Items of Power (Incremental Auto-Battler)
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About
In this incremental auto-battler hybrid your goal is to strategically place items to maximize your party's stats so you can defeat bosses, complete achievements, get new unlockables, and survive for as long as possible. The game works on both desktop and mobile.
Controls
Mouse to click buttons and drag around items.
How to Play
Select Items of Power to add to your party area. Drag the Items of Power on top of your party members to get the item's effects. Every x seconds, the item will activate and whichever units it's overlapping will get the effect. Try to place your items so they overlap as many units as possible.
During battles, your units will automatically attack when their blue ability bar is full. The bar fills up faster depending on your unit's speed stat. Each unit has a unique attack which you can see if you hover over them.
You lose if all of your party members die in same battle. They automatically revive at the end of battles if you have at least one surviving unit. Try to survive for as long as possible so you can complete achievements and unlock new items and units.
Achievements you complete are permanent, so you'll be able to use your new unlockable items and units in any new runs. The game automatically saves between each encounter, so feel free to start new runs as much as you'd like. You can load previous runs from the main menu as long as that run hasn't died yet.
Explanation of the SPD stat
So, POW (power) and HP (health) are pretty self-explanatory in the game, but SPD (speed) needs a bit of clarification. I'll add this explanation in the game in a later update but for now I'm just gonna explain it in this description. So, the fastest unit in the battle will always use their ability every 2 seconds. The speed at which other units use their abilities will be based on this. For instance, if the fastest unit has a SPD of 1000, they will attack every 2 seconds. If another unit has 500 SPD, they will attack every 4 seconds. So, you may notice that increasing your speed won't make your unit attack any faster if they're already the fastest unit in the battle, but increasing their speed will effectively slow down the other units.
Development log
Comments
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Thanks for this game. It's simple yet has a nice strategy element. I also like how I can kick my feet up on my desk and play with one hand. I'm wanting to get back into programming and wanting to develop a similar game; I'd LOVE it if you would port this game to Unity.
Funny story, I actually did start remaking this game in Unity but kinda lost interest after a bit. Here's a screenshot of how far I got. Thanks for the nice comment. I always appreciate it when people let me know they've enjoyed one of my games.
Amazing item mechanics! I've never seen anything like this before. I kept playing until I finally beat the last boss. Will be added to my collections to play again. Also, well done making it mobile-friendly. I hope you can make the rotation easier such as rotation buttons, it will be convenient than dragging tediously to get your desired angle. The annoying thing about bumping the dragging item to other items just to rotate is... the item will be put to middle left corner instantly if it cannot fit the narrow space.
Thank you so much for the kind message! It really means a lot to me when people take the time to let me know they enjoyed the game.
Is the text on the items supposed to be illegible?
White text on a light colored background is usually a bad idea.
Are you perhaps using the dark reader chrome extension or something similar? Someone else was having issues with that as well.
Turning it off didn't change anything.
I'm usually not one to play autobattler games but I actually really enjoyed this! The mechanic of having to spatially optimise the powerups is such a rewarding part of the gameplay loop. Nice work!
Hey, Kiwi! Thanks for giving my latest game a try. Glad you enjoyed it :D .
the way items behave is so silly it makes the experience all the better.
"resets unit's ability charge" - this sounds like a negative? which appears to be on all the books, making books seem less desirable than cards.
Am I right with that assessment, or am I misunderstanding something?
That's correct, it is a downside. However, you gain more stats with books than cards, so if you can afford less dps, books are better
So I actually have a question about that... isn't it actually an upside? If you put the book on a damage dealer, you take longer to kill the enemies => you have more time to gain stats => you become way stronger
And in a boss fight you just remove the book and enjoy the carnage.
This person has discovered the forbidden tech :O .
But for real, yeah, it's a great strategy! Just be careful to not farm stats for too long during fights since the enemies start exponentially gaining POW the longer the fight goes on.
How do I know if I beat your run? There's nothing to show the tier of the wave or the amount of waves I've done.
Hey, kreezxil! There will be a popup when you get to my best run. You're right though, the only way to see which encounter you're currently on is to click on Load Game from the main menu. I'll be sure to add which tier / encounter you're currently on to the game screen in the next update.
Thanks. :)
Just so you’re aware, the game stacks sounds when it loses focus and plays them all at once in a brief but loud cacophony when it regains focus!
Oof, sorry about that. That's unfortunately an issue with Phaser, the game engine I'm using. I'll do some research and see if I can find a workaround. Thanks for letting me know and trying the game!
