Dungeon Crawlers by Skyeward

[raw]
made by Skyeward for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

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Hello, Collector.

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It's time to join the Dungeon Crawlers , but be warned, a clear head and a sharp wit alone will not see you through. ㅤ

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The creatures of the earth will be your friends and your foes. With your chosen critter by your side, you may delve the depths of the sod and emerge victorious. ㅤ

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As you descend your adversaries will become stronger and more cunning. Find treasures, meet allies, learn new techniques and encounter rare creatures. ㅤ

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The Final Test awaits your challenge on the fifth floor. ㅤ

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Good luck. ㅤ

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[Arrow keys] to move, [Space] to bring up your Overworld Menu, [Enter]/[Return] to Interact or confirm a choice, [Backspace] to back out of a menu.

Start by reading the book in your Overworld Menu!


At the 72 hour mark we still had a few game breaking bugs to sort out. We are still patching the game to make sure it is playable as intended, and have added/will add no new content beyond what went in at the deadline.

All of our content was streamed (as usual) and you can hold us to our word through our stream archive if you so desire!

When voting for us please consider the above, we effectively ran over, but we wanted this game to be a clean playing experience, so it felt worth it.

There are 2 builds on itch - the 72 hour submission build, and the patched build which was uploaded a day later. The patch fixes game breaking bugs, adds the sound that was missing from the initial build, and rebalances some very out there numbers.

Ratings

Overall 359th 3.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 655th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 602th 3.237⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 467th 3.778⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 415th 3.857⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 511th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 637th 2.861⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 653th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

j3m
09. Oct 2024 · 01:52 UTC
I want to rate this, but at least running it on Linux through Wine, it's broken... pressing enter to bring up any kind of menu or popup instantly also closes it, almost as if the game is looking for KeyDown rather than KeyPressed events? I really like the atmosphere and the look of it though
AlxJE
09. Oct 2024 · 02:39 UTC
Who is that pokemon?
It is THE ULTIMATE FIRE ANT!

Even though there are some bugs that affect the fundamental functions and game plays, the game still feels like well polished and fun, great job! Can't wait to play the final version!
🎤 Skyeward
09. Oct 2024 · 03:53 UTC
@j3m and @alxje - there is a fixed build up now if you'd like to have a look at it again. In the spirit of fairness we wanted to make sure our "pens down at 72 hours" build was accessible for everyone, but we needed to do a little bug fixing after the fact.

Feel free to rate us based on that original build, but the new one should ideally be a lot more fun!

Cheers
greymouth
10. Oct 2024 · 22:16 UTC
This looks really great and I love all the UI elements you did! A web build would make it more accessible since I can't play this (only voted on graphics). Congratulations!
CallumLarge
10. Oct 2024 · 22:30 UTC
That was super fun! Very impressive for a jam game, loved the combat system and all the UI. Got pretty far just leveling my starter ant a ton, but eventually ran out of health. Well done!
Cliff Coffee
10. Oct 2024 · 22:30 UTC
Very well put together, love the pokemon/rpg battle mechanics and the proceedural dungeon crawling was really cool touch. Visuals and sound totally on point. Running out of attack moves basically meant death since I couldn't run away, so once I ran out of attacks I was just stuck. This kept happening to me so I ultimately got frustrated and stopped playing - but would have kept going if not for this mechanic.
fabula_rasa
10. Oct 2024 · 22:41 UTC
The new build is indeed more fun :grin: It runs! Bug fixing to make the game playable is also allowed by the jam rules after the "pens down", so you're fine there. Adding sounds, however, not so much, so I can't in good conscience rate audio based on that new build. But the rest, I think, is fine.

The game is very ambitious, and the concept is super nice for this theme! The interactions between various bug powers are quite complex, but there is fun in getting used to them and learning. The jrpg-like battles feel very slow, especially that you have to repeatedly click through the same messages. Maybe it would be better to include this feedback in a console on the side (like in old-school infinity engine rpgs). The player could read that and find out what attack had what effect, but would not have to click through the same messages over and over again when she already knows those effects. That would also make the battles feel snappier.

Anyway, that's just my five cents :smile: Really tremendous job you did in a short jam time!
NuiN
11. Oct 2024 · 08:03 UTC
I had the same thing happen to me that happened to @cliff-coffee
Overall I had fun though, felt really polished and was fun finding new bugs :)
🎤 Skyeward
11. Oct 2024 · 13:59 UTC
@cliff-coffee @nuin glad you enjoyed it! The limited moves were part of our balance mechanic, you can't just grind it out like pokemon, every fight wants to feel a bit risk reward even if you're strong enough to win! There are ways to recover moves in the dungeon if you can find them, but it's definitely part of our roguelike structure that you sometimes want to minimize fights.

We probably could have communicated some of the strategies better earlier - it's the kind of thing you probably start to work out a couple of runs in, but obviously during LD people don't put that much time aside.
NuiN
11. Oct 2024 · 17:07 UTC
@skyeward Yeah I guess I was grinding it out like pokemon haha
Pachino55
11. Oct 2024 · 18:58 UTC
I’m gonna tell everyone about this game, it’s so cool!
MisterCarson
11. Oct 2024 · 19:13 UTC
I absolutely adore the visual style of this game. It's really goofy having these super realistic bugs with cartoony environments and characters. However the shader and bounciness of this game is awesome, I really like it. In terms of gameplay, I'm kinda terrible at pokemon style games so I didn't get too far, but I can appreciate the game for what it is and not knowing the type match ups (probably should have read the book) is refreshing. Overall this is a super cool jam game and super impressive for 72 hours.
qwertyuiop
13. Oct 2024 · 04:04 UTC
This game really stood out to me for its visuals and gameplay offered. Really excellent game. Well done!
someone
15. Oct 2024 · 00:11 UTC
I like the art style.
I thought I was doing OK but got wiped out by a confusion status effect.
The lack of restoration was frustrating, I never got very that far in my other runs.
ejmejm
15. Oct 2024 · 00:22 UTC
Loved the shader and overall graphics. Was very fun, but could use a little balancing. The slug was OP! I did have the problem of quickly running out of PP with no way to recover it (I imagine I just didn't find the right item).
Kuroshima
19. Oct 2024 · 13:35 UTC
Very cool concept and game itself felt smooth, good job!
_nill_.
19. Oct 2024 · 13:39 UTC
really good graphics and interesting mechanics. It was a pleasure to play. Good luck with your next jobs!
Jesse Martin
23. Oct 2024 · 01:15 UTC
Good graphics and art style, the game was a little tough though, never could last long enough to win against the first boss
toilari
23. Oct 2024 · 10:46 UTC
Very smooth jam game! Loved the squish animation at the end of the combat. Had fun playing, great job! <3
Sn4pi
23. Oct 2024 · 11:04 UTC
Insanely good game! I completely forgot the time and started playing it for 2 hours now.

The start was a bit rough at first but after a few restarts I got the hang of it and managed to beat three whole floors. The animations and sound design is great, the overall gameplay is incredibly good and it combines pokémon with roguelike dungeon crawler elements.

Really, really good stuff, you can be proud of this game!