West Marches

Hey again mates!

West Marches is a game I was working on for awhile. Bit of a passion project. It started with some inspiration from Star Trek Onlines "Duty Officer" system, and me asking, what if it was in high magic fantasy? So that's what I made.

The game is about, recruiting adventurers, buying items, and sending as many adventurers on quests as possible per turn.

Whilst this game works, and mate, making an rpg-lite game is way more difficult than I anticipated, It quickly became apparent to me that the game was lacking something.

So what is it lacking? In short, some form of actual combat loop. My goal was to make an rpg-lite system that was easy to understand, and I feel that I achieved that. But the lack of combat just left many people feeling unsatisfied.

I have been working on a new version of the West Marches. This new version is going to be more rogue-lite than rpg-lite, taking inspiration from games such as, slay the spire/FTL/Darkest Dungeon/etc.

1- An assemble party start screen

2- An event driven map

3- Real time, pause-able, true shot combat

4- A final encounter with a "Boss" (Thinking it has to be a dragon, because dragons are awesome!)

The game in it's current state however, has taught me a lot about coding these complicated game types and how/what to think about when designing them. It's a classic example of, what seems good on paper may or may not be good when you have a testable prototype.

Please check it out, C&C is welcome as always.

Thanks!

Andrew.