u/coolkirby

Currently I am in progress of creating a co-op idle RPG heavily inspired by Grimdawn.

My goal has been having actual depth to character progression, without co-op becoming a calculation for how much people are allowed to play without a friend falling behind.

The game I want is grimdawn, but mixed with the idle progression of Poe1 boat league.

Before I make a steam page and release anything publicly I wanted to make sure that I have differed things enough so that I wont have any legal issues.

How close is too close mechanics wise?

I have a similar dual class system, skills are in tiers and unlock as you invest in each mastery.

Each class mimics a similar mastery although they have different names.

Each class has similar skills, druid summons tornadoes ect.

If all skills have different names is that enough, or do they need to also be mechanically different. If I have an elementalist class with a party buff that hands out elemental damage similar to elemental exchange, is that ok? Can there be modifiers to that skill similar to the grimdawn modifiers? How many skills can each class have that overlaps with a similar grimdawn mastery before it becomes an issue?

Am I allowed to have all of the same damage types and resists? Obviously many games have lightning/fire/cold, but aether, chaos ect are pretty grimdawn unique.

If I use stats like offensive and defensive ability is that ok, as long as they are using a different calculation?

If I use items based on grimdawns item db, with the same stats, but different item names and values is that different enough?

TLDR: How closely am I allowed to mimic the mechanics used in grimdawn as an idle game, without it becoming an issue. I dont want to reinvent the wheel, just play a grimdawn like idle and couldnt find a game like that and now am making it.

Gif or what a battle currently looks like:

https://imgur.com/3bgrBZR

Currently I have finished the core of my Co-op Idle RPG and am about to start updating everything with final art and removing all of the placeholder stuff. There is still a lot of polish to do, but animating all of the characters and creating unique art for all of the skills seems like a very large mountain to climb.

I'm hoping to get some opinions on if just using these slides and shakes could cut it for character animation, or if I really do need to make attacking and casting animations for each mastery.

I also am torn on if having generic projectiles that show icons for the skills main damage type is good enough or if I need to go through creating unique projectiles for every skill in the game. Between 9 masteries and 130+enemies, there are currently over 200 skills that I would need to create art for. Would that time be better spent on visuals, or is mechanical depth more important for something in this genre.