Demons in Dungeons by blay09

[raw]
made by blay09 for LD25 (COMPO)
A few notes:
Bugs have a maximal building range of 5 tiles. It's a bit hard to see, but the build goes more transparent when it can't be built there, sorry. You can also only build on floor tiles.
There are three resources, you get all of them by killing enemies either through traps or fighting.
Souls are for spawning monsters, bones are for building traps and buildings and blood is for research in the Blood Bath.
Check out the Help button to learn what the buildings do.
Units mainly only differ in health/speed/damage, but ninjas and buttermouses do not activate traps.
If you get stuck, try changing your tactics.
Use spike traps in small corridors where you can predict where people go, place poison traps close to your heart to continously harm people attacking it. Piston traps are very effective if humans have to walk by a lava pool.

How to run:
Extract the archive to an empty folder and then simply doubleclick the .jar file.
On a console:
java -Djava.library.path=./ -jar DemonsInDungeons.jar
Make sure to have at least JRE 1.6 installed!
Note: I can't test the linux and mac archives, so please tell me if it doesn't work correctly and I will fix it. In any case, the Webstart version should always work.

Warning: Does not include goats! Well, maybe a mutated goat or something.

Story:
While humanity was doing fun stuff that included laughing and singing and happyness, the evil forces of the abyss have been working to destroy the world. With their immense power they managed to open up portals to the overworld, allowing them to destroy everything and turn the planet into a living hell. Humans didn't really like that and probably got offended by it, that might be why they're now bravely entering those portals attacking YOUR realm. You're the right hand of the guy who leads all the destruction. Make sure to keep the dungeons safe. Place traps and kill everyone. Summon monsters and kill everyone. You can also do both, at the same time, which is rather convenient for your job. Just make sure that your dungeon does not get destroyed. Each dungeon has a pulsating "Dungeon's Heart" which keeps the dungeon alive. Take care of it and your master will be very proud of you. That's all.

Controls:
The controls are mostly based on the mouse and very simple.
Left click selects, right click performs an action. You can also left click and drag to select more than one unit.
Double clicking a specific type of unit will select all units of that type in a certain range.
Alternatively, you can use the arrow keys to navigate in menues or move the camera around.

Ratings

Coolness 61% 3
Overall 2.77 487
Audio 2.82 236
Fun 2.53 511
Graphics 2.50 535
Humor 2.31 430
Innovation 2.59 495
Mood 2.97 260
Theme 3.16 389

Feedback

tumoxep
17. Dec 2012 · 08:34 UTC
Good atmosphere, funny sound effects, but too hard.
Love to see whats happening in the last level. :)
celeron55
17. Dec 2012 · 08:36 UTC
This is way too hard, I can't finish any level.

Not too bad otherwise...
Gemberkoekje
17. Dec 2012 · 08:55 UTC
This game is either too hard, or not well enough explained. I really like how I can put down stuff, but when I can't put down any stuff and I have these merry men who..err..die.. and uh...
Anyway, it's kinda confusing.

- It could've used a tutorial, with all dem features. (Beyond the help screen, which was only minorly informatic)
- I really like how you added many features, but like I said, it's confusing.
- The enemies maybe were going a bit fast, but then again, I might be getting old.
- It needs more feedback. Why can't I put something somewhere? What does it do in the first place? Stuff like that.
tim_u
17. Dec 2012 · 09:13 UTC
Not sure if this game is hard or just short on feedback. But it looks like a lot of effort was put in. With the tweaks Gemberkoekje mentioned, this could be really fun.
namuol
17. Dec 2012 · 09:20 UTC
I think it's fair to say that this is a pretty ambitious game. RTSs are fairly rare among LD entries.

I have similar complaints to the others regarding the interface -- you really just need to build in more feedback. There's no way to know how much each unit costs to create, for instance (as far as I can tell). The graphics could use some polish, but they get the job done.

I like that your resources are essentially just the carnage from the enemy. Kinda reminds me of salvaging metal from the wreckage of a battlefield in Total Annihilation.
sanderman
17. Dec 2012 · 09:42 UTC
An ambitious concept.. an RTS is.

