With a rogue-lite style game, thematically Players are expecting to find rare spoils to partake in, from RPGs giving more base-damage values to Action titles offering new skills.
The interesting side of the challenge for a rouge setting comes in the the unknown possibility of what can be found and urge to discover more.
To encourage this feeling, I implemented the occurrence of Pickups that can adjust your action inputs.
Active - Your main special skill (e.g. Cast a Fireball or Throw a Bomb)
Defensive - How you avoid damage (e.g. Dodging or Shielding) - A skill type that isn't a submission priority, but runs using the Active Skills system.
Passive - Perks that subtly adjust values (e.g. More Projectiles or Money Discovery increase)
Finding these drops will adjust allow the Player to change their playstyle (e.g. Kirby style) and vary up gameplay after numerous sessions of the same dungeon. By doing so, if the Player can't seem to complete the Dungeon run, they can try approach from a different style.
The nature of Active and Defensive Skills are that they sharply change input options (e.g. adding Knock Down to foes) but replace previous Skills upon pickup, so Players need to consider if this option will benefit this dungeon run or mix and match with other players to find a more comfortable combination.
Passive Skills however are stackable and dynamically adjust parameters on the fly, acting as rarer drops in the dungeon and offer the feeling of Avatar progression outside of just Defence Up.
By offering these to the player, the reward of continuous dungeon progress becomes richer (similar to RPGs giving weight to Levels and EXP), meaning a game over is more weighted and reaching a goal holds more importance during ongoing sessions once the Player returns to 0 Passive Skills.
Players who hunt loot can also find that they are rewarded Gold (points) during a run, that can be spent on Shops they can find to give more choices for skill combinations. Shop Rooms won't always be around, so it's up for the Players to discover them and note their location for future runs.
Objects that have a Skill held within will display sparkles to aid in context clues during gameplay which can help turn the tide of the battle.
If you're feeling like your combination isn't working, defeating the enemy who holds a Skill within may be what it takes to confront the remaining enemies with less pressure.
So if you see a sparkle, be sure to break it open and reap the rewards!
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