An intriguing premise, but in practice I think the novelty doesn't pay off. It took me a minute to figure out that Defend blocks damage from the healing mechanic too, which I didn't expect, but that 'discovery' was about all the learning curve I faced. Despite the description, it didn't feel like a tool that turned the tides of battle, so much as a standard heal that took two turns, one of which was a Defend turn. (This could theoretically play out differently with the ally, but it has so little health that it almost always died before I could test this out - being dead in one hit against most enemies without a Defend action, and useless if he just Defended every turn.)
I wonder how this would play out if the space between healing and being re-damaged was longer, there was no way to mitigate that damage, and some other mechanical change - like increased armor or damage - happened when healing as well. IE, once you 'heal', you've got a ticking clock before death that can't be stopped, but also get a big buff to really make those last handful of turns more interesting. I'd love to see this idea explored more, even though it didn't land for me here.
My initial idea was to make it so that the player would have to try to clear out the room before the timer on their health runs out. However, since I was making this for a game jam, I ran out of time to properly balance that situation from happening consistently.
I agree that I should look into adding more time to the healing and possibly an attack buff if I were to try at the design again. Your comment was pretty insightful, so I really appreciate it!
It's definitely a cool idea, and I like the concept of tying healing to some sort of negative effect. I've got your other games on my list to play soon!
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An intriguing premise, but in practice I think the novelty doesn't pay off. It took me a minute to figure out that Defend blocks damage from the healing mechanic too, which I didn't expect, but that 'discovery' was about all the learning curve I faced. Despite the description, it didn't feel like a tool that turned the tides of battle, so much as a standard heal that took two turns, one of which was a Defend turn. (This could theoretically play out differently with the ally, but it has so little health that it almost always died before I could test this out - being dead in one hit against most enemies without a Defend action, and useless if he just Defended every turn.)
I wonder how this would play out if the space between healing and being re-damaged was longer, there was no way to mitigate that damage, and some other mechanical change - like increased armor or damage - happened when healing as well. IE, once you 'heal', you've got a ticking clock before death that can't be stopped, but also get a big buff to really make those last handful of turns more interesting. I'd love to see this idea explored more, even though it didn't land for me here.
Thanks for the feedback!
My initial idea was to make it so that the player would have to try to clear out the room before the timer on their health runs out. However, since I was making this for a game jam, I ran out of time to properly balance that situation from happening consistently.
I agree that I should look into adding more time to the healing and possibly an attack buff if I were to try at the design again. Your comment was pretty insightful, so I really appreciate it!
It's definitely a cool idea, and I like the concept of tying healing to some sort of negative effect. I've got your other games on my list to play soon!
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