itch.io

Thanks for the feedback Xed. 

We were able to incorporate the fixes, skippable audio, and some minor updates without too much extra effort. If you are interested in seeing the final product after the Jam, we update the game for submission to the Indiepocalypse at https://lordbundee.itch.io/fate-of-the-baychimo.

We were able to fix this bug for our Indiepocalypse submission - so thanks for the feedback. If you are interested in checking it out after the Jam it is available at https://lordbundee.itch.io/fate-of-the-baychimo.

Thanks for the feedback. 

Yeah we noticed the bug immediately on publishing but it was too late to fix. We have uploaded a updated version of the game with bug fixes and skippable dialogue for Indiepocalype so if you are interested after the Jam if over feel free to check it out: https://lordbundee.itch.io/fate-of-the-baychimo.

We don't have anything official yet in regards to social media. The best option would be to follow me on Itch and when we do decide to proceed further with this one we can pop in DevLogs for updates.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. "Awesome" is quite the compliment :D

We agree, the core can be difficult to understand without the primitive UI design we had time for. We have had quite a bit of positive feedback so will be exploring this idea further post-Jam: our first step has been thinking about what an ideal interface could be and how that could guide our design.

I'm glad that bug fix worked out for you. Thanks for giving it another go. It's quite unbalance at the moment haha - balancing RPGs isn't a 48hr task :P  as long as you pump DEF early it's hard to lose and Regen is way powerful with high DEF. Glad you enjoyed it.

I like the core mechanic and think there is so much room to design further cool mechanics/tradeoffs. I think I will spend another month on this one at least after the Jam and see how it pans out

I am still looking into that bug to be sure, but I did find a bug with the Critical Attack Node - when it is triggered it cause a NullReferenceError. This can be avoided by not buying that Node. This could have been the issue you had I am not sure. I have had another random crash that I am trying to find the solution for.

I found a bug when choosing the Critical Attack Node - it causes a NullReferenceException and crashes the game. If this is what  you encountered, it can be avoided in the build by not buying or triggering the Critical Attack Node.

Thank you for the positive feedback. It definitely would have greatly benefited from another 24 hours.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

It sound like you either did not have it on Fullscreen Mode or your Device cannot support the 16:9 aspect ratio that is default. If you cannot use 16:9 it will not display correctly.

Sorry you had that issue, but if you can replay it on 16:9 it should show up correctly.

I found the issue for that Bug. Do not select the Critical Attack Node - when it is triggered it cause a NullReferenceError. It is an easy fix in code, but alas I cannot until after the Jam.

I liked the simple clean interface. The only thing letting it down was the standard-looking buttons as it distracts from the enemy sprites, the lack of music, and (correct me if I'm wrong) there was no way to spend treasure. But that is understandable given the Jam time limit.

I liked that it is a pretty accurate translation of Yahtzee, but using your score for combat power. It is a interesting and easily understandable idea. 

Overall, I'm very glad I played this one. 

Disclaimer: My game was also a Yahtzee-inspired battle system. It was good to compare and contrast our approaches.

Constructive Feedback

• I wish your attack occurred prior to the enemies - so that a good roll prevents you taking damage that round
• I wish your score carried over and the enemies had higher HP. It is less satisfying to get Yahtzee (50 points) only to lose all 50 points to killing a 8HP enemy :(

Suggestions

If you wanted to improve it I would probably recommend instead of using points directly for damage, use the points to purchase actions (or just have the combinations do specific attacks themselves and the score be the power) so that the player has even more strategic depth to play with.

Definitely a 5 for uniqueness this Jam. It is a shame the controls are a bit floaty - but I think that's understandable for a 48 hour Jam. But there is plenty of other cool ideas that I can imagine could be a good foundation for an interesting racer.

For example, there have been games were collecting the same power up multiple times in a row upgrades it (Diddy Kong) but your element of randomness adds a Risk/Reward. I'd think it would be even better if there were just "Upgrade Pads" around the map to allow rolling your current held item more often to bring this element to the forefront more.

The purchase of sections of the Map is a unique addition I haven't seen before either. It give me a good reason to get coins. My only suggestion would be to have the Purchase Area separated from the Benefit Area so that I can use it immediately after I buy it rather than having to wait a lap. Also, instead of having things pop up and down, maybe just let the owner use the bonus by themselves. For example, you could just have secret paths with barriers that are only passable to the owner or have boosters on the ground that only activate to your player. That might be easier.

