Alpha Pearl: A classic roguelike, looking for testers

Hello!
I've been working on a little game called Pearl. It's a classic-style roguelike using the DawnLike tileset. The Tower has been standing for who knows how long, the horrors lurking within sealed for generations. However, the seal has been weakening, and fiends are beginning to slip out and wreak havoc in the world. A worldwide call for adventure and war has been sent out, a simple set of directions: "Travel to the island of Sargoza. Be armed, be ready, and have a will written". Thus, the warriors of the world descend on the foreboding Tower...

Right now, the game has a little bit of (almost) every feature I'd like to implement. From here on out, it's mostly going to be creating new content for a while. I'd be happy to get any constructive criticisms or feedback, especially regarding balance. I've included the older alphas for posterity, but the most current version is Alpha 3.

Thank you!

Previous Versions:
Alpha 1: First compiled version
Alpha 2: More user-friendly, first instance of the Welcome Screen and in-game Changelog
Alpha 3: Might and Magic. Lots of combat-related balancing

Gallery:

War profiteering!


The best inns are run by dogs. It's scientific fact!


Our motley crew.


"Other shopkeepers are just wimps."


Sometimes, you just have to let the demon out...

 

Man! This looks awesome. Takes me back to the old TSR DND games.

 

I noticed the Dawnlike tileset! Looks mostly good here, except for the aspect ratio stretching. Lots of distortion on the fonts especially. Will there be an option to keep the aspect ratio at default instead of stretching it?

 

I will look into that. I need to learnt o do aspect ratios correctly. It doesn't help that I started this project on a 1920x1080 screen, then moved to a 1600x900...but that's no excuse. So yes, next update will probably include some aspect ratio options

 

Solid start! I couldn't pick anything obviously wrong in there at all. Keep up the great work.

 

Thank you very much! If you want, keep an eye on this thread! Like I said, there's more meaningful content to come, just wanted a solid base to start with.

 

It's more of a pixel stretching issue. DawnLike tileset is 16x16px, the sprites themselves look scaled to 16x9, which looks poor unless you enable bilinear filtering/"Interpolate colors between pixels", which appears to have been turned off. I highly recommend Pixelated_Pope's YouTube tutorial series. It's a great starting point for learning the basics of resolution/aspect scaling in Game Maker!

I just played the demo and WOW! You've got quite a bit done so far! It's very playable. I got to the first sand level then got swarmed and murdered by spiders. The only real issue I have is that the numpad doesn't move the cursor in some menus. It's annoying to have to go from the numpad to the arrow keys every time you need to use an item. Keep up the good work!

 

Teaser Photo!

"I feel less squished and more threatened."

 

Alright, one last little teaser before the next update...

I want to differentiate later-game equipment by giving them special properties, not just bigger numbers. I've already practiced with a few other items, but it's fun coming up with different ideas for weapons with procs and other effects in mind.

As one last little thing, I have a few ideas for what the next update will focus on. My three main ideas are:

-Elite Emissaries: Monsters can spawn as Elite versions of themselves, gaining powers like increased damage, health regen, speed, magic reflect, and maybe even some other effects. This would involve mostly updated enemies, maybe a few more enemy types added per area, and general balancing.

-Tower Gourmet: More food items would be added, and many food items will be given different buffs to help differentiate them more. There would also be more potions added into the mix, making a chance to flesh out food, potions, and buffs/debuffs in one fell swoop.

-Tower Topper: As it stands, the Final Area exists, but there has yet to be an enemy pool implemented for it. I want to put some thought into the theme for the final area, as (surprise!) there is a plot to this game, it just doesn't exist outside of some clandestine design docs. And not to spoil too much, but I want it to reveal the true nature of the Tower without needing to tell the player with words. That all being said, I could get it implemented and live with the twist getting out early. Not that there's a twist. Probably.

Alright, with all that babble out of the way, what would you all like to see next? Keeping in mind that, with this update, 4/5 areas in the game are playable, with a decent smattering of loot to keep progression semi-stable. Also keep in mind that these are not mutually exclusive; it'll all be implemented eventually.

To close that wall of text out, here's a Meatshroom Shrine.


Tonda gossa!