Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD58 → Collector's Cove
By shamotte, zedgame, Liniux, igorekkedziorek, skyyqs and kenekkoo
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 780 | 2.36 | 21 | |
| Fun | 775 | 2.15 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 700 | 2.57 | 21 | |
| Theme | 765 | 2.52 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 682 | 2.63 | 21 | |
| Humor | 653 | 2.14 | 19 | |
| Mood | 769 | 2.08 | 20 |
I want to like this more because my first ever game jam years ago had a similar room setup with 4 doorways. However, I'm not sure what we're actually collecting, it just seems to be fighting and no idea what the recorder does or how to use it?
The game really lacks explanations about what each item does and what abilities it provides. I fired a couple of arrows, and then that was it. But the arrows didn't disappear from my inventory. So I just started attacking with my sword. I have no idea how it works or if I can switch weapons.
But I want to point out that the goblin is funny)
Cool style and artwork. The dungeons layout reminds me a bit of Binding of Isaac. However it was not really clear what I was supposed to do with all the items that I already had in the backpack or how to advance in the dungeon. I didn't find anything from the rooms either.
the idea is cool, to mix isaac and backpack battles, there is not enough training and sounds, the mobs are too small and merge with the environment
Cool idea, its prettyh hard to understand how the items work. Seems like one of those we did not have enough time to implement this cool stuff. I am sucker for creating my own builds and with some more time and a goal in the game this could be fun. Not sure which one does the red circle thing but i managed to get whole screen red sometimes by spam clikcing :D
I probably need a little tutorial, I felt my self dumb :D It's a bit confusing what we have all items from beginning, maybe it fit better, if we collected all that items from caves
Really interesting game. On the one hand I feel like this game would benefit a lot from a tutorial that slowly introduces the equipment and how to use each one, but on the other hand I did enjoy running around with no idea what to do and having to figure it out, experimenting with different builds and such.
One thing I would have liked is some kind of goal or objective to work towards
In general, I got the idea, and it's not bad, but the implementation is terrible. There are no sounds or tutorials, and many mechanics don't work
Everyone wants to get rich, even goblins. The idea is great but the gameplay it's not perfect, sometimes it's hard to understand the usage of some items
I really do like the premise, but I feel like the game-play doesn't work too well at present. There seems to be no progression exploring the rooms. From what I can tell, the only thing that happens is that you slowly loose health taking hits. The lack of something to pick up, or even just a kill counter, or an exit to get to in combination with rewarding us with unlimited loot to start makes it a bit unclear what the player is supposed to do.
If rooms had a little loot and you gain more after clearing the rooms it could be very interesting though. And adding a sense of direction, an end goal with roaming around other than death, then it could be have me playing for quite a while.
The graphics was neat though and the movement control felt good.
Playthrough with more feedback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjjCw0l60JQ
@local-minimum Thank you so much for the in-depth review! Admittedly, this wasn't one of our best jam submissions - the scope ended up being too big to fit into the timeframe, so we had to make major compromises and quickly throw together pieces of gameplay to produce something that's at least playable.
Originally, you were supposed to get loot from rooms, like a typical roguelike, and keepings things organised while arranged for optimal synergies was the general idea. Your backpack-attack idea sounds really fun too, though!
Some notes: - The backpack, as you probably figured, wasn't originally supposed to have infinite items :P And being able to rearrange items without clearing anything is something we wanted to add but ran out of time. - The rooms go on forever, randomly picking one when going through a new door, while they should probably have more thoughtful design. - The arrows when attached to a bow give you the ability to shoot - they should disappear after use (because they only work once), making you have to replenish them and manually "reload" your bow. Unfortunately, they stick around being useless and a little confusing. - The recorder is another type of weapon, and electricity, like batteries and phones, is what gives it charge.
Thanks again for giving the game a fair go regardless of the issues, much appreciated!
Just like someone else already pointed out, I would really like to enjoy this game but I am having a hard time understanding the mechanics. I understood you have to prepare your loadout (that should have been clearly mentioned inside the game and it would have helped if you were forced to do that before venturing into the rooms). But then it feels like you are roaming around those rooms, killing stuff and eventually dying. I don't see the progression or what I am actually collecting. I really believe the gameplay should have had more love :wink:
Pretty cool - I didn't get the arrow mechanic initially. I managed to blast whole rooms with the red mana circle though. Would be cool to see some puzzles / different enemies and load-outs.
Rotating the bows would be cool - It felt like they needed to face/fire outwards
Screenshot 2025-10-20 214905.png