The Descent by iovorobiev

[raw]
made by iovorobiev for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

You are a knight who is going to descend deep into the dungeons to claim a treasure. People saying everyone who went inside has gone insane and never came back. But you are not like them. You will find your way. Won't you?

descent.gif

What is it?

This game is a 15 puzzle where instead of numbers you need to create a way from top to bottom of the map. Every move you do drains your sanity, so the fewer moves you do the deeper you go. How deep will you descend?

ezgif.com-gif-maker (1).gif

How to play?

Control the tile with arrow keys on it with, well, arrow keys. It will swap places with the tile in the arrow direction. You need to arrange tiles so, that the knight can enter the dungeon and reach the stairs in the bottom right corner. Be sure, the knight will tell you when they see the path.

Every 3 moves your sanity is drained. Once you reach 0 sanity you go insane and can't continue your journey: the game is over.

Controls

  • Enter to skip dialog lines
  • Arrow keys to control a tile with arrow keys layout on it
  • Enter to order the knight to go when the path is created
  • Enter to restart when the game is over

Tools

  • Unity
  • Aesprite

P.S.

This is my first time attending the compo. I am not familiar with Unity at all, and it was my first time creating a pixel art graphics (or any graphics at all). Learning took its toll and I was not able to even add the music and sounds, unfortunately. Hope the game is not too frustrating! HF :)

Update:

  • 5th of May 2021: fixed the layout for sanity and depth parameters: they were incorrectly represented on some resolutions

Ratings

Overall 552th 3.32⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 508th 3.24⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 376th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 429th 3.615⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 312th 3.66⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 296th 2.87⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 402th 3.333⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

japes
26. Apr 2021 · 08:21 UTC
Nicely scoped for a compo entry, can see that you've boiled it down to just the bare essentials to get the point across and make it playable. Well done.

Interesting mechanic and I like how it was explained to fit the theme (e.g. sanity for move limits)

Could've used sound, maybe a main menu, and perhaps an easier level to start with (it's a bit overwhelming at first, but with that said I did manage to get to depth 4 on my first try). But I'm sure you would've done all this anyway, given more time.

nice compo entry :thumbsup:

edit: I just read the P.S. note and I must say this is really impressive as a first time entry and using new tools!
Nela Flosova
26. Apr 2021 · 08:31 UTC
Awsome! Definitely keep making games:)
rhys_vdw
26. Apr 2021 · 08:44 UTC
I'm not cut out of this, went insane on the first map. Apology for frustration accepted. That said, great presentation and it's an idea that makes sense. Would be nice if there were more possible solutions for (or less shuffling of) the earlier levels!
jk5000
26. Apr 2021 · 08:47 UTC
The idea is good and the visuals is really good. For me it started too difficult, but that is okay for a jam game. I also believe there is a bug that make the block stacks on top of each others.
Salepate
26. Apr 2021 · 08:49 UTC
Really nicely composed! good job making these!
BubakGames
26. Apr 2021 · 08:54 UTC
Great game. The main mechanic is interesting and original.
BerserkerChris
26. Apr 2021 · 08:56 UTC
Perfekt compo idea.
Nice Game and cool mechanic.
LDJam user 240168
26. Apr 2021 · 10:21 UTC
Unfortunately I couldn't play it: I'm using Linux and running the game via the Wine emulator - the dialogues don't show (but I could skip them by pressing Enter), but then when the puzzle starts the arrow keys don't do anything, the tiles don't move. This is most probably an emulator issue, but maybe I was just doing the wrong thing? Anyways, I'll happily play a Linux build if you make one!
🎤 iovorobiev
26. Apr 2021 · 10:51 UTC
Hey @lisyarus thank you so much for the feedback! I'll try to make the linux build (or/and the web one) as soon as possible :)
rhoff95
26. Apr 2021 · 20:13 UTC
Good game! I would have liked to start off with an easier level to just get an understanding of all the mechanics. I would have also liked to see some mechanical integration of the theme, rather than just a wrapper for what each level is. Maybe an endless puzzle that goes down and you have to see how far you can make a connected path of tiles or something like that. This is mechanically the same to the number puzzle. Visuals/setting were cool, and well done.
Funambulist Cat
27. Apr 2021 · 11:38 UTC
Hi! Nice (though a bit frustrating for me I lost my sanity as my knight was losing his haha)entry and also thumbs up for your first try! Love the pixel art and cute animation, the idea is cool ! True that with some sound design it would just be even better !
tjm
27. Apr 2021 · 16:21 UTC
Honestly I think it would have been difficult enough without the move limit! Nice game, solidly put together. Not sure if there's much progression? I couldn't really tell whether the levels were getting harder or not as I descended. Maybe at least changing the grid size as you descend would help?
🎤 iovorobiev
27. Apr 2021 · 17:34 UTC
@tjm Thanks so much for your feedback! I added a move limit just to have some ending in the game. Thought having a natural boredom as only limitation would be not that fun.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to add any smart progression, had to do as many shortcuts as I could to finish at least something. So each level is a new labirinth randomly generated with the same rules.

I hope next time I will be able to manage my time better :)
AndyKSWong
28. Apr 2021 · 04:05 UTC
Congrats on your first compo! It's a cool puzzle game! Quite challenging to have to optimize the number of moves.
JCMonkey
28. Apr 2021 · 22:56 UTC
really nice idea for a dungeon crawler puzzle game
Schuster
28. Apr 2021 · 23:11 UTC
ahhhh, I've always hated slide puzzles because I'm terrible at them! But, good concept for a game jam.
PiJaMar
29. Apr 2021 · 00:04 UTC
Very cool game, I love the story / theme and how you made it work with the mechanic. I'm super terrible at these games, so it felt way too hard for me, but to a puzzle fan, I'm sure it's a treat :wink:
kristof
29. Apr 2021 · 17:06 UTC
I only managed to reach depth 5 before running out of moves ;D I am so bad at these... But while simple, I think you managed to put together a very nice little game. I had a lot of fun playing. The story text appears a bit small in the web version.
rawbits
04. May 2021 · 00:02 UTC
Well done! Good puzzle game in 48 hours. :clap:
ancooper
05. May 2021 · 18:42 UTC
Nice puzzle game! :thumbsup:
Notan Lemon
09. May 2021 · 09:21 UTC
This is a nice twist on the 15 puzzle. It's fun to plan out your path within the limit of the sliding puzzle. But honestly I lost my sanity before the knight did. I think this game is interesting enough without the step limit. (for reference, I reached depth 6 when the remaining sanity was around 40)