Bog Bailiff by Raylond

[raw]
made by Raylond for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Please use the itch.io to play the game: https://mythrazen.itch.io/bog-bailiff-ldjam58

Play as a tax-collecting frog who goes into the bog for revenue… and comes back with illegally enchanted artifacts.

It’s our first Ludum Dare, and we definitely bit off more than we could chew, but we gave everything into these three days.

Core loop: incremental hero builder with a lean content set. Collecting duplicates levels up items and boosts their stats.

No formal ending. Enemies scale to bog level 1000. Expect one-shots around 300–400+ if the flies roll deadly.

Small gameplay guide:

You have two 'belts' and inventory (bigger belt) The left belt is 'primary' - the items inside it are used in a battle. You can't move items in a primary belt during the battle, but can swap belts with the button between them. Monsters will be scaling with each level into the bog. One monster kill raises bog level by one. If you feel overwhelmed - you can decrease the bog level in the main menu before starting the new run.

Items receive random upgrades for each item level. You can increase loot item level in two ways: 1. Bringing items of this specific type in your collection in the main menu. One item gives +1 item level for this specific item independently of the bog level. 2. Increase bog level - it is used as the base for the item level loot.

You can upgrade character for the money in the main menu or roll some insane number upgrades on the items.

Credits Development - Raylond Art - Lenstar

Controls Ctrl + LMB - sell item! screenshot0.png screenshot</em>1.png image.png

Ratings

Overall 389th 3.519⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 341th 3.426⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 556th 2.963⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 412th 3.648⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 446th 3.537⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 414th 2.935⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 623th 3.13⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 45🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

AnyingSama
Oct 06th · 22:35 UTC
It's a roguelike game that I really like, combined with the gameplay of backpack management! I also really like the art image of the protagonist, this ugly frog! There is a very complete roguelike route in the follow - up, allowing for long term play. One thing is that I think it would be better if items of different levels could be presented more directly, which would be more convenient.
Tayho
Oct 06th · 22:54 UTC
Very adictive ! Very well played. Just not beeing able to change your stuff during a fight is a bit frustrating because you can't directly equip your new equiement. Overall it's very good game. Good job !
Doctor_Zeus
Oct 06th · 22:57 UTC
:warning: Quick heads up, for me the tooltip info for equipment is always cut off the left half of the screen :warning:

I do like a good strategic battling game!
The idea that you can only change the items equipped to your inactive loadout is neat. It adds a bit of fun planning and mouse dexterity to gameplay, since you can think about your ideal organization as much as you'd like before clicking.

The collecting loot idea fits the theme well, and I like the silhouette interface used to show off what kinds of items you brought back from your last play. Related, the artwork on the whole is really fun. our main frog's design is pretty whimsical (feather sword? no wonder the pen is mightier!) and the insectoid enemies are fitting antagonists.

In the small chunk I played, I was very interested to see if the equipment swapping would become an important "active" part of play, but it didn't end up working out that way for me. Could be that there are incentives to do it that weren't clear to me yet - with more info or improved understanding I might have tried pursuing it more.

There could be some pretty blunt ways to incentivize swapping during combat (items that only recharge while inactive, items that are stronger the first time they hit) but it might be a bit of a balancing act - fiddling around with pools of inventory constantly might distract from the higher-level decisions you want to focus on. Not sure.

I know that games with abstract interactions (not-action-ey ones) can involve a lot of code work behind the scenes. Deciding how to communicate info is hard too, and I think you invested good effort to make this stuff understandable & interesting to play with.

I don't exactly remember the jam's policy on post-submission bug-fixes, but if you're able to get that tooltip info somewhere more central on the screen I'll definitely come back in and try diving more deeply into the bog... to see what strategic terrors wait within.
toastercosplay
Oct 07th · 04:38 UTC
this is great, i love the sprites and gameplay. it would be nice to see a bit more item level info, i had to figure that out, but otherwise great.
🎤 Raylond
Oct 07th · 09:08 UTC
> I don’t exactly remember the jam’s policy on post-submission bug-fixes, but if you’re able to get that tooltip info somewhere more central on the screen I’ll definitely come back in and try diving more deeply into the bog… to see what strategic terrors wait within.

Hey, thanks for a great feedback! I figured out that the problem with tooltip being cropped by the screen is connected to game being fit in the screen vertically, so on some screens like Mac 14" for example they would be cropped. I will definitely fix it a bit later, as for now it should work fine on 16:9 screens - my bad, didn't test it on anything else
TowerCrane
Oct 07th · 10:27 UTC
i like frongs
Ira Baciu
Oct 07th · 11:36 UTC
A small gameplay guide would be nice
🎤 Raylond
Oct 07th · 14:12 UTC
> A small gameplay guide would be nice

Added the short guide to the description
Faithcaio
Oct 07th · 14:20 UTC
I like it. Getting CD to 0.5s is op.
LDJam user 148539
Oct 07th · 17:01 UTC
I ended up playing this for way to long. love the gameplay loop, I think some basic sounds would have gone a long way. really nice submission, good work.
gloogsquad
Oct 07th · 17:06 UTC
Simple and nice!
Rol
Oct 07th · 17:06 UTC
I like the idea that you can't change the primary belt during the battle but can swap the secondary one, making player consider the backup equipments and have more motivation to collect. It might be better if coins gain from selling items are reduced,since I found I got too many coins from the beginning and get update too easily. And maybe you can make the equipment level more obvious in UI(like showing a number near its icon) so that player can tell the difference between two equipment of same type and icon
dr-braur
Oct 07th · 17:09 UTC
Haha, we did Beaver Bailiff (https://dr-braur.itch.io/beaver-bailiff) and you did Bog Bailiff :))
When it comes to your game, it feels strong and confident when it comes to the game design.
I played one run and I felt hooked. The execution is also pretty nice, but it clearly lacks any sound design and maybe a little bit UI clarity.
Good job, thank you for the game and take care!
alstegodev
Oct 07th · 17:32 UTC
BOG PERSISTS!
Borbag Uskada
Oct 07th · 20:54 UTC
Super fun to play

Balance is so so, too much items are too long to cast to be effective, it's either you one shot with other items, either you're dead before
But of course, balancing this type of game is a long process

Anyway it did not prevent myself from launching fights again and again, it's super addictive, nice job
MrV
Oct 08th · 00:41 UTC
simple but nice
dendi_life
Oct 09th · 13:13 UTC
thats good, it reminds me slay the spire
LDJam user 417758
Oct 11th · 05:08 UTC
nice graphic
lespaul59
Oct 14th · 18:00 UTC
love the mechanics and the graphics, but i didnt had sound or music. are there sound and music? it would be nicer with. besides that great job!
Transkuja
Oct 18th · 17:32 UTC
It was a nice game to play while I'm eating haha
ingi
Oct 22nd · 19:48 UTC
I really like the core mechanic.
From the screenshots, I thought it would be another complex jam game that takes 20 minutes to figure out, but the item cooldown system is actually elegant and simple.
The progression feels great — definitely worthy of a full game — though the lack of an ending was a bit disappointing.
I played up to around level 40!