Thank you very much for this.

I hope you enjoy the game.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy it as much I am.

Thank you.

Thank you for the comment.

The "font" is like that because it is 8x8 pixels per letter, the game is made for the Mega Drive, so the actual resolution of the game is 320x224.

I really dislike the typewriter effect and never bothered to implement it on my vn engine.

There is no counter but the speed of a retro machine (Sega Mega Drive). What I mean is that the time between the background display and the display of the character (foreground) is that of the time it takes to put the tiles from the cartridge to the vram and then on screen.

I am probably forcing all my preferences on my VN engine, but in my mind VN are a way to tell a story and all the effects, like typewriter or image transitions, etc are relics of the past that nowadays do not add too much to the actual experience.

On the other hand, the engine uses an easy scripting language and "translating" the game to another engine more advanced with all the classic effects can be a matter of minutes.

I searched over the internet for word count and found this site.

https://plato.chs.harvard.edu/chartD

Based on this site, Plato's Protagoras is : 18,077 words

"Funny thing" is that the author of the site marks several works as theatrical.

Thanks. Haven't touched NeoGeo since then, thought.

Thanks for reporting back.

I personally had a hard time playing it with 3 buttons, but with this change I was able to beat it.

Long answer again.

Rogue and in extent roguelikes, borrowed rules from the Original Dungeon n Dragons (ODnD). Reading those rules now days is a little bit difficult because the author wrote for the War Games players. But you can find many clones written in modern style.

Search for ODnD clones, many clones are completely free too.

So I believe that hunger was not a measure against slow walking, but something that exists for realism.

In extent, many mechanisms are dependent on hunger. For example, a very basic one, "Camp".

In roguelikes camping will regain you some of your hp. In DnD Clerics and Mages can use a fixed number of spells based on their level, and they can regain spells by camping. So hunger and food ratios play a more important role.

I personally never been fun of the Hunger - Starvation mechanics, so I just ignored it all together.

Movement in roguelikes is one tile per turn (unless you cast a haste spell, etc). You can move or attack.

In DnD you have movement in feet and one attack.

I used the DnD rules here from the Basic Fantasy RPG. I just converted 10' to 1 tile. I changed the movement in Action Points (AP) and gave the player character the ability to spend those APs even to attacks. Also, APs not used go to your Armor Class (AC).

I did that cause DnD is made to be played with 6 players and a Game Master, but it plays well with 4 players too (that's why almost all the DnD based dungeon crawlers are party based).

To balance this up, you can have attacks equal to a party of 4 if you do not wear very heavy armor.

The combination of more tiles per turn, unused APs going to your AC and equal vision range with monsters (this is something I added too), I believe that it is too strong.

For example, you move one tile, and then you end your turn. This translates to Shield Up and very careful moving. It is a must when you are about to enter or explore an unexplored room.

Not ending your turn, the moment a new enemy is revealed, is a must.

If you do not do that, you will not survive in this game.

Thanks for the comment and for playing.

I know that the controls are quite unique, but I believe it is for the better.

Long answer, but those were my thoughts when I was making the controls.

I tried to keep the depth of the menus as minimal as possible.

My priorities were that, interacting with the environment and accessing the inventory must be done with the less possible button presses.

So with that in mind, A became the interaction with the environment, B the Main Actions menu and C the Inventory.

Also, A is the confirm/select button in the Menus and B the cancel Button.

With those controls, there is no menu when you are searching for traps or secret doors (secret doors are not implemented yet).

You just press A and if there is no trap or items on the ground or an enemy in front of you or a door or a secret door, nothing will happen. No menu, no message etc.

This makes the gameplay much faster.

The Inventory cannot be accessed and from the Main Actions menu, cause this is the wrong (slow) way to pay.

For example, ending your turn is very important in this game, cause for example when you are approaching a new room or when your move may reveal new tiles of a room, the possibility of revealing a new enemy is very high. The best strategy is to walk slowly and have as much possible Action Points when a new enemy is revealed.

To walk slowly, you just do not spend all your AP (you end your turn). Move one block and then end your turn. So moving slow became UP -> B -> A.

Underneath the "End your Turn" are important actions that may exist or not exist in the menu. For example "Charge". If you can "Charge" then the option to Charge is there, if not the option is not. Putting this as a second option helps the eye to identify changes.

Last options to the Menus is the Special category of any character (Fighter does not have a special category). Cleric and Mage have Cast Spell, Thief will have his Sneak.

