turn based combat pdf game

Basically I can't code, so I pieced this together. Had a whole rpg planned, but might have ended up being 4000 pages. Smallest font I'm aware of. Resolution 57x57, so pixel art "nostalgia" but not gameboy format or anything. Proud of the game overall, since I actually completed it.

I could get into the details too much and potentially ruin it for someone, but here's your manual:

The regular attack does "medium" damage

Heal replenishes your health "medium"

Special attack does "a lot" of damage but you have to spend "a little" of your own health

I had other moves that would have been too difficult to include.

Your opponent has the same moves and minimal AI to make sure they don't heal when they're at full health, for instance. The "OK" button is actually multiple buttons. So they will do something different most every time. I think it's pretty balanced and probably impossible to memorize.

If you catch onto the strategy, it's most likely you will win, but not guaranteed. You could make it "hard mode" essentially by using your first turn to heal, basically offering your opponent the first turn.

A place for me to rant..? :D

So this is more based on Arduventure than Pokemon. I feel crazy that Arduventure is such an inspiration because it's clearly a very simple game that's very inspired by classics that I've never played.  I bet it owes a lot of its fun to its limitations. But just to say - I love the grindy repetition, and I also love that you have all the moves you need in your main character and don't have to collect and memorize your whole team. I get that pokemon isn't just the combat system, and I do enjoy the monster collecting aspect. I wish I could say Final Fantasy was my standard, but there's a lot to memorize there too. I love the simplicity of Arduventure and Dragonyhm and the Harry Potter games on Gameboy. I know I just have to find the other ones that hit the sweet spot for me. 

In designing games for a pdf, I faced my own set of limitations and forced rules. no levelling up, no upgrades at all, no money system, no save system, no ending, can't reappear at the same spot after a fight. Basically has to be as repetitive as possible. It would have been the same for the character whether they had just started or had been playing for months (other than that they haven't seen everything in the game yet). This is basically a slice of what the full rpg would have been. You would have been living with a bunch of clones and trying to escape, but you'd never be able to. There would be no "progress", but there would be "travel" I guess. Trapped, but with some pockets of life in "cozy game corners". Anyway, I was hoping to have left a remnant of that by at least including the play again screen. Maybe you do start to feel you're collecting wins and gaining experience. But if you only play it once, that would still make sense. Maybe I'll try again down the road, or maybe this was my love note after taking up a new hobby. If somebody wanted to port this to Pico 8 or something, that would be awesome. 

Also, though not at all an inspiration, I feel crazy not mentioning Wolfhunter on Pico 8. they have accomplished much more than me, but I think we may have both arrived at a similar place by similar means.

Ful behind the scenes breakdown:

I decided early on that regular, special, heal, ranged, and run would be an ideal set of moves for this combat system (I've pruned since them). The ranged attach would have done less than the regular attack, but would have made your opponent's next hit do less damage to you as well, "since you were further away". I playtested this for a long time and had some fun to my surprise. I started with a health of "6" for both you and your opponent, and then decided it needed to be at least 7. And that's where I stayed. The current health is just 7, but upscaled so it feels more substantial. 1 became 15 for scale. and the last 1 is 5, because it doesn't effect anything in playing, but feels a little scarier getting your health so low. basic attack does 2 (30) heal is for 2 (30) special does 3 damage (45) but spends 1 health (15)