This game has really got me thinking. So Kudos and good luck with getting on the GMTK Winners Reel.

Thanks for playing and I'm sorry it was not understandable. I can definitely understand where you are coming from. We had to rush the aesthetics and UI, so it is not very easy to understand without reading up the Description Page. There are also an occasional random bug that happens and you cannot progress and need to Reload the page- you might have even encountered this.

If your willing to give it another go, here is the short rundown - the longer HOW TO PLAY on the game page goes into more detail.

At it's core, the game is a Turn Based Battle System (e.g. Pokemon, Final Fantasy). Each Turn has 3 phases:

1. The game rolls some dice for you

2. You then can:

• Click on the Dice and then the Fire to get rid of that Dice; and/or
• Click on a Skill Tree Node and then the appropriate Dice (which will highlight) to Spend the Dice to Buy the Skill. Unfortunately you have to Mouse Over to see what each node does and what it needs :( The requirements are straight out of Poker/Yahtzee. Singles = 1 dice, Doubles = 2 dice of same value, Triple/4 of a Kind/5 of a Kind, Full House = A double and a Triple (e.g. 2-2-5-5-5), or Straight (1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6).

3. Lastly, Click the Attack Button or Buy an Action Node (Yellow with Attack Description) to do and Attack and End the Turn.

The enemy does the same thing as you, back and forth, until someone is Dead. Damage Dealt is equal to your ATK - their DEF.

Thanks for the positive feedback Rolim. My game isn't very polished due to time constraints, but I am glad you liked core mechanics.

It was exactly what I was going for: by having input (rather than output) randomness and then by having the game state constantly changing I hoped to force the Player to make interesting decisions and trade-offs rather than relying on RNG or some optimal strategy. For example:

• Do I select an ATK node now even though my highest roll is 3 and that stops me using a 6 on that node later?
• Do I upgrade ATK or DEF knowing my enemy is building up there DEF? 
• Do I upgrade this Node now, for a less impactful boost, but it opens up a better Node for next round?
• Do I save my Three of a Kind and forgo a boost now in the hope to execute a FullHouse or Four/Five of a Kind Action later?

The skill tree isn't as impactful or balanced as I was planning - but that's the 48 hour limit for you. There was even a Shield resource that I implemented that provided temporary Defense but then able to be traded for a big attack (e.g. Shield Slam), but it is almost impossible to use with the current skill tree.

Thanks again for your feedback and good luck with the Jam - I liked your game a lot as well.

I'm always a fan of a turn based battler and I love the art and sound of this one. It was also well implemented in the short timeframe of the Jam with an easy to use UI. I had fun with it. Kudos! 

Because I love turn based battlers, and if you will indulge me, I will provide some constructive feedback. 

• The current setup has limited tactical options because the only resource at play is HP and Turn. As such, the optimal strategy is trading a Turn resource for enemy Damage with the optimal amount is some fixed mix of Attack + Boosts. Whilst there is RNG, it does not really impact this strategy. While Heal is technically different to Attack when enemy picks Defend, it is still another version of trading Turn for HP - and if you have the option to deal Damage versus gain HP, dealing Damage is almost always superior. Defence is entirely useless as it is never helps you achieve Damage. In fact, in each combination of Defend/Defend, Defend/Attack, and Defend/Heal you either Draw or Lose with respect to the player/enemy HP balanceby choosing Defend. 
• A very similar game to your game, but that implements additional resources is https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-jam-2022/rate/1624181. Whilst it has less appealing aesthetics than your game, it has a deeper layer of strategy by introducing both offensive and defensive stats, and having the player decision last 3 rounds. This forces the player to a) think strategically about trading Turn (as you have to consider the next 3 trades in one go) and b) as each resource is needed to achieve Damage and Defence it provides a rock-paper-scissors where there can never be a single action that is always best.

Anyway, if you like turn based battlers like I do, I hope you have fun in the Jam - there are plenty of games out turn based battlers. In fact, if you have time and like to play battlers could I request you have a look at my submission, I would be interested in your feedback. My game is definitely not as pretty as yours, but I tried a different approach to add strategy. I relied on input rather than output randomness. That is, the dice roll first and then you have to decide which one of many options in a skill tree are most beneficial to your winning strategy. As the enemy does the same, I hoped to force the player to prioritise based on a) what they roll and b) what development path the enemy is taken (e.g. high ATK, high DEF) so there is no optimal strategy. It's definitely not polished or balance as I'd like, and has an occasional bug, but I'd be interested in your take on it and whether you think it achieves these goals.

