GAME TESTING - [ LORA ] ALPHA VERSION WITH FRIENDS! (ESP)
0|Genre
LORA is a platformer roguelike with Survival logic and some Life-Simulation elements. It will have some distinctive mechanics and social parts (see below in Game Logic), for which feedback and insights from testers during development will be key. So, if you are interested, suggestions and opinions will be great for us!
|Setting
It is a contemporary fantasy world, a society like ours, but based on magic instead of technology as if Lord of the Rings or D&D took place in the 21st century instead of the Middle Ages.
In this world, Essence or pure/neutral magic can be transformed into any kind of energy and thus act on the environment and objects. Seeking it has been the main quest of human beings ever since they first discovered that, by using it, they could fan a flame, extinguish it, or touch it with their bare hands.
Originally, only skilled users (through verbal and somatic techniques) could manipulate the Essence to perform human activities. However, with the advancement of the Entropilogy (the study of magic), different artifacts that function automatically replaced the original techniques.
Today, few jobs are performed by human labor alone and are highly specialized. In many areas, human labor has been reduced to mere operators of such devices.
This has led humanity to unprecedented progress, to the hyper-exploitation of magic, which causes natural catastrophes, magical plagues, inflation of currencies, difficult access to housing, vices of the culture of productivism, etc.
|Story
The protagonist is a wannabe hero who grew up listening to legends about adventure, glories, and epic tales, and dreamed all his life of living up to those standards. Worse, he was told that, if he dreamed hard enough, tried hard enough, or was as talented as the heroes of those tales, he would be lord and master of his destiny.
But adulthood came and, with it, the certainty that the stories omitted... some details...
Firstly, the profession of adventurer implies the constant need for money to buy weapons, rent a room in an inn, food, etc., the adventurers' union charges them a percentage of their earnings, and there is a lot of bureaucracy to deal with.
Also, the work is much more mechanized than in the past, and talent or hard work isn’t that big a deal because many things are beyond your control or depend on luck. After all, the real life of a regular adventurer lacks epicness and is full of stress, anxiety, and mundanity.
The protagonist must work for different corporations and travel to different dungeons fulfilling the demands of this magic-dependent society. He will do pest (monster) or magical damage control tasks, clean up debris and, mainly, try to get Essence (the magical fuel the society runs on) to later sell it.
|Game Logic
The game will have two complementary stages that will affect each other: a social one (the character's personal life) and a dungeon-like one (work-life). The main issue is to balance the character's Stats to survive, this is Anxiety, Alienation, Physical Extenuation, Insecurity, and Demotivation. The Stats will be connected to Bars of Needs, which will alert the player when a critical point has been reached.
For the dungeon part, the player will have two main devices:
1- An auto-battler magic machine that has the main function of collecting and managing the Essence that is scattered throughout the dungeons, and thus performs various spells.
2- A rope/liana that will allow the player to traverse the dungeon with a focus on mobility and precise control of the character.
On the other hand, the social scenario aims to immerse in the character's life and develop his or her personal and social goals, which are a fundamental part of everyone's life.
|Game Goals
The main aim of the game is to make the hero survive day-to-day life in this modern magical society. To do so, the player must balance the character's life between the adventurer's work, leisure, and social life, maintaining his mental health in the process. Keeping anxiety, depression, and stress at bay while maintaining his economic “independence” will be the real challenge. The point is to develop one or more of life’s achievements such as having a family, writing a book, finding happiness in your work, or simply having a cat.