@awesomenot, I chose to go deeper and it gives you a good line of additional quests. I don't know what happens if you don't go deeper - I would hope it's just a replacement line of quests but I don't know.
@magicalterry - when you kill monsters there is a small chance to get research for that monster. The first time you get research you can unlock the monster as part of your active party by hitting Summon in the Party -> Level Up tab. After you've summoned it once you can have it join your team by hitting Set in the Party -> Main tab. This gives you passive bonuses plus the first 4 monsters in your party will help you fight. After the monster is unlocked you can boost its power with seeds, and you can increase the seed caps by using more research on it. Eventually that caps out and further research only goes to increase the Luck for the monster. Luck increases Dark Ritual and does other stuff that I don't fully understand.
The library opens up a few repeatable tasks that give 0.1 movement each - for a total of 2.8 movement. You need about 1.55k destiny to get back the 2.0 movement you spend to unlock it (well really you need 1.7k but you'll get destiny cap from the library tasks).
I got out of the dead end in the academic city. Took a lot of grinding to get to 1.1k destiny, but it's done and now I'm rolling again. The dev could fix some of these things by putting more repeatable tasks that give very low numbers of stuff, so we always feel like there is an escape route. Or just balance things correctly so that we can't get stuck. But it's definitely fun now that I'm moving again and into the next zone!
@coffee4, one hour dark rituals would be a good way to cash in a bunch of inspiration. It would ding your progress though, so maybe not worth it. I've just been doing dark rituals whenever I'm about double my Talent and that has worked out OK so far.
So at the moment my only path of advancement is to save 100 petrified slime research, so I can get +5 destiny, so I can get to a couple other upgrades which might eventually get me more Movement. He has a 3% chance to drop 3.1 research, so I would need about 1k kills on him... keeping in mind he's the hardest thing I've killed thus far. Seriously considering a hard reset to see if there is a better way through this.
It's frustrating that there are sometimes "dead ends" where I just can't seem to complete missions. I still haven't finished the tea party in the Town because I have no anchovy sandwiches. Now I'm in the academic city and I don't have enough movement to choose go deeper in the slums/stay away from slums, and I don't have enough destiny to complete the other tasks that might give more movement. I'm grinding away and hopefully will find a way around it, but it would be nice if there was a bit more care made in avoiding holes in the path.
@tyrantGamin - dark ritual resets your exp/rank level back to zero plus resets most of your habit stuff (not the Energy tab). All your other progress stays the same. In exchange for resetting that stuff you get an extra multiplier for reaching higher ranks and also a boost to habit efficiency. Every 1 point of talent is x1 extra multiplier for rank, so it's a really big boost.
Give 1 mushroom. OK here. Give 3 mushrooms... errr OK here. Give 5 mushrooms... sensing a pattern here. Give 10 mushrooms... FUUUUU. Seriously couldn't you mix this stuff up a bit?
I need an anchovy sandwich for one of the tea party events, but I no longer have the option to do the thing that gave the sandwiches (farming?). Can't remember when it disappeared, but it's not there anymore and I have zero sandwiches. How to get one?
"Good" graphics are usually a bad sign in an idle game. This game is shallow and unbalanced. It's missing very basic features that are in every 3.5 star idle game. But hey at least you have the cash shop up and running!
To answer my prior post: magic is useless until you get to the next phase of the game. Once you get there you can spend the magic money stuff, so it helps that you've been building it up the whole time. FAIR ENOUGH.
I'm sure magic will have a use eventually, but it seems like it is useless for a long time after you first unlock it. Am I missing something that it does? I have three buildings unlocked after magic and still don't see the use.
Everything you have so far is great. Really cute idea and well implemented. The content is FAR too short for an idle game. I'd play this shit all day long if there was more to do. Looking forward to more!
I think if you're going to continue developing and expanding this you should add something like gold or exp that is earned each run even if you don't clear a new level. Something so that players can grind if they get stuck, so you can add new challenges. Also it would be interesting if there were legendary items (in each tier) that once you find them you can keep them after rebirth if you want.
I've been thinking about what a full version would entail quite a bit. So with this prototype, I wanted to validate how a game entirely based on timed challenges would fare. Though I did attract some players that enjoy the challenge, I do think it would be difficult for me to get a wide enough audience just with that mechanic. I am thinking a full game would have multiple maps/worlds where the first time you go through it is more forgiving, it might not even have a time limit or a gold system that you mentioned. After clearing it you open up a number of challenge variants like the current game, similar to a lot of TDs. I do want to keep this game as is because it will probably be the only game in my Kong library where you can't grind through since that's at the heart of the vision, where it is more roguelike where you have to learn the lay of the land. But I suspect all my upcoming games will be grindable. Great points and thanks for mentioning that!
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I've been thinking about what a full version would entail quite a bit. So with this prototype, I wanted to validate how a game entirely based on timed challenges would fare. Though I did attract some players that enjoy the challenge, I do think it would be difficult for me to get a wide enough audience just with that mechanic. I am thinking a full game would have multiple maps/worlds where the first time you go through it is more forgiving, it might not even have a time limit or a gold system that you mentioned. After clearing it you open up a number of challenge variants like the current game, similar to a lot of TDs. I do want to keep this game as is because it will probably be the only game in my Kong library where you can't grind through since that's at the heart of the vision, where it is more roguelike where you have to learn the lay of the land. But I suspect all my upcoming games will be grindable. Great points and thanks for mentioning that!