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A very well produced, fun game with trippy graphics and cute voice-overs! I obtained the power of Earth by 'killing' the green dragon, but got stuck at that point as I couldn't find an exit.

The card combat system is a bold choice, as it makes for a steep learning curve within a game jam. However, it has a well implement UI and also help features. So, it's good that you're pushing the boundaries for mechanics in this type of game. I also like that you can buy new better cards and upgrade existing cards; the progression in fire power is good.

The game ran well in Firefox. I have a low spec machine but there were no performance issues at all. The game seems well put together, technically speaking.

Thanks for helping to organize the jam!

Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback. When I was writing the UI, I did think "it will be really bad if someone sells their plate armour by accident, hope they don't do that!" :-) Think I'd better put some guard rails in when I redesign the UI! Thanks again.  

This game has good graphics and audio and feels well presented. Movement is nice and smooth!  The concept of the game is very interesting: it's like a restaurant where you have to fight and kill your own lunch :-)

I made it to the first cooking station and met Mario the Dwarf, where he ate a burnt stew made from dead Mushroom Man. Mmmm... yummy! ;-) Sadly the stew wasn't very nourishing, as we all died of soon after :-(

For a 9 day jam I think you implemented a lot of functionality. The most important additional thing to implement would be a map.

Re performance, I use Linux on a basic office-type PC with integrated graphics, and I successfully ran the browser version of your game using Chrome, although CPU and RAM usage were both maxed out. Hope that info is useful.

Thanks for submitting to the jam!

Thank you for playing and for your extensive comments! The graphics do not represent a specific machine, but are inspired by 1980's machines like the VIC-20, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. You are right that the UI is clunky, it needs some work!

You are correct that there is no leveling up implemented yet. The game strategy is to kill some monsters, get gold/valuables, buy the best armour you can (plus some healing potions) then slog it out with the tougher enemies (which can take time). I hope to develop a more sophisticated RPG in future, with faster combat rules.

Re the dragon stones, you can try to sell them but game doesn't let you, because their price is listed as 'n/a'. Sorry if that caused confusion!

Thanks again for trying out my game! 

Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it. Yes, 'real old school' is/was the aim :-)

A very polished game with high quality graphics and sound. The music is very upbeat (i.e. fast tempo), which I guess is part of the JRPG genre. Love the 3D 'dungeon' environment, the graphics are very nice and it has a cozy feel like walking around a garden :-)

Combat is not so cozy ;-) The combat system works well, but the enemies are tough and cause a lot of damage. The party took damage in the first battle, so I tried to escape the second battle but couldn't, and it was a total party kill :-(

Thanks for submitting!

PS: Good to give player choice of A/D or Q/E for strafe.

Love the whole atmosphere of this, with the spooky blues/jazz soundtrack and the comicbook style visuals. The Star Wars style intro was a nice touch too :-) Took me a while to realise that 'w' and 's' move combat selection up and down, although it's obvious now I think about it. The combat tips are useful too. The lighting up of the visited tiles is a also a great idea. Thanks for submitting!

Very polished and enjoyable game with a dazzling array of objects to collect!

The visually varied 3D maze combined with the climb/jump mechanic makes this world a lot more interesting to explore than a standard 2D dungeon. Love the gotcha puzzle elements; I spent a while wondering how to get the first crate up to the higher level before realising there was a second crate :-)  

Also appreciate that following resurrection, my inventory is intact (phew!)

Must mention the audio, simple but atmospheric! Love the use of the single drip FX to add atmosphere, big benefit for a small use of memory.

No real criticism, just a minor bug report for the web version on Firefox: sometimes during combat, the item I use first (say '1') is then used for subsequent attacks, even though I am selecting the other item (i.e. '2'). Rectifies itself after a few rounds, so not a big problem... I just cast a few more fire attacks than I intended :-) 

Awesome game!

Thanks for playing and thanks for the kind comments. Obviously the game has some issues with the UI and combat system (highlighted by earlier reviews) so it's kind of you to focus on the positive elements.

