itch.io

Yes, it technically looks at 7x7 blocks as the room, which usually includes some walls. I love the idea of a blacklight. That's going on the wishlist.

Yeah, I should find a way to make it easier to find the last dirt pixel. But also the 100%-clean reward is meant to be optional for only the truly OCD janitors.

Some of the chests are just empty and meant for decoration. I wonder how to make that more clear.

There should be an infinite water source in every couple of rooms. They do look different though; there are 4 varieties.

This is an insanely professional level of quality for a game jam! I hope you expand it further. 

Great game and so faithful to the retro style!

Nice work. The choices for the power-ups were the best part. As others have said, combat could definitely be improved. Mopping was straightforward, but I do wish the max # of slimes spawning was based on the amount of slime - then the progress would feel good (but maybe be too easy?)

Top notch art and sound and gameplay. The art was so perfect that I forgot I was even playing a 64x64 game, which is hard to do. I loved the weird theme, and the pulsing brain backgrounds too.

I did get stuck on one mini-game, so it would be nice if there was a skip or re-roll option. 

Very chill and very well done. Very creative use of the background to extend the beach line.

This was quite fun! Trying to see the ice cream booths in the distance did hurt my eyes (just the nature of 3d games in 64x64), but the car handled nice, and the road was fun to drive on. It was a perfect length and difficulty for a jam game.

Animations were really great; the fire was fun; the sounds and music were really well done, and sense of progression was very enjoyable. The navigation was very challenging because it wasn't clear what could and couldn't be walked on. I almost thought the game was broken until I saw a comment mentioning to avoid the rocks at the start. The other downside was that the resolution was not strictly 64x64.

The gameplay is good; the effort put into the tutorial and level design is really impressive; the music suits the vibe of the game, and the humor works really well.

Only things that could use improvement: Movement feels a little too slippery in the game. In the tutorial, the turn rate seems much too slow (different than the actual game). Since you end up dodging enemy attacks and trying to shoot them when they are far away, they are little more than a few pixels, so might be good to have a consistent color for the enemies.

This definitely has the potential to be expanded into a larger game. Well done.

Controls are good, the graphics are perfect, and you've dealt with the resolution in a perfect way! So many great little details.

Only cons: It's a little too hard right away. The gameplay is too frantic to bother dealing with inventory. I would like some slow moments to walk around and admire the map and all your details.

Glad you appreciate the Red Dwarf connection. (I wanted the time skip to actually allow a new species to evolve.)

The ship is procedural and endless, and sadly it does reset rooms at a certain distance. I didn't get a chance to implement a solution to that; didn't really think people would play long enough to notice. Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words. 

I didn't test that exploit but thought it might be there. Good job finding it. I figure that the ship's computer that gives the payments really isn't paying close attention. 😄

It is a good start. I'd like to see some interaction between the skills though. Maybe you can refine scrap, maybe build something in one skill that helps upgrade another, etc.

Maybe! I still don't know what I'm making yet. I'm going to wait until the themes are released, and then see which (if any) of these ideas fits best.

I made some sample artwork to test out different game ideas. No idea if any of these will fit the theme(s) or if I'll use any. Do any of these look like fun?

Dev log is here: https://deathray.itch.io/nomads-fire/devlog/1505602/expanding-the-game

Yes, the things you can mine are the triangles, and sometimes smaller pixel clumps of red, blue, or yellow. You have to blast them for a while, and then check your inventory, and you should see some quantity of an element.

What's the license for these? Creative commons?

As I understand it, we must make a farm themed game with either a day/night cycle or a season cycle w/ surprises.

I am not sure whether the surprise themes (nuclear winter and harvest or be harvested) are required or not, and if so - are they both required?

Do the 2 Mechanics take the place of all of the themes?

That was a lot of fun! There are some bugs with selecting upgrades, and having an upgrade get stuck, which almost made me ragequit, but then I kept playing and had a blast. I got to wave 25 before I decided by base was effectively unbeatable.

Great gameplay and ramp-up in difficulty. I thought I was pretty smart until I had to combine 3 waves together. 5 stars in the theme of course!

