Battlejewels for PSP

Battlejewels for PSP


General
Author	skeezix
Type	Puzzle
Version	Alpha 3
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2007/05/07

Links
Download
Website

Battlejewels is a combination of a classic gem-swapping puzzler with combat system based on a simple RPG engine (gather gold, buy gear, level up.)

This is a quick 'debug test' port from the GP2X alpha-3 version; it should play pretty well, though save-game and a couple other things are not completed.

User guide

Basic gameplay

The goal is simple - kill the monster before he kills you. In other gem-swap games you can basicly play forever.. not here, the enemy is out to get you!

Clear pieces from the board (and getting their effects) by matching 3 (or more) of a kind. They have to be in a row, horizontally or vertically. (No diagonals.)

Should you match 4 or 5 of a kind, you get to move again.. so you should always nab such a match (or set one up for the future!) when you can.

After your move, the computer player gets to do a move (unless he has been otherwise stunned, disabled, etc.) Skulls represent direct damage (think of it like a sword-strike) - clear 3 of them to apply 3 damage to the enemy. His life bar will decrease, and when he reaches 0 health you'll win. (And if you reach zero life, you'll lose.)

Gold rings represent gold, the cash of this world. You use this to buy goods at the store, such as better shields for your warrior. The 5 other colours (red, black, green, blue, white) represent kinds of mana. Clear 4 reds for instance, and you will receive 4 (or more) red mana.. the colour of untamed energy and fire. Mana is mostly used for casting spells.

Bring up the spell casting menu to obtain a list of spells you have learned; spells let you perform special actions such as becoming invisible, stealth, launch a fireball at your opponent, turn all colour of one mana into another.. all sorts of tricks. Spells cost mana to cast, or even your hitpoints. You should learn what colours of mana you need, so you can pick carefully on the playfield.

The CPU enemies are chosen from the same classes the player can take, as well as monster-only classes. The AIs will react differently based on what kind of class they have, what sorts of needs you have, how healthy everyone is, how aggressive they feal that match, all sorts of things.

Eventually there will be bonus pieces; clear 5 others in a row and a wildcard with crazy powers might appear on the board, for instance.

Options

The first option you are presented with is a refilling-playfield or not. A refilling board means you can play it forever, and cleared pieces get replaced with new pieces. (If no possible moves exist, the board always resets.)

A non-refilling board will run out of moves after a few rounds, so its easier to see what is left, and lets you mess with the other guy a bit by taking away what he needs or setting up a move for yourself. Still, the board will reset then too, when it runs out of moves.

Player classes

Burglar - The classic sneaky rogue character, able to be a cat thief or assassin depending on your lean. Initial spells include stealth to help avoid damage (since the burglar is not a tough warrior) and which helps set up finishing move spells such as Backstab which does significant damage in one blow. Later abilities cause the enemy to be poisoned or bleed, so this class is good for doing a lot of damage in bursts or over time, but not a balls-out damager dealer or taker. A 'black' affiliated class.

Duelist - The face to face warrior class, for those who wish to deal a lot of physical damage to the opponent (and themselves) quickly, in a do-or-die approach to problem solving. Designed to take a beating, to buy gear, to damage the playfield and the opponent. A 'white' affiliated class.

Druid - For players who wish to have fun toying with their opponent; maybe not the fastest way to defeat the enemy, but having fun doing it through manipulation and out-lasting. Druids can heal themselves and manipulate the playfield, and have some inefficient spell damage for when they've collected a lot of excess mana. Very tough to kill and fun to play, Druids take the high road. A 'green' affiliated class.

Spells and effects

Backstab - A finisher move (depends on Stealth to cast) that does a lot of damage to the opponent, and takes you out of stealth.

Brambles - An inefficient damage dealing spell.

Earthwarden - Converts blue mana pieces in the playfield into green mana pieces. The objective is to make more mana open to yourself, and possibly to rob the opponent of mana he could use. Time its use correctly for maximum effect.

Gaea's Touch - A simple moderately efficient healing spell,

Lunge - A powerful spell to attack a 3x3 grid of squares (centered on the selection.) All 9 squares are destroyed and caster received all benefits from those squares. A good way to destroy a pack of unmatching skulls all at once, or to get a bunch of unmatching mana or the like. Hurts the caster a little too, but also sticks it to the oppinent a medium amount too.

Stealth - The stealth spell puts you into a semi-hidden state which in turn opens up the option of casting 'finisher' move spells. You cannot backstab while your opponent is able to see you, but if you stealth out of site, you can now cast a backstab. However, your opponent can still detect you, so if he performs skull-damage you will be found. Luckily, that attack that locates you is avoided, so stealth will save you from one incoming attack, or permit you to launch a finisher spell.

Thrust - Attack a specific square on the playfield, destroying it. Caster receives benefits of the squares destruction, and as normal pieces above will flow down. Use it for attacking skulls without the need for matching, or to steal special pieces. Actually hurts the caster a little, but also damaged opponent directly a little more too.

