District 43

Important Info

This is an extremely early prototype build meant to gather very early player feedback around my next big game idea.  As a solo developer I need your input before I spend years working on a bad idea.

This build has no real VFX, SFX, Animations, or textures.  There are just a few place holder elements used to create the complex game systems in order to get player feedback on the core idea and core game loop.

This build will only take 5 - 15 minutes to play through, and I would love to hear your thoughts.  What is good, what is bad, what would you change, what would you add?  You can leave that feedback here on the itch or come to my discord:  https://discord.gg/WfbXE4cDVA

If you enjoy this super early build, stay tuned as it will continue to develop on itch.io for a long time.  I would also love for you to check out my most recent commercial game launched on steam "Game Dev Masters" store page found here:  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1478350/Game_Dev_Masters/

There is a free demo available as well.

How To Play

The game has partial controller support, and will have full controller support eventually.  For now, you must use mouse and keyboard.

District Controls - WASD to move camera, hold right click and move mouse to rotate camera, mouse wheel to zoom, and left click on buildings to bring up their menus.  Building buildings will bring up a control widget to reference.

Prototype Level Controls - WASD movement, tab to pull up the menu.  In combat you can click on units and commands as well as use A and D to change target selections.

Extended Game Details

In this optional to read section I will lay out the core game concept and lore for any players interested.

The game takes place in world where all the evil monsters are trapped inside 3 towers of increasing difficulty.  The most precious resource in this world is a monster essence dropped from these creatures which I am currently calling ICK (all names are subject to change).  The world is broken into districts which sole purpose aside from basic necessities to live, is to head into these towers to collect ICK.

Districts are in competition with each other, and are rated based on their ICK gains.  At the end of every year the top 4 districts for each tower level compete in the coliseum head-to-head.  If you manage to win these arena matches you will be granted the ability to enter the next tower unlocking all new blueprints, classes, and items.

The district (city building side) will be low in tedium and up-keep with a focus on decision making vs micromanagement.  NPCs will move and do their work, but nothing will ever change until you proceed to the next month.  When you proceed to the next month everything you have setup to happen will happen.  Such as, adventurers will train levels, heal wounds, or memorize skills.  While workers gather and use resources as well as run facilities to improve your adventurers.

Your adventurers will progress in many ways, and I am using a progression system from a classic game I love called Final Fantasy Tactics.  Where you raise one job to learn its abilities, and then you can bring those abilities to the next job creating your own diverse and powerful classes.  Do you want an archer who can wear heavy armor?  Or a damage dealing caster who is also capable of massive healing?  Anything will be possible with a deep skill and passive system.  Your characters will also gain stats every time they level up their character level and the stat increases are based off the job you have equipped.

There will also be systems to raise character and job levels from the district side, as well as simulating expeditions on top of the manually controlled systems.

Ideally this will all lead up to players having the ability to create their own diverse groups to compete in a variety of leader boards as well as 1v1 pvp and co-op dungeons.

The combat itself is fully turn based, and uses a 3-row grid.  In the front row you deal and take increased physical damage and less magical damage, while in the back row you deal and take more magical damage and take less physical.

Players will play out their full turn in the order they choose.  Allowing you to make use of buffs and debuffs before you launch devastating attacks from your damage dealers.  Or you can even empower and pass your turn to others.  Enemies will have the same full turn for each of the enemies on their turn.

The game is a million miles away from even having a demo available, but I think the depth and game play have promise.  I would love to hear from you on what you think after you try the current build.  Come be a part of my development team as we grow this game from a prototype to a technical demo and beyond.  Thank you and have fun.