Slimongo: Rise of the Slombies

Well, it’s been a while but it’s about time for an update.

Before actually going any further, I’d like to thank my (cyber)friends over at level up for all their support, suggestions and ideas. Their implication has made a tremendous difference in my motivation regarding the game. A special thanks to Zeus for all his scripting help and Rots for his delightful music.

Gameplay

Ok, this is where things get interesting.
The combat mechanics for Slimongo have been reviewed and expanded. First of all, everything in battle comsumes Chi.

1. Chi is not only used for attack and defense, it’s also used for special skills (healing, summoning a thunderstorm, etc…). Chi can be replenished by using the “Focus” command which replaces “defend” which I always considered close to useless in rpg games.

The video will give you a better idea about how this all works out but suffice to say that managing your chi will be an important part of combat, think of it as the management of stamina. Your main character becomes more tired as he avoids blows, attacks or uses special abilities.

Note that in order to use special abilities you need to reach a certain minimal combo in order for the skill to activate. The more powerful the skill, the higher the required combo.

You'll probably notice that you can now use Chi for defence. The higher your defence combo, the less damage you'll take (the more your armor will provide protection).

Viable strategies include conserving some chi before the end of your turn in order to be able to reduce the oncoming damage of the enemies or saving up some chi in order to cast a special ability.

So here's the latest video:


Speaking of video, here's an ancient video to give you a better idea as to what Slimongo used to look and play like back in the days:

Better brace yourself!



2. Whenever the player makes a mistake when trying to identify Japanese vocabulary, the mistake is now displayed in order for the player to learn where he or she messed up. This was a suggestion coming from another forum and I do think it will make quite a difference.


This is where the correct answer appears.

3. A new gauge now shows up to indicate the approximate remaining health of your foes. I designed the original gauge and the one displayed in the video is an edit by Shin.

Graphics
Well, the game has certainly come a long way from its humble beginnings. Just for fun, I figured I’d show you one of the early maps of the project. This is encouraging to look at however, to see how everything has progressed so much.


Humble beginnings (the faceset is kind of nice though)

The way it looks now (kind of):

The very beginning tutorial.

The game has taken a turn for pixel art, which is a new passion of mine. I’ll still keep the older maps which were hand drawn but I’ll be focusing on pixel art from now on. You can find more about my creations in my thread over here.

What's Next?
Issues I’m aware of and trying to fix:
-the scroll animation is messed up. It will be fixed soon.
-the gauge is a bit small, will probably make it bigger.