Skills

Endurance - raise this skill to add to your hitpoints; some gear effects it as well.
Dodge - %age chance to outright dodge incoming damage.
Toughness - %age damage reduction when you get hit.
Initiative - %age chance to get first turn.
Speed - %age chance to get an extra move after a match-clear.
Elemental Mastery - Bonus to red spell damage; bonus red mana on match-clear. Bonus red mana on match begin.
Necromantic Mastery - Same, but for black mana.
Changling Mastery - Same, but for blue mana.
Armory Mastery - Same, but for white mana.
Earth Mastery - Same, but for green mana.

Gear

Gear is usually purchased at the Adventurers Mart after you've wrapped up a battle. Occasionally a treasure chest will be located in the playfield that when matched will give you a surprise.

Gear only takes effect when it is equipped; you can buy/sell from your backpack, but you must actually put on gear (taking it out of your backpack in the process) before you obtain its benefits.

Shields - shields are used to block an incoming direct damage attack; better shields have a higher chance to block. Spellbooks / Bags - let you equip more spells; normally you can only learn a few spells at a time, but these items let you learn additional spells to carry into battle.

Strategies

Experiment! There are many obvious and not-so-obvious strategies (and more so once you get into buying gear and advancing into additional spells!

Board 'movement' is good - if you can play at the bottom of the playfield to clear things out, you've got that much space 'above' which could just work out to another match you didn't anticipate
If you know what flavour of opponent you have - what sort of spells and mana he needs, you might wish to starve him by clearing the mana he needs. But don't starve yourself in the meantime!
If you're far ahead of your opponent and not concerned about being zapped by some killer spell, you might want to farm gold for awhile. A win with more gold is a better win.
Gold can be converted into experience at the store, in the form of training. So if you want to level up faster, one way is to acquire gold when you should be picking up mana
You can take a bad move, or even an illegal move.. swap two gems that don't make a match; it still goes to the next guys turn, possibly forcing him to take a move. If you see a move thats good after the next move, make the other guy take it!

Advanced Concepts:

There are 5 colours of mana, conceptually organized in a circle; think of them as points on a r-tipped star, so that each colour has an opposite (enemy) colour and a neutral colour on each side. Each element in the game is associated to a colour.
Black is the colour of darkness, of necromancy and trickery. It is the opposite of white which is life, arms, living. Green is nature while blue is manipulation and transmutation, while red is raw energy, fire.
Classes are associated to a colour; rogues are black mana, for they live in subtlety and assassination and theft. This means a Rogue can buy nasty spells pretty cheaply, but healing spells are very expensive to earn.
Everyone has all skills; they're traits more than learned things, though you practice them to get better. When you level up, you'll get a few points you can drop into your skills, to become better at them. Skills will let you get more hitpoins, or have a higher chance to dodge an incoming attack, or to get more mana when you clear some gems out, or other tricks.
Spells are something you start with few of; spells that are of a like colour to your class affiliation are cheap to buy. Neutral spells are a little pricier, and enemy spells are very expensive. Still, when you level up.. who knows, maybe you want to be a nasty necromancer who still knows how to tap into Mother Earth and heal up? Can be formiddable..
You can only equip a few spells at a time; you may know many, but can only learn a few at a time for battle (and can switch which you have learned between battles.) Some items let you learn additional spells for your repetoire.

Controls

D-Pad - Move the cursor around, Pick pieces to move or targeting spells

Cross - (Main battle screen) Toggle between selected mode, Advance dialog, Cast spell

Circle - Bring up or dismiss the spell casting screen

L - Show your characters overall status (the spell listing will let you know the mana/hp cost to cast a given spell)

R - Show opponents character sheet (will show their class and mana affiliation and spell listing)

Start - Exit the game

Screenshots

Changelog

Alpha 003

A couple of crash bugs were found so it should run very stable now; the equipment store is in (though not a lot of options yet), and you can equip or unequip items to gain their effects. Transparent dialogs were added, though we're working on much improved dialog boxes entirely. Save and load are in, since it would be pretty annoying to buy items and lose them. Added ports for PSP and OSX to the website. PSP edition doesn't yet have load/save, and it runs a little fast, but should be playable.

Alpha 002

The AI is much improved - still not super smart, but it will pick up mana it needs, try to take mana you might need, will actually cast some spells at you and try to skull you down when it can. More animation is present, which should help to illustrate what you and the AI players are doing, and things should run nice and fast. Some more menus are available, though the dialogs are still not all dressed up yet.

Alpha 001

Missing the store for buying and selling gear; no levelling up, training your skills and picking up new spells, either. Skills don't work, but you wouldn't know since you can't train anyway :) But the basics are in place! Oh, and while the main battlescreen looks gorgeous, we've not dressed up the dialog boxes or added audio yet. Give us time.

Credits

Greetz Wraggster et al.

External links

Official website - http://www.codejedi.com/battlejewels/ (archived)
DCEmu - https://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/threads/62300-Battlejewels-Alpha-3-for-PSP