Familiar of Dusk
From Roots odyssey adventure ascension abandoned dream downfall, dawn, horizon spirit (f)rogue The Saga of the Flying Toad/Toad Back Odyssey/Toad and Demon/ Toad and Druid/Toad and Shaman/Dawn, Dusk Child/The Legend of Lorgrinn and Dusk/Familiar of Dusk
Good names: This war of mine, Don't starve!, How to train your dragon, Hollow knight,
In the swamp the beast is burrowed Be careful, child, or you'll be swallowed No man, no wolf, no troll is save The Lorgrinn's maw will be their grave!
Introduction
Hey there! Just a quick note: If you haven't seen the showcase video yet, you should definitely do so. Either now or at least whenever you feel like this text doesn't give a proper impression of the game (which, to be honest, it probably won't).
First of all: What is the game about?
This is a game about Dusk, a cursed child and one of the last druids, cast out by its village and abandoned in the swamplands. It is accompanied by a strange creature - a giant swamp toad. Hoping to find the origin of the curse – and with it the cure - the two start a long journey.
Simple enough. But what type of game are you thinking of?
Familiar of Dusk is, first and foremost, a rogue-lite. That means, the player has to travel across - and fight through - multiple procedurally generated maps, always collecting gear and other useful stuff on the way. Depending on the chosen difficulty, the game also features another typical aspect of rogue-lites: permadeath. This, combined with the random item drops that determine your play style in each run, will hopefully grant some long term entertainment and replayability to the game without requiring the highest effort from the developers. If you want to compare it to a popular game, “Binding of Isaac” is probably the closest fit in that aspect.
So then... what is the characteristic of this game, compared to other rogue-lites?
The core of this game is the swamp toad. Although the player does not control the toad directly, it is a constant follower on your journey and its assistance will be crucial in many situations. With its sticky tongue it can interact with the environment and the slimy goo it spits slows enemies and disable all sorts of dangerous mechanisms such as traps or portcullis. And thanks its resilient stomach, the swamp toad can even devour unusual dishes – like fiery herbs or the ice cold frostwing moth – to change the effects of the goo, allowing it to ignite or freeze the environment... and your enemies. These abilities will prove incredibly useful not only in the many skirmishes to come, but also in the puzzle elements that make up another part of the game.
So it's fighting, solving puzzles and collecting stuff, all with the help of a giant toad. But what is the actual task?
The swamp toad is not only a great assistance on land. Thanks to its unique diet, it can produce a gas in its belly that allows it to inflate and float in the air like a hot air balloon. Utilising this, the main character built an air ship to sail through the sky – but only until food becomes scarce. To gather food – especially enough to satisfy the giant appetite of a swamp toad – will be the main task in each level. Mushrooms, herbs, berries and even smaller enemies are a welcomed feast for the swamp toad. Only once its belly is full (indicated by the bar in the middle bottom of the screen), the toad will be able to get airborne again. Sounds weird enough? Great, then let's continue!
World building
As was said before, the world in Familiar of Dusk is procedurally generated. But of course, not everything is left to chance. The world structure can be categorized in three different parts:
The World Map
The world map mostly acts as a “level selection screen” and also shows the progress of your way to the final fight. There is some choice to be made here, because the levels are not always streamlined, so you can decide to go for a shorter, but more risky route or to set priority on exploration and gathering. But you probably won't spend a lot of time on this screen. Oh and... there is no precedural generation here, we'll come to that part next.
The Levels/Layers
Once you selected a level in the world map, you will be transpored there by the toad-powered air ship. This is also the point where the showcase video starts, so if you STILL haven't watched it, now is definitely your chance to do so! Each level consists of about 10-15 randomly selected “segments” (will be described in detail in the next paragraph).
The Segments
Segments are the smallest building blocks in this algorythm and are seperated by a short loading screen. As you can see in the image of the level, each segment has one to four junctures that connect them to the other segments. The basic layout of each segment (for example the borders, a river etc.) will be pre-modeled, but smaller landscape assets like rocks and trees will also be randomly generated, so you will never stumble upon the exact same segment twice. Each segment has a predetermined spot where the toad will sit. The toad won't change its position until the player moves to the next segment. This segment mechanic allows us developers to add new puzzle elements to our game (even after the game is “complete”) by simply adding a segment that contains the puzzle to the pool of randomly chosen segments.
Controls
PC:
Right mouse: walk
Left mouse: main attack
Middle mouse up or down: roll
Space: jump
Shift: sprint/secondary weapon
Control: sneak
ESC: Main menu
C: use inventory item (hold C to open item quick select)
D: interact
F: sheeth weapon
Q W E R T: character abilities
1-3: toad abilities
M: Map/Quests
I: Inventory
Tab: Character sheet
Combat
Familiar of Dusk has a true action combat system, so it requires the player to actively aim, block and dodge, all from a bird's eye perspective (like in the showcase video). Unlike many action-based games, Familiar of Dusk combat moves have an “anticipation aspect”, so a visual preparation phase of around 0.1 to 1 second depending on the weapon's weight that is played before the actual attack (good examples for this type of combat are games like Dark Souls or Monster Hunter). It requires the player to not just mindlessly attack whenever the situation allows it but instead to carefully analyze the enemy's movements and find open windows in their attack pattern.
