A Dream's Command
A Dream's Command is a little RPG that just barely fits in a PICO-8 cart, using all of the available code, texture, audio, and map space.
It takes 45-ish minutes to beat, by my estimate.
- - - BASIC CONTROLS - - -
NOTE: The icon for the Z key in-game looks like (O), as is standard with PICO-8.
Menus:
- Up/Down: Change Selection
- Left/Right: Change Skill Tab (only in battle)
- Z/X: Choose Selection
Overworld:
- Arrows: Move
- Z/X: Interact (when prompted)
If you stand still for a few seconds, you can view your current status.
- - - COMBAT - - -
You have three basic types of skills you can use in combat: Attacks, Spells, and Actions. In order to use a skill, you will have to perform a quick minigame to determine its effectiveness. As you level up, you will unlock more skills.
Attacks and Spells are offensive. The base damage they deal is determined by how well you execute their minigame, but the final damage dealt is also affected by the enemy's defense against the chosen type of skill. Higher-tier Attacks and Spells are more powerful, but also harder to execute.
- To perform an Attack, you will have to stop a series of moving sliders on the highlighted sections using Z.
- To perform a Spell, you will have to quickly sort a series of runes by color (orange or blue). If they're orange, hit Left, and if they're blue hit Right.
Actions are defensive, and there are only two available: Flee and Recover. Flee exits a battle (if executed correctly), while Recover restores up to half of your maximum health and can cure status effects.
- To perform Flee, rapidly hit the button shown. Pay attention, since the required button may change after each successful press!
- To perform Recover, you have to keep a meter balanced in the center using Left and Right. The amount of health restored will vary depending on your maximum HP and how effectively you executed the minigame. If you get an Amazing or Epic rating, it will also cure any status effect you have! Recover has a 2-turn cooldown.
Lastly, there are three status effects which enemies can give you: Poison, Dizzy, and Panic.
- Poison deals gradual damage over time.
- Dizzy has a chance to halve your base damage when you use an Attack or a Spell.
- Panic makes minigames harder to execute.
This game was originally released on the PICO-8 website in July 2017.
You can still find and play it there: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=29727
Download
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Development log
- Version 2.1Jan 12, 2021
- ADC Version 2 Released!Jul 21, 2019
Comments
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Haha dang, nice! I don't know if I've even tried doing that
i think level 5 is the minimum since none of the other spells deal more than 0 damage, i basically beelined the boss, didn’t even realize that it was the last boss so i was really unprepared.
How do I get the better ending? I think it has to do with the far right of the island?
You are correct! There's a certain item you'll need to find before beating the boss.
Cool stuff man, it's like if Earthbound were on the Atari
Cool stuff! I beat the boss on level 8. anyone do better? I think I could have done it on level 7 If I was better. I agree the encounters are a little too common. I also thought there should be different effects or mini games for the different powers. The way it is now I just used whatever my newest power was.
Thanks for making this!
Thank you, and nice work!
The idea with the different powers is that it's a risk vs reward system: the higher the strength, the easier it is to screw up the attack. So sometimes (especially if you've got the Panic status) you might need to use a weaker attack to try to ensure you hit at all. This could use some tuning to make sure it's working as intended, but that's what I was going for (I also don't really even have the tokens available to do something more complex than that). And yes, I'll look into tuning the encounter rate further.
Awesome! I did actually notice the Panic status made things a little more difficult, and at one point I did turn to a lower power to guarantee a hit.
Really fun game! I like what you have created with pico-8. The music and story was great and overall I enjoyed the game. Like some other people said, I also felt that maybe there were a few too many encounters, or too often. Other than that this was really great, keep up the good work :D
I don't know if you've heard of Game Development World Championship before (gdwc2019) but it's a competition for indie game developers where they can submit their games and it's free! It's great if you want some more visibility for the game and it only takes a couple of minutes to join :)
Thanks for the kind words!
I can look into tuning the encounter rate in my next update.
Also I haven't heard of GDWC before but yeah, I could consider sending something in.
That's great! :D
Pretty good! My only complain is encounters being too frequent, which interrupts exploration A LOT
Thanks for playing!
And yeah this is long overdue for a quality of life update, and that's definitely one of the things I'd like to tweak with it.
Very very cool game! WATCH OUT FOR BATTLEBUGS though, and those shrooms that poison you. I AM KING OF THE BEACH!
Woah, thank you so much! That's awesome to hear!
(Those poor Ballcrabs and Grumpsnails never stood a chance!)
Heya! Really good game, and fun so far. Encounters are a bit too common maybe? But great set up, and it works really well! :)