Hello again, we're back, again... :P
We haven't shared a lot about the GrimKeep gameplay, so let's take a look at the basics.
You traverse a world via a node map. You'll recognize this style of map from other games in the genre. The majority of nodes on this map will be combats, but there will also be random encounters, various shops, and the much needed recovery of a campfire. (Concept art of the upcoming map iteration)
The meat and the beating heart of this game is of course the combats. You, the battle-weary and worn hero, have to face many enemies and defeat them one at a time. As you progress towards the central castle of this corrupted, fallen city, the monsters grow increasingly difficult. You will have to build up your power with the items you find along the way. Do it well enough, and your power grows at a rate to match the enemies, and you will be able to reach the final boss.
The combat starts out simple enough.
You have 5 dice, that you will roll and re-roll, to achieve a "Combo". These Combos will be familiar to most from games like Yatzy and Poker; pairs, straights, of-a-kind, and so on. The combos give you points that go into your attack, together with the points on the dice. This score will be multiplied by a "Mult", as the final step before dealing you damage to the enemy.
Before that Mult however, you might also have "Items" in a small inventory. If you gather these items well, they'll interact with the components of the game, increasing various scores and the Mult, to deal higher and higher damage.
The enemy will show you what they'll do after your attack. Commonly attack you back, or do a special type of attack somehow. This might affect your decisions.
(Enemy will attack you for 40 in its round)
The dice you didn't submit in attack will be used in defense, counting combos and dice points in a similar way. You can also fully defend.
(Pair left for defense and a Three of a kind used for attack)
You'll earn gold to spend in the shop. Very standard type stuff.
There will be special dice and status effects that can go into unique strategies.
We've proven internally that this gives enough "problem space" to beat the game in many different ways. There'll be several conventional and unconventional ways to "break the game" - build up player power well beyond what the enemy power curves can handle.
Our goals for the design of GrimKeep have been as follows - to make a game that:
Is easy to get into as a player.
Can last a long time, through variation of gameplay and plentiful updates.
Is GrimKeep easy to get into? Yes, but with a caveat. The initial designs were aiming at a more 'casual', broader audience, but over time the game has shifted slightly to be more in tune with the genre at large. We think the game will feel pretty easy to understand if you're somewhat familiar with roguelite/deckbuilder games.
Does it last long? Yes, we have seen that people do get hooked on mastering the game, and going through all the motions, you'll have plenty of things to explore to beat the final boss, and then you can challenge yourself to do it in other ways. Let us know what you want to know more about!
Bye for now! :tentacle waving:
— The GrimKeep Team