Dwarven Dungeon Defense

markopolodev 2017-12-07 18:26

What's good: - The story and backdrop are nice. Definitely getting dwarf fortress vibes, especially from the destructible walls - rough idea is good, sort of a tower defense rpg combo where a dwarf underground fights monsters

What could be improved: - I think it would be less intimidating if there was more direction for the player - where to go / what to do first. Most of my playthroughs consist of me wandering around until a tower kills me. Am I supposed to wait for monsters to find me?

Also, please consider compressing your executable.

tolmera 2017-12-07 18:38

Yea the executable is large. I think Game maker has already compressed most of the audio which accounts for... well all of the size really (there's a lot of audio in there, probably close to an half hour at high quality). So I've tried compressing the games exec, and the source, but the difference was in the 2~3MB range.

@markopolodev anything speciffic you think I should write into the game page to give a better explanation? Obviously an outside pair of eyes can see what I as the developer cant see.

gassasin 2017-12-07 18:39

Nice litle game. You can add maybe little tutorial also enemy killed me befor i read instructions:D I like the mood in this game. Good work!:)

azuredraco 2017-12-07 18:39

After getting hang of it I managed to start to place a tower on the impending enemies. However I tried to press esc as instructed to end build mode but the game crashed for unknown reason?

gassasin 2017-12-07 18:45

Yup same for me Every time i hit esc game crashes.

markopolodev 2017-12-07 19:01

Well, usually it's better for players to learn as they play, rather than having to research things first. The in-game explanation is already very long, and I don't think people read text carefully anyways :P (says the guy who's about to drop a wall of text)

If you're planning to keep working on this game, I think a good first step would be a tutorial level. - Let players experience combat with one enemy or a few enemies without any worry about failure. Let people get the hang of right clicking and figure out how knockback works (something I never did). - Then move on to explaining how towers work - give the player enough gold to build one and walk them through it. Gives a way for a player to naturally conclude that they want a tower (player driven goals ftw). - Then move on to enemy towers. Show the player an enemy tower. explain why the player dies if they go near one. Explain how to avoid that. - Then explain the full format of the game, all the pieces together (there are enemy towers all around, destroy them all to win). This is where the game currently starts - it's very disorienting, definitely in the "anxiety" area of the [flow channel](http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/understanding-the-flow-channel-in-game-design-ghuttxg6) for me.

Giving me one piece of information at a time and letting me practice the skills I need individually would definitely have helped. It could be that I'm just bad and the game and don't get it, but I think there's always things you can do to widen the potential audience. Hope this is useful =\

tolmera 2017-12-07 19:59

@markopolodev - sounds like a youtube is in order :) Can't rewrite the game now since that would be outside the spirit of the jam/compo. But maybe next time. Thanks for the recomendations

tolmera 2017-12-07 20:06

For @gassain @azuredraco I've patched the Escape bug, can't believe I misnamed a variable :-/ I also fixed another bug that crashed the game when you killed a mob who's spawner you had also killed.... that one sucked.

andreas-ragen-ayal 2017-12-07 20:47

I think some sort of UI would come in handy, so that you can retry without having to reopen the file.

Also, I think you need to look into how you built your project and how you're distributing it. I think it would be easier for everyone concerned if we didn't need to install the game. Perhaps see if you can have some Web version of it on a hosting site: that way more people can have a look at it.

tolmera 2017-12-07 21:17

Yea Game Maker is not a good platform to build on for Ludum Dare. They lock you out of deploying for Web Browsers unless you pay in blood. Well, money, but they might take blood.

andreas-ragen-ayal 2017-12-07 21:21

Hmm. Good to know. Unity seems to be very popular. I know I use it, and so does almost everyone else. Perhaps you too should join the dark side. We have cookies! :D

iluvatar 2017-12-08 18:55

The atmosphere is incredible. Awesome music and gameplay :)

dokalfar 2017-12-08 19:55

Sadly took me a couple tries to even get the basics of my steps to perfom to not die instantly.

Biggest improvment: Restart-Button

Biggest plus: The mood :)

caroline-costa 2017-12-08 19:55

hard to understand Good pixel art and music!

gustavo-christino 2017-12-08 19:56

How do I replay the game? It's a bit hard to understand, but I liked the art (graphics and composition).

tolmera 2017-12-08 22:24

Sounds like the Art and Music are clearly this teams strong suit :) Thanks :)

And I've patched the game so you can hit "enter" to restart if you die. (see patch notes)

robinhoodpt 2017-12-09 19:00

Amazing music indeed, was a pleasure to listen to while playing the game! The sfx of breaking boxes(or smthing) was a bit too loud in my opinion. But beside that I really liked it. Maybe add a better feedback sound when hitting the enemy. For the mechanics itself it's rather confusing. I didn't got what the game was about for almost 10 minutes of playing. I was just randomly attacking block to break them, found a turret and died immediately. The monsters spawn too slow, it took almost two minutes to see my first monster in a playthrough. Fightning monsters and blocks could be done better by adding some kind of indicator that indicates how much health/hits are left to kill/break it. The game is ok with the theme, more monsters = worse. UI wise it could be done a bit better. Health bar above the player instead of below. Numbers of how much health a monster does, some kind of indicator that says I got damaged(For example when I was near the turret I didn't know I got damaged). Add some kind of main menu, make some kind of easy beginners that explains the game instead of a wall of text. If you're going with a wall of text, atleast make the letter bigger, and the background a bit darker.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the couple of minutes I played the game for, and I understand the hard work needed to create something like this!. :smiley: Our team also worked hard to create a game for the jam. You can check it out [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/jazzy-beats)! :whale:

2017-12-09 20:25

There something smooth on it, exactly the kind of feel I like. Also it is a game that takes more work to be done than most of the genres tried here. I also really enjoyed that you took time to put juice into it. Next: Screenshake. :D Good game, congrats.

tolmera 2017-12-09 20:44

So Juicy that is sticks ;) There's screen shake on Monster Levels 8 and 10, thought they were going to be an Ogre and a Dragon. I didn't have the time to do the Art :) Thanks for the feedback! :) (Kaitila)

nax-89 2017-12-09 21:20

I try to play it, sounds really amazing, and I like the dungeon generation, but I always end killed by an invisible enemy :/ How I patch the game?

tolmera 2017-12-10 16:51

@nax_89 try redownloading the game? Or maybe you're going too close to the spawners, they attack from a distance (I didn't have time to put the animation in)

shivur 2017-12-11 19:26

Interesting game. Reminded me of dwarf fortress.

deathray 2017-12-12 02:36

Any chance this can be made playable on the web?

tolmera 2017-12-12 15:24

@deathray - sorry but not with the Game Maker License that I have, if anyone else (with the appropriate license on Game Maker) can make this a Web Version for me??? Anyone? That would be "A" for Awesome!

2017-12-22 16:43

Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktW2lunXI_s