FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Dungeon Faller

Dungeon Faller

By southpawdevelopment

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4353.4725
Fun4513.3225
Innovation3923.3225
Theme3373.7625
Graphics3653.5625
Audio1343.7625
Humor1953.2123
Mood3093.4723

Comments

deepinthewoods 2021-04-27 02:41

How do you air dash? No keys do anything once I'm falling and I just end up stuck on the edge of the map...

southpawdevelopment 2021-04-27 03:56

@deepinthewoods once falling, hold down space and then press [A] [D] or [W]. I wrote it in the shop but I didn’t make it very clear.

You have to purchase an air dash upgrade first, 500 gold

justinmullin 2021-04-27 19:20

Hey @southpawdevelopment, I really wanted to try your game, but after ten attempts to make it to the shop as you've described, I was unable to get there. Each time my character gets stuck at the left or right edge of the map, caught up against a block, and without any ability to air dash it seems there's no way to avoid this other than sheer luck.

If you're not aware, the LD rules allow for post-compo bugfixes if the game is effectively unplayable in its submitted state, so if this is something you're able to fix without adjusting any other features, I'd encourage you to do so!

The rules exception properly quoted: > Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log). You probably wont get a 2nd chance with some players, but at least it wont be a problem for future players.

solweak 2021-04-27 19:42

Like someone mentionned I tried around ten times too and keep stucking myself in walls. If you used procedural generations maybe you could just limit the spawn of the weels in a way that the player can always go between one and the walls, and by adding some weels randomly with their center on the wall the player will not get stuck falling indefinitely.

Mention me if you update your game. Good luck !

cinderblade 2021-04-27 19:46

I made it to 550meters, pretty nice game. I also got stuck a few times and had to restart, but overall game was nice and fun!

southpawdevelopment 2021-04-27 20:11

@solweak @justinmullin thanks for the feedback, yes, getting stuck at the edges of the map is perhaps the biggest bug I’ve encountered yet, the map is procedural and if I make the gap large enough between the obstacles and the wall, a player could fall forever if they hit an object just right, also breaking the game. With this said, I’ll implement an un-stick feature later today and tag you in a comment when I have. Thanks again!

southpawdevelopment 2021-04-27 21:55

@solweak @justinmullin you should no longer get stuck, and if you do, a button will show up to unstick you

justinmullin 2021-04-27 22:41

Yes, that worked! I was able to get past the first attempt now. Incidentally it seems after completing one run by dying, the bumpers and walls started launching me rather than just kinda bumping me a bit, and I never got stuck again after another 10 or so longer runs.

So, this is a super creative idea! I am not the expert on this, but I'm pretty sure this is the only Plinko dungeon crawler in existence! The gameplay loop of purchasing items for future runs worked really well, and kept me playing for a bit. Having an air dash really improves the feel of the game; even with only one dash it lends a sense of agency and I felt a lot more interested in what was happening when I felt like I could maybe do something about it.

I think with some more items and maybe some extra crunchy polish (some particles and a nice money sound when getting gold would go really far!) this could be something I'd sink a bit of time into as a full release, which is cool and something that doesn't come out in every LD submission. Nice work!

jason-wilson 2021-04-28 01:08

I actually had quite a bit of fun with this. I could see this being an interesting mobile title for on the go. The art was solid and so were the sfx and music. I think the only thing that could be improved is giving the player a tiny bit opportunities to interact.

My daughter played this game as well and really enjoyed it.

I'd suggest starting with an air dash to give a bit more interaction in the very beginning. It was a lot more fun when you could do something on your way down.

