LudumData

Cursed Kingdom by Majadroid

[raw]
made by Majadroid for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

Cursed Kingdom is a strategic medival puzzle game.

Your Kingdom is invaded by demons. You have to strategically place small villages and watchtowers, to collect gold and defeat enemy buildings. This is more a puzzle game than a strategy game. The enemies won't move. You have to find the right spots and the right bulding order for your buildings, in order to succeed.

Controls: - The game is controlled by mouse. Click in the menu to select a building, then click on a green grid postion to place it on the map. - You can right click to deselect the building. - Use the UNDO button to undo your building steps. You will get back your spent gold. - You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. You can move the map with the cursor keys or wasd.

Theme:

With a heavy heart I decided to ignore the theme. All the ideas I had were super trivial or not doable in this time frame. So what I have now is the opposite of a 10-seconds game. It is a calm puzzle game. I hope you enjoy it anyways.

screenshot-1-small.png

screenshot-2-small.png

screenshot-3-small.png

Link https://majadroid.itch.io/cursed-kingdom
Link https://majadroid.itch.io/cursed-kingdom
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/cursed-kingdom

Ratings

Overall 290th 3.808⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 124th 3.981⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 554th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 378th 3.904⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 289th 3.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 367th 3.68⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

mbrezu
03. Oct 2022 · 19:24 UTC
Really fun and polished. I really liked the sound and graphics. I think one way to integrate the theme (I know, there's barely any time left) is to have "fog of war" and remove the fog from one square every ten seconds :-)
confusedsoph
03. Oct 2022 · 19:27 UTC
No joke, this is the best puzzle game I've played this jam.

The big info dump at the beginning isn't the best. Instead, I'd recommend making the buildings unlockable, with the relevant tooltips coming up when you click the building the first time.
PartySquadMember
03. Oct 2022 · 19:29 UTC
Simple and entertaining. I enjoy the puzzle solving aspect that forces me to stop and use my brain rather than aping into button clicking. The game ran smooth and served its purpose. The narrative didn't add the suspense for me. I think adding something in the game play to add suspense or fear would help engage me more.
confusedsoph
03. Oct 2022 · 19:31 UTC
I like how you did it in the later levels. I think it was just a little too much up front.
mcovert
03. Oct 2022 · 19:37 UTC
Pretty fun little game. Wasn't clear to me at first that tiles could only be used by one village, or that villages worked diagonally, until like level... 3? The one with the 8 space u-shaped forest.

Would really like hotkeys - even something as simple as just 1, 2, 3 to select village, watch tower, archer tower
confusedsoph
03. Oct 2022 · 19:39 UTC
Oh another small thing. It would be nice to have the level number on screen in game, because I'm stuck on a level and I can't remember what number it is XD.
lavendaggers
03. Oct 2022 · 19:56 UTC
This is pretty fun! Reminds me of Settlers of Catan a bit. I played for a while until I got stuck on level 4 or 5. This could just be me missing something, but I had some difficulty understanding how clearing the land to build works. Like sometimes I would build a village for the purpose of expanding territory, but it was still inaccessible, and there didn't seem to be an enemy building obstructing it. But overall, nice puzzle game!
Enver Arco
03. Oct 2022 · 21:00 UTC
Cute game, lots of new mechanics introduced to keep the player engaged
owca
04. Oct 2022 · 13:10 UTC
This is the best game I played this jam so far! I really liked it. The difficulty level was perfect for me (not too easy and not to difficult). I finished all the puzzles and it was satisfying! Audio and visuals are great! Congrats!
🎤 Majadroid
04. Oct 2022 · 17:34 UTC
@lavendaggers @confusedsoph
If you like, I could upload the solution for the levels.

