[WK 8] Adding Surrounding Systems
After creating all the trait effects and getting them working I did an observed playtest with a player who is a fan of TFT. Here is the feedback I gathered:
- Player wanted to be able to click on the traits to see what they do
- Player wanted to know if there was interest in the game
- Player wanted a level / rounds counter
- Player made it their goal to get all the traits active at the same time
- Player wanted to be able to "inspect" a unit so they can see the stats / traits of a unit they've bought since they'd forgotten after a round or two.
- Player wanted to be able to lock the shop if they didn't have enough gold to buy a unity that turn
- Player wanted to be able to sell units
- Player loved the VFX
- The pastoral trait was way too strong
- Player wanted the trait symbols to match up more with the traits themselves
One of the most important things I wanted to address was giving the player the ability to see descriptions of the traits so they could formulate more of an informed strategy. I also wanted to give the player the ability to sell champions since this was really hampering the players ability to swap out and buy new champions to try different strategies. I want to add the ability for the player to inspect champions to see their traits / stats but I'll have to develop the combo system first and then see how much time I have afterwards.
Adding the ability to sell champions was the first issue I tackled because it heavily restricted the players ability to change tactics / try out different comps.
It ended up being easier than I thought it would be. I just expanded the inventory size and added a check when the players would stop dragging a unit. If the unit was going to land on the last inventory space then it would call a function within the unit that would destroy the unit and return the gold value of the champion to the player.
Adding trait descriptions
Next I changed all the trait displays on the left side into buttons that would bring up a description of that trait. Although this wasn't super challenging to impliment it was vitally important to get in because players wouldn't be able to make informed strategies without knowing what the traits do.
Adding shop lock
Finally before moving onto the next major system I added the ability for the player to lock the shop. Since there isn't the same pooling system and interest system as there is in TFT I thought the player should have the advantage to lock the shop. Whilst it's not a majorly important I knew it would be very simple to do and would help players progress to the fun part of the game quicker, which is playing with different strategies and upgrading champions rather than spending gold trying to roll for the right champions to do that.
[get screenshot of new lock ability]