Cool game! I would love to see information what the items do when I hover over them.
Also it feels kinda bad when you get one new item and it moves in such a way that it destroys the entire arrangement. I would love to see some "Lock item" option to protect some items from this.
p.s. The ranger suddenly stopped attacking and nothing could change it. (There were no items on her)
The physics of the items is very annoying, especially when it feels like one needs to position and rotate some items carefully. When a new item destroys the layout one has to start all over again. This part is really not fun.
Thanks for playing and commenting! You'll be very happy to hear that in my new version of the game I'm working on, I've already addressed all the points you have issues with! Now items lock in place when you let go of them, there is a popup that tells you what items do when you mouse over them, and I've fixed the issue where units will sometimes stop attacking (this happens sometimes in this version if the unit's attack hits the last enemy who is already dead from another unit's attack. You can fix it by using a book on the unit, but really sorry about that bug!). I'm also adding an endless mode, saving, and the ability to recruit enemies to your team. I should be done with that update in the next week or two. I hope you come back and try it again :) .
Very cool!
I'm looking forward to it. The concept is very interesting.
A few more ideas:
The start is a bit slow. If all Speed stats were doubled in the beginning this would feel more dynamic. (The start health of enemies in the first X battles could be changed to compensate for it)
The HP text on the healthbars is very small and blurry (at least on my screen (fullscreen)). Hard to read.
Right now the amount of new items feels too spread apart. Maybe you could add consumables, to increase the loot factor. This could be health potions, (temporary) damage up potions, (temporary) speed potions, revive potions and upgrade potions that raise the level of an item.
Once again, I've already beaten you to the punch haha. The way I calculate how fast units attack is also updated so units attack faster in the early game, the UI has been redone and the text is larger and cleaner, and since units attack faster in the early game, it feels like you get items more frequently. I don't have plans in this update for temporary items, but I do plan on adding item modifiers in a future update and one of the ideas I had for a modifier was "fragile" which makes an item break after x uses. So yeah, I think your suggestions are right on point and I'm glad you're looking forward to the new update!
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
I've just tried one run (and succeeded), but from what I've seen this is a very good update! So many cool improvements. Congratulation.
Its a fun little game. However, the ranger is way overpowered. Three arrows means that its three people in one - just give everything to her and you win 99% of the time, everytime. (tried it four times, won each time)
Hey, thanks for playing (and beating it FOUR times, wow :D). I agree, in this first version of the game, the ranger is overpowered. In theory she should be balanced since she does 20% POW to 3 enemies, but the paladin does 80% POW to 1 enemy, but in reality the enemies health is so low in this first version that if you stack POW on your ranger, she can one-shot 3 enemies at once despite the lower overall damage. I'm currently working on the next version of the game where I'm trying to balance this a bit better (I'm also adding an endless mode, saving, and the ability to recruit enemies to your team). Be sure to come back in a bit and try out the new version once I'm done. I'm sure you'll love it!
Thank you for the reply! I'm sure I will, since this early version of the game is already so enjoyable. Looking forward to updates!
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
It was fun! I finished it, wish it was longer or had an endless mode or something!
Thanks for playing and enjoying! I'm working on an endless mode now actually. Hope you'll come back and give it a try when it's done :) .
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
Very cool game, solid concept and easy to pick up. I would like to suggest changing the item in some sort of Tetris block so we can have a better estimate of the pros & cons of each selection, the inventory management experience would be more satisfying this way also, at the same time you can expand to bigger heroes slot upgrades and more things to choose rather than just select the items. Some missing elements Im looking forward to? random events, synergy, higher difficulty
Thank you so much for the kind words :) . I'm not sure what you mean by "changing the item in some sort of Tetris block", you could elaborate on that? As for things you're looking forward to, I'm currently working on the next version of the game and will include random events, more synergy, and higher difficulty among other things! Hope you come back and try out the new update once it's out :) . Thanks again for playing and leaving a comment. It really makes my day!
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
So here's a weird one. Both Paladin and Barbarian topped 2000 speed (the first I noticed it anyway) and then the attack cycle stopped. Had 3 members (for the entire post-dragon levels) until the final boss battle when they woke up again.
That...is a weird one. I'll be sure to look into it. Thanks for letting me know! Do you know if you had any amulets or books? Just thinking of which items would be most likely to bug into that sort of state.
Edit: I think I figured it out. I'll fix it in the next update. For anyone else dealing with this issue, I think using a book to reset their ability will fix this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Its great, please add a save feature, the game has stopped on me a few times and have to reload and try again.