As the others pointed out. Some descriptions of unit capabilities and cost would help to make sense of things.

Also building stuff seems to take two actions: placement, and ordering unit to the spot. This is gets old fast.

With a little polish, this could be a very fun game.

Ps. Is there supposed to be audio? I'm not hearing any. (Windows/Web)
Jonathan Whiting
17. Dec 2012 · 09:44 UTC
A surprisingly large amount of stuff in this, but the difficulty is crazy, I got past the first level, and then the second completely stopped me.
🎤 blay09
17. Dec 2012 · 09:51 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I added a few notes for potentional newcomers giving a few tips to the description. I tried balancing stuff out (I also let someone else play and adjusted things to make it easier) but in the end, the time ran out. Although the numbers suggest it, the levels are not really ordered after difficulty. They do get harder the higher their number, but I found Pyramid for example fairly easy. Should probably have switched it with the Four Portals level. @sanderman: Yes, there should be audio. Did you check if you disabled sound for Java in your mixer?
kannas
17. Dec 2012 · 11:36 UTC
some animation or sound for the attacks would be good. Maybe even raise the HP of the minions.

Even so, i like the game and the audio :D
Starspell
17. Dec 2012 · 11:44 UTC
Nice idea for a game. I'm so glad that you put in some instructions. But those instruction only tell you a little about what you need to know. It doesn't tell you how to build, how to move your bugs, what the different people do or what the different parts of the interface mean.

I like how you've put the game together however. The humans move, for the most part, in a sensible fashion and the graphics are ok. It's just playing it that's very difficult ^^;
BiceMaster
17. Dec 2012 · 11:45 UTC
Great mood with great atmosphere. Good music selection graphics were ok but with low contrast making it a little hard to see details of gameplay sometimes. Very hard and confusing control scheme. Overall good effort.
jsmars
17. Dec 2012 · 11:49 UTC
Great game! Fun to see an RTS too! Was really hard to understand what to do and what everything was. I think tool tips when holding or clicking on things, like saying what they do, or how long you have to wait for that upgrade would be great.. took me a while to figure it out, but I guess it works a bit like zergs in starcraft.. still only bet the first level tho, tried some of the others. Was a bit annoying that my traps killed my own units too. Great work! Very impressive!
Dioiminik
17. Dec 2012 · 13:11 UTC
Can't seem to get it to work, OS X 10.8
🎤 blay09
17. Dec 2012 · 13:17 UTC
Alright, taking the OSX link out since I can't provide proper support for it. Thanks for reporting.
timtipgames
17. Dec 2012 · 14:20 UTC
I must say I really dig this game. I agree with a lot of the other comments on usability and explanations. But if I keep in mind that this was done in 48h, it is really a large number of features implemented and it is actually working as a game. Well done!
loren
17. Dec 2012 · 20:08 UTC
a hardy, but a goody. Challenge is always good, nice work!
Alex Rose
18. Dec 2012 · 08:12 UTC
Nice one, Blay.

I was impressed with just how large the game was. Lots of interesting mechanics, nice graphics and a bunch of levels.
Hume
20. Dec 2012 · 13:30 UTC
I hate to beat a dead horse, but the lack of playtesting and balancing was a real issue.

A game with this much thought and effort behind it deserves a slow ramp up so we can really appreciate what you've done.
Birchmountain
21. Dec 2012 · 14:55 UTC
Can't get past the first level, but the game both looks good and feels good. And it also seems like a very big game for 48 hours, very good job!
ceronman
21. Dec 2012 · 15:26 UTC
Can't seem to make it work... I get this error: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/newdawn/slick/state/StateBasedGame Ubuntu 12.10
🎤 blay09
21. Dec 2012 · 18:14 UTC
Linux version should be fixed now. Forgot to include the lib folder.
Cássio Eduardo
22. Dec 2012 · 18:05 UTC
Complex game. Good job.
Frozen Fractal
25. Dec 2012 · 15:02 UTC
Missing lwjgl natives on 64-bit Linux, it seems?
Gornova
04. Jan 2013 · 22:44 UTC
works fine with java7 on windows xp!

nice game, well done! it's a bit too hard?

tip: promote yourself on slick forum!