Dungeon Crawler Jam 2024

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A jam submission

Ancient DungeonView game page

Submitted by Soul Grinder (@TheSoulGrinder) — 1 hour, 48 minutes before the deadline

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Ancient Dungeon's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Overall fun and playability	#57	3.059	3.059

Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme incorporation
Cast into Solitude an ancient labyrinth underneath the Ancient Ruins of a Sumerian city, where worlds and realities across the Infinity of The Endless Universe bleed into each other into one dungeon where Cosmic Horrors stalk their prey within.

This is my attempt to try and use all four themes for the jam into one game. Here are some mechanics I’ve added to include the themes:
Infinity/The Endless: Level transitions through a space portal to each level and a corridor loop puzzle to create endless/infinity mechanics.
Ancient Ruins: The dungeon is an ancient structure built underneath an ancient city ruin.
Solitude: Guide a solo dungeoneer through the labyrinth of traps and puzzles.
Cosmic Horror: The dungeon is stretched across the cosmos and inhabited by other-worldly monsters that can’t be killed but will kill you if they get close enough.

This game consists of 3 levels, each with their theme and puzzles.

Temple Dungeon - Pressure Plate/Turrets and Locked Doors
Cosmic Dungeon - Infinity/Endless Puzzle
Underworld Dungeon - Torchlight Mechanic, Darkness Monsters

Touch Screen or Mouse Controls: Tap Screen to use action (Switches, Key Doors, Demon Heads to Light Torch) and Press the on screen Arrows to Turn or move forward.

Keyboard Controls: Press W to move forward and A or D to turn Left or Right.

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Comments

CryptRatSubmitted244 days ago(+1)

"Emerald Collected : 26

Game completed

Score : 24520000"

I highly enjoyed the game. It controls well, the different levels are different enough and the environments are quite interactive in the context, they're plenty of traps and hidden doors. The infinity passage is quite good, the crates being the exact right hints to me. The difficulty is right on point and the design of the different enemies (the robot, the big head guy but I think also the demon although I only briefly saw it once) is cool. Increasing volume as things happen closer to you was very appreciated here. Music is nice.

I guess this game could benefit from strafing as you're fighting against the environment in real-time.

This is a very fun entry, thanks for sharing.

Submitted

To death and beyond

Soul GrinderDeveloper243 days ago

Thanks for the nice feedback and nice score and congrats for completing the game! Really glad you enjoyed it and seen it through to the end. I might update with strafing after the voting, I took out the strafing because I thought it made dodging traps and monsters too easy and I wanted to have minimal controls on screen but I think your right, this type of game probably needs strafing and maybe moving backwards too.

Captain CoderSubmitted246 days ago(+1)

One of my favorite entries! I wish there was a continue option (maybe there was and I missed it). Although I did solve the infinite hallway puzzle, I didn’t quite understand exactly how I did it.

You can watch my play through here:https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2115206073?t=01h05m30s

Submitted

Cosmic Encounter

Soul GrinderDeveloper246 days ago

Thanks for playing and the video playthrough was very entertaining. It's always great to seeing people playing my games and their experiences. I really have to change that infinity puzzle to have more visual clues and be less punishing to play. You seemed to get the gist of it by counting the grates 1 to 5 to show progress of getting through it. The punishing thing I'll probably change is that instead of falling back to start from 1 mistake, maybe just going back 1 grate instead. There is also multiple secret rooms per level, some with extra lives. You almost walked right into one a couple of times. I like the idea of a continue option for another way to be less punishing, thanks for the feedbacks.

wolfheatSubmitted248 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

Really tried to complete this but failed in the end anyway. Got to the last part but the view is so short and reaction time isn't what it should be. Really thought I had it.

I hope players get passed the infinite, it is a hard puzzle which takes some time to solve but it is worth it on the other side. The jumpscares... That doll guy.

Movement is good, but could be even smoother for even better control. Some hits were because of this. The game needs player to be fast so inputs should be queued or executed without interrupts.

Puzzles are nice throughout the game.

The robot that haunts the grid thing has too high volume.

Having to restart from the beginning might push people off since there is long way back passed the infinite room puzzle.

Anyway I enjoyed this game really much and would like to see more!

Great Job!

Submitted

Dungeon of Dreams

Soul GrinderDeveloper247 days ago(+1)

Thanks for the detailed and positive feedback and for giving it a fair go. The infinite puzzle is one I wish I'd of made easier, but the people that completed the puzzle enjoyed it. Yes the doll guy is a bit quicker but also can be more of a jump scare because of how the darkness creeps in on his level. Happy you enjoyed the puzzle, and yes the robot sound effects are too loud close up, they are quieter at a distance but I agree I should of lowered the overall volume of his photon shots. After voting phase has ended I'll most likely do an update on Ancient Dungeon because there was quite a bit I wanted to improve using some interesting ideas from the feedback I've had from people and also a water puzzle themed level I wanted to add.

apolySubmitted249 days ago(+1)

I liked your puzzles and secret rooms. Sometimes gameplay is quite intensive, especially when on the second level I’ve lured robot to the infinity section by a mistake and regretted it later on. I loved how you have three drastically different themes of the dungeons it adds a lot to the overall experience.