Thanks for playing! I will be adding a save feature in the next update :) .
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
I won!
Nice job! Thanks for playing and leaving a comment :) . Always enjoy hearing from people who played my game. Makes all the work worth it.
Eyy, thanks for playing! I completely agree about the item cannon being annoying. I'm currently working on the next version of the game and I think I've come up with a solution that I'm happy with. In my current work in progress version the items freeze in place after you let go of them. This also has the nice side effect of giving you something stationary to push your other items against to adjust their rotation which is pretty fun. Really glad you enjoyed playing and I hope your buddies do too :) . (I'm also planning on adding an endless mode so you can compete with your buddies to see who can get further :O )
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
I'd say you´re going in the right direction! Really enjoying the update!
So glad to hear it! It means so much to me that you'd come back and give the update a shot :) .
I have been pushing this game to its limits, and I have found that if you just pump your barbarian and cleric up to the point where the Barbarian does not die in one hit, and your cleric can heal every second is certainly a way you can win. Is it the most fun? No, but it was hilarious.
Haha, that reminds me of the quote "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game".
That being said, I think trying to find the OP strats is actually kinda part of the fun. The balance of this initial version of the game is definitely "good enough" and there are plenty of OP strats to find :) . That being said, I think keeping your barbarian with the base HP and keeping a cursed key and amulet(s?) on them is probably a better strat than pairing it with a quick healer. Barbarian does 150% damage at 1 hp which is probably very overtuned haha. The next highest is 80% damage on the paladin which is still ridiculously high.
The balancing will be better in the next version for sure, but for now I'm glad you had a good time trying to optimize the fun out of the game :) . Thanks for playing and leaving a comment :D .
I won and lost! The last boss and I shot our lost shots at the same time. I died and he died. The lost screen came and then the victoryscreen! Super fun, I enjoy the concept of it a lot!
Haha, that's awesome. I haven't heard of anyone else winning and losing at the same time yet. Glad you enjoyed the game! Thank you so much for playing and leaving a comment. It really means a lot to me :) .
I won~ :) I think each item should have a term limit. Like a sword that lasts for 3 turns. As it is now, stacking all gear onto a single character and giving them a +20%,30% or 50% heal every 2.5 to 5 seconds makes it a little too easy. I do think it has TONS of potential though.
Eyy, nice job! Yeah, limited uses may work to help with the stacking issue, but I don't think that's the solution I'm going to go with. Got a couple other ideas I'd like to try out first :) . I do plan on adding random modifiers to items (like bigger/smaller or sticky where the item will stick to other items) so maybe a "fragile" modifier where it only exists for a certain amount of time will work with that system. Thanks for playing and leaving a comment, it really means a lot to me :) .
Hey, great job! Glad you were able to win. I wasn't sure if this first version of the game was going to be so easy that everyone wins on their first try or so hard no one ever finishes, but it seems like it's in an alright spot. Thanks for the comment :D .
Yeah, that has been a common complaint. I'll definitely be addressing it in the next version of the game :) .
Great concept, but i found a broken strat where you can just put all your items on the ranger and win.
Thanks for playing! Yeah, there are plenty of broken strats currently. I would describe the balancing in this initial version as "good enough" haha. Definitely gonna improve the balancing of various strategies in the future, but for now, I hope you enjoyed finding the OP strats :) .
Great concept and fun game to play. It only takes few seconds to understand and get into battle. GG !
Hey, thanks for playing and for the kind comment. It makes me so happy to hear from people who took the time to give my game a chance :) .
This sooo close to a total fixation. But if you want this to be hands-free, and you also want to shoot the new item down like a bowling ball, there has to be at least a second to adjust before engaging an ambush. I've missed whole battles (and art) trying to recover from the stash getting exploded.
As for rotation, I would recommend a V or U shaped stationary feature to nudge the orientation right. I *like* it messy. I love the random draw, I love that the characters change size, affecting the gameplay. It's like thumbing at every regimented inventory slot in every game's supposed satchel. For goodness sake please don't switch to discrete angles (too many apps lock to every 10 degrees like the math majors forget all of human history figuring how circles work!) It's not a boon to your fabulous irregular shapes. Just less drag-and-wiggle, more click and flick. Or make it optional. People with mobility issues are way slower with the former, and I think they'd really like a real-time battler that runs on its own.
Are there villains that would destroy items? Because that would be evil, mwahaha.
Wow, sounds like you really enjoyed the game. Thanks for playing!
I think I'm going to remove the items shooting into the play field entirely. People seem to really dislike that. Definitely going to keep the abnormal shapes and non-locked rotations though!
