Dark Vessel

An evil lurks in the depths. Only the bravest and more powerful heroes can hope to get to the deepest reaches of darkness. Yes. The more powerful the hero, the better vessel for the nameless evil to possess...

Made for Unofficial Defold Game Jam #2, though it's sadly quite unfinished.

Instructions:

- Use Call to summon different cave Dwellers.

- Use Empower to upgrade one Dweller per level to a boss variant with a special ability.

- The more powerful the Dweller, the more Essence an action takes and the longer you have to hold the mouse pressed to finish it

- Spiders and cheap, weak and dispensable. The Brood Mother will build a nest and spawn more spiders automatically

- Goblins pack a bit more punch, but even low level heroes will easily overcome them. Their Shaman will recruit both guards are diggers, who will mine for gold to lure more heroes to the caves.

- Drakes are an expensive but very powerful unit, capable of holding off even powerful heroes. The Black Drake is even harder to overcome.

- Orc clubs hit hard, but that's not the only reason to summon them. The Orc Shaman will build a summoning stone and recruit powerful Orc Cultists, who will worship Your Evil presence and rapidly replenish your Essence stores.

As the hapless heroes come across your minions, they will raise fear in the village. That will both increase your maximum Essence and lure more powerful heroes to fight in the caves. Your goal is to lure a single powerful hero to the lowest level. Should he be able to resist your evil will, you will be banished from the realm. But if you let your power grow, you'll take his body and be free to wreak whatever havoc you want in the peaceful lands above.

Oh, and if you press spacebar, a level 1 hero will spawn. I sort of forgot I left that in the game...

As I was trying to fit into the Jam deadline, I was forced to cut more and more features I would ideally want to have in the game, but I kept notes, so here's what could have been and may still be in the future, in no particular order:

- Villagers going around
- Day/night cycle
- Dwellers attacking village with various objectives (kill, abduct, steal gold)
- Bounties for dead enemies changing depending on how much of a danger each dweller type poses
- Direct interaction with the village
- Dark cult
- Sending dread visions to attract heroes
- Helping or hindering village growth
- Adventurer-based economy for the village. Have it grow as heroes use services.
- More hero types - archers, healers, mages...
- Adventuring parties sticking together
- Double (or triple) cave space by allowing actors to walk on the background
- Making it possible to descend to a lower level without going through *every single enemy* on the current level
- Using gold dropped in the dungeon to create cursed items to help heroes while corrupting them at the same time
- Raising undead
- Replacing some remaining placeholders with actual graphics
- Also adding tiny animations to everything
- Sound playing only from cave level the mouse is currently pointing at
- Restrictions on where and when certain dwellers can be placed (gold, depth etc.)
- DRAGON
- Using the lore text in any kind of meaningful way. Maybe it will fit on the title screen, piece by random piece
- Advancement from Nameless to Formless to Awakened
- Game balance =(
- Agitate and Corrupt actions
- Town portal for heroes to speed things up
- Death animations, was looking forward to fire death in particular
- More than two sounds
- Android build
- Essence represented graphically rather than by numbers
- "Elderizer" turning player's name into that of an elder god. It is actually in the game, but not used in any way.

Credits:

GFX:
Gold icons: https://opengameart.org/content/gold-treasure-icons
SFX
Pickaxe: https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/71823/
Coins: https://freesound.org/people/PetervH/sounds/324760/