Simplifying the Game

It seems to me that there are a lot of unnecessary complexities in our game that have gotten in the way of development. In other words, we have mechanics that do not serve much of a purpose, but add a lot of time to the development of code and levels. Therefore, I think that a good way to move toward a finished project would be to simplify level and combat mechanics. I identify one change in the spellcasting that would simplify the magic mechanics to the users and also note how our map format is way more complex than it needs to be.

Spellcasting mechanics

The number and variety of types of spells that we currently have is unnecessary complexity for players to learn. Instead, I propose a reduced system with only only two items:

• Sling. Same as it is currently; has a spell splot that can be modified at an inkwell. Spell modifies the behavior of the projectile in the air. I think it also makes sense to have a bow which is a sling with two spell slots instead of one. This allows the interaction of concurrently running spells, which seems to have been one of the coolest puzzle types from the previous iterations of the game.
• Papyrus. Spell is not written at an inkwell. Instead, the player accumulates a stack of blank papyrus consumables. They can cast one of these papyri at any time to pause the game, write a spell, and execute it right away in the game world. The papyrus is then consumed.

These mechanics are simpler than what we had before. They also introduce a natural trade off between reusability and the ability to issue spells dynamically without needing access to an inkwell editor. Finally, they replace the old projectile modifiers with concurrently running spells that are achievable on high-level weapons.

Maps

Originally, we envisioned using big open-worldy tiled maps. We then simplified this down to complex room graphs. It seems to me that both of these ideas are overly complicated. All we really need to facilitate natural language puzzles and combat is a linear sequence of puzzle rooms. So, this is exactly what we should define all the rooms in the game to be. The player proceeds from one room to the next, and then cannot return to the previous room afterwords. The whole game story becomes one sequence of rooms, and development is expedited since we can focus on building just the puzzles within in each room instead of the surroundings. In my opinion, the sacrifice in the detail of the level design is more than justified if we can actually finish developing levels.

More things to consider

• Change to side-on platformer view (would actually be pretty simple, just add gravity)
• Animate spell effect when a spell is cast
• Necessity of art style? Could simplify textures to be more 8 bit
• Necessity of bosses? Require a lot of work to develop
• Mana consumed in real interpreter time; like "gas" in Ethereum