Items and Equipment
What's a roguelite without some gear and potions to mix up the gameplay from time to time? In Familiar of Dusk, there are no classes and only very few character-specific attributes, so the gameplay is almost completely based on the equipment you use. Feel like lighting up some evil goblins? Don't forget your BBQ-Scepter, Mantle of the Pyromaniac and maybe a Burned Ham Necklace as trinked. Not only does equipment give some status improvements (health, armor, attack damage... the usual stuff), but each piece will also have some unique active or passive abilities, which synergize with other effects and shape the type of character you want to play.
Additionally, each major weapon has a number of upgrades that again slightly change how the weapons play and feel. There won't be a huge number of different gear (at least at the start), but each piece will have a unique playstyle with a lot of variance.
Items are a little less exciting, though still necessary. They mostly split into the two categories consumables (health potions etc.) and crafting resources (to upgrade your equipment).
Optional Content
There are a lot of things we would love to implement but aren't mandatory for a functioning game and thus have lower priority. These things are:
Character creation
Quests – some smaller quests randomly spread across the map
Upgradable base and base defense minigame
2D airship flight minigame (each time you travel to a new level)
Console:
Left stick: walk
Right stick: adjust target direction (if aiming with bow, for example)
X: jump
rect: interact
circle: use inventory item (hold to change item)
triangle:
R1: attack (usually can be held down for power attack)
L1: sprint/secondary attack
R2: activate Spirit form – allows you to use your items' active abilities and, depending on your gear, grants other bonuses (invisibility etc), but will, if overused, summon dark spirits and eventually drain your health
L2: Toad controls
Arrow up: Main menu
Arrow left: Map/Quests
Arrow right: Inventory
Arrow down: Character sheet
Story
Main Characters
Beast tamer – tame different creatures, each with special abilities when you ride on them. You can only control animals a limited time. Level up your creatures.
Trapper – Use traps and lure enemies into an ambush. Use the environment to optimize your traps.
Earth/Nature mage – Manipulate either earth or the plants around you.
Esper – Can rewind time
Balloon toad ship traveller – Focused around a giant, horned, toad-like spirit that can inflate itself to fly like a hot-air balloon. There is a raft attached to it which you can upgrade. The toad will always jump to a premade spot in each part of the map when you change locations and can interact with the environment from there, mostly with it's tongue, but depending on what you feed it, it can also have special abilities like breathing fire, spitting mukus etc.
Game mechanics
The game is focused around a giant toad companion. Each level consists of random smaller maps (roughly the size of one screen), which you have to explore in order to find food for the toad to continue your journey to the top of the mountain. The hunger bar of the toad is essential, as it is “mana bar” for all of the toad's abilities and progress bar in one. You fill it by making the toad stick its tongue to something consumable, but the bar slowly regresses, too, so you should not waste too much time. If the bar is full, you and your toad are ready to fly to the next level.
Man hat ein einziges Kernelement (die Kröte), also relativ wenig Aufwand für uns Entwickler, aus der sich verschiedenste Spielelemente ableiten. Beispielsweise ist die Hungeranzeige der Kröte gleichzeitig Fortschrittsanzeige und Mana-Leiste, man kann die Kröte nutzen, um entweder mit der Umgebung zu interagieren oder um sich im Kampf helfen zu lassen, und man hat eine transportable Basis, die von der Kröte wie von einem Heißluftballon getragen wird, das heißt wir haben gleichzeitig eine wechselnde Umgebung und trotzdem ein Hauptlager, das man upgraden kann und damit ein bisschen Langzeitmotivation liefert.
Creatures
Items
Gear
Snail backpack
Giant fire hammer, can act as a campfire
Eyeball amulett
Faithful Slicers (Dagger) – Special: Throw 1, 2 or 3 of the daggers like boomerangs with a short delay between each throw.
Thornroot Scepter Special:
Boneshard Daggers (offhand) – Sharp daggers for close and ranged combat. Special: Throw a dagger (two stacks). Daggers can be recollected to reduce cooldown by 6s. Switch in: Increases movement speed for a short time and increases the damage of the next attack.
Bonus ability: Collecting a dropped weapon will cause the same effect as switching to that weapon.
Bonus ability: Collecting a dropped weapon reduces the cooldown of “trick”, “dark assault” and “mirage” by 6 seconds.
Bonus ability: every 3rd hit from behind will deal bonus damage and stun the target briefly. (also synergizes well with boomerang weapons).
Skullwitcher's Claw – Special: Pulls all boneshards (and other things made from bone) towards you, dealing damage to all enemies they pass through.
Ability – Summon a stone/ice cage that also acts as stepping stone
Ability – crescent fire ball strike in about 90° circle (always same distance to caster)
Ability – create stone altar. If destroyed, it will create crevices around.
Ability – telekinesis: grab objects at a distance. Reactivate to throw in cursor direction. Use mouse wheel to give it spin.
Quests
Other ideas:
Toad can steal shield of large enemy
Enemies will dodge the tongue if they are aware, but sometimes fall down a cliff or something when dodging
Goo is sticky, can root enemies, fixate certain objects (for example levers)
Loading screen minigame gives speedboost at start of next map (equalizes long loading screens->better speedboost)
Third toad ability: Loud “roar”, will panic smaller enemies
Falling trees can hit enemies. Sticky tongue will bring trees to fall faster the more damaged the tree is, so chopping a bit first to then instantly crush the enemies with it might help.
Map ideas:
Lever will activate some defense mechanism. Spit goo on lever to keep enemies from activating.
For flight simulator: Don't forget to add landscape assets to the background, even in top-down
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