Runecaster: First Ritual
For 10 years, I studied magic and runes.
I learned how to bring paintings to life...
and make them obey me.
Now, my story begins.
My journey starts at home,
with an old painting on the wall.
Inside it lives an ancient Greek queen.
Help me merge the runes,
break her will...
and make her obey my darkest desires.
About the game
Runecaster: First Ritual is the first part of a series of short adult idle puzzle fantasy games
where magic, runes, and desire come together.
Merge the runes.
Gather energy.
Feed the living painting.
Break its resistance.
Unlock new dirty commands.
And make the queen obey your desires.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Currently after some progress there is no point in merging new runes because energy regeneration is always 1/sec and player can't do anything with it.
It took few hours of just sitting and waiting to unlock all 10 stages, which is silly.
I think I have perfect solution for this complexity problem!
Since every stage requires exponentially more energy than the previous, my suggestion will not make the game too fast also, since it gives additional linear growth.
_______________________________________________________
THE SOLUTION:
Amount of energy regenerated per second should be equal to the ritual number - amount of the solved pazzles.
At the beginning nothing is solved, regeneration 0.
So, you solved the first pazzle and got the required number - now it's ritual 1 and 1 energy/sec; than after the second solved pazzle it's ritual 2 and 2 energy/sec, etc.
-------------------------------------------------------
Suggestion: adding below the portrait total amount of energy to unlock the next stage and how much left to make progress more visible.
Suggestion 2: making 4 cells instead of just 3, so you can get "+1", "+2", "+3" or "+4" (with equal probability), as others mentioned sometimes it takes plenty of time to get "1/2" cell for the solution.
Or "+1", "+2", "x2" and "x3" - that will be even better, I think.
Well, even without "x3" and just 3 cells "+1", "+2" and "x2" everything is going to be much faster.
_______________________________________________________
I liked the game and I hope my suggestions will help!
I have plenty of experience with calculating algorithmic complexity and the speed of the progress, so I will be glad to help with the balance. :)
Thank you so much for such detailed and valuable feedback!
I really like the idea of scaling energy regeneration with the ritual number / solved puzzles, because it keeps the progression under control while still making the player feel constant progress.
Thank you for taking the time to explain the problem and suggest such a clear solution. I will definitely implement these suggestions in the next parts of Runecaster.
And thanks for the other suggestions as well - they will make the progression much clearer, improve the puzzle flow, and reduce unnecessary waiting.
I really appreciate it!
Let me give you some feedback:
The game is too slow. As in way too slow. After just a couple minutes of playing, I got to 1000+ points while the image/animation is only at stage 7. It is going to take absolutely forever for it to slowly advance while the player has nothing to do but to wait.
Also, since there are choices as to what you want the painting to do, you obviously miss half the content. In that regard, either make more stages where whatever option you didn't pick is added as a choice in the next stage or add a gallery where whatever you choose, you still unlock both animations. Expecting players to beat the game twice to see everything is kind of evil considering the first point that I made.
Also, I really like the puzzles but maybe add more tile types. Like you could split multiplicative and additive into two types and let both make the number go down. As it stands right now, you have to cycle through all additive and multiplicative tiles to get to the 1/2 tile which takes so much time... Maybe make the puzzles harder to compensate idk.
Aside from that, interesting concept. I am looking forward to what kind of content you will add in the future.
Thank you so much for such detailed feedback and for taking the time to play the game.
I really appreciate it.
You made a lot of very useful points that can help me improve the game. I will definitely keep your feedback in mind when working on the next part of Runecaster.
I will try to make the pacing more dynamic, so the player does not feel like they are just waiting for the painting to progress. I will also think about a better way to unlock animations, so players can see all the content in one playthrough without having to replay the whole game.
I will also pay more attention to the puzzle system. Maybe I will improve the current puzzle, or maybe I will replace it with a different puzzle mechanic if it works better. I haven’t decided yet what the best solution is.
Thank you again for your support and for sharing your thoughts. This will really help me make the next parts of Runecaster more engaging and enjoyable.
Just spitballing ideas here. After a few levels you could unlock a positioning board which lets you turn a number into a fraction if you put it on in the lower slot or a power in the upper slot would be good. Instead of a +2 you could turn it into /2 or ^2. Then maybe an inversion sigil that turns a + into a -, a / into a x and a ^ into a √
That way you're not grinding away at numbers to get to the division, and you'll unlock roots and powers to boot. I dunno, but I agree it's a slog to get to the x3 and /2 every time you need them
Now that's a good idea.