Inability to move back caught me off-guard, I would love to backpedal to quickly fix a mistake of taking a wrong turn. Vertical layout was surprising, but interestingly usable.

I would call it a trap puzzle dungeon crawler. A very solid entry, great job!

Submitted

Realms&RuinsSubmitted252 days ago

This is a cool little crawler. Mechanics are solid, the dungeons felt good with some traps. I couldn't figure out the infinity maze I felt like I was just going back and forth and eventually came back out but I got a couple gems, so maybe that was the purpose. Good work!

Submitted

Escaping the Cosmic Abyss

JajoSubmitted252 days ago(+1)

Really liked your use of traps, such a great way to introduce danger to puzzles

Submitted

Del Gatto EntertainmentSubmitted253 days ago(+1)

I got stuck in the infinite corridor, i guess that's the point?
Otherwise nice game, good job!

Submitted

Soul GrinderDeveloper252 days ago

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it. No the infinite corridor is a puzzle where you have to work out to find the exit. There are clues to loop around the east block and west block in a sequence with an the number of wall grates in the middle of the corridor increasing from 1 to 5 to show you if you walked the correct way, and if not you get reset back to 1 grate. Looking back I think the wall grates clue was too subtle and I should of had wall writing of numbers from 1 to 5 on the wall and maybe some other clues in there. It's ok some friends I sent it to also got stuck in there, it's a tricky puzzle lol.

Schmidt WorkshopsSubmitted254 days ago(+1)

Good puzzler!

Submitted

chooonSubmitted254 days ago(+1)

nicely built and is mobile friendly. The intro is pretty neat ngl.

I dont see any technical issues besides small nitpicks like "E" doesn't work for turning but "Q" does.

this definitely has potentials as a mobile game.

Submitted

66 Floors of Cthulhu

FribSubmitted254 days ago(+1)

I managed to reach the infinity corridor puzzle but it doesn't make sense to me so I gave up after trying for a few minutes. Not sure what the logic is, but I couldn't figure it out :D Up until that point I found 2 of the secret rooms.

The presentation is very clean, the artstyle effective, movement is pretty smooth. I didn't get a feel for some of the theme implementations because I didn't reach far enough (judging by the screenshots and text) so I can't comment on those. Music and audio is nice, not much to comment on honestly. I played the webGL on PC, but I'm assuming it's very mobile friendly as well, so kudos for supporting that!

Small nitpick: It only features turning, not strafing. I like strafing so I missed that. And apparently Q works for turning but E doesn't so that threw me off lol.

Overall, while the game didn't hook me, it's still a decent entry. Good job!

Submitted

The Monstrous Maw and the Veiled Cube

Soul GrinderDeveloper254 days ago(+1)

Thanks for playing and the feedback. I purposefully left out the strafing as a design choice because I liked the idea of having minimal controls for mobile touch screen and it also increased the difficulty when tackling traps and monsters, but I know what you mean. Also the trick to the Infinity Corridor is you must loop around the east block and west block in a sequence. An indicator clue of how your doing might of been a bit too subtle, but there are wall grates in the middle of the corridor that increase in number from 1 grate to 5 to show you if you walked the correct way, and if not you get reset back to 1 grate. I wondered if anyone would of solved this, but I saw this mechanic on an Amiga game called Dungeon Master and thought it would be cool to add it. It would be a shame if no one reached level 3 because it's the best level I think lol

FribSubmitted253 days ago(+1)

Gave it another go with your advice. I did notice the grates but I couldn't figure out the logic, but even with your advice it took me a few tries to figure out you had to walk back on the side of the grates, and I kept going forwards on the side of the grates. So I eventually did manage to make it past it :D The mechanic itself (or a similar version, at least) was also in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, and there it was a matter of choosing the right corridor when in the middle, but continuing on rather than going back.

Then the murderbot nearly murdered me, so I got out with 1 heart, and then in the final area one of those plates was wired in an unexpected way and it triggered a different fireball launcher and I got blasted :')

Had to restart from the beginning but I decided to give it one more shot, this time I did make it to level 3 and beat the game. I have to agree that level 3 is the best, it has a really nice atmosphere. The final area felt a bit tedious because it's so large and empty, and I had to collect 4 keys so it was a lot of walking back and forth when I saw yet another golden door behind each door.

I really missed strafing and walking backwards, especially in the later half of the game, but I respect the design decision as it would indeed make things a bit easier to avoid.

Soul GrinderDeveloper253 days ago

That's fantastic thanks for playing it through to the end! It's great to hear that someone managed to complete it. Yes I think looking back I made the final room a bit too large. My aim was to create a tension of looking for a torch lighter and having the danger of being chased by the statue demons in the dark. After the voting stage is over I'll probably change this to a smaller hall, I agree that is too large for what was needed. I did want to put a final boss fight where you use fireball floor triggers defeat it but I ran out of time. There's never enough time to fit everything in lol

Z-Soft GamesSubmitted255 days ago(+1)

Nice job! great presentation and atmosphere!

Submitted

DamienDeSubmitted255 days ago(+1)

There is quite a bit variety here. Solid entry, with different texture sets for the levels, multiple mechanics, and an interesting graphic style. But I think the graphics do not mesh together perfectly.

Submitted

The Nexus Grave