Dumuzid - 7DRL 2015 - SUCCESS!

[jere]

Here's a picture to quickly explain Dumuzid. Your character isn't standing over a black thing (a pit perhaps?). That black shape IS your character.



Dumuzid is an abstract, 1HP (sort of) roguelike. It explores what RLs might look like if the enemies weren't always 1 tile wide. The combat riffs off of Katamari/Osmos.

The game is extremely minimalistic. I'm proud to say, except for the opening screen and ending, there are no menus and no text whatsoever. And yet there's still an inventory of sorts. I'm tempted to not even include a tutorial or how-to-play, but I think one is going to be needed.

Here is the current build. Please have a go!

Controls: WASD/arrows and right mouse button to cycle through zoom settings. I'd suggest Google Chrome for now.

Day 4 is wrapping up and Dumuzid is certainly playable. There's plenty of polish left and I need to solve a couple major design quandaries (e.g. your character gets stuck easily.... which is kind of the point, but I still need some escape hatch there).

Upcoming stuff:

• continuously spawning monsters as a hunger clock and to prevent getting stuck permanently
• score system: contort yourself into predefined shapes to score points
• visible spell effects
• procedurally generated wall mosaics
• maybe: music, sounds, a tutorial, a cutscene

[jere]

You know, I'm not going to be that heartless. Here are some more detailed instructions for those wanting them:

Does anyone know how to replicate a SPOILER tag? Can't figure it out....

• There are a couple simple rules that govern combat: if you at least as big as an enemy, you absorb them when attacking. If not, you damage their blocks when attacking. Or you can kill any sized enemy by hitting its "center" point (the spiral).
• Enemies wait every few turns to prevent parity issues.
• You can't attack an enemy if you would be blocked by a wall
• You use "spells" by picking them up and bumping them into walls
• The spells are initially unidentified but a single use will identify
• Try not to get stuck. Use the diamond spell and the diamond shape and let small enemies hack at you when necessary.
• There are 7 floors. I've gotten real close, but haven't beaten it.

[jere]

Posted an update today.

• You can now get out of being stuck by banging against a wall SEVEN times (there may be consequences however).
• Score system added with previous scores show on title menu.
• Invisibility spell replaced with spell that destroys walls

I'm tackling polish issues at this point. One of those thing is making the wall tiles more exciting while not going for anything too detailed and suggestive. I found this pattern on some sumerian artwork and thought it would work well, but my first go at it looked kind of bad:



I removed the red row, added some texture, and tweaked the colors. Also I'm liking grey floor tiles a lot now, though that leaves the question of what to do with out of sight tiles:



Thoughts anyone?

[jonbro]

This is really good! I love your wall tiles in that picture. Maybe having the floor not have a grid when it is out of sight, just be the midpoint between the two other floor colors?

[jere]

Thanks, jonbro! Taking the midpoint was a pretty good idea, but it turned out just darkening the tiles worked even better. That way it gives it a more moody look (the game is set in the Underworld after all). Anyway what I have looks way better that original screenshot.

http://7drl.org/2015/03/14/dumuzid-success/

[jere]

I put out v1.1 which fixes some bugs and adds a little bit of polish. Created a landing page that has version history and downloads for each version.

http://humbit.com/dumuzid/

[jere]

I've heard reports of weird graphical glitches from 2 people (different problems too) and haven't yet gotten screens or details back yet.

If you experience anything like this, pretty PLEASE let me know and provide a screenshot. I will be eternally indebted to you.

At this point, I'm worried that one of these issues (I don't even know what they are, having never seen them) might pop up during reviewing.

[Avagart]

Nice game, ideal for coffebreaks. God bless you for standalone version

Any glitches, at all.

[jere]

Why thank you. I do think it is a good for coffeebreak play, but you can also go on extended score runs if you get really good.

I assume you mean no glitches at all. That's been the experience of 99% of people, which is why these two reports are odd.