This was pretty fun! And as someone who also programmed 2d waves, I appreciate the effort involved. 

Three things to consider improving: (1) Jumping the boats is a lot of fun; probably the best part of the game. You should get bonus points or a speed-boost for doing it. (2) If the AI dies from a shark, they should respawn. Having the game end because the AI is dumb doesn't feel great. (3) It's possible to get stuck on the boats. Maybe the dolphin needs a way to flop/jump off.

I had a lot of fun with this game. I died the first time, but on my second run I made it all the way to Satan -- but died when he spawned into me. The random map is nice, and the upgrades feel good. 

Three improvements I would recommend: (1) Full-screen please! (2) Give a warning where/when the enemies will spawn because it feels like a cheap loss when they spawn right into you. Maybe show some (non-harmful) fire or a pentagram for 1-2 seconds where they will spawn. (3) Give an indication when the character is hurt - like turn him red and/or knock him back a little bit.

I had no idea what to do, even after reading the instructions. Neat idea, but it definitely needs a few more components of a "roguelike" in order to be called that.

For the repair: no need to mash, it can be held down like the other buttons. It does currently immobilize you and I thought the holding down would be a good system, but it probably should just be a toggle: flip the repair switch on when you feel safe; flip it off if a threat shows up.

I agree it needs more sounds! No idea how to make water splash sounds though.

Thanks for the great feedback.

Does anyone have some links to examples of previously made dungeon zines? I want some inspiration.

Thanks! What's funny is the AI is incredibly dumb (it picks a foe, fires somewhat randomly, and tries to stay within a certain distance of its foe), but because of the interplay of all the NPC boats crowded together and the waves, they sometimes appear to be smart.

Re: sounds, I wasn't sure how to get nice wave/splashing sounds with my retro sound-generator (zzfx). What other sounds would you recommend?

The setting of this game it great 😻, but it has two areas that need some help: sounds and music are too loud, and it needs a small stretch of land for practice before the chaos starts. The controls are so unique that I need practice before I can do anything besides trash around, eventually dying.

The main thing holding this game back is its lack of an option to mute the music. The music isn't bad, but it's much too loud and unnecessary for a clicker game IMO. Some other improvements you could make: Revisit the math of the prices, and make it so subsequent items cost more the more you own. For example right now there's no point in even buying a mine, because farms are always a better deal. Also, make it so the main clicking area changes a little based on what you've bought. Lastly, make the clickable guy shrink a tiny bit when clicked, so it feels like he's been clicked.

I hope I wasn't meant to pay attention to the top half of the screen, because my eyes were glued to the bottom left. I think this game would work much better if it was slower, especially at the start. I struggled to keep up right away, and realized I didn't have a chance to figure out what was happening. FWIW, "Riff lord" is a better name than "Pocket Legion" in my opinion.

My favorite part of the game is actually the atmosphere: the looming structures of the city, the fog, the foreboding music. The waves and buoyancy were well done also (I know from my game that this is not exactly easy). I only wish there were more checkpoints, or the boat was more durable. I wanted to play more, but eventually got fed up at having to restart every time I tapped a wall.

Great game! Nice retro feel, simple gameplay to get started with, but with a nice difficulty curve.

I'm still amazed that you built this on a mobile device! Really well done. What did you use for art and music?

I tried on Firefox on Windows and it worked okay for me. I can only guess that your network might be blocking p2p connections.

Repairing only works when you have supplies from defeating ships, and you have to hold down "r" or the repair button -- which is probably a confusing interface.

Thanks so much for this. 🤗 It was a good, in-depth review. I like how you ran into the sword-swallowing easter egg. 😅

For challenges, something like "Paint the whole screen blue", "Make black and red checkers"... with increasing difficulty.

This is a really great concept! Two things would be nice: a list of challenges, and some buttons for each command at the bottom (for mobile users who don't want to search for special characters). I could see this being used for a game jam / code golf challenge.

This is a really cool idea. I would use it if it was a Javascript library. Would be cool if it could so somwthing like simlish too.