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Dragon Express
Dragon Express
By raptor851 and neeki
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 1076 | 3.00 | 37 | |
| Fun | 1072 | 2.80 | 37 | |
| Innovation | 826 | 3.07 | 37 | |
| Theme | 1092 | 3.12 | 37 | |
| Graphics | 882 | 3.17 | 39 | |
| Humor | 695 | 2.90 | 34 | |
| Mood | 986 | 3.01 | 35 | |
Comments
antsa
2023-05-01 20:42
In case someone else also gets the error `./LD53: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2_mixer-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory` or something similar when launching the game, you can fix it with the following command ```sh ln -sr ./libSDL2_mixer.so libSDL2_mixer-2.0.so.0 ``` Then run the game with ```sh LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./LD53 ``` If the error is about the libSDL2_image library, replace libSDL2_mixer.so files with according names in the command above
As for the game, I didn't quite understand how to play it or how to progress in it. I managed to beat some enemies by throwing random items at them and it seemed to work with some logic after enough trial and error :thinking:. Definitely has that Undertale feel to it with Zelda graphics if I had to make some comparisons :D
The movement in the game was quite sticky feeling. Its almost as if the game gets its "repeat movements" in the same way as text editors start repeating keys after you hold them down. You might want to keep track of key down and up events separate from the movement and then do the movement in your update loop outside of the input polling code. I can't really say if this would fix the issue though since I can't see the source code.
@antsa oh jeeze, I apologize for that, I was dead tired when I uploaded, worst part is I have an automated script I wrote to do all the dependency packing for me and I didn't even use it...The input issue was a bug I introduced last second and didn't notice until you posted this, you're mostly correct, I use mixed input which is async but also key up/down events for other discrete input and to track initial keypresses, the problem was actually just when I swapped to release part of my code was accidentally inside an #ifndef ndebug block that I'd put a bunch of my debug controls inside initially then promptly forgot about since the debug build worked....I removed the preprocessor blocks stripping it from release so input should work correctly now, though as a side effect there's also now a few hidden test keys to alter the game.
I will be honest, I kinda had no idea what I should be doing in the game. I went outside of the starting house and wandered around, but the fight would start sooo frequently, that it was hard to explore and move freely. When winning the fight, it would close very fast and there wasn't not much time to read the fight panel's text and understand what just happend. The game also segfaulted for me, when trying to cross the bridge to the north of the starting castle and while entering the Inn.
I also found it confusing, need to improve the collisions. The art of the bridge was very different from the others. I believe that the purpose of the game is to capture a monster and put to fight with others, but I did not achieve this. The ideal would be to force a first battle where the player uses the item and captures the first monster.
Love the idea but definitely needs a fair amount of polish. The idea of finding out what item to use to escape each enemy is neat as well as the focus on survival more than attacking. However, once I'd figured out what works (and noticed that my items didn't get used up when used,) it did feel like a bit of a slog to walk around. I feel like lowering the time between encounters but maybe increasing the amount of damage that enemies do would make it more fun. Having fewer encounters but making each one feel more perilous feels like a better way to go. Especially because it seems like you want a game where forward-thinking and planning what items to buy in each town is important. The artwork and feel of the game in general was very nice. Nice work! I'd be interested to see where this goes in the future!
Hi I'm trying to get it running on Linux and am getting a new error:
```bash LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./DragonExpress ./DragonExpress: error while loading shared libraries: libtiff.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory ```
zubspace
2023-05-04 20:05
I enjoyed my short run. Visited another city, bought some items and wandered into the unknown, fighting goblins and slime monsters. I like the map and the feeling of being a small part of a larger world with no clear direction. Feels very roguelike. The battles are a bit random for my taste. Maybe there's a deeper logic behind them, but I didn't get it. I came to a swamp which made a strange sound and died soon after, with no clear indication why.
Overall good job. I think what's missing is some kind of smoother introduction. Like a simple quest and fighting a few easy monsters with a 1 or 2 items before going all in.
This game has a lot of potential, with unique mechanics and a great atmosphere. The idea of survival and planning ahead with items is really interesting, and the artwork adds to the overall experience. While the battles might feel a bit random at times, the feeling of being a small part of a larger world with no clear direction adds to the overall charm of the game. With some polish and refinement, this game could be a great addition to the roguelike genre.
I got a crash when leaving the all-forest town, which was shame because I was having a good time! Definitely achieved the feel of DQ-style exploration (exploring in progressively more-difficult biomes). I was surprised that the items weren't consumed when used; once I had the right item to defeat a particular enemy, that enemy becomes trivial to defeat. Definitely liked the feel of needing to find the right items to traverse each terrain type, and feeling the map unlock for me. Likewise, the encounter rate felt pretty high; I ended up doing a lot of "grinding" just as I traveled (which feels worse than in DQ because I'm not gaining XP from the fights, so they feel like a waste of time). Would happily play more games like this!
