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Update: beat the game after the last update! Ran into quite a few bugs but the worst one was the new map feature being nothing but a black screen. Probably an asset that wasn't bundled properly when building?

Mostly agree! Just not sure if the difficulty was intentional. The tone certainly doesn't hint it'd be but I guess maybe the source-material would :D (those classic point-and-click games sure could get nasty)!

Either way, as I commented, that's awkward when it comes to a jam-entry. Folk already have every incentive to move-on to the next entry, being "very hard" is just adding salt to the wound... but again as I said, this doesn't detract from the result, just makes it an odd-duck I guess!

I did win against the governor's-wife, I think but I'm not sure what version you've played to compare it to.

A review of The Mystery Of The Pirate's Treasure:

Presentation: very visually impressive, on-par with commercial products and an impressive number of assets and attention to environmental-design (the lack of music and sound-effects really leaves a void though when the game-world looks this good). Night-time transition is a bit abrupt and too-dark, it would be nice to have a surrounding lantern-halo effect at night.

Controls: I understand this being a mix between a dungeon-crawler; Monkey Island; (and perhaps a bit of Myst) but would be nice to have free-roam controls with mouse-look too. The ship is awkward, including: engaging with sailing; a bug where you have to click the camera-toggle twice; and having to reverse out-of-port (which I love because it's hilarious)!

Game-play: I was surprised to find that the treasure's location seems to be randomized with each new play-through (and logically all clues too)! This is a genius-move both from a design and a player's perspective as it greatly enhances replay-value and challenge with minimal development effort! The game is tough and some aids like a map of islands could help.

Writing: really more of a back-drop here but deserves a mention. The effort put into giving each character some personality; quirky jokes; and an overall vibe to the game does add charm to the experience. Some of it lands; some doesn't but I'm glad it's there because this could easily be just dry; functional text, especially during the crunch of a game-jam!

However, I never managed to beat the game despite putting a non-trivial amount of time and effort into it, mostly because I ever only saw the shovel spawn once in all my play-throughs. I'm pretty sure I know at least one treasure location though and it's a shame I never got to dig for it.

I'll mention also that this is perhaps in a weird-spot for a game-jam entry. This isn't at all a criticism of this project's quality but it's easy to imagine most players would give-up long-before finding 3 clues; the shovel; let alone the treasure... especially with the short time-limit; a restart meaning new clues; and the time needed to first explore the world.

Perhaps the concept would work-better as a full-game instead. A more directed approach where one clue leads to the next rather than the sand-box scavenger-hunt with the ultimate goal of finding the treasure could also make the formula more accessible to some players (even though I very-much personally appreciate the current; tight; almost rogue-like design).

Thanks! If you ever fix the browser version let me know!

I definitely can't fault you for using a version of turn-based combat that in many ways has been the norm for over 40 years... but it's also certainly starting to show its age.

It's not even necessarily about making something completely different but often just having one interesting mechanic that adds a little bit of depth and dynamics ~ but yeah, that would mean going outside the box when it comes to the RPG Maker package (and taking more risks)...

Good luck with the jam's results! Not sure how it all works since I'm not participating myself.

Enticing game-jam entry that could seemingly be sold as an above-average indie product on any digital platform. My one problem with it is that entering the forest grinds my browser down to 2 frames-per-second. Would play again if fixed!

I'm also over the bland 90s JRPG combat now that more interesting systems exist, from Final Fantasy 12's gambits to Octopath Traveller's boosts. Realistically though, that is still (sadly) the standard for many RPGs so I don't think most people would mind it - nor does it keep me from playing.

Really nice concept! I felt like I was playing something in-between Myst and Wizardry, which is really high praise in my book!

I love the graphic engine, which throws me right back to playing dozens of DOS demos as a kid and delivers a compelling ambiance and sense of mystery to keep the player interested in the exploration.

I was able to win every fight by spamming "attack" though, and never lost a hit point, even in the "dangerous" final battle. I restarted the game to test it out and did lose some hit points but was still able to win by just spamming attacks - both times using the pre-made party.

I think that if you rethink the combat from scratch, you could definitely use this tech to create some very interesting worlds to explore. The old D&D games like Menzoberranzan and Strahd's Possession come to mind!

Being able to properly look up and down (or even mouse-sook) would've been fun too!

I encountered multiple bugs but nothing that detracted from the experience enough to even bother mentioning :D

I encountered a few decorations that were interesting, that fit into the game world but that were obviously not interactive. The "dimension door" left me puzzled though, would be nice to have to go through it after defeating the final boss  :D

Goes to show how the simple graphics and ambiance were enough to deliver a sense of mystery that made me want to explore this tiny world! Would love to see the concept expanded to a bigger scale, with better (or even without any) combat!

I fixed a couple of bugs, which I couldn't before the 7DRL results were in:

• Partial floor rendering after using a scroll of vision
• Pre-loading assets to avoid delay on their first render

Since the submission comments are a bit hard to find, thought I'd leave links to them here too:

• https://itch.io/post/7481830
• https://itch.io/post/7501517
• https://itch.io/post/7489177

Thank you so much for your compliments! It's slow by design, really, it tries to push the roguelike formula as much into idle territory as possible...

We considered doing sound effects but no one in the team ended up having time during the week to do it. In the end I think it's a good thing because it would probably get in the way of Alberto's soundtrack, which people seem to enjoy a lot based on the feedback :D

I'm glad you enjoyed Loop Dungeons - and thanks for taking the time to write your comment!

Hi Janku, what browser are you using? The repeat press delay is most likely a browser setting. We tested the game on Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

The upgrade system just changes the trigger chance, usually by 10% or 20% per level. I can confirm this is reflected on the tooltips as well!

Thanks for trying out our game :) I enjoyed playing as "Jole" as well lol yours was one of the very first games I've played from this year's event!

Thank you so much Jake, makes me very happy to hear you enjoyed the game! The text overlay bug is probably the help function, which you can trigger by pressing h.

Check out these other cool games from the 7DRL challenge as well!

you made me feel like I was playing games on my dads computer as a kid again!

Now I'm curious what games you played with your dad as a kid haha :D

We finished our entry and uploaded it yesterday! You can read about and play it here.

Didn't even notice there was a community tab here until now! Whoopsie!