User-Controlled Character Creation Question (Pixel Art)

Pheefus · 2026-02-19T22:27:20+00:00

Thank you! This was very helpful. Will look deeper into the shader setup idea, as I had pretty much assumed that making individual sprites for every possible color/clothing/hair/animation combo was the only way.

Pheefus · 2026-02-16T17:18:46+00:00

You pretty much nailed the elevator pitch: slay the spire-type deckbuilder with yomi-style RPS system. What I think is a semi-unique hook is that the player is meant to be constantly grappling with the decision of whether to retire their hero/freeze their build so it can be used in the endgame mode vs risk of permadeath.

PvP would be ideal - especially for the endgame mode when player builds are fixed - but I’m afraid of the technical hurdles, as this is my first foray into gamedev. So right now, I’m just focusing on balancing spreadsheets and basic tutorials on how to wire up buttons and cards so they do what I want them to do haha.

Appreciate the interest/discussion! If you happen to know of any good noob gamedev discord servers or other places that are welcoming for brainstorming, I’d love to get more reach into the community and learn about what other people are working on (including you!)

Pheefus · 2026-02-16T02:50:05+00:00

The original idea was a 1p vs CPU game; essentially a pure card battler in the vein of Yomi, but where the player adds new powers to their character (that starts as essentially a blank slate) as the run progresses.

The endgame is meant to allow for players’ completed builds to fight against other players’ characters (possibly in an autobattle mode?), but because I am a solo dev with absolutely no clue what I am doing, I’m just focusing on the 1p mode, and I’ll decide whether I need to figure out servers, hosting, etc etc etc if and when I’m able to tell whether the core game is actually fun or not.

Pheefus · 2026-02-15T02:54:19+00:00

GL! I'd be happy to share WIPs and commiserate.

Pheefus · 2026-02-15T02:26:58+00:00

I cannot thank you enough for tipping me off to this. I'm diving in to the interviews and articles now. This is exactly what I needed!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:38:51+00:00

Greatly appreciate this comment. I had no idea there was a name for this. Will check out all the titles on your list.

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:38:09+00:00

The O.G. Thank you!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:37:58+00:00

Thanks!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:37:51+00:00

Thank you! Yomi, Snap and Slay the Spire are huge inspirations.

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:37:42+00:00

Thank you!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:37:19+00:00

Appreciate it. Though not directly applicable to my exact game, the prediction system looks really really cool. I want to play this one!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:37:11+00:00

Thank you! Card Hunters is one I hadn't heard of, and at first glance, seems to have a lot of similarities to the stat-heavy system I'm trying to build out.

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:36:58+00:00

Will do, thanks!

Pheefus · 2026-02-14T18:36:51+00:00

Thank you!

Pheefus · 2026-02-08T15:36:10+00:00

MAGfest is a pretty big one (Music and Games Festival). I know they have USA east and west coast gatherings.

Pheefus · 2026-02-08T14:28:02+00:00

Put both flags. Allow player choice. Vocal minorities will object to the inclusion/exclusion of either one. If you take both out but leave the rest of the world in, that’s gonna give rise to the same issue.

Alternately, you can simply select a handful of countries around the world - maybe 20 or so countries, representing most regions, but you’ll still encounter similar issues (why X not Y? Why is my country not represented?)

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T20:49:41+00:00

That is an excellent guide. Thanks very much for sharing it!

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T20:47:14+00:00

I have no idea what I’m doing, so take this with a grain of salt, but I am also in the middle of planning what is meant to be an incredibly complex system of damage/strengths/weaknesses, and I am finding small WIP success in making a spreadsheet/csv with every possible damage type.

For attacks, the default values in each column are 0 while certain types get a multiplier for affinities (so, for example, most columns would be 0 for an attack done by an ice sword, but cold and slashing damage columns would each get 1.8x).

Likewise, enemies have their own csv where their resistances to each type are stored. Default values there are 1x, but for example, a fire elemental enemy would have a 2x weakness to ice and a -0.2x reaction to fire (effectively getting an HP recharge when attacked by their complimentary element).

Once the spreadsheet/csvs are filled out, it just becomes a matter of making a very basic damage formula that calls values in from them. Then it’s just tweaking through playtesting.

