LudumData

Contagion by mrnyarlathotep

[raw]
made by mrnyarlathotep for LD 43 (COMPO)

itchscreen3.gif Since the pestilence entered our lands, it has been official policy to remove any plaguebearers and place them within the secure walls of the Tower. Many have criticised this decision to leave the sufferers of the contagion to fend for themselves, and eventually die alone and unaided, but it is a small sacrifice for the benefit of our country, is it not?

Gameplay

Should all be fairly self explanatory; the icons available are move north / south / east / west on the left hand side of the controls Look around / Attack / Eat / Take / Run away / Climb on the right hand side.

Things you can't currently do get greyed out and become inactive.

Known Bugs

Really went to the wire on time limits with this one, so there's some annoying bugs I didn't get to fix before my time limit was up; * Restarting via menu button breaks things pretty badly on a second run through - if you want to play again, just refresh your browser * sometimes all the doors in a room will open for no reason (they're only supposed to be open when you return to a room to help you navigate easier) * some missing strings on things like "you were attacked by a " * Lack of variety - I actually have code support for as many NPCs, rooms, decorations and chests as I want... but the time limits of a Compo entry meant I ended up only making one of each

Tools Used

  • Unity for the big picture stuff
  • Pyxel Edit for the visuals
  • Bosca Coeil for the music
  • BFXR for the sound effects
HTML5 (web) https://nologogames.itch.io/ld43-contagion
Source code https://bit.ly/2rhPMzi
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/contagion

Ratings

Overall 414th 2.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 437th 2.643⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 462th 2.411⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 465th 2.554⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 194th 3.536⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 200th 3.161⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 206th 3.259⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

oxrock
03. Dec 2018 · 15:48 UTC
My understanding is that you're allowed to bug fix after the time limit has passed. You're just not supposed to implement new things.

Does the look feature ever reveal anything? I tried it time and time again but always seemed to get the same 3 responses. It reminds me a lot of dungeon exploration games I played as a child, and I'm probably just as bad at them now as I was then. Man, it took me FOREVER to find the first ladder! Anyhow, congrats on yet another game done to keep your streak alive.
🎤 mrnyarlathotep
03. Dec 2018 · 17:41 UTC
@oxrock - Some of my bug fixes would have definitely veered into 'new implementations' territory, and I generlly like to give an honest impression of whats achievable in the time limits allowed, if for no other reason than LDJam newbies who play this don't get too discouraged about whats possible

The look feature was intended to be more of a 'search' feature where sometimes you can find hidden food caches, but you know, features cut to hit a deadline XD
DrunkardWolf
03. Dec 2018 · 18:11 UTC
Great work, artwork looks amazing and gameplay is pretty fun. Great entry, well done
JCMonkey
03. Dec 2018 · 18:26 UTC
so a couple things. i probably shouldnt be able to go over 100% health, and i went into negative food which probably should have stayed at 0, but started taking damage or something. and with the fighting it was cool, but maybe roll a dice to see if you take damage each round instead of taking damage every hit. after floor 2 the exploring got repetitive and i knew that it was just a grid pattern for the floors. have a bit of variation in the map so its not so easy to traverse. with some polish, more enemy types, weapons and armor this could be a nice game.
William Derksen
03. Dec 2018 · 19:20 UTC
Was fun for a bit. Would be nice to have more variation in encounters and a "minimap would be priceless" - My friend
🎤 mrnyarlathotep
03. Dec 2018 · 19:50 UTC
@jcmonkey - oops, yeah, seems I only check for going below zero in my 'active' food drains, not my passive ones, good catch. Would make more sense for passive drain to be health rather than food in general too thinking about it now, what with the concept being you have the plague and all.

Yeah, more advanced floor generation was backburnered for time constraints - I just went with a nested for loop for this build.

@william-derksen - lol, an auto-mapping feature was *definitely* not on the cards timewise for this entry; a lot of the old school dungeon crawlers had you drawing your own maps with graph paper 'back in the day' XD
DeathBySnail
03. Dec 2018 · 22:37 UTC
Got trapped by a chest. Ouch!
Jaynerdworld
04. Dec 2018 · 00:35 UTC
Great Job! Was a great call back to the old dungeon crawlers.
salyon
04. Dec 2018 · 00:49 UTC
You managed to create a very minimalist dungeon crawler, so gratz for that!

It lacks just a little bit more of variation and less randomness, specially in the search for the stairs.

I played until floor 11, does it have an end?
🎤 mrnyarlathotep
04. Dec 2018 · 01:16 UTC
@salyon - the end was inside you all along!
(no, sorry, its mostly procgen, I'm impressed you managed to juggle resources that far though)
Yirggzmb
04. Dec 2018 · 03:07 UTC
This is really cool. Definitely has a lot of potential if you choose to continue working on it.

Teeny tiny minor bug I didn't see mentioned: The text doesn't ask you what you want to do about the chest until after you've opened it. Like I said, super tiny.
Marc Grabow
04. Dec 2018 · 11:02 UTC
Awesome! Has been on my list for a while to make a 3D dungeon crawler at LD, never got to it. Very glad that you made one so I could play it... :D Like the minimalistic style and think you could improve upon this concept to make it a bigger game. Well done, nice LD entry!
Erendelous
04. Dec 2018 · 17:55 UTC
Really nice game! It's like some Ultima and classic Might & Magic games, as I remember:)
Owen Rees
04. Dec 2018 · 19:22 UTC
I liked that you go on a journey through this dungeon thing. I had a problem facing certain enemies that seemed like they couldn't be killed I ate all my food and I wasn't able to kill the enemy. It would have been nice to see some variation in the room types. Keep up the good work!
🎤 mrnyarlathotep
04. Dec 2018 · 19:34 UTC
@owen-rees - unkillable enemies is one of the bugs that happen if you restart via the ingame restart button unfortunately; I lose an object reference somewhere on a scene reload and couldn't figure out where :(
nkrim
04. Dec 2018 · 20:46 UTC
Like the idea of a stripped down dungeon sim where you're self-sufficient on food (no stores or anything) and I definitely like the idea of the story, if this were fleshed out I'm sure it would be really cool. Great game!
MyFriendTames
04. Dec 2018 · 20:49 UTC
Artworks are awesome, the game is very cool. I really like it, even if I'm a noob! :sweat_smile:

Very good job! :v:
christina-antoinette-neofotistou
06. Dec 2018 · 03:01 UTC
I love that you used LD as an opportunity to make an engine out of your comfort zone! Lovely game, I had fun exploring! One question: if health goes above 100%, why do you need the "food remaining" indicator? I basically ate all the food I had until it became 0. Great job overall, and loved the graphics :)
🎤 mrnyarlathotep
07. Dec 2018 · 17:42 UTC
@christina-antoinette-neofotistou - my programmer art is at best 'functional', especially compared to what you make, but I'll take the compliment!
candlesan
08. Dec 2018 · 21:35 UTC
Love how this reminds me of some old school RPGs like Wizardry, Might & Magic and Bard's Tale. Pixel art was really appealing and I liked the music too.
I didn't understand at first how the movement controls related to my in game movement through the world. Some indicator of how I was moving through the world such as a quick animation would have helped.