Gold by Alexey Akulovich

[raw]
made by Alexey Akulovich for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

This is the adventure of one gold seeker, who wandered into the wrong cave. Or to the right one, who knows? You can’t leave empty-handed, and you need to take at least one gold piece with you. Or you can take everything out of the cave clean. If only dark corners and residents wouldn’t interfere. Fill your backpack with gold, take it to the chest, and decide for yourself when to stop.

This is a turn-based game, but you can learn to run faster than your enemies ;-)

Your allies are a limited backpack and limited visibility.

Surrounded by enemies: surrounded

Minigame HowTo: mini game

Controls: - Arrow keys to move - Space for mini-game - Enter at the end of the game

Ratings

Overall 307th 3.065⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 297th 2.978⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 263th 3.109⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 278th 3.217⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 262th 3.152⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 177th 3.205⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 242th 2.167⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 156th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

quasilyte
02. Oct 2023 · 17:37 UTC
The QTE-style mini game to evade the attack is such an unexpected gem for a jam game.
I rarely see people combine the mechanics in the jam prototype.
It's usually very focused in one direction.
For example, if it's a maze hide-and-seek, there will be movement, some monsters and maybe movement/vision related mechanics. But here, instead of just dying from the monster, you can save yourself.
I was pretty bad at that mini game though: I can pass the simplest monsters, but those ghost-like creatures get me 80% of time.
Overall, I really like it.

To improve the game further, I would suggest having different movement patterns for the monsters. Starting from the way they're advancing (in a straight line, zig-zag, etc.) and the movement speed they could have. Since this is a turn-based game, the movement speed can be implemented in two ways:

1. A monster can make a step once per N turns (speed=1 is the fastest, speed=2 makes them move once per two turns, something like speed=1.5 may make them toggle between 1 and 2 turns per step which could be also fun).
2. Instead of just jumping to the destination cell, they may stuck in the transition. With speed=2 they would traverse half of the distance towards the next cell.

If you like this kind of a review, please rate my game too. The feedback is important for all of us. :)
Mocadium
03. Oct 2023 · 08:34 UTC
I love the darkness you have created, I felt super stressed wandering around which is exactly what you want to be feeling in a cave game! I love how you don't just die when finding a monster and have a chance to fight, but also LOVE that you just stop whenever you are happy, which is ideal for a jam game when everyone wants to play many games!
tmpxyz
03. Oct 2023 · 08:37 UTC
QTE part is a well twitch for this turn-based game, I feel it would be better if you could gradually raise the diffculty for QTE in a run before returning to chest, to force players to plan his route beforehand.
BrokenBridge
03. Oct 2023 · 08:45 UTC
It's quite an atmospheric cave exploring game. I liked the dodge mechanic for the monsters and bringing back your gold was also quite satisfying. The music was simple but not annoying. Good job!
kenevil1
03. Oct 2023 · 15:57 UTC
The dodging mechanic was a super good idea, I don't think I've ever seen that before in a game besides the reload mechanic from gears of war. But turning that into an actual dodging mechanic makes so much sense, can do so much with it.
🎤 Alexey Akulovich
03. Oct 2023 · 16:49 UTC
For now the best score is 97 collected coins for 341 second :)
Plepletier
04. Oct 2023 · 00:29 UTC
The QTE mechanic is pretty good, and I really enjoy it, but I think it would be more challenging if the button prompts moved a bit, and in the case of harder enemies, moved faster. Good game!
Nick Rafalski
04. Oct 2023 · 02:44 UTC
I really liked the quick time event, and the implementation of the theme. Definitely made exploring feeling more risk/reward since you wouldn't want to get to a new area with a nearly full backpack, but going back meant dealing with all those mobs you just fought through. My only criticism is the fog-of-war mechanic (specifically the tiles you've already seen going back to all-black) was kinda jarring. It seems like they should remain grayed out so you could still infer the shape of the room, but not necessarily see the mobs' movement. But overall, a great game!
LittleBear
04. Oct 2023 · 08:39 UTC
This was fun, the enemies start limiting you in the direction you want to go, I don't mind the ghosts but the skellies keep following me! The music and art was good and the mini game to dodge monsters was cool! Thanks for makin' this. :D
uselesswasteofhumanflesh
04. Oct 2023 · 09:48 UTC
I really love how you have the game a realistic look. Not being able to see, because its dark. The game is fun!
asfdfdfd
04. Oct 2023 · 14:24 UTC
I want to kill those damn zombies, a-ha-haaaa.
mango-malarkey
04. Oct 2023 · 19:31 UTC
Well done on implementing the vision system and the map. The game idea on collecting gold felt a bit flat, but overall it is a promising foundation that you could build on. Well done on completing it in 48 hours. I like the music as well!
Defrag
06. Oct 2023 · 02:33 UTC
Good work on implementing the fog-of-war mechanic. I liked the mood created by the tile-by-tile, limited knowledge (and memory) exploration. However, I didn't understand the differences between the enemies, other than the visuals being different. Oh, I liked the subtle animation of the black shadow guys. Nice work!
LDJam user 297867
06. Oct 2023 · 07:53 UTC
Exploration was fun, but I wish there was a way to kill the enemies
smiley405
07. Oct 2023 · 20:23 UTC
I like the game concept and the battle system while exploring. e.g when pressing space key, you have to be really accurate to get the hit. Which makes the player more engaging. I noticed there is a slight lag when u encounter a new object/entities while pressing the movement key but not a big deal. Liked the game.
LeviDSmith
07. Oct 2023 · 22:02 UTC
Nice game. First time I played everything was completely dark and it reminded me of the old Dragon Warrior dungeons. Then I played again and I could see around the player.
Flightless
18. Oct 2023 · 21:05 UTC
Nice one! It was easy to get greedy after many successful fights - it was my demise :smile: