Stat Swap Showdown: Castle of Challenges

Swap your stats to try different combinations in order to achieve victory against the 3 different bosses! Earn three stat cubes each time you defeat a boss. Earn money in battle to upgrade your weapons! The bosses are intended to be fought in order 1-3. but... being a game jam, all the doors are open so you can see all the bosses without having to beat the previous boss first.

***START BY GOING TO THE STAT EXCHANGER***

You get 3 cubes to use at the beginning. See how slow you walk over there...? That is not how slow you have to be! Crank up your speed (or whatever else you want)

you start with level 1 health, stamina, strength and speed. Click the + and - buttons beneath each stat to increase or decrease their level (max level 4). Your available cubes/units show on the left

STAT EXPLANATIONS:

stamina 1-4: => 1-4 dashes/dodges before having to wait a cooldown period (shorter cooldown with higher stamina as well), shoot 1-4 arrows before cooldown (& shorter cooldowns), 1-4 combo attacks, shorter and shorter damage recovery time

health 1-4: => 100 to 400 max health

strength 1-4: => more damage with melee weapon, faster shooting of crossbow

speed 1-4: => faster running speed, faster attacks

weapon upgrades

upgrading melee weapon:  longer reach & more damage;  upgrading ranged weapon:  arrows have longer range  & do more damage

Made for the Boss Rush Jam 2024 Game Jam. We are so happy with how this came out. This is by far the best game we've ever made. We hope you enjoy!

Amber & Geoff

TL;DR: QUICK N DIRTY cut to the chase, boss rush  - Click outside the big door at the top of the stairs to fight each boss back-to-back-to-back in Boss Rush Mode (just be sure to "cheat" then by clicking in the pause menu to set all your stats/weapons)

If you get launched off the map, stuck somewhere etc

There is an option on the pause menu to "reload fight with current health values" so you can be placed back int he middle of the arena and continue the fight:

Gamepad controller and windows build recommended, but works well on WebGL (fullscreened) and with mouse/keyboard. You can use "P" or del or backspace to pause to avoid pressing esc in a webgl game which will take the game out of full screen mode.

We wanted to make controls customizable, but were not able to :( So we have included extra mappings so you have different alternatives/options for some of the character actions.

While targeting, pressing forward and dodge/dash will perform a lunge forward thrust attack

When not targeted and you dash, you are invincible during the duration of the dash

Button Mappings:

Gamepad:

move - left thumbstick

rotate camera - right thumbstick

Lock/unlock on target - right bumper

Attack with sword - X (west)

shoot crossbow - Y (north) or right trigger

Dash/dodge - B (east) or click down on left thumbstick

Jump - A (south)

pause - start button

Mouse/Keyboard:

move - w,a,s,d or arrow keys

rotate camera - mouse

Lock/unlock on target - tab or caps lock

Attack with sword - right mouse button

shoot crossbow - left mouse button

Dash/dodge - shift

Jump - spacebar

Pause - "P" key or delete or backspace to pause. Escape will also pause but avoid pressing esc in a webgl game which will take the game out of full screen mode.

If your mouse is not visible and you need your mouse cursor on the State Exchanger or Market, you can press any of the pause keys to see your mouse cursor

Within a battle, From the pause menu:

 you can reload the fight with the current player and enemy health in case ... anything weird happens.

GAME JAM CHEAT:

You can also reload the fight with different stats.  You can change your stats and weapons to anything you want by clicking "reload fight choose different stats" and entering in the values 

SPOILER ALERT

tips, tricks, hints, strategies, etc:

You earn money even when you lose a battle, so you can fight the bosses a few times and fail to get enough money to upgrade your weapon. They are pretty cheap. 500 for 1st ranged upgrade, 1000 for first melee upgrade

The 1st Boss, the ogre boss, can be fought however you like. Can be tanked, but you may have more success mixing melee and ranged attacks. Keeping a bit of distance and walking sideways will help you avoid being hit by his ground spikes and clap shockwave.. The 2nd boss may actually be the easiest boss...

The 2nd boss, the poison boss, is more of a ranged battle. If you get close to him he will spin and drop poison. Otherwise, he will just continue to throw bottles at you until he runs out of poison and runs to the cauldron in the middle. Attack him there as much as you can before he drops his barrels. The rest of the time, move to avoid getting hit with poison bottles and shoot your arrows at him. When he drops the barrel poison or spin drops poison, you will lose your target on him. 

The 3rd boss, the horned, dragon hands boss, is the hardest. While you cannot simply run up and smack him with your sword, you will likely have better success with melee attacks. But whenever you have a chance, surely pelt him with arrows! To defeat him, you have to know his moves. If you walk straight up and try to attack him, he will block your sword and then swing attack or uppercut you. If you thrust attack him, particularly during his special attacks, he will whomp down on your head. Move to the side as he punches and attack him then. When he charges at you, dodge sideways or jump over him, then attack. That is really all there is to it - just avoid everything else (And attack his hands when they fly at you!)

If you beat all 3 bosses, the door at the top of the stairs will open and you will be able to fight all 3 bosses in one arena, one after the other with no health replenishment. If you enter that arena, there will be a new indicator at the bottom near the red, 3rd boss door. This shows you where you can click to enter a new arena with all 3 bosses at the same time!!!

But both of these arenas are actually available at anytime!   :)   Clicking at the big door will let you in. And even without the indicator, if you walk along the downstairs wall, a  message will pop up telling you to press attack to begin battle just like the other doors.

Known bugs:

Sometimes in the last secret boss room the targeting gets weird.

You can get on top of the ogre or horned boss's head sometimes (and if you are targeted on them, the screen will spin around like crazy.) Just untarget and get down off their head. There is the "Reload fight with current health" option on the pause menu if you need it, but you can get off their heads. That option is for when they launch you up over a wall or something crazy on accident and you get stuck and cannot get back to the fight

If you choose to invert your y-axis, the menu screens will show it as unchecked though it is till inverted - if for some reason you would like to "un" invert, click the checkbox to check it, then uncheck it again and it will be un-inverted.

sometimes on the pause menu in the hallway scene, the buttons can't be selected or clicked. Just "unpause" by pressing any of the pause mapped buttons - start button on gamepad, "p", esc, del, backspace on keyboard

if you are using a gamepad and enter the market or Stat Exchange, you can navigate between buttons with the joystick, however sometimes with a mouse you cannot see your mouse and no buttons are highlighted. press the pause button to force your mouse cursor to appear so you can click the buttons.

the hallway scene is supposed to load the player position by the door of the arena you were in, but often times it puts you downstairs by red door 3

didn't have time for/unfinished:

there should be an invert option from the hallway pause menu. but there isn't - you can invert in the boss battle pause menu however

there is no verification before purchasing an upgrade for your weapon. You will just buy it. If you make a mistake or are unhappy with the purchase - just use the cheat from any boss battle pause menu :)

player customizable controls mappings

wager how quickly you can defeat a boss to potentially earn more money

a cool tutorial with voiceovers

a dragon hands boss enraged stage... but then he is already difficult enough ;p