Turn a cave! by Night

[raw]
made by Night for LD31 (JAM)
Hello guys!

We finished work on our game and now... Tadamm! Let's start! TURN A CAVE!

This game is about adventures of one strong young dwarf in deep mines near his native village. His main task is to collect gems in that mines. Each gem make village habitants happier, because dwarves can buy meals for it.

So, you are starting with random oriented different types of mines tracks, and you need to turn them and make appropriate path to gems and weapons. Yes, weapons! On higher levels different monsters, guarding jewels, will appear! Fight them and take a reward.
But be aware of time! On each level you have limited amount of steps, and if you run out of time – KABOOM! caves will begin to ruin. But you have an opportunity to escape – find a safe place with torches and wooden floor and stay on it! You'll survive after fall of stones and continue your adventures.
In the right part of screen you can see panel with game data and messages. Read them and you'll know all necessary information about game walkthrough. Also you can see here, if any monster guards a gem – just point your mouse on gem and read.

---Control
You can rotate tiles by RMB and walk by LMB.

---Known bugs
Because of the random nature of game's mechanics, you can get into a no-win situation. In this case try to use BLAST button from a safe place.
Game is very slow on Linux Firefox.

Feel free to share your high scores in comments!

Ratings

Coolness 82% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.24 468
Fun(Jam) 2.98 555
Graphics(Jam) 2.80 708
Humor(Jam) 2.75 408
Innovation(Jam) 3.51 233
Mood(Jam) 2.62 791
Theme(Jam) 3.54 521

Feedback

Jellycakes
09. Dec 2014 · 20:34 UTC
Really cool! The idea is pretty sweet and it's fun to play. The only complaint I would have is the ability to move more than 1 block at a time. Other than that, nice work!
Logun
10. Dec 2014 · 19:36 UTC
It is cool, i like the simple controls. it s pretty sad that our dwarf can't follow a longer trip on his own, clicking on every square is not very fluide but i suppose it s maybe hard to develop that in 3 days ^^
Great anyway
DiegoHenriquez
10. Dec 2014 · 21:19 UTC
This was pretty fun! Stayed playing it for quite a while...
Threstle
10. Dec 2014 · 21:26 UTC
This was fun, but the music might be a little too agressive for the theme, I think. ;)
Dejsan
10. Dec 2014 · 21:28 UTC
Wow, like the game! But music is terrible and can't move more then one block, but anyway game is cool !
🎤 Night
10. Dec 2014 · 21:38 UTC
Thank you for feedback! Moving to more than one block was in our plans, but we didn't have enough time. ^__^
Music was added to game right before publishing from some free asset. Game is not judged in audio category. I'll try to ask organizers, if they won't might to turn it off now or change for something more suitable.
playvue
11. Dec 2014 · 16:16 UTC
Fun! But, seriously don't like hte music. I don't thikn it fits at all. Definitely love the use of the pipes mechanic for caves! Are you not supposed to be able to rotate the cave under a gem? And, it'd speed the game up if you could click anywhere the caves are accessible and have the player find his way there without having to go tile by tile. Good job!
superfrog
11. Dec 2014 · 20:09 UTC
too slowly ... but with potential.
pjimmy
11. Dec 2014 · 20:09 UTC
nice game, well done
Pestel Crew
11. Dec 2014 · 20:12 UTC
Very nice and smart concept, controls is not so good, but I think it's ok for that kind of game
madcapacity
11. Dec 2014 · 21:03 UTC
This was a wonderful puzzle mechanic - great job!
Asaratha
11. Dec 2014 · 21:04 UTC
I don't understand what to do.
Demy
11. Dec 2014 · 21:43 UTC
Interesting interpretation of piper puzzle =)
🎤 Night
11. Dec 2014 · 21:59 UTC
Asaratha, right click - rotate corridors, left click - walk from tile to tile, if they are connected.
ArcturusDeluxe
11. Dec 2014 · 22:45 UTC
Interesting idea. Combining Pipemania with a mining setting is neat! Decent graphics too. Some more direct control over the character would be cool. Nice job anyway.
psychomonster
12. Dec 2014 · 10:15 UTC
I love games with random generated levels. To have a not solveable situation is okay for me, cause its a prototype. Runned it on Ubuntu Firefox, game speed was not as bad as expected. Very cute dwarf ;) Cannot say anything about sound, cause I was sitting in a seminar... ohhh you deleted sound at the ratings.... goood ;) Like it to play games in a browser without the need of using plugins. Good Job!
OldPeculier
12. Dec 2014 · 14:10 UTC
I found this quite brilliant and legitimately fun. It reminds me, of course, of the board game Labyrinth.

If I were improving it, I would:

* Either allow long-distance pathfinding (click anywhere for which there is a visible path and the character will go there automatically), or show a visual indicator as you mouse over tiles that reminds the player that the four tiles adjacent to the player are the only ones he can gainfully click on.
* Show a clearer end-result/threat. In the end I stopped playing despite enjoying the underlying mechanics because I didn't feel an ovearching purpose.
* Eliminate "dead end" tiles. There are enough dead end situations without them: that is, corners and straights often conspire to make a path impossible. I don't think dead ends are necessary, and I think they slow down the game and amplify the risk of unwinnable situations.

The name, by the way, rhymes with "Tourniquet!", which is kind of funny.
ZYXer
12. Dec 2014 · 22:35 UTC
Interesting puzzle game. The pace is a bit slow, but the conecpt quite promissing. Reminds me a bit of "Dare to Dig!" from LD28.
alfadur
13. Dec 2014 · 01:48 UTC
Nice idea! Apart from dead ends the generator does a good job on creating challenge, I feel I had to do just about right amount of backtracking to get where I tried to.
JJEvil
13. Dec 2014 · 19:35 UTC
Nice game mechanic. I liked it.
JJEvil
14. Dec 2014 · 01:02 UTC
I awarded you a trophy. This post explains why: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2014/12/13/my-picks-for-ld31s-top-10-best-beards-manly-mustaches/
alyphen
14. Dec 2014 · 13:11 UTC
It's a pretty neat idea, but it felt like it lacked audio - my only other major gripe was the movement - you couldn't move more than one square at a time, and you couldn't rotate counter clockwise. The text didn't really make you notice it, but that was a minor issue.
Overall, a fun idea that could do with more polishing.
PapyPilgrim
16. Dec 2014 · 10:55 UTC
A bit too slow for my taste, I must say. Clicking on each tile to move is a bit boring.
Also I saw a reference to some music in other comments, but I had absolutly no sounds (played in chrome).
Chris M
17. Dec 2014 · 09:12 UTC
Great mechanic! Loved how if you couldn't get straight to a diamond, you could try and excavate around it with diminishing returns. First feature you should add is pathfinding (and perhaps WASD movement); not being able to move more than one block at a time creates a LOT of friction.
gana0
23. Dec 2014 · 18:06 UTC
Interesting puzzle game concept! It was a little hard to tell where caves ended or simply didn't connect, especially when standing on an end.
Shampop
23. Dec 2014 · 18:07 UTC
Control are pretty annoying, but i liked the idea.