RMMV A Dungeon dilemma - Sometimes Heroes get Bored too !

[Black Pagan]

Now, Before explaining what my dilemma is about, Let me start off by saying I am planning to make a Tower Climb Rogue-like Game involving a - "Heroes raiding a Tower Dungeon to Climb x Floors and Slay the Boss" kind of Game. However, I have a few nagging doubts about the whole idea.

1. Wouldn't most Players get bored soon after climbing "x" Floors of the Tower and doing Floor after Floor, Battle after Battle, Opening Treasure Chest after Treasure Chest. What could I do to address this problem ?

2. I don't feel like introducing a "Town Floor" inside the Dungeon Tower. While its the most sensible thing to do, Its done to death by almost every Story, Anime and D&D Series at this point. Do you have any Unique alternative Ideas for this dilemma ?

Would love to hear your thoughts, Discuss

 

[caethyril]

Quick thoughts:

1. You could change the theme every X floors, either randomly or following a set progression. A "theme" in this case might include:
   • Unique enemy types;
   • New loot;
   • Special environmental interactions, i.e. anything that changes how you'll explore...ice, quicksand, fog, traps, water/lava, etc.
   • Maybe a puzzle now and again, too?
   This is a common and effective approach used in many successful RPGs, particularly those with an "endless" mode. Other than roguelikes, I think it's most common in ARPGs, e.g. the end-game dungeon in Torchlight 1. (Also the later dungeons in Recettear!)
   
   
2. Maybe waypoints, e.g. one every 5 floors, and perhaps only allow teleports from waypoints? It's often a good idea to offer somewhere to rest up, but you might consider simply giving the player the ability to set up camp instead, if you don't want to give them access to a safe "town" area. Plus if there's no shop to offset any randomness in the loot drops, things could become frustrating. Depends what kind of game you're trying to make!
   
   Most popular mechanics are popular for a reason, so it's best to thoroughly explore what you would lose by dropping such a popular mechanic before doing so. Maybe you can just disguise it as something else~

 

[alice_gristle]

So if it's Rogue-like, are you gonna make it procedurally generated? What keeps me hooked to Rogue-likes is that there's enormous variation in what I could find... which, alas, translates as a ton of work for you.

 

[Black Pagan]

I do plan on randomizing almost every aspect of the Tower Dungeon other than the Floor Map - Like Loot, Enemies, Abilities. I am even considering a Day / Night mechanic where Smaller / Trivial enemies appear during the day-time while Giant / Scarier enemies appear during the night-time.

This was another reason why I was looking for a way for Player to Regenerate or Take a break from all the Battles, Without having a need to head back to the Town.

 

[alice_gristle]

I do plan on randomizing almost every aspect of the Tower Dungeon other than the Floor Map - Like Loot, Enemies, Abilities. I am even considering a Day / Night mechanic where Smaller / Trivial enemies appear during the day-time while Giant / Scarier enemies appear during the night-time.

I like the sound of that! Also, not sure how far you're willing to go, but you could also consider how many different variations you have in each category. Like, what I mean is, if you're going to randomise the monsters, you could increase the pool from which the algorithm pulls them... like, instead of having a pool of thirty monsters, you'd have like... three hundred, even. That's what I liked so much in NetHack, for example - it wasn't just that everything was random, but also that there was so much variation in the monsters that it took me a fair few attempts to see every monster out there. Not to mention loot...

 

[ChipTato]

I assume you've played clicker games or roguelike before, they're just repetition over and over again. It's not much different from a tower climber in how it's just repetition of the same thing.
If you have that sort of dilemma then maybe a tower climbing game isnt what you're looking to do. It's a proven formula and unless you're trying revolutionize the genre there's not much you should do other than put your own spice in to it
None of those games have solved the boring factor but what they strengthen is the customizability the RNG so much so that every playthrough is different from another. It's replayable but it doesnt stay fun forever