Dev Log 2 - Debuffs

A few weeks ago we made various traps in the hopes that we could trick ourselves into falling for them / make the game harder for us.

Unfortunately we have the developer’s curse, so we can always sense nearby traps even when we don’t want to. They ended up being pretty cool though, and changed how we navigate spaces in a fun way, so overall they were a success + david still falls for em.

Our focus this sprint has been to create more mechanics / situations that can surprise us, so we came up with an idea for how "debuffs" could lend themselves to this. Currently we have 2 debuffs: bleeding and vomiting (show picture of bleeding and vomit corners).

(Left: Good Soda, Right: Bad Soda)

Vomiting: 

Drinking a dirty soda has a chance to induce vomiting. Good goop is hard to come by in the dungeons, so rolling the dice and drinking a dirty soda may be your only option (unless you have a soda purifying straw or the strong gut trait) or maybe you just like to gamble. Like IRL food poisoning, you won’t know you have it until 1 second before you start vomiting so you’ll want to make sure to quickly turn your camera away from the nearest teammate. Being sick weakens you, and unpredictable vomiting can interfere with combat situations. It goes away naturally so long as you dont continually trigger a vomit chain reaction as pictured below.

Sorry this is kinda gross and nasty but the main thing is that it should be surprising for all parties involved. Also it opens the door for some funny social interactions, which is another thing we generally want debuffs to do. Mainly we want there to be a sense of wanting to take care of your squad- which can range from just trying not to hurl on your teammates, to carrying someone with a broken leg, or to finding lozenges to soothe a teammates nasty cough. An important part of the game will be in understanding and adapting to party members’ different strengths, weaknesses, injuries, illnesses, quirks etc. We don’t want debuffs to feel like a burden, but more like opportunities to inspire interesting communication, acts of heroism, ingenuity, or other rewarding feelings. Hurling is a small step toward that, but other debuffs may require more elaborate diagnoses, or immediate action that may even challenge your moral alignment chart. 

We hope you liked this dev log, if you have ideas for debuffs drop us a line in our discord channel. More cool stuff coming soon + stay on the look out for WizMUD related news. Thank you!!!!