Controls:
Arrows to move the cursor
Press Z on a unit to select it, then move the cursor to pick a path
X to cancel actions.
Unsettled with the crown, a small group sets off to take the castle by force and defend the throne as their own. Their success will depend on their tactics on the battlefield, and the cunning by which they select their allies.
This is that game your uncle got you for your birthday after picking the one with the coolest looking box, but was too hard and unbalanced for your 8-year old self to beat.
Glad I'm getting to release this before I start work :D Lots of stuff I'm not happy with in this, and lots of stuff that I am happy with. It's a bit rough around the edges, a little too difficult for some runs and (maybe) a little too easy for others. There are definitely some bugs, especially with the enemy AI (but they're not getting fixed - currently sitting at 8192/8192 tokens :P) It's sort of a very simplified tactics-roguelike. It's designed such that you aren't really supposed to win on the first time (or second, or third) thanks to permadeath. You're supposed to play through a couple times and get a feel for how all the units work, what situations they're good in, how many hits from other units they can take, etc. In a perfect world I think I'd have around 4-5 more units in there, but alas, no room.
I think this won't be my last foray into this genre, though. I was a bit out of my comfort zone on this, and I learned a lot about what makes this kind of game fun. I think I'll be able to make something much more interesting the next time around.
Excellent! Too bad about the token count, just a little more for some music would be great.
Awesome!
Oof, wiped on the second battle! Pretty amazing. My troops feel so slow and weak.
Too bad about tokens, I like the interface a lot though... The arrow and selection indicator are very nice. I think if you could choose your own two units it would improve the game a lot, but maybe there simply isn't room.
It's a little mini-advance wars, right down to the four-corner selector and red movement arrow! While it may not be the most original of ideas, your version is very cohesive. Nice work.
I couldn't get past the first level :D
Pretty good game, with the AI and turn-based movement.
It's a shame about the token wall.
This reminds me of Fire Emblem by Nintendo. Really love this genre and glad to see someone finally made a game like this on the Pico-8 Console. (If there was a previous game like this, I haven't seen it yet).
Will say it was a little difficult for me to tell which units were mine (at first), but then later realized That mine were facing right, and enemies left.
Also I would like to say it is a bit hard to judge proper movements, as for games like Fire Emblem, they always gave you every bit of information possible (Exact HP, Exact Atk Strength, Which Units are good against others, etc.) So this was a little tough for me.
Overall happy that it was possible to make. Would like more, but sadly that limit has you stuck.
This is great, excellent job. Making a turn based game like this with Pico8 is something I wanted to try. Sad to hear token limits poses a problem with this kind of project.
Wow, how did I miss this, it's looking great! I'm very impressed by the AI. I was planning on doing an Advance Wars style game at some point.
omg i love this one, you defenetly have to block the ai's movement to win most of the time
i lost track wat level i was on (4th or 5th i think) but man befor you know it my last orc had a name a story, and on the battle field he went out with a bang (getting surrounded by 3 enemy orcs) the granader was prety fun and unexpected.
i like the random nature of the game to bad there isnt enugh memory, i would realy like to see more
I've got token count down to 8141. Not sure if I've broke something, but it should work judging by my short tests.
Hint: Take notice how I call there parameterless functions.
Overall, token count could be even more reduced, but this would require total rewrite.
It isn't a good idea to even try doing OOP on such limited system, you should make it so it is more structural without fancy objects, this will reduce token count even further.
Also, epilepsy warning on the title screen.
This reminds me of the battles in 'The Shining Force' for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Really cool.
This is so much fun! I look forward to combing over your code
Wonderful game! You made this kind of game seem right at home in pico-8.
Great game!
Grenadiers are definitely the way to go. The fields are small enough that their 3x3 area effect is very devastating.
My winning team was 3 Grenadiers, 1 Orc, and 1 Goblin.
The enemy goblin moved and attacked twice in the turn! The enemy team had killed one member of mine, but the killer was not the goblin, so not sure if it was supposed to happen. If it is designed as such, that would make the goblin much stronger inside a big party!
This was fun! Managed to finish my last game with no units lost.
Okay, we've got goblin, orc, tank, archer, grenadier, healer as playable units. The enemy has goblins, orcs, and two others, right? I think the black ones are spiders...what are the slow, tough, hard-hitting grey-and-red guys meant to be? Knights, perhaps?
Agree with the other guy that grenadiers are very powerful! Even if the enemy doesn't group up, their range and blast radius means it's easier for them to get a target than the archers. Two grenadiers means two free hits every turn, almost guaranteed. I like them :)
What a brutal fight this was. RIP tank, goblin and healer you will be missed.
That was awesome. Lost the first two games and won the third without losing anyone (lucky draw and cautious play). Wont make a lengthy bug report, given the token circumstance, but bugs went both ways. Goblin seems to cause the most trouble.
Finding this many years later-- thanks for making and sharing it. I'd just finished playing one of the Fire Emblem GBA games so was in the mood for some "team tactics" combat, something I haven't seen much in PICO8. Also, I love the design of the curvy movement path arrow, I'll have to take a look at how much code that took.
I only made it to the 4th level on my first play, I'll try more in the coming days...
And just to add a cross-link, I've played through a few times and enjoyed it. Then got inspired to make a "remix" / extension, "Kingslayers Remastered", with additional units / levels / UI / music. Today's PICO8 seems to be more token-efficient for some constructs than it was in 2015 (back when this was originally created!), so I had some extra space to work with.
In the remix I think I found and fixed the bugs people mentioned here about improper unit refreshing and goblin units, as well as an enemy AI pathfinding bug, but I also may have introduced new bugs...
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