Not a bad premise for a game, but it probable needs some balancing overall. if you are able to bank investment points and armor early you can push through the later fights a bit too easy. I also noticed that even though you can technically place 2 dice in a slot, it only counts the value of the last dice placed.

It would have been good to allow multiple dice in slots so you always have to optimize how many dice you have available for each slot and are forced to make interesting decisions about how many dice you put in each spot. This could create a loop where the player is encouraged to keep buying more dice but you could scale your enemies so that the player could never brute force their way through them.

Good work overall.

Not a bad premise for a game, but it probable needs some balancing overall. if you are able to bank investment points and armor early you can push through the later fights a bit too easy. I also noticed that even though you can technically place 2 dice in a slot, it only counts the value of the last dice placed.

It would have been good to allow multiple dice in slots so you always have to optimize how many dice you have available for each slot and are forced to make interesting decisions about how many dice you put in each spot. This could create a loop where the player is encouraged to keep buying more dice but you could scale your enemies so that the player could never brute force their way through them.

Good work overall.

I love your art style and background music for this one, reminds me of a classic 8 bit style game.

Your core mechanics are also well done and use the them of the jam well. It would have been great to have more enemies and to potentially be able to upgrade during fights, this could give you an incentive to use cash faces on your dice early in the fight to get some upgrades and then push hard for a finish to the fight.

I like the concept and the visuals of this one. Feels really good to just roll around like a maniac and destroy everything on your path with a series of explosions and crazy lasers

I like the concept and the visuals of this one. Feels really good to just roll around like a maniac and destroy everything on your path with a series of explosions and crazy lasers

I like the art style and I can see where you were going with what you were trying to achieve.

Obviously as many others have commented a tutorial or some better guidance on the objectives would have helped. Additionally as the dice rolls it gets hard to track which side is or isn't stamped in 2D space, it would have be good to have a visual tracker of some type in the UI to track what sides have been stamped and which face you were currently on.

Kudos for the effort though and getting it completed on time.

Thanks for the feedback. I will let our Music Team know you liked the music - this is their first Jam with us so they will be happy to hear the feedback.

Thanks for the in-depth review. Glad you found it 5-Star Creative: it was our main focus to do something completely unique. 

As you say, the aim was to make the player be able to compensate for RNG and make active decisions as they flesh out the skill tree/action tree. I'm glad that was noticeable.

It's unfortunate you ran into so many bugs. We did know about the "enemy reusing dice" issue right before publishing, but it seemed to be random and related to some race condition between the AI decision tree and the time taken for the dice to properly clear the dice buffer. Did you try a different difficulty because it seemed to happen more often on Hard than Normal.

I have never encountered not getting new dice though when you have a slot open - I will look into that. 

I think if we work on this further we will remove the physics dice and use a simpler "Mario Party" style visual for both speed, clarity, and de-clutter. It could also remove that potential race condition. I will also rebuild the Turn Based Framework - it was quite complex and I'd say rushing that in 48 hours is the root cause of the bugs.

If we end up doing an update, I will let you know.

Good use of theme for this one and a unique offering in the Jam. Visuals and music gave it a nice chill vibe.

My only thought would be if there are more interesting random effects you could implement. Power Up/Power Down are just boring compared to Jump Shot - which opens all kinds of possibilities to trick shot off the course. Thinking outside the box, you could even having a dice state that changes the map (e.g. Toggle - toggles windmill position/magnetic forces/bumpers on or off)

This game is fun. It has a nice aesthetic and some good juice ("POWER UP"). I gave it a few runs, and even though I think the max time is a bit too unforgiving at times, I had a blast. 

The only feedback I would give is that I think the theme is underdeveloped. When you are killing so many objects in quick succession - each individual roll has little impact on the overall gaming experience. If each kill returned 3.5 seconds (the average of a D6) then I think the player experience would be essentially unchanged. 

If you have time, I would appreciate your feedback of my game.

You picked the dialogue based on your assumption on which stat it was linked to - and then it showed you which stat the dialogue actually was. I think if I got above a 6 for that stat it passed - but that was never shown explicitly.

