Scima Invasion Crew

Scima: Reimagined
Instead of continually updating SIC with more and more extra bits and bobs and making the game cluttered and bad, I figured I'd just rebuild it with the express purpose of being able to have stuff added on progressively:
Syma

Want to Play?
v1.2 is out now.
Download here at RMN or from the Mediafire mirror.

Scima will be covered on my blog at Pixel Brady as well as RMN here.

Pixel Brady: Scima Invasion Crew, lazily titled by breeding Sci-Fi and fantasy magic into the system, is a short repeatable game based around a small crew of specialists who invade a rebel base to save the world or some such. Truthfully there's not really much of a story! :D

Playtime?
Each playthrough clocks around 30~40 mins on average (at least during the test runs) but with three routes to the end and ten classes to pick from (as well as passwords to unlock extra features after completing a run) it's designed to be playable more than once!

Features, you ask?

• Sci-Fi & Magic! Handguns, grenades, combat specialists and magicians all wrapped up together in a mission to punch through an evil base!

• Simple maps, simple graphics, simple story. It's a simple game with simple mechanics. Sounds boring maybe, but that's part of the point; to just be able to dive right in and play with class combinations!

• No free recovery points or Inns to stay at. You need to rely entirely on your crew and any supplies you find. You begin with plenty of supplies but they start running out as the enemies get stronger! Conservation is key!

• No levels! Your crew is always stronger and better than any baddies you find (except bosses!) so your only worry is supply attrition; can you save all your best stuff for the bosses?

• Ten available classes to mix, match and combine into your crew. With eight common skills between everyone and four unique skills per class, there's plenty of tactical differences between using each class.

• All skills have unique and varied damage calculations which are shown in the descriptions for you to accurately and tactically decide which skills are best used at any given time.

• Permanent death! Losing someone hurts your chances of completing the mission, but airlocks across the base allow you a chance to request backup from four other crew members waiting to aid you!

• Three different paths leading to the bases inexplicable core. Each path can be backtracked and taken (if you want) to give you different bosses and paths to take when trying different class combos.

• Unlockable Boss Rush Mode! Fight every boss in the game in direct succession with no ammo refills, no backup calls and no breathing time between!

• Unlockable Survival Mode! Fight an endless supply of baddies with random bosses mixed in!

• Three optional bosses who make even the General look like a miniboss! Oh no!

Oh, it was Details you wanted?
It's a simple game based off a simple concept I wanted to try implementing. There's literally more tutorial textboxes than there are dialogue/story, as that was never really a part of it. I liked the idea of seeing sci-fi and fantasy magic put together (which is something I rarely see) but wasn't as interested in story as the concept itself.
It also helped with the skills, as I mixed together "tech points" (a victor script) and mp use. Between the ten classes who have their own skilltrees, everyone has a various mix of skills utilising both of them to different degrees. By then putting unique damage calcs to each skill that involved a mixture of stats, and then limiting ammo boxes and mp tonics, it forces you to tactically decide which skills to use when, so you always have some left over for the boss.

These classes include a Marine who uses firearms to attack. These weapons do very strict damage that's modified only by an enemies defence. They target single enemies, while Grenadiers will use explosives that target everyone.
There's also a Healer who uses magic that heals based both on their magic attack, but the targets own magic stats as well. Healers use magic to heal whole groups at once, while Medics use single target heal and buffs that (non-magically) deal strict amounts rather than stat based.

The rest of the game? The mapping is uninspired visually, although the game as a whole is mapped out in such a way that there are three separate routes to the boss (with backtracking possible) so I just spent more time actually planning routes than trying to prettify it. I kept one tileset throughout the whole game, but made an effort to change the basic visual look after every couple of bosses.

But besides that; you can save anywhere, death is a permanent feature so you have to conserve even peoples lives, but every so often you'll find an airlock where you can request up to four more people to come and help you.
Most importantly is just the cute, chibi battle appearance! So harmless looking, but I think it goes well :)

Anyhoo, blether over.