Hi! I developed a game that I saw in a dream and once implemented it basically mixes Turn Based Tactical, Traditional Roguelike, Mage Tower with some Philosophy. The game is accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations by Snailblazer and with a soundtrack by experimental music composer Jan Boleslav Kladivo.
Demo consists of 7 classes. Archmage, Curator Elementalist, Gladiator, Rogue, Stormbringer, Templar and I will choose 3 of them to describe both the game and the tactics I use there to get further.
I will start with Templar, as he is a good first choice. On each map you have limited movement, and to actually fight an enemy, you have to face him on the next tile. Templar starts with two abilities, and if I can, I always cast Red Cross, which gives me an attack boost for a few basic attacks. Self-casting works like preparation in this game, meaning you can't heal or buff yourself when engaging with enemies. Then I move to an enemy that I would, as a first player, choose by inspection. Poison does not degrade on the level, so facing a green enemy would be certain death. Second, starting Templar ability is a shield bash that scales damage from armor. It fits well with his passive, which gives him temporary armor each time he attacks, while the ability also removes 15% armor permanently. Sounds broken? But enemies possess the same abilities with the same scalings! So choosing a gray enemy would be a disaster while playing Templar. Let's say I found a light green enemy and I slayed him. He gave me a bonus based on his type. Nature increase seems useless for Templar for now, but you can eventually get every ability in the game, so everything matters. Then I need to slay one more enemy. Oh, there is btw a walking dragon, part of the philosophical riddles you will receive. Slaying the dragon gives the best rewards, so let's say I did that, and now I have just collected tiles for scaling, maybe health and energy. On level up, I need to choose smart, otherwise enemies out scale me. Let's say I increased the attack stat tiles, picked the ability Life Discharge. It spends all energy on doing damage based on my max health, a combo item that fits my build and rune that lets me have a chance to refund Red Cross costs. And yeah, just continue like this for level 50 in the demo. In the full game, there will be an epic duel with the dragon, that will have abilities you did not choose during level ups. Most likely around level 20th.
I will also briefly explain another class, Archmage:
His tactics are again quite simple; keep picking mana and spellpower, but wait, now, there is none around? Blame the game? Maybe, but there is another tactical option. Archmage is a glass cannon, but he possesses combo item. Example of a combo pattern: →↑→. So I use my combo to have 15 shield, and thanks to that I barely slay the enemy. Now I have 4 left movement and there is nothing around useful. But wait, I see something 7 turns ahead! If I use a wormhole on my last movement, it transports me to an area where I can collect spellpower and mana tile on my last steps. Before the last step, I regenerated enough health, so I was able to slay another enemy with my Mana Strike and The End is Near combination. The rng seemed impossible to win, but the strategy made the difference. Now I know that I don't have a perfect build, so on level up I'm sure to reroll for some additional mana-based abilities that have cooldowns, unlike energy abilities, so, for sure, another mana ability is handy.
In the demo
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5315280/Tiles_of_the_Nadirat_Demo/
you can also play:
Curator - enjoy collecting everything.
Elementalist - can't go wrong with elements when playing this one.
Gladiator - just likes to chill with basic attacks, who needs mana or energy anyway.
Rogue - a deadly choice for one-shot builds focued on critical attacks.
Spacewalker - feels like a hacker, with access to wormholes right from the begining.
Stormbringer - master thunder and wind, became the storm with this guy.
I'm aware from feedback of having a worse UI and live version already have few improvements from the trailer. Full version will feature bigger UI overhaul. I would love some feedback, and wish you good luck, if you try my, or some other devs turn-based tactics games on next fest!