Specific to your question:

If you have several objects that all need the exact same operation run like in a loop, that would be perfect for a family. At the very least, it simplifies your code a lot.

More generally, I've been experimenting with families lately, and here's where I'm at:

I think families are great if you have several different objects with general similarities, with subtle differences.

So like in the kind of game I've been working on: a few enemy types, but they all have 1) pathfinding, 2) line of sight, 3) health stat, they would all go in a family like famFoe1. I can control all those common factors with a smaller amount of events, which is great for all the inevitable tweaking. If these enemies have different attacks, I am okay with creating individual cases for that.

Families are also good for mental health. As long as objects with common factors are together in a family, it is faster to remind yourself of what-does-what, just by opening the family folder rather than looking up each individual object.

Another example:

famFoe1: enemies with pathfind, LOS, health

famFoe2: enemies that are weird and have only health in common

famFoe3: includes enemies from families 1 and 2, so they drop loot when destroyed

Hi facecrime,

Improving graphics overall is on my list. I may put in some UI navigation aids (like the compasses in Temple of Ruin). I'm also thinking of putting in some one-of-a-kind decorative graphic bits (like busted statues) to serve as lo-tech visual waypoints.

I'm glad you're having a good time with it!

Hi Mike, glad you liked it. Tweaking AI and hitboxes is on my list, thanks.

I'm the creator of Winder Tower and Temple of Ruin . I've been working on something that ultimately will look and feel like an evolution of concepts that ground my previous games. In addition, this will have a hand-built map instead of rogue-like.

"Frontier of the Stricken" is the tentative title of my work-in-progress game. You can play with it in the Scirra Arcade: https://www.scirra.com/arcade/action-games/frontier-of-the-stricken-19946

Current features include:

Animated 8-directions for walking and attacking of player and some foes

Foes that see you will chase you (a little buggy atm)

Random start location

When you die, you respawn at last spawn point, and you need to find your grave to recover your gems (yeah, like a Souls game)

Random types of foes will respawn

Attacks and spells consume stamina, which comes back if you cool your jets for a bit you hyper puppy

Two negative statuses can afflict the player

Open treasures, and carry keys to their proper doors to open them

Treasures and foe dirt-naps produce random loot

Vendor menu (it's armm1998's orange book for now) with some graphic indicators/feedback -- plus using the vendor doesn't pause the game, so keep an eye on your six you shop-a-holic

I haven't put any noise in it yet

Future possibilities:

Ability to pause and save

Player behavior affects world state and endings

More types of spells, foes, doors, statuses, items, and interactive objects

Map navigation aid(s)

Touch screen joystick and buttons

General improvements (foe AI, combat hits, better art, any sound)

Name-drops: From Software, System Shock 2, Dishonored, Pathologic

UPDATE 8/17

New build live in the Arcade! Things have changed:

• Magic changes: now 3 spells: harm spell is now spread-shot-only, teleport many improvements, added shockwave (it's like Emit Force in Dark Souls 2)
• Level rebuilt with smaller tiles
• 2 endings
• New "enemy"
• Some graphic tweaks and number balance changes

Bubble Icons — Now for sale in the Scirra Store!

https://www.scirra.com/store/icons-for-game-dev/bubble-icons-3621

<p>48 different icons</p><p>multiplied by</p><p>3 different background colors: red, blue, green</p><p>equals</p><p>(days pass)</p><p>144 images</p><p>This package contains a fleet of GIF icons, individually sliced. Save yourself some time, and make your game look good while doing it!</p><p>Each image is 96x96, with (guesstimated) padding... except for the info and glossary icons, which are 96x107 due to some sudden-onset-slicing-trouble.</p><p>I have created these images in Adobe Illustrator CC.</p><p>(I have not forgotten... one day I will, eventually, add more things to Glyph Pack!)</p>

Use this topic to leave comments, ask questions and talk about Bubble Icons

http://www.kongregate.com/games/goshest/temple-of-ruin

Explore the ever-shifting chambers of a dungeon filled with shadow and danger. Fight fiendish enemies, and collect valuable loot. How many levels can you survive?

