tic80-stuff/archon

Archon

I used to play Archon: The Light and the Dark on my Commodore 64 for hours against the computer when I was a kid. As an adult, I keep having ambitions to re- (or de-)make this game despite the numerous official remakes out there.

For some reason, I chose to use 12x12 sprites for this implementation.

Features

• 9x9 game board, 5 power points

• Light/dark cycle - Levels oscillate between 0-5 (0=extreme light, 5=extreme dark):

  • 0-1: light +1
  • 2-3: neutral

  • 4-5: dark +1

    Spells

• Shift Time - If used at peak, reverses cycle completely; otherwise, reverses current light/dark cycle

  Pieces - Light

• Proj (fireball), Spell - Wizard

• Aura (whirlwidn) - Djinn

• Aura (immolation) - Phoenix

• Proj (unibolt) - Unicorn

• Proj (boulder) - Golem

• Proj (spear) - Valkyrie

• Proj (arrow) - Archer

• Melee (sword) - Knight

Pieces - Dark

• Proj (lightning), Spell - Sorceress
• Proj (fire), Flying - Dragon
• ??? - Shapeshifter
• Proj (petrify) - Basilisk
• Proj (boulder) - Troll
• Aura (scream) - Banshee
• Proj (quills) - Manticore
• Melee (club) - Goblin

Balance Issues

One problem is the old Phoenix vs. Shapeshifter fight. Not only is the Shapeshifter a high-HP character, but this fight devolves to "who used Immolation slightly first" slugfest.

Possible solutions:

• One-frame delay on shapeshifter actions?
• Shapeshifter has really low HP, forcing projectile engagements?

Another is aura-based attacks in general; they're all centered around the piece that triggered them. The banshee has a cooldown-based AoE, and phoenix has triggered (+cooldown) AoE.

Of the projectile-based creatures, the differentiating factors are: velocity and damage. Velocity can be problematic because of the ease of dodging. Movement speed of pieces should be a consideration for balance, because troll vs. unicorn is another huge issue.

Tiers: high-powered pieces like dragon and unicorn move quickly and fire quickly; medium-tier pieces like basilisk and valkyrie move and fire medium-ly; low-tier have large tradoffs like manticore moving slowly with medium-speed quills, and archer doing the same.

Media