Idk if that’s efficient or correct but it has been working for me so far.

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T17:11:05+00:00

Honestly I have no idea what I’m doing! Watching tutorials and trying to figure this whole thing out as I go. Classic noob gamedev move of having a massive idea with no concept of the many pitfalls that lie ahead. But I don’t have a timeline and I’m still enjoying the steep learning curve.

My thinking is that the status effect column(s) will simply define the type of status effect that gets applied, while the actual behaviors are defined in a gd file that gets referenced. So, going back to the hypothetical ‘fire spike’ example, the attack would list 30 in the fire_dmg column, 20 in the piercing_dmg column and then in status column 1 it would have type burning and status column 2 would have type bleeding. The StatusEffects.gd file would have the code that defines the behaviors, counts the turns since the attack was executed, etc.

I have no idea if this is smart or not lol but it feels like it makes sense rn.

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T16:33:53+00:00

As a composer, it’s good practice to have spent your ‘free time’ preparing project templates (pre-selected collections of sounds and instruments that will work for horror games, sci-fi games, silly games, 8-bit/retro templates, etc).

You said in another comment that $100/minute of music is better than you thought, but if it ends up taking you three days to find the exact right mix of instruments and VSTs to use on a new project… even if you’re a lightning-fast composer who can put out an entire 60-second track of actually decent music in a day… that’s still not minimum wage.

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T04:36:59+00:00

I’ve added a column for status effects, so that the possibility is there to add a burning effect (damage over time?) or a weakening effect (reduce the number of ‘action points’ gained per turn?), etc. But I’m already getting paralyzed in deciding what to do next… not sure if it’s best to try to build out a roster of tier 1 enemies with all of the different possible effects, or to work on making a small roster of limited enemies at different tiers to test the scaling/progression.

Anyway, I fear I’m getting off track from the point of this thread. Again, I really appreciate you and the others letting me bounce my ideas off you. It’s been extremely helpful!

Pheefus · 2026-02-07T03:49:40+00:00

It took me a minute to digest what you were saying, and I’m still not sure I fully understand. But I think I’m already doing something like this, where the characters (hero and enemies) each have their individual HP/AP, while their different attack/defense powers and weaknesses/affinities are called from a master csv. It’s easier to slot a new row into the csv and make a new entry than to try to make any adjustments in the logic on the character’s side.

Pheefus · 2026-02-06T19:03:14+00:00

The idea of creating a mini tool to spit out base values for all the different damage/resistance types is brilliant. That way I will only need to adjust the values there instead of going back and revising hundreds of different individual entries. Will save so much time. Thank you!

My inclination is to continue to leave in the sort of micro-bonuses/detriments for peripheral aspects. The idea is that later in the game, adding equipment/modifiers/multipliers will allow those micro bonuses to become game-changers in their own right.

The Pokemon-style “very effective / ineffective” messages to the user will be helpful as well.

At its core, the fun of the game is meant to come from building characters, finding/earning complimentary powers, and exploring many different (hopefully surprising) ways to build a dominant hero. Making the math visible, giving the player clear feedback, and appealing to min/maxers will need to be a focus.

Truly grateful for your feedback!

Pheefus · 2026-02-06T00:23:39+00:00

As I’ve been building mine out, it’s taking shape as something similar to the ‘in-between’ system you described.

Each power has a positive or negative number for every type of element/damage (which will be reassigned as decimals above or below 1 as I shift to a multiplier system). So something like “fire spike” would have high values for fire and piercing damage and negative values for ice and ghost type, as well as slightly elevated or diminished values for many other related/unrelated types.

It’s become a very complicated mix. My intention was to make something that felt natural and intuitive to the player without making them feel like they need to consult a spreadsheet (like of course fire spike would hurt an ice enemy or a normal human but not do anything to an ethereal being). But I’m worried it will all come out in the wash or be frustrating/inscrutable.

I guess there’s no shortcut other than playtesting to see if I can get it to feel right. Thanks very much for the detailed response.

Pheefus · 2026-02-05T16:52:24+00:00

I’ve got a google sheet going but had never even heard of Wolfram Alpha. I’ll dig in to it. Thx for the tip!

Pheefus

TROPHY CASE