I love the idea of stationary features to use to adjust the rotation. Definitely going to try to implement that and possibly include it in the next update. Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm not sure what you mean by "less drag-and-wiggle, more click and flick" could you elaborate on that?
There are actually enemies that destroy items in the current build! The star elementals in the final tier destroy a random item when they attack as well. I think I'm also going to add random encounters that allow you to choose one of your items to destroy in a future update as well.
Thanks for playing and for all the great feedback!
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
Loved IT, beat it after two tries after the hint about the weapons affecing multiple characters :D, if u update it maybe make a way to rotate or snap weapons into positions, and maybe add upgrades to each weapon, but over all great job, had a great time playing it :)
So glad to hear you had a good time :) . Sorry I didn't make it clear you can overlap multiple characters in the tutorial text. I'll have to revise that language in the next update. Originally I wanted to have rotation buttons but couldn't figure out a good way of implementing them that would also work on mobile. I figured being able to push them against the sides of the play field to rotate was good enough for v1. I'll have to think about how to implement rotation controls for the next update. Thanks again for playing!
if ur doing it for mobile i think press and hold to rotate should work, should also work for PC, or double tap to rotate :)
It took me a few tries to learn the mechanics and develop a strategy, but it was fun along the way :)
I thought it was really interesting how later stages specifically countered certain strategies. I tried stalling, for example, to keep stacking stat increases, but the enemies that keep powering up seemed to put a stop to that. I still think there must be a way to get totally overpowered though.
Nice job beating the game! It's not easy, but I'm glad you kept trying to make it to the end :) . It's cool that you picked up on the enemies countering certain strategies. I found that most of the time when people are doing good, they're doing so good that they instantly kill the enemies before they even have a chance to use their cool unique abilities haha. Thanks for leaving a comment, it really makes my day to see people enjoying my game.
Beat this multiple times, this is incredibly fun! Great work :D
My only major thing is I wish the items didn't shoot into the team though, like others have noted. Having it just collide into my other items and send everything flying every time was annoying. But the rest of it is really fun and I'd love to see a full version of something like this!!
It means so much to me that you would take the time to play my game and leave a comment! I completely agree with the items being shot into your playfield being a frustrating issue and will definitely be fixing it in the next update.
Also for the next update I'm thinking about adding a way to destroy items you no longer want, item modifiers (like a larger/smaller item or an item that sticks to other items), the ability to recruit enemies to join your team, and asynchronous multiplayer where you occasionally battle another player's team for the chance at a bonus item or something.
If you enjoyed playing, be sure to check back later and it'll be even better!
Hey, just wanted to let you know the new update is out :) . I'd love to hear what you think!
Finished! I dug the art style, simplicity, and unique take on a clicker game. I figured out how to turn items, which helped a bit. I'd say if anything a small box describing the items you have active and what they do would be neat, but overall, I really enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for playing! I agree about the items needing some ui. I made this game in a week for a game jam and unfortunately ran out of time, but that is definitely high on my list of todos.
Fun! Great premise.
I’d love to be able to see the abilities of items after getting them, because it took a while before I saw a later Book that said it resets ability scores.
Also, is it intentional that new items blast into the party area and disrupt existing items, rather than being smoothly draggable?
Thanks playing and leaving a comment! I agree about the lackluster ui. As for the items blasting into your area, that was an intended design decision because I thought it'd be more fun and interactive to keep adjusting your items instead of leaving them in one place. However, the consensus from feedback so far seems to be that's not the case. I'll definitely be changing that mechanic in my next update.
Short and sweet, had fun thanks.
Thank you for playing! Even short, sweet comments like this mean so much to me and make all the work I put into making games feel worth it :)
Game finished. Items can be rotated pushing them against the boundaries or other objects: is this by design ? Near the end it's a bit cluttered and new items spread all other items away and it's a bit of a pain.
Yeah! It is by design to be able to rotate items that way. Im glad you figured that out. Originally I was going to have rotate buttons, but wasn't sure how to make that work on mobile if they don't have a multi touch screen. It was also intended for things to get crowded near the end. I thought the chaos would be kinda fun. In my next update I intend to add mechanics to get rid of unwanted items and I'll also be removing new items blasting into your play area. Those changes will probably make the game a bit more strategic and a little less chaotic which seems like a better way to go.
i finished your game, it was fun, i love the idea of manage item to get better buffs. i hope that you create more fun game <3
Thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate you trying out the game and leaving a comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed the game :D .