Mystery Dungeon - New Beginnings

Hello, this is my submission to the Icehouse Jam 2021! The theme is "an old game that you loved" and to incorporate an arrow symbol. When I was a child, I adored  Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, and so, decided to base my entry on it!

Updates:

12/20/2021: Based on feedback the games has been updated to include :

• Health indicator bars  for the player and Pokemon
• The player now disappears after death
• After dying the player can continue from the start of the dungeon instead of having to replay the intro
• And music!

Backstory:

The game takes place in a world where humans and Pokemon are at war with each other, with humans living at the brink of extinction.  You are about to meet your doom, when the legendary Mew appears. It saves your life by using its ability to trade places with you and in turn you become a Pokemon.

If you can escape the dungeon you're trapped in, you may live to see another day! But why did Mew help you? Why are humans and Pokemon at war? Is there a reason Mew turned you into a Pokemon? See if you can forge a new beginning between humans and Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon - New Beginnings!

Instructions:

• Use WASD  or the arrow keys to move around the dungeon
• Double-click to skip dialogue
  
• Use the left mouse button to fire attacks
• Use the mouse wheel to scroll through your attacks. Currently selected attack is colored yellow
• You can hold 4 attacks at once. There are four boxes at the bottom of the screen. Each one has a different function, cooldown, and range
• The range is visualized through the attack's animation
• Each Pokemon that you defeat will drop an attack. Different types of Pokemon drop different attacks (there are 4 in total)
• Discover synergies between attacks and it may make it easier to get through the dungeon
• Find the black square to exit to the next floor. Get through the 3rd floor and you win!

More Information:

Gameplay

I made this game out of the fond memories I have for the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (PMD) series. Like PMD, this entry has a randomly generated dungeon, waking up as a Pokemon, a character with 4 attacks, and forming friendship with the Pokemon that you encounter. There are, however, a few differences.  

The PMD series has turn-based combat. I find that turn-based games work well when there is position-based strategy involved (like the Fire Emblem series). PMD doesn't have a lot of position-based strategy, so there isn't a need to keep combat turn-based when real-time combat can be more interactive.

Additionally the main Pokemon games (PMD is a spin-off of the main game) have a rich strategy based on attack combinations and synergies. I wanted to bring that type of strategy into the PMD series and for that reason as well, this entry has real-time combat. 

For instance, a common strategy in the main Pokemon series is a "Perish Trap Team." You can recreate that strategy in this game, by using the attack "Yawn" followed by "Perish Song." This will help you to defeat large groups of Pokemon. When you're faced with a large group of Pokemon (known as a Monster House) in the original PMD game, you had to use items to escape! I found that this type of game style could be more fun!

Art

This is the first time I made my own Tile Palette and I'm happy that I was able to complete one in this time period! I tried to make it similar to the PMD style and wanted to give it a crystal-cave type feel. 

Credit:

• This entry and its characters are based on the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky game
• For the Tile Palette I used a beautiful color palette made by LostInIndigo: https://lospec.com/palette-list/iridescent-crystal
• For the music I used the wistful "Adventure/Exploration Music Pack" by Fred Patry: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/music/adventure-exploration-music-pa...
• I used the A* asset to program the enemy AI and follow the player: https://arongranberg.com/astar/
• I used TextMeshPro for more text options

Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoy the game!