im starting to realise that my graph of spells is getting exponentially bigger, i now require a 4 dimensional graph just to visualise every (theoretical) spell.
#elemental mage game
pure cave
send hepl 
to most people this would be the definition of scope creep
and most people are correct
BUT
with the way i've set it up, adding new spells is easy
the hard part is making sure i dont add more elements
each spell is comprised of 1-4 varying elements. each elements you add makes the spell harder to cast but also far stronger
each element corresponds to a key on the keyboard
so a 1 element spell would just be F for fire
does nothing but provides a light source
2 elements, F + C would make a steam spell, which creates steam
all together that sounds pretty boring but with the power of unexplained critical plot point magic you can add motion to the spell
and then there's also ~~2nd unexplained critical plot point ~~mana, the more mana you put into a spell the more motion it gets
so, F + C + M(magic input) makes a large cloud of scolding steam to damage enemies, add mana and now it can probably knock enemies away too with how fast it is
F + C + a bunch of mana, just a big cloud of steam
F + too much mana, you probably explode/take burn damage
if you think that's not a fun game mechanic then go give noita a bad review on steam lw (I'm still salty about dying 900 times to fire)
there's also 3rd unexplained critical plot point modifiers which modify how a spell is cast. add a circle modifier and you cast the spell in a circle, add a spiral modifier and the spell will be cast in a spiral pattern.
these are mostly just random mathematical functions which are easy for me to program but still look cool in game lol
there's also shape which changes the shape (basically just change which prefab i choose to fire)
so, to recap/TL;DR
each spell has 4 core parts, Elements, a Modifier, a **Shape **and the amount of Mana
each spell is comprised of 1-4(maybe more) elements which correspond to a keyboard key
the spell will also have a modifier which changes the cast type of the spell (straight line, sine wave, curve, random...)
you can also change the shape which affects the movement and damage of a spell (ball rolls, cube is blunt and has high drag, cone is sharp and fast, ...)
then finally you can add more mana to add more speed to your spell (or maybe some other factors if it's, for example, a melee attack)
i was mostly inspired by noita and guilty gear strive
anyway, im gonna stop explaining now and get back to adding more spells lol
if you need a visual reference of the game. here's a picture of the average guilty gear strive
i will take no further enquiries lw
ok one more thing. i plan to try and make sure the player isn't too completely overwhelmed within 5 seconds of opening the game
so i plan to make every spell be untracked until it is cast.
so once you cast a spell it will be tracked in a book of spells or something
the player gets to explore each gameplay element and interaction on there own. if i tell the player that there's (how ever many elements i add(x)^4(maybe more) + x^3 + x^2 + x^1) possible spells then they'd probably quit within a couple of seconds lmao
im also keeping inputs to only the 4 core elements so the player cant just instantly get to cast SUPER MEGA PISS LASER 9000 within a couple seconds of spamming keys lmao
once the player discovers a new elemnts they can change the inputs have that element.
i might also need to add some limitations. otherwise the player could just spam keys to get new spells
ok i just thought of this but in noita, half the spells you can cast basically just kill you. so i could try adding that
but then the player could just die, try a new spell and respawn
OH RIGHT MANA
i can just have some elements require large amounts of mana to become useful. then i can just spread out little max mana ups through out the game and the player can then start trying new spells when they do
the player could then just spam maximum mana weak single element spells. (single key input)
and as my game design motto states "if the player doesn't have carpol tunnel by the end then they aren't having fun"
so i'll make it so mixing more elements just give objectively stronger spells, even with low mana
i could also make some enemies have type resistances, that also allows me to add a sort of metroid-vania system where the player has to get enough mana to get a certain element to beat a certain boss to move on
to anyone reading this, this is just me trying to actively fix and explain the game at the same time. I'm pretty much just talking to myself at this point. feel free to ignore all this lol