LudumData

ForgeRoad by vonedekss

[raw]
made by vonedekss for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

You are a traveling blacksmith operating a mobile forge on wheels! image<em>2026-04-21</em>05-16-23.png You are a novice blacksmith, just beginning to master the art of forging blades in your mobile forge on wheels. Craft unique swords, trade with merchants, travel across the world, and rise to become the greatest smith of all time. Снимок экрана 2026-04-21 051739.jpg In this game, you will bargain with customers, forge your own weapons, and purchase materials from wandering traders. Improve your skills, refine your craft, and learn to understand what each client truly needs.

Adventurers will never tell you exactly what kind of weapon they want — they will only describe their problems. It’s up to you to interpret their words… and decide which blade will serve them best.

Itch.io Link! https://vonedekss.itch.io/forgeroad
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/forgeroad

Ratings

Overall 370th 3.639⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 295th 3.583⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 383th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 761th 2.75⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 314th 3.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 471th 3.556⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 9🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Ungew0llt
Apr 21st · 09:50 UTC
its really fun for a while
GoogleFrog
Apr 21st · 12:17 UTC
The gameplay here is tight. Some might say too difficult, but I like how thin the margins are and how I have to plan around the merchant only having limited wares on each day. There were times I would make swords that I could sell, but it would be at a loss on the cost of the materials, so I ended up saving them for the king. Economy games often suffer from ridiculous growth that trivialize the strategy, this game avoids this really well. That said, I didn't ever manage to sell anything with mithril in it for profit, so perhaps there was a busted route.

The requirement that the swords at the end be unique is great. My only complaint is that the king would not accept my shoddy magic swords. The text at the start only says the blades must be unique, whereas at the end I had a bag of around 13 swords, but most included copper or iron, so they were not accepted.
Tanjou
Apr 21st · 15:51 UTC
Art looks awesome, would be nice to play this on web/Mac!
ZalkarIMG
Apr 21st · 18:45 UTC
@googlefrog

ayyy thanks for the reply!

as a programmer myself, i'm really glad u liked the game loop and the item interactions. and the game designers were super hyped that someone enjoyed the concept and the balance!

we'll definitely fix that mithril bug and the ending soon. thanks again!
ZalkarIMG
Apr 21st · 18:47 UTC
@tanjou

our artists are super happy u liked the visuals! 😁

we’ll try to get the web version up and running as soon as we can! 🫡
stepa
Apr 22nd · 04:17 UTC
cool hand-drawn graphics
NullMoxy
Apr 22nd · 16:19 UTC
Love the graphics, they fit very well together.
Tutorial could be a bit less info dump at the start of the game.
Lukas Leder
Apr 22nd · 17:43 UTC
very cute art style!
vimix
Apr 22nd · 18:03 UTC
that's peak bro.
ZalkarIMG
Apr 22nd · 18:06 UTC
@vimix

thaks bro❤️
Nordin
Apr 22nd · 18:06 UTC
Great concept, i really liked the art, very stressful not having the ressources to build the right swords :sweat_smile:
JamBread
Apr 22nd · 18:24 UTC
Cool game,the vibe is being consisted troughout the playtrough/Love the comments of customers you really need to read into them to understand what you need to offer em/
A.D.Chaos
Apr 22nd · 20:31 UTC
The graphics are realy great and the viarity of content is amazing. I think the game doesn´t need a time limit, at least not in the early stages of the game. You can´t learn the mechanics of the game and make the right decisions at the start because of it. And there is a bug, that doesn´t save your progress when you accidently go back to the main menu, but it saves your level somehow. Nontheless it is a great entry!
apt_prose7
Apr 26th · 08:33 UTC
A relaxing and enjoyable experience overall.
VenomousMouse
Apr 28th · 09:12 UTC
Nice art. Overall nice game with good mechanic.