Diminutive Dungeon Draft! by Maste

[raw]
made by Maste for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

Play as an Evil Necromancer building a small dungeon under constrained conditions. Deploy tiles, summon minions, and avoid heroes! Gathering 30 Mana to win but if the Heroes get you it's all over.

Play the game on Itch.io: either search the Game on Itch.io as: "Diminutive Dungeon Draft" or find the link below.

This is my first game with Ludum Dare - the game sucks, but I absolutely loved the experience.

Ratings

Overall 778th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 889th 3⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 437th 3.5⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 477th 3.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 541th 2.944⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 767th 3.275⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Aetherswitch
03. Oct 2023 · 13:47 UTC
Good fun! Was a tad confused at first but quickly picked it up. One bug/exploit I found is that, since some tiles at the bottom give mana and clicking a tile refreshes the one that was in that slot with a new one but doesn't charge you until you've placed the tile you can cycle through tiles until you get a tile that gives you mana. Still, I had far more fun than I expected, I like the retro art style too and it's a very unique entry! :)
heytherewill
03. Oct 2023 · 13:50 UTC
Hey! I seem unable to play the game; the necromancer is stuck in place and can't move at all :(
hierarch
03. Oct 2023 · 13:54 UTC
There's a lot of features on the screen but I beat the game by carefully mashing space bar without moving.

I feel like if this game had a build phase where you fill in the dungeon followed by a defend phase where you could move around and had to see how long you lasted or defeat all the enemies it would make sense. As it is I'm not really sure why I would build anything at all and the enemies don't seem to attack the necromancer unless I move.
Gorglomux
03. Oct 2023 · 14:05 UTC
A bit janky but the ideas are there ! I would have loved a bit more explanations, but the game picks up afterwards. Good job !
DanielShershnev2Game1
03. Oct 2023 · 14:06 UTC
It was an interesting experience. It seems to me there is a lot of text at the beginning that would be worth reading, but I missed it and because of this I did not immediately figure out how to play. When I realized that it was necessary to drip the dungeon, it became very interesting. I liked the mechanics, the music in the background, and the characters are well drawn! Thanks!
mrs.wheelsx
03. Oct 2023 · 14:08 UTC
It's a little bit complicated, but I feel that could be overcome by a hand-holding in game tutorial. It is understandable that there is no hand-holding tutorial given the time constraints of a jam. If you want to expand this game post jam, I would suggest starting there. That said, it feels like a solid game idea with loads of potential. It is a great entry for your first jam. Really good job!
binroot
04. Oct 2023 · 00:28 UTC
So cool to play as the villain as a twist! The game mechanics actually work well together. I wish I could see an attack animation sprite or hear sfx for attacks. Great entry and incredible job for your first entry!
Magnanix
04. Oct 2023 · 09:22 UTC
Interesting take on a dungeon builder, looks like the entrance can get clogged - might have benefitted from a second entrance for monsters. The power of the L block is undeniable, fastest spacebar in the west :).
Nice work!
RossK
05. Oct 2023 · 02:50 UTC
I won on my second try, but I never _quite_ grasped why certain things were happening.
RumiaObsessed
05. Oct 2023 · 02:54 UTC
I like the idea. It was hard to know what moves I should do though, no clear indicators that what I was doing was working/failing. There wasn't really a way for me to judge which monsters were the most worth it.
Heuser
09. Oct 2023 · 13:35 UTC
As others have said, it takes a while to learn how to correctly play, but tutorials in gamejams are overrated :) Nice Game
StormSword
09. Oct 2023 · 15:01 UTC
The concept is pretty cool! It reminds me "Dungeon keeper" (I guess it's the name of the game).
But the adventurers are pretty slow so you can spam space (i saw another comment saying the same x)).
I found another "bug", if you click on a button (to place a room or a monster) and you press space (before placing the room), you will press the button again and not attack (I suppose you've made the game on unity x))
But the game is cool and even cooler for you first Ludum !! Well done :D
Akulove
10. Oct 2023 · 20:23 UTC
Ahhhh damn, you made me remember that Tetris feeling when you're waiting for the right piece. Good job! Very interestingly implemented a lot of mechanics into one overall gameplay. Unlike @hierarch, I conversely forgot that I could attack with a necromancer on my own and thought I needed to run away and have my army defend me. And I loved it!

I wasn't too upset that the 'rotate' function, didn't quite rotate. But it was frustrating when the figures shown on the UI on click turned out to be just the wrong ones (inverted?). And could not even become the right one with Q and E.
Also missed win condition at first, and did not understand why I won, I want to fill the whole map with rooms! But now I already see about 30 mana.
Also a few runs there was a situation when my super huge horde stands in the initial square and can not spread because the units of the light side are spawning and dying around it. (but here I also realize that it's my own fault for doing the squares first and only then starting to spawn units).
![Screenshot from 2023-10-10 23-02-55.png](///raw/800/c5/z/60221.png)
Sorry about my 'Great Wall of Text'. But I really enjoyed the game and wanted to share my impressions. (:
Pierre-Marie
11. Oct 2023 · 21:28 UTC
The concept is interesting, I was putting my blocks down and summoning my monsters until I realized I could spam space to kill everyone next to me, which is a bit of a shame.
A cooldown for attacking would have been nice, as would a timer for comparing how long it took to finish creating the dungeon and killing enemies.
(Oh, and as a little bonus, I don't know if you can skip the tutorial, but if not, it might be nice to add).
It's a nice idea, though, and worth developing further.
MetaGen
12. Oct 2023 · 05:54 UTC
Interesting concept... But I cannot understand the cost filling mechanism.
Christian Witt Martin
12. Oct 2023 · 18:49 UTC
As a first game this was very well done! I feel like the core premise here is very strong, you were just hampered by time constraints. With more polish I think this game could be great.
digital bacon
13. Oct 2023 · 12:43 UTC
Nice game. Got pretty frantic at one point! Good mechanics, retro graphics, interesting idea. Good work!