Hack Saga

Hey everyone - once it's approved, the second demo will be available for your viewing pleasure.

This was a lot of work, even though it won't seem like a huge change from the previous demo. Even with highly reduced item/world interaction, roguelikes are a lot of work. I certainly have a better understanding of how someone who's seemingly half-finished a roguelike can give up on it. I was surprised at just how many minor bugs presented themselves as I played around with the stats of monsters, even. I had forgotten to set the hp of monsters when loading them, I had forgotten to make the boss spawn in a reachable place, on and on.

Some of the features in this demo: Monsters now level up as you progress in the dungeon. Not only that, but As you progress more monsters are added to the roster, and they earn new skills as they level. The most annoying enemy will have to be the Insane Cultist, with the power to teleport you randomly. Also, watch out for Ghost of Starman, and Cap'n Strong - their turns come 50% faster.

As for you, you have a decision to make at the beginning of the game: higher defense, or a weapon. You won't be able to afford PSI Healing alpha for a while, but it should definately be your first artifact purchase.

Your game will save automatically upon closing the game. you can walk out of the town to leave it. it the / or ? button for a command list.



Some problems: I haven't updated the AI of the monsters in a very long time aside from patchwork. As such, there are some exploitable behaviors. for instsnce, monsters won't walk around each other. Also, once you beat on a monster enough, he'll get scared and run away... into a wall. and stay there. waiting for you to massacre it.

Also, admittidly, I've very bad at balancing stats. Right now, the player and the monsters have the very same level up algorithm... Which makes their HP sky rocket. Even the monsters with pathetic HP at the start will grow at a high rate.

Finally, I still have some work do to on intergrating stats. eventually, a higher speed stat will affect your turn speed. Also, the amount of money you have by the end of the game is absurd, while the amount you get at the beginning is painfully low. Sadly, the enemies don't drop items yet, but to compensate, you don't have to pick up money - you do that automatically.