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A jam submission

65 Million Years AgoView game page

A prehistoric 7DRL set in the Cretaceous.
Submitted by ArcaneRoboBrain (@ArcaneRoboBrain) — 1 day, 5 hours before the deadline
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Play roguelike

65 Million Years Ago's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Completeness#14.0004.000
Roguelikeness#14.0004.000
Aesthethics#93.6673.667
Overall#123.3893.389
Scope#183.0003.000
Fun#213.0003.000
Innovation#502.6672.667

Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

  • Fun little game about surviving for a couple of nights as a time traveler to the Cretaceous period. Attractive graphics and smooth, playable interface. There is a nice day/night cycle which affects when your time machine and stun gun will recharge (they're both solar-powered). The various types of terrain don't have an effect that I could see other than blocking movement.

    My most successful strategy seems to be to hide in a corner overnight and let the dinosaurs drive each other extinct, then go around and collect their remains. The dinosaurs have emoticons that appear over them which I think communicates their mental state (angry, generally). They tend to get locked into battles to the death with each other. You can stun one dinosaur a day, roughly, and you can bludgeon some of them to death if they're stunned. Not a recommended strategy for T-rexes.

    I like that you can choose how ambitious to be in chasing a high score. It's not too difficult to finish the game if all you care about is staying alive, but the temptation is to try to get more dino-souvenirs to take back with you.

  • 65 Million Years Ago is a treasure hunt that takes place in the Cretaceous period. Naturally, that means dinosaurs are hunting you, but they're also hunting each other! The combat is, surprisingly, roguelike enough but fairly simple. I was shocked to find out that a handful of dinosaurs are weak enough to fight in melee combat. There's several delightful small touches here: the dinosaurs fighting each other, the collectible mosquitoes, the humorous intro text. The tiles are pleasantly consistent. The UI and controls are solid. If I have one complaint, it's that the lack of a hunger clock makes it too easy to sit in a corner and rest out the night time.

    This is a perfectly scoped game for 7DRL. Not too ambitious, but does its thing well. And it's a great theme of course.

  • Escape in the teleporter to win. I beat it (score = 1010).

    Completeness 4
    No bugs found.
    If a mosquito is on the same tile as a dinosaur only the mosquito is visible.

    Aesthetics 3
    Tiles are OK.
    Numpad or qweasdzxc to move.
    Space is used for both the stun gun and picking up loot, so when standing on loot you cannot use the stun gun.

    Fun 2
    The only helpful tactics I found were tedious to use.

    Innovation 2
    Enemies fight each other.
    Player is significantly weaker than most enemies.

    Scope 3
    A few different enemy types, a few different loot types.

    Roguelikeness 4
    Turn/grid based
    Random maps
    Permafailure

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Comments

Love the idea of dinosaurs! I included it in my 7DRL Challenge compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :)