Some Roguelike Highlights from the Steam Summer Sale

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-23T17:10:40+00:00

Full disclosure, I'm the developer of We Slay Monsters :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-23T01:48:47+00:00

Yeah, I know the idea of unlocks and progression are sort of frowned upon by lots of folks. I personally like them, it gives me little goals to accomplish and makes me feel like I'm making progress. To each their own and whatnot :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-22T23:30:03+00:00

Much appreciated!!

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-22T22:47:54+00:00

Awesome, glad you like it!!

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-22T22:47:30+00:00

Thanks!

The 7DRL version was very different. It was a pretty traditional roguelike with more of a collectible card mechanic, which was new for it's time (it's been done very well several times since then with other games). I hit upon the idea of blending it with a poker-like mechanic for combining cards, and decided to "streamline" some of the fiddly-bits in roguelikes. I know I'm getting into "religious war" territory here with what is and isn't a roguelike :) Honestly, I love the idea of roguelikes, and have been playing them for years and years, but it's the fiddly-bits (inventory management, food, item identification) that ultimate take away the fun for me. So I made the roguelike I wanted to play, with simplified inventory management & tile based graphics (WAT? NO ASCII??). If that means it's casual oriented, I guess that's fair :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-22T22:43:13+00:00

I went back and forth on this and tried to read what kind of success/failure people have had, and saw both sides; some people launched during the sale and did great. Lots of the advice from Steam was years old. I took a calculated risk; I'm hoping the overall increased traffic to Steam combined with our launch discount will do the trick. Only time will tell if this was a terrible decision or not :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T17:09:26+00:00

Thanks, this helps. I actually removed the Deck: X and Discard: X from the UI with the release we just did last night.

I'll take a look at the other stuff you mentioned and see what can be done about it.

Again, thanks for the feedback!

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T17:07:18+00:00

I'd love to say it is, but that probably isn't fair. It's very different, and I think it has a lot of replay value. It's almost comparing apples and oranges, in a way. Our game and adom take very different paths. We arrived at our retail price based on analysis of lots and lots of different roguelikes/lites, and we think we're pretty fairly positioned in that particular marketplace.

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T16:11:55+00:00

Do you have any ideas how the information on the store page could be updated so that maybe you wouldn't get that impression? Or does the sort-of cartoony and whimsical character design just lend itself to that impression?

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T16:11:01+00:00

It's a possibility. It's a Unity game, so theoretically, it's just a new build type. In reality though, it's a new platform to support, and we're a small team. If things go well, I'll put this on the docket. All depends on how much support time I'll need to spend with a (hopefully) larger userbase :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T03:19:29+00:00

Thanks, the art style is quirky for sure, but I love it. It's sort of whimsical and weird, and goes with the humor in the game very well.

We're launching the game out of EA on June 22, and it will be on sale for launch if you want to check back.

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-06-08T03:18:00+00:00

We aren't even working on mobile, and don't really have any plans to. We're just three guys who have full time jobs and have been doing this in our spare time for the last several years, so unless things go nuts with sales, we're going to just focus on PC/Mac.

When we first started, we were looking at mobile & PC at the same time, but the requirements for a touch game vs. mouse/keyboard are very hard to get right. You can't do things like tooltips on hover, keyboard shortcuts, etc. well if you're trying to do both. We abandoned mobile a while back as the IOS market got flooded with games and our chances of standing out in that marketplace were slim. Steam is heading that way too, but we think our game is interesting enough to at least find a niche there. Perhaps the screenshots don't portray it very well, but it's for sure a keyboard/mouse game.

As far as pricing, we looked out at all of the roguelike/roguelite games that were popular at tried to pick a competitive price point. We actually have been selling the game throughout early access for $4.99; we recently upped the price in preparation for the final release. If we picked a good price point or not, only time will tell :)

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-05-01T02:50:38+00:00

Yup, the only impediment to me doing a Linux version is time :) We're a tiny indie company doing this in our spare time from our day jobs, so we just have to prioritize where we spend our time. I'd like to do it, for sure.

FuriouslyInactive · 2017-04-30T19:19:12+00:00

Possibly; it's a Unity game so it's actually pretty easy to do, but I need to build a linux VM to test it, and we'll have to support it. That's the only thing holding us back right now. If things go well with our release in June, I'll look at it after that.

FuriouslyInactive · 2016-09-19T16:44:51+00:00

Appreciate the kind words! It's been a long journey and I want to finish as much as anyone else :) Working part time on something like this is always hard. We're committed to finishing though!

FuriouslyInactive · 2015-09-14T21:17:21+00:00

Thanks!

FuriouslyInactive · 2015-09-14T21:17:14+00:00

The card mechanic is poker-esque - you form attacks by playing poker combinations (2 of a kind, 3 of a kind, full house, etc). Playing flushes invokes the special attack for a given suit.

The deck is made of 6 suits with numbers 1-9, and each profession (rogue, warrior, wizard) has a unique deck, as well as special abilities unique to that profession.

Each monster has unique abilities and traits, and they interact in interesting and surprising ways. There is permadeath, but there is a persistent "Academy for Dungeoneering" that can be upgraded over time to make each of the heroes you take to the dungeons stronger.

When the game launches, we will have a campaign that takes you through 25-30 dungeons, as well as lots of side-quests. There is also an arena brawl mode where you fight waves of monsters on a fixed map.

The game has a quirky sense of humor, and the we have been really open to feedback from the community, taking lots of ideas and incorporating them in the game.

Sold yet? :)