Advanced Cave Crawler by josefnpat

[raw]
made by josefnpat for LD29 (COMPO)
Escape the maze and get to the surface... if you can survive.
You find yourself deep under the ground in what seems to be a maze. Get loot! Kill monsters! Navigate the maze!

##Information

Although this game was done solo, I did it at RedBottle Design with the Rochester Indies Anonymous (http://rocia.org) !

While this game appears to be in 3D, it is actually totally faked one-point perspective (which is why you only see up to 9 blocks at a time). LOVE is not a 3D framework, but I really wanted to add something that looked 3D! All of the stats in the lower right can be changed by random events that happen throughout the game.

I will point out that for the compo release: score function doesn't work well (you usually finish the game with 0 points) and it's hard to get gold. I will release a post-compo version at some point fixing these specific issues, but please understand the vision was for the score and gold system to work.

##Tips

Use keyboard arrows & spacebar (or plug in a controller!)
If you attack a monster and you don't have enough defense, it will kill you!
Score is based on gold/time! So hurry up!
There are two types of encounters: good and bad.

* Easy: Good 75% Bad 25%
* Medium: Good 50% Bad 50%
* Hard: Good 25% Bad 75%

## Tools

* Vim
* LOVE 0.9.1
* GIMP
* iNudge w/ arecord
* bfxr

## Source

https://github.com/josefnpat/LD29

Ratings

Coolness 80% 2
Overall 3.21 517
Audio 3.09 347
Fun 3.00 558
Graphics 3.05 626
Humor 3.11 204
Innovation 2.60 899
Mood 3.27 319
Theme 3.26 559

Feedback

manabreak
28. Apr 2014 路 04:26 UTC
Could you provide binaries? :)
mrexcessive
28. Apr 2014 路 04:37 UTC
Sorry can't run no web version
馃帳 josefnpat
28. Apr 2014 路 19:44 UTC
@manabreak Sorry, was still packaging the game. They're up now!

@mrexcessive Please download a binary for your corresponding operating system.
SimonLarsen
28. Apr 2014 路 21:07 UTC
Pretty good. Felt very streamlines and fast-pased.
Wasn't a big fan of the music but audio was fine otherwise.

Would be nice if monsters were visible so you could plan ahead/avoid encounters if possible, but a lot of fun none the less.
LPGhatguy
29. Apr 2014 路 04:23 UTC
The controls were a little bit disorientating and I found myself simply going by the minimap. The beeps and boops were classic, but a little hard on the ears. None of the encounters felt really meaningful and any that did felt out of my control.

Nice technical work!
TeamPurpleDolphins
29. Apr 2014 路 04:55 UTC
I really like the style. I kinda feel like monster encounters should be more frequent though.
LinusPrime
29. Apr 2014 路 05:01 UTC
The controls were fluid and fast, great jam game.
Liens
29. Apr 2014 路 05:59 UTC
Pretty cool, although on 50/50 and especially hard difficulty exploring the map is pointless because the more you explore the more chance bad stuff will happen.
Lolshouse Dev Team
29. Apr 2014 路 06:15 UTC
Pretty fun game. Interesting way to use the Love engine!
~funkeh
wespaugh
29. Apr 2014 路 12:45 UTC
The dungeon crawling elements are definitely there, and they aren't too far from being well-balanced, as is. The changes in art over time were a great touch, and the humour was classic MSS.

I might consider an alternative to the minimap, though. Once I got used to using it, it was all I looked at. Maybe have the compass show the direction to the exit?
pancakecity
29. Apr 2014 路 16:50 UTC
The music rocks! I enjoyed the humorous popups immensely.
Lucariatias
29. Apr 2014 路 20:57 UTC
Fantastic. To think you wrote this using vim within 48 hours is incredible.
Some stat tweaks would have made it perfect. Dropping your sword or shield is rather punishing, and gold is too sparce.
LemmingSurvivor
29. Apr 2014 路 23:59 UTC
Oh boy, a first-person crawler!

The game engine works great. Events got a bit repetitive, especially on the last map where I'd get one Every. Single. Step. I. Made, and seemed obsessed with cracking/breaking my non-existing weapon and shield, but that's fine.

Good fun. Well done!
MunkeeBacon
30. Apr 2014 路 00:00 UTC
Fun Game! The dialogs were AWESOME, haven't beat it yet (still playing) but nice job. Liked the graphics, usually not my thing, but they really worked for this theme I think.

Just wondering, were the things that happened such as "you found (blank) inscribed on a wall" and stuff like that chosen at random times? Or did they happen at set locations? I've told a crazy programmer wants me dead over 5 times now:P

But overall, great game, one of the best I've played so far!
otato
30. Apr 2014 路 00:01 UTC
Reminds me of the old dungeon crawlers. I was sad to find that you couldn't see the monsters and felt like I couldn't really do anything to change the outcome of the fights...
Jason Lay
30. Apr 2014 路 00:04 UTC
I liked the music! Game was pretty cool too, it reminded me of the good ol' days!
Marcellus
30. Apr 2014 路 00:22 UTC
good job
eerongal
30. Apr 2014 路 02:29 UTC
neat dungeon crawler, but I had to run from way too many fights due to constantly having my sword/shield "broken" and being basically defenseless most of the time.
Lacaranian
30. Apr 2014 路 02:33 UTC
Nicely done! Good to see another theme included.
namuol
30. Apr 2014 路 02:36 UTC
<step>
"You found a shield in perfect condition."
:)
<step>
"Your shield cracks."
:|


Seemed like I could *always* avoid battles if I run away, but never could seem to win them. I was playing "My body is ready" mode.

Really neat graphical trick. I'd love to try making something like this, some time. Your next challenge is to make a raycaster in LOVE. ;)
Rusky
30. Apr 2014 路 03:00 UTC
Nostalgia! Reminds me of Dungeons of Daggorath on the TRS-80.
zacaj
30. Apr 2014 路 03:32 UTC
dat beat
ghostmaple
30. Apr 2014 路 03:51 UTC
Impressive.
Thorig
30. Apr 2014 路 08:50 UTC
I just run away from monster, because I did not have a sword when facing one. Good music and a nice game.
Hippolyta
30. Apr 2014 路 11:01 UTC
It was pretty fun playing. I liked the music and the controles but the good and bad encounters where missing some visualisation for me. Just a little picture of the vendor, item or enemy you encounter would be great. Later in the game i nearly ignored the encounters and concentrated on the movement only.
Still good job =)
VividReality
30. Apr 2014 路 14:49 UTC
Good job :) Very impressive to think that you made this with vim as a compo. It's a promising game and I hope to see more features in the post-compo. Keep up the good work!
ninjacharlie
01. May 2014 路 14:13 UTC
Awesome! This game was great :D

It would have been ice to have some graphics for items, monsters and other characters, but other than that, it was really good.

Nice job :D
peterrstanley
04. May 2014 路 17:15 UTC
I really enjoyed the game. I like the idea of trying to implement a 3D environment when using a 2D framework. I had a lot of fun with it.
danbo
07. May 2014 路 21:42 UTC
I think the way you implemented the difficulty settings is quite interesting. Instead of just say changing the probability of defeat or something, the % of good / bad events, when you consider that defeated monsters give you gold... could be interesting.

That said, I'm a huge baby and ran from every monster I saw, taking baths whenever possible. Neat game, though I wish you had a little bit more control over your destiny - I don't know if you're actually being stalked by a big beast or something, but I did sort of feel a bit like I was hunting a Wumpus.

Also, pretty neat to do something like this in a 2D framework. I can think of a really inelegant way to do it, though it'd be cool if there's a little more going on behind the scenes.