Great work.

southpawdevelopment 2021-04-28 04:04

thanks @jason-wilson and @justinmullin for your feedback, I certainly plan on working on this game more. Glad to hear your enjoying it. Not to shill to hard, but I do plan on uploading devlogs to my YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyXKzH1j7bWAMk1LTyFltyA. Check it out if you want to stay updated on my progress, and thanks again!

nocymer 2021-04-29 01:15

cool game, love the pixel art you did there, well done!

vederant 2021-04-29 01:21

Great project! Really addictive and I could see myself playing more of it in the future if there was more to do!

jose-bonilla 2021-05-02 04:46

Hi thanks for your game. It's nice. I really wish it was a little bit more rewarding at the start, either I had bad luck or I didn't really see much reward from the first runs. I like the idea, but I think you need to keep polishing it. Congrats for submitting to compo, though!

jose-bonilla 2021-05-02 04:46

Hi thanks for your game. It's nice. I really wish it was a little bit more rewarding at the start, either I had bad luck or I didn't really see much reward from the first runs. I like the idea, but I think you need to keep polishing it. Congrats for submitting to compo, though!

tigerj 2021-05-02 17:25

I had a good time giving this many plays. The first play I stuck to the wall a lot, but after that I bounced off pretty regularly and had a bit of fun trying to dash. Congratulations on your first game + game jam!

room606 2021-05-03 19:14

Very fun idea of core mechanics, but maybe it needs some more tweaks to add the player more controls of his fall: - maybe some ability to shake the screen at some critical points or (limited attempts - 2-3 for starting) - the knight could jump limited times on gears/barrels.

Also, does the decreasing health bar really affect gameplay somehow? The knight anyway reaches the floor eventually and gathers coin chests even after hp bar reached 0 level.

southpawdevelopment 2021-05-03 19:36

@room606 thanks for the feedback, and yes, the knight ONLY reaches the floor once the health bar hits zero.

impiaaa 2021-05-07 04:53

Cute! The music, art, and writing all really help to create a fun and lighthearted mood. I found it really frustrating that I wasn't able to control the character at all—even after sitting through a few rounds to get enough gold to get an airdash, I couldn't figure out how to use it. I appreciate how the level ends naturally after you reach 0 health.

diregamesofficial 2021-05-07 05:02

very cool game! spent a hot half hour playing it and i didn't expect it to be this good. I do recommend adding a bit more animation to the player when doing the initial walk when you start the game and also splitting up your shop text so its more readable.

southpawdevelopment 2021-05-07 06:12

@diregamesofficial @impiaaa thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it! Impiaaa once you’ve purchased the air dash, once you are falling you need to hold down the space bar, then hit W, A, or D to go Up, Left, or Right, respectively

impiaaa 2021-05-07 14:27

@southpawdevelopment Yes, I know, I tried that, and it didn't do anything

southpawdevelopment 2021-05-07 14:31

@impiaaa oh, weird, your the first person I’ve ever had report that bug. Thanks!

guitarbro 2021-05-13 00:08

Dig the music and the idea of expanding upon the plinko concept. The upgrades were a nice touch though the text overlapped (on my 1920x1080 monitor). I'd recommend having the obstacles spawn on a staggered (hexagon) grid instead of completely random to ensure there's enough space to avoid getting stuck (since that happened to me several times, I appreciate the button to free yourself though).

johnnysix 2021-05-13 00:26

If you do take this forwards for a mobile game or something, definitely work on spacing of the blocks, or have some 'bounce' like in a pinball machine. It stops the fun when the little guy gets jammed up against a wall.

webox 2021-05-13 02:02

So this is basically an RPG meets Pachinko machine?? hah Nice concept!! A few things that could improve the game overall:

- Having a slight bit of control when using A and D to move the night slightly and try to decide it's fate a bit better - Make the knight a bit more bouncy - Make the walls bouncy or move the blocks that spawn to close to the walls a bit closer to the center so the character doesn't end up sticking to the wall Great job!! it's a neat idea, you should def expand it!!

666savior 2021-05-16 19:42

I had a lot of fun with this game. I had a weird bug where the first time through my guy wasn't bouncy, he just kinda stopped whenever he hit something. After the first run all was well though. Fun little game.