I'm a fan of turn based battlers and I like this one a lot. Whilst it is RNG dependent, you have given the player some agency to modify the RNG and strategize - Kudos. The UI is nice and clean as well, it is very easy to see what you need to do and what is happening.

Bugs:

• One time, when I placed a card it didn't enter the slot properly. So Click to Roll would not appear despite me re-placing all my cards. 
  • Suggestion: It might have easier to have each dice have 6 card slots, and then let the player click a card then a slot to insert it so there is no drag and drop needed.
• The SFX were popping on attacks

Constructive Feedback:

• It feels bad when your new cards are +5dmg (player) and +20 dmg (enemy). In essence, this means the RNG favours the enemy regardless of your choice of placement
  • Suggestion: You could give card have a cost value, then having the player pick enough cards to reach a specified cost each round. This would have improved the balance - by having your enemy and you on equal footing. It also improves strategy, as you now also need to consider your distribution of offense versus defence cards.

My game was also a unique turn based battler. I'd love for you to give it a look and provide feedback. I would recommend reading the description though as there is no in-game tutorial.

I think each round reset your stats. The dice merely modify it for that round. Dice 1 is the number, Dice 2 is the modify type (One of three stat, each with a + or a -). So a 2 Glasses (with a minus) is -2 to INT score that round. So for your example, 4 didn't lose to glasses. It was "4" & "INT minus". The +/- symbol are quite small.The reset probably exists to balance it out, so a few minuses don't permanently ruin your run.

You then need to try to match the dialogue option to the stat it represents, if your stat is high enough it wins the round. Win enough rounds to reach $30 and you win by paying for her meal.

The retro art and SFX, framed in a Gameboy-like device, is a great aesthetic. Kudos.

It's a shame the battle system is not fleshed out, I'm a big fan of classic turn based battlers so based on the screenshot I thought this would have been right up my alley.

This submission is kind of the opposite of my turn based battler submission - I focussed on unique mechanics but the aesthetics were lacking - 48 hours is not much time for a small team.

I've seen a few turn based battle systems based on dice in this Jam, but this is my first Plants-vs-Zombies inspired one. Good job getting so much done in 48hours. 

It was a good idea to have changeable dice so you can get more resources. I was initially worried that max 3 berries was going to hamstring me too much when the board has more critters on it. I wouldn't have worried too much about having caps on the banking of resources though - I would have like to build up some berries and just go HAM one round - even if I had to save up for a few rounds.

I might come back later to hug some more wolves.

Sorry, I got an error while trying to load the game "WebGL builds are not supported on mobile devices. 3d perlin planets" but I'm not on a mobile device. 

Congrats on the first ever game Jam submission.

I think .sb3 is a Scratch Project file rather than a playable file like HTML5. I don't think this one will be playable.

Some nice ideas in this non-combat design of this game - in particular I like the way the Dice World works to earn you more dice and the option to Heal up and come back stronger each run. It adds a nice layer of meta strategy, a bit like a Rogue-lite.

I like turn based combat systems, so it was unfortunate that the core combat was a bit of a miss for me. In the end, it was too RNG based and your decisions really didn't matter that much. It would have been nice if you had the time to incorporated some more strategic options in the combat rounds.

My own Jam entry was my take on a dice-based combat system. Give it a look if your interested.

The use of an irregular dice and the Slide Move was a nice surprise after playing so many games like this during this Jam.

Presentation is great. Simple but effective combat. Music was energising.

The only downside was the theme/dice could have been pushed further to encourage the player to approach the enemies differently based on the dice rolls. Like having the player or enemy weapon randomised (Bow, Sword, Shield), having map changes (e.g. Hazards, Fireballs from sky), or a random Elite enemy turn up. But I'm sure if you had more time you would have implemented something like this.

Nice aesthetic, also reminded me of Tron/Snake. The option of 3 random dice gave some nice strategy element. The only downside was that without screen edge traversal, the optimal strategy for me was to wall off a large section of the map and then just do laps while waiting for the enemies to kill themselves off.

"Pls report any bugs you see" - love a good pun

I liked the old arcade aesthetic most of all in this game. Good job.

It sounds like it was intentional, but I found the slow controls and power up menu a bit frustrating as they teased me with more player agency than I actually had - it was a bit of a rug pull on my emotions.

You can rotate the player by holding Spacebar, but it is quite slow.