u/wclaas

After a bit more than 1 year of work, I finally reached the demo milestone!

I learned A LOT on the way. While there is a lot of work to be done for the full release, I am quite excited about Unity 6.7+. The demo currently uses 6.3 for stability purposes but CoreCLR and Content Directories (6.6) sound so damn promising. I don't even have performance issues that would improve via CoreCLR (optimization is so damn fun though) but changing my Addressable workflows and avoiding asset duplication would have saved myself so much time and will likely save a lot time in the future, too!

Also a big kuddos to CySharp for their INCREDIBLE assets. UniTask, R3 and ZString are the cornerstone of my project. Combined with PrimeTween and VContainer made working with Unity a bliss.

About my game: HUEMON is a 90s/2000s throwback with the question of "what if creature collector combat happened in the overworld?". The result is a creature collector but with 5v5 grid-based, tactical combat. A triangle system with spears and bows? What are you talking about? Red beats Green, Green beats Blue and Blue beats Red: RGB!

It went through many iterations to improve the game flow. Keep fights short, make HUEMON accessible in many ways to allow players to explore traits, prisms and hundreds of abilities. I tied HUEMON levels to player experience to avoid grinding, introduced new status effects for more depth but kept the attribute modifier system of that one creature collector you all know.

My marketing has been ... lacking. My steam page has been online for way over a month now, but now that I got the demo I feel like I am able to properly show-off what I made!

If you are interested, you can find the demo on steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972020/HUEMON/

I hope y'all like it!

It's alive and people (who are not my friends just yet) can play it!

HUEMON is a 90s/2000s throwback with the question of "what if combat happened in the overworld?". The result is a 5v5 grid-based, tactics game. A triangle system with spears and bows? What are you talking about? Red beats Green, Green beats Blue and Blue beats Red: RGB!

I hope y'all will like it! You can find the demo on steam.

It feels like an eternity since I've started on this project but here it is!

HUEMON is a creature collector from the 90s/early 2000s but with 5v5 grid-based, tactical combat. I was kinda fed up with the genre-default combat. So I thought "why not make the combat happen in the overworld" and here we are!

The demo is available on Steam. I hope y'all will like it!

I've always wanted "a bit more" from the combat of my creature collector games. So I made one myself named HUEMON. It's still in development but there will be a proper demo available for the upcoming Steam Next Fest.

Many familiar systems from classical creature collectors were ported and adjusted to keep their spirit alive but accommodate for team- and grid-based combat.

The elemental system had to be reduced to the proper amount to form a triangle: RGB. Red beats Green, Green beats Blue and Blue beats Red. Like any Magic player knows: Red is aggressive, Green likes to ramp and Blue is all about control.

There are no Power Points (PP). There is however a stamina system. A turn consists of Move - Ability with Move being optional. If you still have stamina left after using an ability, you can repeat this. Albeit movement is limited from here on. This makes pooling and bunkering up for big attacks less attractive and allows for some cool combos during your turns!

I always wanted to experiment more but grind less. So experience is gained by you directly, so every new HUEMON is immediately at an appropriate level and ready to use. Fights naturally take longer, so you're guaranteed a new random HUEMON from the enemy team after every wild encounter. There is even a pity system to ensure you are more likely to get non-duplicates. If you get duplicates, don't worry. They can be exchanged into currency and currency can be used to buy new additions to your palette.

As a fan of tactics, sadly this is already enough or too much text for how reddit works. I'd love to talk more about it in the comments, so feel free to give feedback (especially harsh one) and ask about what I likely left out.

There is also the obligatory steam page plug:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972020/HUEMON/

I started on this project like 1-2 years ago. The idea was basically what if combat did happen in the overworld and this is where that thought has led me. It naturally had to be grid-based. But why would it not be team-based, too?

Many other details and systems were carried over from our childhood games or adjusted to make them fit the new combat system.

• A HUEMON can only have one Status Effect at a time, which comes with its own strategic implications. There are old but also new status effects: Stun, Sleep, Burn, Vulnerability, Curse and Lethargy. Use weaker status effects as a cover, wake up teammates with collateral damage, those are just some examples on how team- and grid-based combat changes the old formula.
• Stats can be modified in stages, too. I might be biased (I am) but in 5v5 this works quite well. Your opponent also cannot simply swap them out to ruin your efforts.
• PP was replaced with a stamina system. You can act as often as you want during your HUEMON's turn as long as you have the stamina. After using an ability you can move once more but with limited mobility. Pooling stamina comes with less movement to make aggression more attractive.
• Speed decides who goes first but everyone has to go once before anyone get their second turn.
• Critical Strikes are positional and only possible with melee abilities. You have to pinch your opponent between two of yours in a straight line (or use a wall) for that big damage.
• Elemental weaknesses were replaced by RGB triangle strategy: Red beats green, green beats blue and blue beats red.

But what about collecting? Well, fights take longer than in your classic creature collector. So I tackled it by automatically rewarding one HUEMON of the wild roster when winning the fight. To avoid having to grind like crazy, there is a pity system that favors HUEMON you have not yet collected. Still got too many duplicates? You can exchange your duplicates for currency and go shopping for new HUEMON instead! One of the duplicates might be of a higher tier than your current one, so small upgrades are always possible too.

I personally love experimenting with new team comps. But with fewer / longer fights how can I get my newest members up to speed? Simple. You don't have to do anything. Experience is linked to the player. HUEMON of different types still level at different speeds but are always in range to be ready for the next important fight.

Ah yes, story. It's linear, and it's about a rite of passage. I personally like that. There are clear goals, some side plots, and a bunch of world-building scattered across dialogue and interactables.

I've worked on this for so long that I've lost track on what matters, what I did and that marketing according to all the gamedev subreddits matters a lot.

This is my poor attempt at marketing but mostly getting to finally talk about my game.
The demo will be available in the upcoming Steam Next Fest in October.

There is also the obligatory Steam link:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972020/HUEMON/