Re the dragon theme, I was hoping to have a dragon as the final boss, but ran out of time. I created a 'humanoid' class to generate avatars for the player and most of the enemies (plus their armour and equipment) and it worked well, except when it came to implementing a non-humanoid. I probably should have thought that through :-/

Thanks again!

Thanks for commenting, and congrats on collecting all the stones!

Yes, you were the first person to rate my first ever DC jam game "Spud of Golds", so thanks for that too! :-) Amazed you remembered.

Look forward to checking out your game. I'm on Linux so will be launching it with WINE, but fingers crossed. 

Sounds like my (non-existent) fashion sense: if they've got it in black, just buy it in black ;-)

Thank you playing my game, and for your kind comments. Congratulations for finding a bug, you described it very clearly so I was able replicated it myself and I know how to fix it! I don't know if I'm allowed to fix it during the jam, but thanks to your post other players will be warned.

Incidentally, you can use healing potions outside of combat using 1 Equipment -> 2 Use item -> 5 Drink Potion. In future I'll create a shortcut to that to make things easier.

Thanks again for the review!

The title image for this game looks good! Unfortunately I am unable to run your game on my linux box :-( The .sh script in Linux.zip launches the program fine, but I get a pop-up  message "Vulcan device could not be created at the project's supported feature levels". Perhaps my machine doesn't have enough graphics capability for your game? It is just a basic office-type PC with integrated graphics.

I tried LinuxArm.zip also, but never expected that to work as it's for a different architecture. I even tried running the Windows.zip executable using WINE, but that didn't work at all (it rarely does). 

Sorry about that, good luck in the jam!

Just checked out CaptainCoder's playthrough, and wow, you've created a whole RPG with a genuinely engaging narrative! The spiritual/mystical elements add real depth to the story, and the Druids are especially creepy (like the witches in Macbeth). Innovative idea to use of songs as a parallel form of magic.

The artwork is great, as well as the limited palette I like the use of black outline to tie everything together. The combat system is involving but not too complex, and the UI seems no-nonsense and really effective. Kind of you to allow restart from current position on death.

Nothing negative to add, really. I know a combat bug occured during the playthrough, but that can happen to any of us.

Great submission, and thanks for helping to organise the jam!

I enjoyed playing this, especially the open world feel of the locations with their semi-secret areas. The heist concept is innovative for a dungeon crawler, and the alarm system adds tension...or panic, in my case! :-) Graphics and audio are good and create the right atmosphere. 

I had to visit the office twice to make the 10k,  so it was nice of them to restock all that cash! :-) Then made it as far as the truck, but was unable to lift the stands and got caught by the cops. I really liked the multilevel, maze-like layout of the construction site, that was fun to explore.

My only minor suggestion is to have a few more tips initially, e.g. about needing a tool to pick locks, and perhaps a prompt to look at the notice board on the back of the door.

Great game, thanks for submitting!

Thanks for investing so much time in my odd little game! :-) It can be completed in about 30mins if you know which enemies hold the Dragon Stones. Sorry about the awkward UI, it grew organically and is difficult to change; my next iteration of this engine will have a completely redesigned UI. The great thing about the DC jam is that I'm getting so much useful feedback from people who really like playing this type of game. Look forward to trying out Louvre Heist.

PS Glad you liked the 'so-real-you-could-almost-be-there' 1980s graphics, lol.

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback and kind comments! You're not the first to mention the 'follow the right wall" strategy; tbh I never gave it any thought, perhaps it's because the dungeon is like a tree diagram with very few potential loops? Thanks for putting up with the clunky UI, that part of the code grew organically and needs an overhaul from first principles.  Re combat, it does get a bit boring when both opponents have strong armour, like two knights trying to find each other's single weak spot. I might introduce a vorpal attack or similar, to speed things up. Also thanks for kind comments on the audio, I know 80s style square-wave FX aren't to everyone's taste ;-)

Anyways, thanks again for playing and for the kind review. I notice a playthrough has appeared for "The Sacred Flame" now, so I'll be sure to take a look at that!

Nice to know, thanks!

Thanks for kind feedback!