Features:

• Procedural maps generated by miner method
• Random placement of characters and objects
• Vendor system: use coins to trade for health potions or powerups
• 4 enemy types (including a segmented worm-thing)
• Backstabbing deals extra damage
• Random loot drops from treasure chests and enemy deaths
• Upon discovery, the UI will show compasses for the vendor and level exit

-- Winder Tower --

Rogue-like Dungeon Crawl (4D movement, multiple endings)

http://www.kongregate.com/games/goshest/winder-tower

Released Dec 2016

50-100 Plays

-- Temple of Ruin --

Rogue-like Dungeon Crawl (8D movement, simple coin-based trade system)

http://www.kongregate.com/games/goshest/temple-of-ruin

https://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=188914

Released March 2017

0-50 Plays

Glyph Pack — Now for sale in the Scirra Store!

https://www.scirra.com/store/icons-for-game-dev/glyph-pack-2991

<p>Flat, line-based, modern-artsy-looking glyph-style icon-graphics.</p><p>Enjoy a variety of shapes and symbols to flesh out your interface.</p><p>Contains 78 PNG files with transparency. Not everything is the same size, but the icons will fit within a 64px by 64px box. The background bubbles are designed with this in mind.</p><p>The files are named based on their categories. I've grouped them as:</p><p>1. Arrows</p><p>2. System Icons</p><p>3. Media Buttons</p><p>4. Elements and Statuses</p><p>5. Abstract Graphics</p><p>6. Concrete Objects</p><p>7. Social Media (Facebook and Twitter)</p><p>8. Background Bubbles</p><p>I may make some changes in the future, and provide updates here!</p>

Use this topic to leave comments, ask questions and talk about Glyph Pack

Hi dcadjust,

I will add the capx to this soon. I'm going to be polite and de-rubbish my event sheets first!

This art is placeholder, and I haven't added sounds yet.

I have added some powerups. Details to come.

-- Summary --

This game right now is primarily a widget to use a combo of 8D move and Turret stacked on the player object. This allows the player to move the character (the hero), while the game automatically takes care of the aiming and attacking, which simplifies the controls.

Also, this game is about sword combat, on account of that's what I felt like doing. The hero can backstep (as in, uh press a key in a direction away from the attacker) or strafe to avoid hits.

Old CAPX

DEMO - AS OF 5/17/16

Pluses:

• Randomized (roguelike) maps and character placement.
• 3 foe types, which scale in type and count based on the level.
• Foes randomly wander, and chase hero on sight or contact. A chasing foe that loses sight of hero will give up after a few seconds.
• Backstabbing is possible! Deals extra damage.
• 4 powerup types, each depletes on a timer. If the hero collects more of the same type, it resets that timer. Power drop rates scale against you if you already have powers.
• Status indicators in the play field and in the top bar.
• All foes must be defeated in each level to proceed. If there is still a foe in the level but not on-screen, a "hint arrow" will point to the nearest foe.

Minuses:

• Need to add sound and make art look better (though I think all the visual indicators I want are in there).
• Hero sword behavior sometimes looks a bit weird. I've tried a few things, it's still not as solid as it could be, but not super-annoying.
• May add multiple hero look choices to start menu.
• Add in-game touch screen controls.

Misc:

• The math that reduces the foes overlapping each other is based on an example on the forum, but I haven't been able to re-figure out which one it is to give proper attribution ;____;

Thanks for the videos and comments Stefan!

Best of luck, Stefan!

My most recent status on this includes: (no attached link/folder)

• New mechanic called "approach". Slay more enemies now to reduce the enemy force on the next map. Represents how the tower has infinite resources but not instant efficiency. Also supposed to discourage just-running-through.
• Need to improve loot system and combat. Both of these technically work the way I built them, and I still want to keep the 4-DIR movement, but I'm still thinking of how to improve it, since it really needs improvement.
• Need to improve map generation. It's not bad, but still needs some improvement.