Dwarven Dungeon Defense by TolMera
Hail Hero! Have you come to claim back the Mountain Hall? You have?! Excellent, right this way now, don't be shy. Pickup your Sword, you better take these Gauntlets as well. Right, you're all ready! Now just jump down this hole.
Just Look at these exquisite Walls, that craftsmanship of generations past. The Mountain Hall became uninhabitable when ten Monster hives appeared at once within our wall. If you're Hero enough, you will be able to put an end to the Monster Spawners. Take back what is rightfully ours!
Be Careful Hero, these Beasts, both ordinary and Arcane can sense the presence of Gold, They are drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Let me just take your purse, wouldn't want any Beastiest taking a liking to you while we're having our little conversation now would we? no. Now as I was saying, these Beasts can smell Gold, as you adventure you will surely acquire more, which will draw out more Beasts. So be careful, The more you have; the worse it is.
Go Hero, Claim back the Mountain Hall!
Playthrough by the Developer https://youtu.be/xHGRVzX1KxI
Instructions: Right Click Mouse to attack (Including Tunneling into walls)
WASD (and arrows) are Movement Keys
Player Gold and Health are Top Right
Build Towers by Clicking in Bottom Left "Build Tower"
ESC to exit build
Explore the map to find mob spawners
Spawners will attack you (Ranged)
Destroy all the Mob Spawners to win the game.
PATCHES: (Any patches affect executable only, Source files will remain unchanged) Patch 1: The first Monster to spawn was invisible, I've just fixed that. Patch 2: Pressing Esc key killed game - miss named variable - fixed it. Also fixed a bug that killed game if you killed a mob with no home. Patch 3: Following feedback - I added a 'restart' (enter) if you die, so you don't need to kill and restart the program - also fixed a bug that created lag if you had too many towers, noone had mentioned it yet, but I could see it. Also changed the intro screen so it's info is hopefully easier for people to absorb. Patch 4? Kinda? I found out I can make Runtime Executables from Game Maker (who knew!?)
Hey I've just tried to install this myself, and windows complained about the "unknown publisher" This is how to get around it.
Click "More Info"
Now you can run the game. It was built on Game Maker 1.8 - I'm not sure why windows is complaining.
| Windows | https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gcwst3Z3qiW7UV4HcJg80rjX6IqaPJ3F |
| Game Maker 1.8 (Google Drive) | https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WrPMMtVBioX4s5D1mnrcN-TpfLeqfKNu |
| Windows | http://tolmera.com/Dwarven%20Dungeon%20Defense.exe |
| Game Maker 1.8 (Private Server) | http://tolmera.com/Project.gmx.zip |
| Windows | https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ViY1Og1wyreb6rmQ_iE-GqAbg8FH83LR |
| Windows | http://tolmera.com/Dwarven%20Dungeon%20Defense%20%28Runtime%29.exe |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/dwarven-dungeon-defense |
Ratings
| Overall | 1025th | 2.883⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1044th | 2.6⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 957th | 2.7⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1011th | 2.741⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 905th | 2.85⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 486th | 3.083⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 905th | 2.125⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 906th | 2.8⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 23🗨️ |
- The story and backdrop are nice. Definitely getting dwarf fortress vibes, especially from the destructible walls
- rough idea is good, sort of a tower defense rpg combo where a dwarf underground fights monsters
What could be improved:
- I think it would be less intimidating if there was more direction for the player - where to go / what to do first. Most of my playthroughs consist of me wandering around until a tower kills me. Am I supposed to wait for monsters to find me?
Also, please consider compressing your executable.
@markopolodev anything speciffic you think I should write into the game page to give a better explanation? Obviously an outside pair of eyes can see what I as the developer cant see.
If you're planning to keep working on this game, I think a good first step would be a tutorial level.
- Let players experience combat with one enemy or a few enemies without any worry about failure. Let people get the hang of right clicking and figure out how knockback works (something I never did).
- Then move on to explaining how towers work - give the player enough gold to build one and walk them through it. Gives a way for a player to naturally conclude that they want a tower (player driven goals ftw).
- Then move on to enemy towers. Show the player an enemy tower. explain why the player dies if they go near one. Explain how to avoid that.
- Then explain the full format of the game, all the pieces together (there are enemy towers all around, destroy them all to win). This is where the game currently starts - it's very disorienting, definitely in the "anxiety" area of the [flow channel](http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/understanding-the-flow-channel-in-game-design-ghuttxg6) for me.
Giving me one piece of information at a time and letting me practice the skills I need individually would definitely have helped. It could be that I'm just bad and the game and don't get it, but I think there's always things you can do to widen the potential audience. Hope this is useful =\
I also fixed another bug that crashed the game when you killed a mob who's spawner you had also killed.... that one sucked.
Also, I think you need to look into how you built your project and how you're distributing it. I think it would be easier for everyone concerned if we didn't need to install the game. Perhaps see if you can have some Web version of it on a hosting site: that way more people can have a look at it.
Good to know. Unity seems to be very popular. I know I use it, and so does almost everyone else. Perhaps you too should join the dark side. We have cookies! :D
Biggest improvment: Restart-Button
Biggest plus: The mood :)
Good pixel art and music!
It's a bit hard to understand, but I liked the art (graphics and composition).
And I've patched the game so you can hit "enter" to restart if you die. (see patch notes)
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the couple of minutes I played the game for, and I understand the hard work needed to create something like this!. :smiley: Our team also worked hard to create a game for the jam. You can check it out [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/jazzy-beats)! :whale: