Devlog #4 - Top Off Da Pint with Gameplay

Takes a sippy. Hey. So we've been hard at work! We've also been working hard. During the last update Taylor (and some players) brought up the fact that the crowd kind of disables any real player action, and that blows. And I agreed. So what could I do to change things up without adding more work so that the update can come out sooner?

The first idea was reworking the crowd into something Joker could deploy. I had this plan for a future update, where you could spend cash at a shop for upgrades and etc. The thing is, we kinda need that extra gameplay Now. So I thought, let's just give the player that ultimate form of crowd calling! It'd be a button that charges with the more losses the chicks face, and then you could press it to call them when you wanted. Couple that with reworking the way status effects work and bada-bing, gameplay!

…But I wasn't satisfied with that. So I thought more on it. Joker's Trip doesnt have stats outside of an invisible luck stat. I can't do the RPG thing of "+4.5% damage to centaurs, immunity to ice damage," incremental rewards. The player has a very deliberate action economy. Eventually I want you to unlock abilities that affect those actions. Originally the solution was the status effects. As they work right now, they're flawed. Hot always hitting and Shy always standing means that the player has zero say in what happens, even if it's beneficial for them. Now, things will work a bit differently. Hot will always listen to a hit taunt, and Shy will always listen to a stand taunt. At first, it sounds like there's no real difference, but as the player, it means that the buff is essentially in your court to dish out. You still have to make the choices. Choice is the biggest tool at my disposal for giving the player more agency.

That alone would’ve helped a lot, but I was still thinking about player abilities. We knew we were eventually going to add a drink mixing mini-game, and Taylor had the idea to tie the two together. So I sat down and made a a list of possible buffs and boosts that the player could unlock in the final game, thinking I’d pick the 3 simplest, and add them to the build.

As you can see here I ended up doing five (there's six but that first one's supposed to be None ability) because I was drastically overestimating the work required, and was on a roll last weekend. Lmao.

For now, you’ll get 5 choices for abilities. 3 will buff Joker, and 2 target a gambler in some way. Designing the abilities is really fun, because it has to be balanced. A restriction, an amount of charges, an unexpected side effect—these can all be used to help justify a powerful effect. For example, the Joker buff Totally Legal guarantees a 21! That's pretty good, at worst you're tying. With 2 charges, that's 2 rounds you know you'll win. But to balance it I also added the restriction that nobody can be betting clothes at that point. So it becomes a "get to the stripping faster" power rather than an instant win. 

Another "get to the stripping faster" ability is Risque Business, a gambler targeter. When you use it they will bet all their money. And you get 3 charges! That's pretty busted.

Until you realize Rosalie just went from $150 to $600 cause she did a lucky draw two rounds in a row.

Doing these abilities actually forced me to add a lot of systems that the game needed eventually anyway, like a flag system for when the player sees something for the first time, and a way to select a gambler during play.

When you start up Joker's Trip after this update comes out, you'll be asked to select an ability. Once you do, you can change it from the start menu whenever. And if you don't feel like messing with that, you can just take a glass of water :) On the game floor you'll have a button you can click to activate the ability.

So with all that said, abilities, crowd, and status reworks are done, and will be tested soon! Once Taylor finishes drawing up the icons and I replace the placeholder, it's back to the dialog studio! And after THAT'S done, some new Sexy Content will be coming ya'lls way >:) 

-Leo G