I paused doing the spells because I realized I haven’t yet decided what visual the game will have. I would like to make a first person visual like dungeon master, but I’m not sure it is an easy task to simulate a whole dungeon in 3d (even if is not real-time).

I mean, I should render several layers based on what the player see on the dungeon, with distant objects, monsters, etc. Also this would mean having a huge map to walk on. Exploration would take an importan part in this case.

However I’m thinking to use another system. That is, fewer “cells” (rooms were you can move) but with more interaction. Why have the player travel for hours into the dungeons, maybe looking for an item they should have found in a quest? I don’t like that pixel-hunting. One of the most tedious tasks in Diablo or even the recent Fate, is when you re-explore a whole map because you haven’t yet found monster X or item Y – and this takes several minutes of frustration, not fun.

So what’s my solution? my solution would be to have a map, yes, but smaller than the usual ones, in practice connecting directly all the rooms with something to do – so no more “empty rooms” with no purpose. But every room would have an encounter, a quest, a riddle, a door/chest to open, stairs going up/down to other levels, etc.

I am even thinking of displaying directly on the map what kind of stuff you can expect in it – not exactly which monsters/items of course, but just a generic icon that represent what you can find on it. I’m really thinking this would be a good idea because would cut my development time a lot (so could release the game sooner) but also would enhance the player gameplay, eliminating another frustrating part that is present in many other CRPG games.

I’ll soon post a screenshot of this system so you’ll understand better!

I’m still adding the spells, and had what I believe a nice idea. In most RPG games, your spells at level 1 just sucks 🙂 then when you level up, you gain more/new spells which are more powerful, and so on.

In many games like the most popular million dollar budget RPGs, the spell at level 50 is just the same spell at level 1, but instead of being named “Spark”, it is named “Infernal Flame”, and instead of doing 1dmg, it does 150 dmg!

What if the same spell you get at level 1 can be trained up and become that level 50 spell? why there’s the need to change the name and everytime replace it in your spellbook? it is wasted time for the player on a boring task!

In my game Tower Of Destiny, you’ll be able to train the spells you get at level 1. How? practicing it. In combat only, except for non-combat spells. For example, a spell like “summon food”, will increase everytime you cast it even if outside the combat. But a spell like “Heal” or “Summon Giant Rat” and so on will increase only if you cast it during the combat (to prevent cheating or bots).

I think that’s much better. This way every new spell you get, will be really a new spell – and not just a replacement for your old one. For a Red Wizard for example you’ll be able to learn the “Fire arrow” spell at level 1 and it will do just 1-3 dmg. But as you keep using it, you’ll be able to raise the damage as you level up.

Of course, there will be some checks: if you level up too fast for some reason, or if you use other spells, the basic damage value will scale accordingly to your level (I don’t want a level 10 wizard doing 1-3 dmg!) but at the same time it won’t be so powerful as it could be if you kept using it during combat.

This way each caster will shape up as you want it – and even if you get a new spell every 3 levels, they’ll be really new ones, not just older one renamed.