EDIT: We now have a discord server! [https://discord.gg/UfdEcvm] You can come and hang out, check out the progress, give suggestions, etc.
heya! An idea for a dungeon has been stirring in my mind, and I’m putting up this interest check thread to see if anyone would like to help me bring this idea to greater fruition. I’m capable of designing the patterns/mechanics/balancing, though my spriting skills are a bit crude (I’ll still try my best! :D). I’m also willing to discuss lore/thematic with anyone I work with.
Here’s a brief overview of what I have:
This dungeon is a sequel to the Mountain Temple, thematically. I don’t mean to imply that this necessarily comes AFTER Mountain Temple when referring to ingame progression, but the lore/theme definitely implies that you’ve been to the Mountain Temple before.
The name would be something like Moonlight Village, or Moonlight Valley. This isn’t really a huge concern early into the design.
Lore
This used to be a far eastern farming village, who prided themselves with the protection of the warriors of the Mountain Temple. Families were honored to send their sons and daughters to learn the ways of Daichi and take upon the honorable task of protecting the village. They frequently held bright festivals to honor their union with the Mountain Temple. When Daichi fell from grace, the warriors seemed to have vanished without a trace- no longer there to protect their people. Over time, the village was raided and plundered by thieves and monsters, especially Oryx’s minions.
These lively spirits continue to hold their celebrations in the afterlife, insisting that any passing travelers “join the fun”. However, their form of play may be more lethal than it seems…
Notable Gameplay
The primary gimmick of this dungeon is needing the Hallucination effect inflicted on your character to complete certain objectives. The ghost characters of this dungeon will be coded specially to have specific sprites seen when the player is with/without Hallucination. Without, they simply look like glowing wisps. Within, they appear as the people they once were. Certain enemies can only be damaged by those who are under the effect of Hallucination.
There will probably be some kind of non-enemy ghost character, who kindly offers you the potent extract needed for travelers to contact the spirit realm. This will allow you to self-inflict Hallucination for notable periods of time, which will allow you to complete objectives.
Speaking of objectives, this dungeon will follow more of a Alien Portal/Haunted Cemetary style of format, with the dungeon layout being static and the primary progression being waves of enemies. This is to represent the usual kind of “program” that festival dances have to coordinate sections of song and dance. Halfway into the festival program, the boss(es) will appear, which means that the boss phases will also be dependent on the cycle in the dance.
Enemies don’t “die” perse, they simple become even more ethereal (probably some kind of mist), ready to reform for when the next part of the song arrives. This means that you’ll largely be dealing with the same enemies, but they will act like different enemies due to phase changes.
Notes
This would be an interesting dungeon to premier during the Lunar New Year.