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Warlock's Gauntlet is a dynamic, top-down shooter (well, spell-caster) game, placing you - the player - in the role of a battlemage. The hero travels through maps filled with monsters, gaining experience and learning new spells. The game is similar to titles like Gauntlet or Diablo. The game features 25 random-generated levels which should amount to about three hours of gameplay; the player character can find over 60 distinct spells. There is no networked multiplayer, but the game includes a hot-seat two-player mode. The game available entirely for free - the code is open source and the assets are licensed CC.

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Fun Game! Too short. (Games : Warlock's Gauntlet : Forum : Feedback : Fun Game! Too short.) Locked
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Mar 13 2012 Anchor

Just a quickie, I loved the game, but here are a few things:

1. At some point in the last few days, an update has broken the player and npc models. They now appear as colorful blobs.
2. More levels. It's too short haha! I'd offer to help, but I have virtually no coding skills whatsoever.
3. One place to buy spells, as opposed to random townsfolk.
4. Have the monsters back away from where you died - when you respawn, sometimes it's impossible to continue.
5. Leave dead bodies (maybe just from the powerful beasts?) lying around.
6. Have emergency potions, perhaps a stock of 3? Pause game when you pop into the potion screen?
7. The random Area Effect type spells laying around are handy if the monsters are still alive ... perhaps we could carry a single one like a trap?

Aight ... keep up the good work guys, this is a truly unique game in the Linux gaming world, and it was quite a lot of fun.

Mar 19 2012 Anchor

Originally I played the demo and had a lot of fun!
The new version has some cool villages to visit and rest...
But once I warp to a level with enemies IT IS WAY TOO STINKING HARD
I just kept dying and dying...
Maybe its just me, but I would like it to start a bit easier so I can find some decent weapons and level up first.

Mar 21 2012 Anchor

Hiya!
Thank you for your comments. I'd like to respond to a few issues raised (so you know these aren't ignored and so we can discuss how to improve this game even further).

Someone wrote: At some point in the last few days, an update has broken the player and npc models. They now appear as colorful blobs.

We were unable to find the source of the problem, but we think we might have blind-fixed it. If you're in the mood of doing additional testing then please download the latest WG snapshot using the Musztardasarepska.pl link (unpack&run the game manually).

Someone wrote: 2. More levels. It's too short haha! I'd offer to help, but I have virtually no coding skills whatsoever.

But what more levels you would like? More levels with different themes (not only limited to forest/desert/arctic, but to some other locations?)? Or more unique levels, with interesting object placement (stonehenges, chasms, etc)? Or just more levels to lengthen the gameplay? Or something different? What is your opinion? :)

Someone wrote: 4. Have the monsters back away from where you died - when you respawn, sometimes it's impossible to continue.

Someone wrote: But once I warp to a level with enemies IT IS WAY TOO STINKING HARD

Yeah, this is something that bothers us (the authors) too - usually if you happen to die close to the enter portal you end stuck up with monsters bashing you right after the re-enter. In recently released version 1.3 we had added invisible 3 seconds invulnerability to the players entering a level - still it doesn't solve the problem entirely. Thing is that it is would be hard to move monsters back away when storing the board state.

Someone wrote: 6. Have emergency potions, perhaps a stock of 3? Pause game when you pop into the potion screen?
7. The random Area Effect type spells laying around are handy if the monsters are still alive ... perhaps we could carry a single one like a trap?

These are good ideas. We plan to redesign the inventory system (to allow carrying potions, powerups, etc) at some point, however currently we're busy implementing other things - we would like to focus on generating the world more randomly (to allow more levels) and on introducing melee weapons. Later we would probably get back to the idea of improved inventory.

Someone wrote: But once I warp to a level with enemies IT IS WAY TOO STINKING HARD
I just kept dying and dying...
Maybe its just me, but I would like it to start a bit easier so I can find some decent weapons and level up first.

Hm... Care to explain this a little bit more? Where do you go from the start, and which monsters are superior to your hero? Maybe we didn't balance the beginning of the game properly. On the other hand we didn't want to make this game too easy - especially on the ending levels. We had in the past feedback from players claiming this game is too easy(!). As usual - the thing is to find the middle ground... So, what do you think - what can we improve in next version? What to focus on (regarding to the easiness/hardness of the game)?

Mar 21 2012 Anchor

Someone wrote:
Hm... Care to explain this a little bit more? Where do you go from the start, and which monsters are superior to your hero? Maybe we didn't balance the beginning of the game properly. On the other hand we didn't want to make this game too easy - especially on the ending levels. We had in the past feedback from players claiming this game is too easy(!). As usual - the thing is to find the middle ground... So, what do you think - what can we improve in next version? What to focus on (regarding to the easiness/hardness of the game)?

In my experience, games that start easy will allow me to learn the control, interface and systems of the game. I also get more time to enjoy the visuals.
Games that are too hard (in the beginning) force me to give up because the only result is dying.
I don't mind a game that is hard as long as I have opportunity to prepare my character and strategy first.
With Warlocks Gauntlet 3.1 I enjoyed talking to the NPC's in the first level and exploring a bit, but the first portal I found threw me into a mess of monsters that kept killing me over and over.
Maybe there should be hint of difficulty before you enter a portal. Then I would have a chance to look for an easier map first.
Or NPC's could direct me to an easier map.
If anything, it would be nice to have a short tutorial map on how to play, level up and buy items.

Great job by the way, I can see the hard work and many hours put in to Warlocks Gauntlet.

Mar 22 2012 Anchor

Yeah, you're right - this game, in it's current state, heavily lacks some kind of tutorial. Unfortunately we had not enough manpower to develop a one. On the other hand we could have tried to make the portals from the town sealed until player come from the other side (leaving portals only to the easiest parts of the world, which are the bottom portals) - that would make sense, wouldn't it?

Oh, and it's not a bad idea to add a hint about difficulty of a portal - actually we could place some 'wood signs' close to the portals which touched would display on the screen messages like "Beware! This portal leads to Blablabla Desert, which is full of critters and monsters. No adventurer had come back!". Hm... Maybe in next version? :)

cheers!

Mar 22 2012 Anchor

Sounds like a good idea.
Locking the harder levels until your character leveled up too makes sense... I'm sure someone would complain because they like a challenge.
Don't worry about manpower... I am plenty patient to wait for newer features as you implement them.
Thanks for the free game!

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