I thought I give you a quick update of my plans, now when The Ground Gives Way have been released. First of all, it has been downloaded almost 300 times since the release, this is something I am very happy about! Thank you everyone who have downloaded and helped me spread the word about the game, it’s very much appreciated! I would also like to thank everyone who have given me bug reports and/or suggestions for the game.
As I’ve mentioned, the next plan is to get the manual out which should make a few things clearer, but there are still some work to do before it will be available. In the meantime I might post a few hints and tips if the game seems too difficult.
Then the plan is to follow up with a release where I will fix reported bugs, spelling mistakes and do a few other adjustments.
Finally, there is someone who have made a few gameplay videos of The Ground Gives Way. He plays through the tutorial and some regular games as well, along with some entertaining commentary. You can find his videos here. Thank you Matt!
Three hundred downloads is quite a bit. Congratulations.
Frankly, I’m finding TGGW murderously difficult (compared to other RLs), so I’d appreciate those hints & tips you mentioned.
As a side note: I’ve seen people finding the name “The Ground Gives Way” silly/ugly. In my opinion (as a non-native speaker, though), it is very good.
Great that you find it difficult *evil smile*! I hope it is not in a discouraging way though.. I’ll post the hints tomorrow!
Glad you like the name, I really like it too! It is meant to be a bit silly in the sense that that is all there is to the story, but I’m not sure the point comes across to everyone.
Ahah, well, it’s kind of too early for me to say if the vicious difficulty is discouraging me or not.
Still, I’m greatly enjoing myself and the game is really compelling in its quickness (that is why I suggested by e-mail that you need a quicker way to get from a death to a new game).
As we’re kinda on topic, maybe adding a “meatier” post-mortem screen could be a good idea? Something listing depth reached, n° and types of kills, cause of death, etc.
Yes, there will be a quick restart option in the next release! I haven’t decided upon the exact mechanics for it yet though.
Good suggestion with statistics. You will get some of that when/if you win… but could be a good idea to show some statistic also after death. I’ll think about it! Thanks!
Congrats on releasing.
A usability tip: Make Tutorial it’s own option in the main menu instead of asking (with a default to yes none the less!) every time a new game is played. Remember, most people only need to go through the tutorial once. Note that this would also make getting to a new game quicker.
But, if you have an option to reroll on the Z screen when dead, that’d make it really fast.
The only thing I’m really missing it the ability to see mob health…well, that and maybe a starting weapon so that I don’t have to rest to every encounter.
As a native English speaker, I like the name of the game. Your story is a satire of the usual roguelike story, so you don’t need a serious name.
Hey Havvy,
Thank you very much for your comments!
About the tutorial, you can turn off the question about the tutorial in the “options” menu. But yes, I should make that more clear. I also plan to make a quick restart option for the next release.
You can also see mob health in the “monsters” panel to the right. It is displayed as a * and it gets darker as the monster loses health. If you examine it you will also see a word describing its health from ‘unhurt’ to ‘almost dead’.
The power curve in this game is so shallow that I think a starting weapon would take away too much excitement. You are supposed to have to rest almost every encounter in the beginning…
I am happy that you like the name and the “story”! And thank you again for all your comments!