/hacks, and it seems to be somewhat doable. After trying the fight once and realizing buffs/debuffs stack (kinda op), I went back and replayed it by spamming safeguard.

On the second try I was able to successfully tank all the incoming attacks with constant 70% dodge while slowly whittling down the enemies with the mage's stun. This takes forever, but it felt pretty reliable. Even on my first try it was close.

Gameplay seems fun though and am looking forward to seeing how it all balances out in the end.