@enver-arco @owca
Thanks a lot. I'm happy you enjoyed it.
lavendaggers
04. Oct 2022 · 17:53 UTC
@majadroid That could be helpful!
confusedsoph
04. Oct 2022 · 20:50 UTC
@majadroid I’m gonna take one more whack at it when I get home, but uploading solutions would still be good.
MaRJaGiL
04. Oct 2022 · 23:14 UTC
Really fun little game, if you had told me it was a humble bundle game I would have believed it! I Really hope you polish this this some more and eventually publish it, thiswould bea great little puzzle game on steam deck or smartphones!
Chairshot Games
05. Oct 2022 · 04:32 UTC
Really well-designed game. The puzzles are really fun, they took me a few tries but were never unfair. Music, art, and overall vibe is very chill. I only wish it tied into the theme. I think it could be a great mobile game with a little more work!
🎤 Majadroid
05. Oct 2022 · 10:26 UTC
@lavendaggers @confusedsoph
There is a new zip file on the itch.io page with the solutions to each level.

@marjagil
Thanks a lot. Maybe I'll put some more work into it. Because I also enjoy this project.

@chairshot-games
Thanks! Yes, unfortunately it doesn't fit the theme at all. But sacrifices must be made 😉
Px-parallel
05. Oct 2022 · 13:36 UTC
Very interesting, although not very in line with the theme, but the gameplay is very interesting
LudovicaPiro
05. Oct 2022 · 20:54 UTC
I enjoyed the puzzles very much, not to easy but neither to hard at first. The hand drawn style fits very well with the medieval setting. Great job!
Kostas Nik
05. Oct 2022 · 21:17 UTC
pretty good puzzle game and well designed. i like that the first solution you come up with for max resources is wrong. Good job.
jamdong15
06. Oct 2022 · 01:24 UTC
This game is so fun!! It's like chess but prettier, with cool sound effects, and a storyline, haha. I also really liked the "undo" button.

I agree with other commenters that spreading out the instructions more would've been cool. Additionally, I didn't quite understand how the square availability worked. There were many times where I expected to have a green square open after placing down a building but it wasn't. Those moments were a bit frustrating.

That being said, overall, I really enjoyed the experience; it's one of the only games I attempted to finish from beginning to end. Great job!!

Lastly – and I hate to do this – but I would really appreciate if you could rate my game (https://ldj.am/$303168
). We currently also have less than 20 ratings so any help would be awesome! :)
Mikushi
06. Oct 2022 · 15:54 UTC
Love the art style, matches the music perfectly creating the right mood. The puzzles are well designed and require thinking!
dandeliondino
06. Oct 2022 · 18:52 UTC
Really enjoyed this, tutorials were great, liked the graphics. Good balance of challenging but not too hard. Appreciated having the undo button and not having to start the level over.
SLEEPYMENACE
07. Oct 2022 · 12:45 UTC
What a nice change of pace from other, more hectic entries! Enjoyed this one a lot, but I'm also very biased since I love strategy and puzzle games. Clean, polished presentation with nice art, and gameplay that's simple to grasp. Really well done!
🎤 Majadroid
07. Oct 2022 · 17:21 UTC
@sleepymenace I'm glad you liked it.
pianoman373
08. Oct 2022 · 01:08 UTC
Really fun puzzle game. Some of them were pretty challenging and I did get stuck on a later puzzle, but they're definitely really well designed and made me go "aha" whenever I solved them.
defilerzero
15. Oct 2022 · 07:17 UTC
A great and polished puzzle game. The overall aesthetic was perfect with the tone and gameplay.
PoshDan
17. Oct 2022 · 05:54 UTC
There was a surprising amount of nuance behind the placement of the various buildings, I enjoyed it.
I found the undo button especially user friendly.
StudioKraze
18. Oct 2022 · 13:34 UTC
Good game, but obviously the game has nothing to do with the theme.

Played on my stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zedkraze
🎤 Majadroid
18. Oct 2022 · 18:19 UTC
@defilerzero @poshdan Thanks for playing and your nice comments!

@studiokraze Thanks for playing the game in the stream. You were a little bit sceptical if the art and music was made by myselft within the weekend - yes it was. Otherwise, I would have opted out these categories. And yes, the version you played is the orgiginal version, there is no post-jam-version (yet).