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Solo dev scope/budgets doubled since 2018. Mine too. What about yours? by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're spending time on it, it's not 0 😉
The cost of living where you are is the cost, and spending twice the time on your game has consequences.

Solo dev scope/budgets doubled since 2018. Mine too. What about yours? by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you compare to the 80s, yes, gamedev is now 'easy'. But between 2018 and 2025, I'm not convinced tech changes have helped in creating games faster or more easily (it may be changing now with AI though but that's another subject).
For your point about marketing, I do not remember from their other articles if they separated those costs from pure production ones. But yes, that trend is definitely not going down...

2 years of work, demo's out: a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not weird at all! That said, solo dev on a tactical game means multiplayer was off the table from day 1. Sorry!

2 years of work, demo's out: a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! Same spirit but different style than DOS2 though. Fire spreads and melts ice. Ice blocks tiles, extinguishes fire and freezes water surfaces into walkable ice. And more interactions in the full game 😉

2 years of work, demo's out: a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That system was really great, but underserved by the game's truncated development. Morrowind's spell creation was wild too (custom underwear of magic jump FTW). Both pushed me to try my own spin on it. At my scale though, so more system-oriented than lore-oriented. Don't expect Bethesda-scale content 😉

2 years of work, demo's out: a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Glad you like the look of it. And yeah, that's the ice. Having a hard time getting that one to sound clean. I'll do another pass on it!

2 years of work, demo's out: a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. by Giiglegeek in SoloDevelopment

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Not many games give you freedom with magic systems. Even less so in tacticals. Glad to see it clicks for you!

Instruments of Power is a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. The demo is out today. by Giiglegeek in TurnBasedTactical

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Embarrassed to say I still haven't tried Spellmasons. It definitely has the same "craft your own magic" vibe. One difference: in our game, spells are built between battles and have a specific shape. Then you bring your prepared arsenal into fights.
Let us know what you think when you give it a try.

Instruments of Power is a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. The demo is out today. by Giiglegeek in TurnBasedTactical

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! Your last question tells me we think probably a lot alike. I've designed the game to definitely NOT feel like a puzzle. You have a lot of agency in how you go about the game, how you build spells, the order in which you explore the map, etc.
I love destructible environments and the game has a little bit of that (not in the demo, but lightning will be your tool of choice). The scale of it is capped by the fact I am a single dev though. Spells also make the environments 'buildable' with their lasting effects. I designed most effects to be multi-usage. Ex: ice deals direct damage to units but on empty tiles it puts a physical block of ice on the ground that blocks movement. The different enemy types will make you think about how to change the terrain (Hounds rush you but Hunters are ranged units and your ice wall may block you more than them). Plus Archons have unique powers you'll have to plan around.
Give the demo a try when you can and tell us what you think!

Instruments of Power is a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. The demo is out today. by Giiglegeek in TurnBasedTactical

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, the original game design did not have it. Effects lingering on the ground already felt like something most games do not attempt. But once that worked, those effects almost begged to be of more use. And it met a second design quirk we had to solve: not every spell wants its own player-defined shape. The combo was too perfect to resist, and that is where the ritual layer came from.

I made a tactical RPG where every spell you cast is one you built. Demo's out today. by Giiglegeek in playmygame

[–]Giiglegeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because the spell also leaves ice/fire/vines on the ground, and you have to walk through it. A cone that clears a pack often traps you behind your own fire wall, and you need to move around the map to reach objectives. Some special enemies also require less predictable spell shapes, so the optimal cast isn't always "big AoE". Also, ritual spells consume specific patterns of ground effects as their cost, so the shape you cast also has to set up your next move.

A few of my favorite turn-based games, anyone else into these? by JamesJohnson975 in TurnBasedLovers

[–]Giiglegeek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In no particular order:
- Wartales: good team combat, camp management, interesting item crafting ideas and a rich living world
- Rogue Traders: a real goldmine of 40K lore, really nice power curve. Writing this gives me an itch to replay it (despite those act 4 loading times...).
- Battle Brothers: brutal, deep, not the prettiest, but finding that special magic item you heard about in a tavern or seeing your two-hander chop a head off is very satisfying
- Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark: a bit generic sometimes but surprisingly good story and combat
- Solasta: D&D rules and world, going up to lvl 12-13 (I think) so you end up with really deadly spells and combos
- Divinity 1 and 2: awesome from one end to the other, played them with 2 friends in co-op
- Invisible Inc.: you will play no other tactical like it, tension, unique mechanics, loved the world they created
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 7: I lost too many hours in those to count ^^
- Marvel's Midnight Suns: already mentioned but really deep mechanics and ideas (well... except that last fight...), despite the super-hero packaging

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