Indie Lair Of The Leviathan - old school turn-based RPG based on classics such as Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Phantasie, Ultima and the SSI Goldbox games.

[ERYFKRAD]

Anyone knows if this has barbarians?

Likely not, barbarians are B- or C-tier classes rarely implemented because nobody likes them

Barbarians can't be C tier, that's reserved for casters.

Summoning Cryomancer
Finger of death
Disintegrate
Power word: kill

This shit doesn't work on the codex bro, barbarians can't read.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

This shit doesn't work on the codex bro, barbarians can't read.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

This shit doesn't work on the codex bro, barbarians can't read.

Pictograms are pretty jake though

 

[cyborgboy95]

Making turn based combat fun - enemies
How enemies help keep turn based combat fun

I thought I would describe how enemies in my game work and how it helps keep combat interesting and challenging. Some of it is basic stuff but there are a few spins on it. I'll be using goblins as an example (everyone loves goblins right?). Here's a pic of some of them.

Variety

There are a lot of different varieties of enemies. Using my goblin example, you have your basic kinds, spearmen, archers etc: and some like the 'mounted' goblin with a few extra tricks. Some of the more advanced units get really bonkers. There's a lot of inspiration from the movie Labyrinth with goblins in the game being crafty, inventive and varied.

The goblin 'flinger' can reach into his bag and throw a variety of objects from poisonous mushrooms to spikey balls to starving rats, you never know what might come flying at you. The goblins alone have almost 20 varieties.

Even more variety

Throughout the game there are also rare and very rare enemies for most enemy groups. These are named, much stronger enemies with more experience, loot and sometimes even bounties to collect in town. You might get hints about their locations or bounty board requests and it can be fun hunting all of them down, especially as some have unique and powerful items. It really helps shake things up as you make your way through dungeons and seeing some of these stronger enemies appear.

Like "Grizzik Beetlebinder" here. He is a rare type of goblin that has a variety of buffs for any giant insects around him and can make them truly terrifying. So players will want to prioritise taking him out as soon as possible. However while adjacent to insect he will gain a huge damage reduction as damage is redirected to the protecting creature. Do you just try and focus on him anyway? Or take out all adjacent creatures first? It also becomes a lot harder if the random buff that he gives out was some sort of extra armour or magic resistance buff on the unit protecting him.

Keeping enemies relevant

Ok, 20 different goblins, plus all these rarer types, but who cares if you're overpowering these encounters after the first few hours and never come back to them again? That's where the horde system comes in. As you get to more difficult areas, enemies will start appearing in groups rather than as a single enemy. Rather than waiting for 20 enemy individual turns, each 'group' is represented as a single sprite. These new 'horde' enemies do more damage, have more health and also more abilities. Suddenly goblins are way more of a threat when they're in stacks of 3, or even more.

This adds an extra layer of strategy and planning which abilities you want to use for your characters. Some characters can specialise in taking down these hordes with area attacks or cleaving attacks that do extra damage. Or certain abilities like block might not be as effective as there is a block penalty on horde attacks but tanky characters with higher health might do better. at absorbing the high amounts of raw damage.



If you have any ideas on what else you think would make enemies more interesting or what you don't like about enemies in turn based games I'd love to hear it.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Infinitron]

Found this game's YouTube channel:

I use these little location scenes on my worldmap in my game. Total time was around 6 hours.

All music by Syouki Takahashi

 

[Habichtswalder]

The dev guy seems great at creating somewhat nostalgic and mature pixel art. Good color palette.
I just don't like the faceless characters.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

The dev guy seems great at creating somewhat nostalgic and mature pixel art. Good color palette.
I just don't like the faceless characters.

At the scale this guy is working at, it can be very difficult to give a character a proper face. It's very delicate work and the guy may have simply decided it's not worth the amount of time it would take.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

The game looks great, but the horrible jrpg combat is a massive turnoff for me.

Whoever spread this retarded system where characters just stand around like two rows of bowling pins and throw abilities at teach other should be punished in some medieval fashion.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Whoever spread this retarded system where characters just stand around like two rows of bowling pins and throw abilities at teach other should be punished in some medieval fashion.

Presumably by having them just stand around like two rows of bowling pins and throw abilities at each other.

 

[Infinitron]

New YouTube channel, now with the trailer:

A bit of background to the game for those who are interested:

A few years ago started studying programming and art in order to make an rpg based on the games I played when I was younger. Rpgs these days seemed either far too linear or had some sort of gimmick such as roguelikes elements or deckbuilding so I figured, hey, if no one was making the kind of more hardcore rpg any more I would just do it myself.

I want to recreate that non linear experience games used to have. A big open world, send players out to just explore and find dungeons, quests and stories on their own. It's also quite challenging, there is no level scaling, and it's up to players how they approach things.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[d1nolore]

Just a shame about the combat

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Abu Antar]

Combat now takes place on a grid.

 

[Sweeper]

RELEASE DATE:
Coming soon

I fucking hate video games.

 

[Infinitron]

This is some work in progress of the starting area of Lair of the Leviathan and some work in progress on the main hub town.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Those lightning spells look fun, even if the shock animation is a bit goofy. I love the call lightning effect of that staff too. A return to grid combat is relief, but I'm concerned that his battle maps won't work with it. I'm also concerned that the game mechanics might also not be up to par for a grid system.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Gandalf]

Feels like a SNES game a bit, but I like what I'm seeing so far. Not a fan of repeated mushroms in the background, because it looks lazy.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2752020/view/4271182997412026930

Teaming up with Whiskeybarrel Studios
What this means going forward and a preview of the Bounty Hall
Teaming up!

Well for this update there is some big news. Over the past month I have been in discussions with Whiskeybarrel Studios and we have decided to team up on making Lair of the Leviathan.

I have always been happy working solo but the sheer scale of the project meant it was going to take far longer than I had anticipated and combining efforts we can get this done in a fraction of the time. If you have played the Swords and Sandals games you will also be familiar with all the great little synergies and stats in those games and I think this will bring a lot to Lair as well.

Things should really pick up pace from now so stay tuned!

Some game news

In game preview news here's a little teaser of the bounty hall from the main city hub. You will be able to get all kinds of quests here from hunting outlaws, finding missing people and best of all, hunting down rare and dangerous monsters. As you complete quests more and more difficult bounties will be available with better and better rewards.

Some of the later bounties will be very challenging and also require going out and looking for clues to find them. I want to provide as much variety in gameplay as possible along with the main quest and also an 'end game' activity for players to focus on even after they complete the main story.

And in keeping with the 'represent as much as possible visually' theme of the game as you hunt down these bounties, little trophies of the fights will appear so you can have a souvenir of your battles. Trying to fill the entire hall will be a little optional challenge for players to complete and there might even be a final mega bounty for those who can do so.

In the next news post I'll post a little more about the updated combat system. Until then, here's a little teaser.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Nifft Batuff]

So, if you mix old school turn-based RPG, Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Phantasie, Ultima and the SSI Goldbox games, what do you obtain? A JRPG?