So the Special Category can be accessed very fast. B->UP->A and you are in the Spell List.

When you understand the controls, the gameplay becomes very fast, even for a turn based game.

Try playing the game by selecting to attack from the Action Menu and you will see how much faster it is right now, when you can just double tap the A button to do so.

I hope this clear things up, because I really believe that the controls are very good.

Edit: I changed the main game page. Hope this is more clear now.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yes, always play the latest.

More stable and more features.

Thanks.

romBundler

Looks like there was a misunderstanding. I played two stages with snakes, 1 and 3. The second stage was too hard to pass, especially with the problem with the keys I mentioned earlier. I lost on the 4th stage.

I really tried to play this game, but I failed.

I will leave it unrated.

Impressive work creating a 3d game for 3DO in this tight time-frame, but sadly the game have many issues.

Sometimes the collisions of the particle gun don't work, I think that this have to do with the pitch of the vehicle.

The pitch of the vehicle seems to me, that for some reason is on a global axis and as a result it may appear and as a roll or in-between. I personally believe that the pitch of the vehicle was unnecessary.

Maybe a better option can be to cast a ray from the centre of the camera and then use the collision point to shoot the particles from the "gun" of the vehicle. I believe this will make the game more enjoyable.

Another thing that I believe can improve the experience is to create a little bit more visual cues.

For example, I played the first stage (0) many times and even thought I got in the dark areas, I never found the other room. I found out about it by watching your video. Also, even when I watched the video seemed to me that something was blocking my way to reach the room.

Over all, impressive work on the engine, please keep it up.

Small but polished game.

I liked it a lot.

As others said, the need to talk to a character multiple times may get misleading, especially in a bigger project. The enemy AI is just walking straight to the player, but this is too common AI for a mindless monster.

I really do not have much to say. This is a very good entry.

Thank you very much.

Yes, AI is not used too much yet, although I used it and in my previous project. I think a major reason is that it can be used only for static images.

I can understand the frustration, but this was a choice that had to be made. The core rules of the Basic Fantasy RPG (an open game licence game based on DnD) are used for this game and the question was do I water it down or do I remain as much faithful as I can? There are already some changes over the rules to make it easier (cause tabletop RPGs are designed for 4-6 players). For example, in BFRPG you can attack only once per turn, drinking potion is free, throwing weapons do not require you to first get your right-hand equipment on the ground, then equip the Hand Axe (for example) and then throw it, you can throw it directly from your inventory or from the ground.

Also, using the trap is almost necessary to advance in this version.

"Invenotry"? Who is writing this stuff? LOL. Thank you for pointing this out too.

Will do after the Jam ends. This file will be renamed as Jam version and the rest will have the date on them.

Feedback, suggestions and criticism are all very welcome and necessary.

Although as I progress, this project is going to borrow more and more from the Basic Fantasy RPG. Changes will only be to turn the game from a 4-6 players to one.

Nice game.

Felt more impressive watching it play on the actual machine than trying it on my pc, just cause when I first played, I was a little bit in denial.

If understand correctly, this is an untouchable machine of 1996 with the power of a regular pc of 2000. Programmed in C with OpenGL for 3d.

I have to say, I am very impressed! This is a very technical work with many programming techniques implemented.

Now to the game. The game is a descent clone, but with a chaotic stage. The geometry of the stage is quite OK, but the use of the textures is bad.

What I mean is that the textures changed from medieval to tech too instantly in many places without any small texture in between, and this made the work filled rushed.

The gameplay is quite shallow as the enemy AI is not challenging at all, and I personally believe that the arena style of the game removed the feel of progression I got from Descent and that this was pivotal to make the game enjoyable.

Other than that, sometimes the collisions of the laser did not work, and the second weapon felt unnecessary because the enemies were very weak. 

Also, even thought the sound effects of the game are very nice, for some reason the sound of your laser is delayed.

Last I got several crashes with the game, but I'll not rate with that in mind, as it is expected for several thousands of lines written in this tight time-frame. I just report them.

I was unable to understand if I hit an enemy or not, or if a character in game is a friend or an enemy.

For example, in the stage where is this mage who is spawning those little enemies, I thought that this guy was a good guy and enemies are just spawning in this area and avoid them all together.

When I was to the dragon even with, 8000 energy, I failed to beat him because I was unable to understand if I hit him or not and this was my game over.

Good puzzle game mechanics and good execution, but you gave us only the first easy puzzles.

Damn good boss rush game, small but good.

Controls are very responsive, movement is fluid, gameplay hard as hell, but good.

