Hi Monster Gang

In this episode of our biweekly dev log, we'll delve into the design of our upcoming monsters. Though the actual implementation is still months away, we're simply too excited about them not to show you what we're working on.

This log will cover our reasoning behind introducing new champions, early art, sketches, and design ideas for the Wolf and the Witch monsters.

The Wolf and the Witch grabbed from an early revision of the TagTime splash art.

Why champions?

TagTime embodies fast-paced action, strategy, and tactics. How do the Monsters achieve their objective of eliminating all the runts? Do they randomly roam, annihilating everything in their path? Do they lurk in the shadows, launching surprise attacks from the bushes? Or do they coordinate pincer movements, trapping their prey?

Currently, there's only one monster - the wolf - and one runt - the farmer. The wolf can activate an omnipresent blood trail leading to the nearest runt. This ability makes the wolf adept at exposing runts attempting to hide from their malevolent pursuers. However, the wolf's intentions are easier to interpret and exploit as the blood trails are visible to all players.

The farmer (runt) can deploy decoys - clones of themselves fleeing from the monsters. These decoys serve to mislead the monsters while being chased. Executing this trick is challenging but yields significant rewards by buying other runts more time to raise the flags while the monster is occupied hunting false prey.

Our own gameplay experience reveals that over several consecutive matches, optimal strategy patterns emerge. Succumbing to these patterns diminishes the game's allure over time. To address this issue, we believe that introducing new champions with distinct stats and abilities can disrupt these patterns, creating fresh and engaging scenarios.

The Monsters

TagTime’s gameplay can be likened to the story of 'David and Goliath'. The monsters are large and formidable, striving for victory through sheer brute force. In contrast, the runts must rely on their strategy and wit to counter the hard-hitting nature of their opponents.

Please note that the following descriptions of the witch and the wolf are a work in progress. They represent design concepts more than they do the final design of the champions.

The Wolf

An early sketch of our wolf.

The wolf serves as our base monster, embodying all the elements found in the archetype of a fairytale villain. It stands as a prevalent figure in numerous fairy tales, conveying a powerful symbol that clearly emphasizes the need to steer clear of such a character.

The personality of our wolf draws inspiration from characters like Tom (from "Tom & Jerry"), Wile E. Coyote (from "Roadrunner"), Averell Dalton, and Rantanplan (from "Lucky Luke"). We envision our wolf as a large, ravenous, and somewhat dim-witted predator. Similar to a playful yet peculiar dog, its long tongue is always protruding and drooling. Despite being a nice character at heart, the wolf is driven by an insatiable hunger for runts.

Actions

The wolf's basic attack is a swift melee strike. Its secondary attack is a charging attack with an extended range and increased strength. The wolf's ability is called "Sniff," and reveals a scent trail leading to the nearest runt when activated.

Talent tree 

Once implemented, you will have the ability to enhance your champions using a talent tree. The following table illustrates an example of how the wolf's talent tree might appear. At each level, you can choose one of the talents - A, B, or C.

The Witch

Several sketches of how our witch may turn out. Currently we are most keen on nr. 6. As can be seen from our WIP splash art we have decided to fit her with a broom instead of a cane.

The witch is our second monster champion and is intended as more of a support class. She employs her cunning witchcraft to outsmart the runts, utilizing her broom and a boiling pot brimming with mysterious elixirs. Her arsenal consists of hexes and potions crafted from unknown substances, targeting the pesky runts.

Drawing inspiration from characters like the Wicked Witch (from "Snow White") and Magica De Spell (from "Ducktales"), our witch embodies an old, ruthless hag. While she may seem elderly, frail, and seemingly unsuited for fast-paced combat, appearances can be deceiving, much like the Wicked Witch's facade.

Actions

The witch's basic attack involves a melee swipe using her cauldron. Her secondary attack is a charged broomstick thrust, propelling the witch forward at high speed, inflicting damage along her path. The witch's ability is to toss a potion that can be collected by both monsters (including herself) and runts. This potion acts as a power-up, instantly enhancing attributes such as attack power or harvest speed. The concept behind this ability is to enable the witch to either empower the monsters or lure the runts into a trap.

Alternatively, the potion can be hurled at barricades, inflicting damage upon impact.

Talent tree 

In this example of the witch’s talent tree, one can observe that the A-column talents primarily concentrate on enhancing the witch's ability to clear barricades. The B-column talents are oriented toward eliminating runts, while the two C-column talents serve as wildcard or versatile talents.

The end..

That concludes our second entry in our expanding, albeit small, collection of dev logs. We hope you enjoyed it!

As always, join us on Discord, add our game to your wishlist, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us. If you're missing a group of friends to play with, we are more than happy to join you in a game.