Reading the comments here it looks like you've got a good game with really nice graphics! Alas, I couldn't get the game to run on my Linux system using WINE. This isn't your fault at all, it's usually a 50/50 chance whether a Windows Unity game will run on WINE, and in this jam I'm having a run of bad luck :-(

Don't worry, I'm sure it's just my machine: it's a basic office-type PC with integrated CPU/GPU!!! :-) I run Linux and mainly play 80s/90s games, so it's fine for all that. Hope you guys do well in the jam!

Great game with some really nice touches. Love the spike traps and rotating blocks in the air section, and the way the fireballs light up the dungeon walls is magic! Game has an arcade feel despite being turn based. Only niggle is that it crashed at the first text screen first time I ran it; after that it ran fine (I played the web version, in Firefox).

Thanks for the review and the kind comments. Sorry to hear about your armour mishap :-/ I ought to include a confirm yes/no on sales!

The graphics look fantastic! Alas I wasn't able to get this running on poor my old Linux box. It rendered one frame every 2-3 secs, then crashed at body type selection. The Windows version actually did better (using WINE) achieving 1 frame per sec, then crashing at the same place. Not your fault, just my underpowered tech!

Ditto! :-)

Thanks for the reply. I suspect it's a lottery as to whether a Windows game runs on WINE or not. I've played some jam games that run fine on WINE, and I'm sure it wasn't because of anything the developer did intentionally. All the best and good luck with the jam! 

Thanks for the feedback, sorry about the Troll but he is a bad ass! :-)  You make a valid point about the Speed attribute: high speed is lethal because of the number of attacks one can deliver, but I forgot to include any items that can increase speed to that high level. Oops! Low speed isn't good, but it's not much of a penalty. All good feedback for a future game, thanks again!   

I really enjoyed playing, thanks for submitting! Very high quality production values, with an intuitive interface that gives control without overloading the player with too much information. Great narrative too! Hard to find any faults, really. Look forward to playing a full game of this when I have the time. 

Initially chose to play this because the thumbnail reminded of "Blakes's 7" :-) Stayed for the great graphics, tense atmosphere and engaging gameplay. Card based combat is new to me, but think I got the hang of it. Wish I had more time to play. Thanks for submitting!

Graphics look amazing! Very effective used of limited colour palette. Alas I can't rate it yet as I'm on Linux and this one doesn't run for me in WINE. I'll keep my eyes out for a playthough video, though.

Love the minimal ASCII graphics style and enigmatic game description! Navigation is tricky but that's obviously part of the charm / challenge.... in the 80's we cried ourselves to sleep wishing for an in-game mini-map ;-)  

Love the bold colours and pixel art visuals! Audio is atmospheric, the gameplay flows well, and there's lots of crunchy detail to get into (wish I had time to play until the end). 

Great to hear you enjoyed it! Your feedback on the UI is most welcome; the current UI is just preliminary and will get a complete overhaul before the next project.

Thanks for playing! Also, thanks for the feedback on the 'map' key. The UI is due a complete overhaul before the next project, so I'll take your suggestion on board. Like the look of your dcjam25 entry, btw.

Well made and involving game! Made it to level 3. Enjoyed the sarcastic and narrative and cryptic instructions :-) Nice smooth transitions, good controls, pleasing graphics and audio. Played the web version in Firefox and it ran fine.

Thanks for playing!

Re the abandoned cottage: the roof tiles behave just like ladders, so you can walk horizontally across the roof, or even drop down inside the building itself. The best strategy is to drop down the chimney and collect the power-ups before fighting the bear!

Thank you!

A very nice retro style urban adventure game! The limited palette graphics work really well, and the nursing home setting is cozy whilst somewhat unsettling (I find that in real-life nursing homes too). Good work!

Just a suggestion: it would be great to have true tile-based movement: i.e. you press a direction key once and then travel smoothly to the centre of the neighbouring tile. This would address the 'pixel perfect' issue that tmachine mentioned below. However, that would require quite a lot of extra programming and, to be fair, the movement system you have works well enough.

Thanks for playing and the kind comments!

Great game with a nice story. Managed to complete it and found the secret of magic! The switch to/from text adventure mode was a surprise, but worked really well and is an innovation I've never seen before. Polished, with nice graphics and sound, and a lot of content crammed into a small game. Well done to both of you!