The last boss is almost unbeatable, I failed too many times and never beat him, but it seems possible.

The first was harder from the second one.

The two stages with the snakes I played were nice.

The stages with the spiders are almost unplayable. The reason is that the spiders are killing you, even if you are on a neighbour tile. Aside from that, even if this was not the case, the spiders move to the tiles where the keys were.

This made the second stage extremely difficult to pass.

There is also another issue, the keys are not too responsive. Seems to me that there is a timer in there which counts some frames before the move happens. In other words, simple fast clicks of the buttons do not work.

This made the second stage a real frustration and actually the reason I had no desire to play again.

The game is too flat.

The background graphics are uninteresting, the characters are OK.

The stages repeat after a while with just a palette swap.

The gameplay suffers a lot as there is no challenge. Press the rapid fire and wait the enemy to come if he is alone or choose the height of the first. Move around if they get close together as you hit only one, and repeat.

Music on the other hand is really good.

I wish you had the time to work on it a little bit more on the last 9 days.

Thank you very much for this comment.

Yes, the game is randomly generated every time. In fact, the time you spend to the little are in the start of the game is what will determine the random seed.

The game requires using all your arsenal and especially the trap to survive. Careful moving is the key. Never end with 0 AP to a tile that may reveal an enemy, throw daggers etc to keep distance, end the round with AP as those will go to your Armor Class, drink potions etc

And I know it's much, but learn your enemies, learn as you play or download the core rules of Basic Fantasy RPG and by searching their names learn their stats. Their movement is converted to AP in this game. Every 10' is one tile. I used their unarmed stats.

Stable Diffusion made this game possible, textures and sprites were made with it.

Otherwise, I'll never have been able to have 4 textures for the dungeon levels and 23 enemies.

The game have an end, and it is in the 9th level. I never beat it. My highest is the 6th level.

Thank you very much for this.

Actually Dungeon Crawlers and Roguelikes are more alike than not as they have a common ancestor, the DnD.

Rogue is closer to the original DnD cause of age. But in the end, I believe it can be said that it is a Dungeon Crawler without the party.

Dreamforge's Dungeon Hack (1993) is a very early example of a Dungeon Crawler that can be considered and a Roguelike with the biggest difference in that it is a pseudo real-time.

Thank you once again.

The game is loosely based on the core rules of the Basic Fantasy RPG which is a retro clone, but made only the fighter and removed all spells to be able to finish it for the Jam.

Thank you.

Music was made with Furnace, it is chiptune music.

I wrote a little dev blog about the creation of the game, but it does not cover the music.

You can check it out here.

Very nice game. I played the MD version.

For some reason, the music stopped looping when I was playing.

I really liked the stile of the game, and the tiny sprites and all.

Very good level design.

My only complaint, is that I wish you had a button for jumping for the MD, but Amiga ruined this.

OK, I'll be honest. I didn't like the game.

Leaving aside that there is no sound, the game suffers from bad mechanics.

Letting the player choose what colour shoots ruined the game for me.

At first, it seemed as a nice idea, but in the end it didn't work. As there was no reason to aim etc.

Nice game.

Took me some time to get used to it, but that's cause is different.

At first, I thought that it will be a very boring game but, it proved me wrong.

Music was awesome.

Solid concept, execution and presentation.

I usually don't like "cute" games, but I really liked this one.

Music was to the point, judging from the size of the game this must had been PCM, but that's one of the capabilities of the machine, right?

The controls were solid, the gameplay was solid...

OK, I stop here.

The game is solid.

Nice game and very solid use of the platform.

My criticism is, that it seems to me that there is no way to beat this game without taking any damage.

The constant change of colours is impressive but too "psychedelic?" for me.

P.S.

For some reason, it reminded me of Jodorowsky.

He made movies as the equivalent of psychedelic drugs.

Well, this is an equivalent game...

Where you have been when I was playing Atari 2600?

I am 100% sure that this one would have been my number one game if it existed back in the day.

My only complaint is the random distribution of the bonus items.

I had my highest score on my worst run.

This was one strange ride.

To be honest, I had no idea what was going on.

Do I hit this guy?

Is he an enemy or a friend?

Nice game.

Those spikes were evil, but for some reason I liked them.

Especially the stage that had spikes in the row, up and down.

I also failed to pass it, but this is on me.

Nice game.

I think that with this prototype it became clear why Pang had hook with ropes and when firing bullets rapid fire.

Very nice game.

Thank you very much once again.