Seeking feedback on match-three dungeon design

[esrix]

After playing a lot of Puzzle Quest, I've been thinking of some abstract dungeon designs that would be easy for me to pull off for my RPG-like game. I got a crazy idea to make the dungeons into a match-three game like Bejeweled. Unlike PQ, though, the match three component wouldn't be used in the battle system and the matching mechanic wouldn't be as strict as Bejeweled. Here's the basic rundown of the premise and design:

You visit an area and have to collect a certain amount of energy to progress to the next area. In order to do this, you match three or more tiles of corresponding shape/color on a board within a time limit. There are several different types of tiles and you have to harvest a certain amount of each to meet your quota. While this is happening, monsters are attracted to the energy and will come out to fight you for it. During battles, the combat is turn-based, the board is locked and the clock is still ticking. Every time the enemy's turn comes up, they absorb a bit of the energy you've already collected. You have to defeat the enemy as fast as possible to retain what energy you have left and still beat the clock. As you level up, the amount of energy you get from matching tiles increases thereby filling your quota faster and allowing you to get through dungeons more quickly.

The main reason I'm partial to this design is because this is a solo project and I'm trying to keep the number of complex art assets to a minimum (i.e. very limited animations and dungeon art). I also favor dungeon designs where it's difficult for the player to become stuck/lost and I feel that this puzzle design allows the player to continue pressing forward without too much hassle.

My main issue so far is how the player might feel about switching from matching tiles to one-on-one combat and vice-versa, especially considering that the two aren't as integrated in this design as they are in PQ. I'll hopefully have a dirty prototype up soon, but I wanted to hear some opinions on it first. Do you think it's worthwhile to pursue it? Are there other things I should take into consideration?

Your feedback is much appreciated.

[papillon]

Current description, the ideas don't really sound well enough melded together. If you can't see monsters approaching or make any plans for how to deal with them, they'll be an annoyance when they do turn up and feel 'random' and 'unfair', and then draining away your energy during combat could make it feel very frustrating, especially since in turn-based combat there's often a limit to how much faster you can manage to win the fight!

A gameboard that zooms into one-on-one combat can certainly be done - I remember a battle chess game that went to an action sequence when pieces interacted, so the piece being 'taken' COULD win the fight but was at a disadvantage....

Hmm. You could get an interesting combination of match-3, sokoban, and RPG if you were running around a little 2d dungeon finding colored blocks and pushing them together to form matched groups while there were monsters on the loose... you could push blocks into non-matching groups to block passageways and keep the monsters at bay, successful matching could give your character more power to fight when a monster WAS encountered...

The important thing from my perspective is that the player be able to see the monsters approaching and have some intelligent thing they can do to deal with the problem. If monsters just show up randomly and battle is guaranteed to take a while, the player will be drained and frustrated quickly.

[JinzouTamashii]

When all you have is a hammer ...

Honestly, Ren'Py may not be what you need, unless you know Python.

[esrix]

When all you have is a hammer ...

Honestly, Ren'Py may not be what you need, unless you know Python.

I do know Python All the tech questions I had regarding Python + Ren'Py have already been answered, so I've no doubt that I can pull it off in Ren'Py.

Papillon- I have considered a "monster meter" sort of like what is common in Tower Defense. Essentially, each approaching monster would have an icon that appears on this meter. The icon starts at the bottom and makes its way to the top. Once it reaches the top, battle would commence. I wasn't sure if I want to implement it because I want to keep a nice level of tension and urgency, but after your comment, I suppose I should.

Also, after each battle, there is a certain amount of time the game will have to wait before allowing another monster to spawn. This will be to make sure that the player doesn't have back-to-back-to-back battles too quickly.

Another idea would be to let players cast spells on monsters as they approach along the meter to either kill them or deal them damage/slow them down. Of course, doing so would drain magic that would otherwise be used in battles, but regenerates over time. Does this sound more reasonable?

[papillon]

Another idea would be to let players cast spells on monsters as they approach along the meter to either kill them or deal them damage/slow them down. Of course, doing so would drain magic that would otherwise be used in battles, but regenerates over time. Does this sound more reasonable?

Yes, I think that sounds more appealing, it gives the player choices.

[esrix]

After much thought, I've determined that I don't really like the idea of using magic to slow down/kill a monster before it even gets to you. I want to keep the monster meter, though. Overall, I want the act of avoiding monsters to be tied into the use of the match three board, but still make it so you have plenty of battles to potentially fight

So here's something else I thought of:

I can split each area into smaller sub areas (let's call them "rooms") and monsters that spawn are specific to each room. So once you fulfill the energy requirement, the monster meter is cleared and you move to the next room with new energy requirements and a new set of monsters that have yet to spawn. With this, it's possible to actually enter a dungeon and not encounter a single enemy if your fast enough.

Difficulty could also be escalated and possible achievements gained by imposing restrictions on a room (i.e. "Don't collect green energy to get extended time" or "make it through three areas in a row without fighting a single battle").