@james-laird weirdly i never even noticed until now! I looked in the source to confirm and.... I'm not even looking at the right memory location for the items, they're not just not being consumed, apparently they'd work even if you didn't have them! :face_palm: Since I was testing playing it "as intended" I never even though to try to use items I didn't have.
Just think of it as easy mode for LD to make it more beatable, lol
Originally the encounters were going to be more Z2 style (so you could literally dodge them) which is why the movement is pixel perfect and not tile based, had to roll back to more DQ1 style last minute to get the game posted. I thought the rate was reasonably low but then again I play a lot of JRPGs with absurdly high rates so they've probably just broken my perception of such. The idea was more since you gain gold by running away to balance item use and running to conserve resources, with some creatures having a high chance to simply leave if you pay them outright or talk to them. If you've ever watched a speedrun of dragon quest, basically to use speedrun tactics, where you avoid fighting and just rely on running to progress, hopefully not getting stuck on a red dragon or armor knight, which is also kinda why i have an ingame timer in the menu.
As for the forest crash, that's a shame,I'm glad you enjoyed it up to that point though! I have no idea what could have happened, the others were obvious, as bridges and towns originally didn't have a battlefield designation so if you got in a random over a bridge or the frame before you entered town it wouldn't know what battle to load, but all other tiles did (plus that was fixed), and i clamped NPC's inside the town bounds as well as the other crash was because they were wandering too far outside the map and underflowing their positions....
never using libtmx for maps again..., used it to save time and ended up spending 3x as long fixing bugs caused by how the format works, half of the crashes have been because for time sake I had to make assumptions on how different pieces of map data relates to load properties...usually when I use tilemaps on LD i just use static binary map formats for simplicity.
I can't believe this is a game. There's so much going on here! the menus, the levels, the desert, swamp, bridge art, crazy sound effects, npc's running around. It's so crazy to think that all this was made during the jam. great stuff! :D I prefer fighting jrpg's and encounters/exploration is always a delicate balance. what do i know? xD
graham-m
2023-05-07 07:27
Fun game and very interesting idea. I noticed that if you win a encounter you can keep spamming the interact button to get infinite gold and because the itmes dont get used up I ened up with a load of gold.
Nice take on the Undertale fight system, but I think the fight UI was a bit to similar to the original. I would have chosen other colors or font to make it more of your own.
@codeforjoycaro between people commenting on this reminding them of undertale/zelda reminds me of how much younger much of the LD crowd must be than me O_x. Everything here is pretty much a direct parody of Dragon Quest 1 (which predates Undertale by 29 years), including the battle system (though granted undertale also based their system around DQ and Final Fantasy), just with the commands swapped to only ones for escaping. (since you're a package delivery boy, not a warrior)
gatlink
2023-05-07 12:56
I never understood where I was supposed to go and got scolded by the first NPC when I tried to ask again :(
Really interesting game, would make for a great rpg if fully developed :D Wasn't really a fan of the combat, although it's more of a personal preference. The map was fun to explore and the NPCs were well made. The music was fun to listen to, although would have been great to have an in game audio control option as I couldn't hear the music well even at 100% volume. Combat music was at an appropriate level. Overall good game besides my personal tases, good job :D
nastasya
2023-05-08 07:20
WOW, for the fist tike looks like a some part of the cartoon. Fun game and very interesting idea, really. Good job!
Not bad! Seems very ambitious for a game jam, seems like it had a lot of systems. I didn't really get a chance to play it properly because the controls and mechanics were confusing to me. Perhaps something with a little bit LESS systems next time! :D
There's a lot going on here which is a good thing. I liked the idea of different items helping against different enemies, but like you say above I could use them even if I didn't have them. The encounter rate seemed a little high for me. I liked the graphics, they fitted the game well. Great entry.
Good stuff :8ball:
paulsams
2023-05-14 10:01
It is clear that a lot of everything was mixed... But I didn't really feel the point in this, to be honest). Well, that is, it didn't give the game integrity or anything else, but okay. Namely, my comments on the game will be similar to what was already wrote in the comments above. Also, my game crashed when trying to talk to an NPC, huh.
brigart
2023-05-15 22:15
Nice art
shuimen
2023-05-16 14:09
Haha Interesting game! Special idea to basic rpg battle. I like it!
The main character and similar assets look wonderful! The music was chill too. It took me a little to work out all of the controls, the status/inventory menu was a nice touch! I really like the goblin on the thumbnail!