FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD11 → Simple Dungeon

Simple Dungeon

By sfernald

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Theme174.1118
Overall293.1118
Fun332.9418
Innovation602.2218
Humor302.577
Polish382.8217
Graphics582.1414
Journal283.0715
Technical522.3116
Audio1

Comments

phren

Really like the fact that actions are contextual, you only have to know the arrow keys. Really nice descriptions on the tiles, too (I could almost imagine the paths I was walking on!). Thought the monsters had a bit too much HP, making the battles a bit tedious. Gave a low score in graphics not because the graphics were simple (duh, minimalist) but because they didn't necessarily do their job. Had trouble finding the way through the wall for instance because w is surprisingly similar to W.

HybridMind

I was fighting the queen with almost 10k defense points, and 6500 offense points (thanks to a certain goodie I found) and I only got a few hits in and the game went to desktop!? I was a bit bummed at that as I had just spent all those keystrokes healing throughout this game. Sorta like playing one of those track and field games.. heh. Anyway, one of the most complete games this competition. I had a good time fighting my way along and just when you've struggled for a long while healing on those little questions, you find a magical goodie that really makes you a lot more badass so that was well timed! I did think the the letters were spread out a bit too much for my own preference on these types of games. Also, the wack crash at the final battle was a big let down.. I was watching my Defensive points because I know you said that when you die, it goes to desktop but I was WAY above 0 :) Oh well- nice game for 12 hrs or so..!

LoneStranger

Though it grabbed my screen and wouldn't let go after about twenty minutes, I did have a fun time exploring and killing monsters in Simple Dungeon. It reminds me of Hack and it's derivitave games. Like any RPG, once you get the routine down, it's not too difficult. Then again, I didn't make it to the end to judge that final enemy's strength. As far as minimalism goes, it's got it. Controls are very easy to understand and has the two basic RPG stats; attack and health. Completing the competition with a game that truly is done is definitely a huge win in itself, no matter what the final ratings are. Like phren, I noticed the difficulty in distinguishing between W and w, though I thought it was actually a plus to the game. A lot of RPGs are about exploration, and discovering 'hidden' passages is part of that exploration. Battle was a bit tedious, but there was a strategic element to fighting without getting overwhelmed by other enemies at the same time.

thedaian

Not a bad game, just tedious. The battles really took too long, and wandering around trying to find a passage through the wall wasn't any help. I tried to 'cheat' by going back and forth to heal, but I barely got past the mummies. There is a lot of content here, and it's a good game.

sol_hsa

Yay, roguelike. Crashed when the blobs were about to kill me.

SethR

Hrm, crashes on startup for me. (vista)

pekuja

Nice game. The first time I played it I got stuck though, and the second time it crashed. I haven't played all the way through actually, but I think I will. I was a bit disappointed to find out the map wasn't random generated. Fighting is also too slow.

dgriff

After the tenth engulfer I was like 'screw it, I'm attacking moving through them.' I didn't make it, and neither did my computer (bad crash). Balancing and different healing method (rather than requiring me to write a short sendkeys script) would have made the game more fun.

keeyai

Cool game, but I quit midway through because of how tedious the healing is. I did get a nice rhythm down with my arrow keys, but still, enough is enough. I think with a boost to the healing speed (or take healing out and rebalance) it would be really awesome.

mjau

I really enjoyed this for a little while. Exploring the world was fun, and the descriptions of things added to the atmosphere (the descriptions *could* have used some variation though, but eh, minimalism). Then I met the mummies.

I'd already explored everything prior and taken what I discovered (a sword, and some potions I should probably have saved for later since they didn't seem to do much..), and a bunch of mummies ended up blocking the path forward, the only place I hadn't been. So, since I got really low on health and power or whatever it was by fighting those mummies (at first I thought the 'o' was health btw, then I saw that the 'd' only decreased when mummies hit), there was nothing to do but going back and forth to try to gain some health, which was just tedious. Then it crashed when I'd managed to fight off all but one last mummy =/

The "graphics" was a bit too sparse for my taste. The letters could have been closer together, I mean.

drZool

Crashed when I died

sgstair

Crashes on startup for me (XP x64)
... But I'm running it on a laptop (XP 32bit) and it seems to be fine.
I would really appreciate a "rest" button, some way to wait until all your points return or you get hit by a monster; as it is, I got sick of mashing the arrow keys to recover points and gave up on getting to the princess (stupid gargoyles..)
Overall, nice entry - I would have had a lot more fun if recovering points wasn't so tedious.

jolle

Was fairly fun up till it crashed, which happened in first battle after getting a sword.

Hamumu

I think everybody reporting a crash just died... I think I died fighting the Undead Queen (final boss?). I was just rushing because I saw how little my O dropped, and she was probably dropping my D a lot more than I expected. I put up with it a lot longer than I should have... the healing was absolutely murder. I figured out that the ? were good for that, and I'd rumble on them for hours recovering full O and D before each fight, but dealing with Engulfers (and to a lesser extent those incredibly vicious gargoyles) was just a massive strain on my fingers and my boredom.

Two things would've saved this and made it really fun for me: autorepeat keys, and (if that was in) holding down spacebar to stay on the space you're on (healing up rapidly without finger twiddling). There wasn't really any danger once you knew how doors and ?s worked, but the threat to your fingers could not be ignored. Definitely, monsters with a lot less life would've been nice.

jlnr

Hmm, might be because it ran inside a virtualized Windows, but it crashed when I was somewhere at the very bottom of the map :( I wished I could read messages from two moves ago or so. I often hit a button once too often to actually read what I just picked up. Nevertheless, making a Roguelike was a good choice for the theme.

DrPetter

Kind of exciting, and surprisingly immersive. There was a clear sense of accomplishment and development as you went from being all "what the hell are those characters" to becoming relatively familiar with the initial surroundings. I eventually managed to get "inside" and fight some goblins, but once I attempted a sneaky move to get past one and grab a potion, two flanked me and held me up against a wall while beating down on me. For some reason the game crashed just as I was about to be completely drained, so I'll just take that as divine intervention and get on with the other games :)

philhassey

The application failed to initialize properly ... XP Pro here.

negativegeforce

feels like a text game + some graphics. wish i had time to go through the game completely.