Too Much Loot! by CheesyRamen
*UPDATE* Added web, Mac, and Linux builds! I compiled the Max & Linux builds from Windows, hence I haven't tested them. Let me know if they don't work!
This was my first Ludum Dare ever, and I got to say it was fun!
This game is my entry; a game called Too Much Loot!
When thinking of the minimalism theme, I looked into what it consisted of, and I was surprised
that there are many different interpretations of this theme that one can go about making a game on!
I ultimately based my game on the concept of a minimalist lifestyle, or simple living.
This is where one reduces one's possessions or self-sufficiency until they are left with
the things they need instead of the things they want. This can lead to lead to many
different types of benefits; it's really an interesting way to look at things in life!
Anyways, I got inspiration for this game based upon playing many dungeon-crawlers, where
I'd often end up hoarding all the items that ever fell on the ground, thinking that there'd =
be some benefit in doing so. More often than not, had I not hoarded all that loot, I may have
been able to reap other benefits that could have come along.
Too Much Loot sort of simulates that, along with the concept of minimalism. In order to advance
in this game, you'll need to rely on the items you find, but you'll also need to make decisions
about what you really need instead of what you want, and having to get rid of unnecessary items.
That's the spirit of the game at least; I didn't have as much time to game-balance this game as
I wanted, so keep that in mind when playing. Also, I wanted to learn about making randomly-generated
levels, which means that my implementation of it may lead to cases/levels that are just unbeatable.
Unfortunately in those cases, just press the 'R' key to restart. :/
Feel free to send me any comments/suggestions!
------------
HOW TO PLAY:
------------
WSAD or Arrow Keys
- Move
Q/E or
- Cycle through enemies to see their stats. Note that attacking an enemy will automatically see their stats.
Keyboard 0-9 keys
- Drops the item equipped in that slot. Essential for progressing in this game!
R: Restarts a new game
ESC: Exits the game.
----------
ATTACKING:
----------
Basically, it goes like this:
- Walk into a monster to attack them. They will attack you back afterwards.
- Every monster you encounter will take damage from one of five elements: (F)ire, (W)ater, (L)ightning, (N)ature, and (D)ark
- Every monster also absorbs damage (heals) from those same elements.
- Every item you pick up will add a certain number of points of those elements; the sum of points in one element is considered your attack strength for that element.
- The amount of damage you do is your attack strength of an element that a monster is vulnerable to minus your attack strength of an element that the monster can absorb.
- This means that you can deal negative damage, which means you can heal monsters!
- You can only advance to the next level once you've beaten all the monsters on the level.
----------
TIPS:
----------
- If your inventory is full, you cannot open new treasure chests, and hence walk past them.
- Is is important to drop unnecessary items in order to collect new items and fight certain monsters.
- Think about what items you'll be dropping! You may inadvertantly drop the item you need to fight later monsters!
- Picking up a treasure chest will heal the player.
- Due to the not-so-awesome procedural generation, if you find yourself unable to pass a level, you'll have to press the 'R' key
to start all over. Sorry! :(
This was my first Ludum Dare ever, and I got to say it was fun!
This game is my entry; a game called Too Much Loot!
When thinking of the minimalism theme, I looked into what it consisted of, and I was surprised
that there are many different interpretations of this theme that one can go about making a game on!
I ultimately based my game on the concept of a minimalist lifestyle, or simple living.
This is where one reduces one's possessions or self-sufficiency until they are left with
the things they need instead of the things they want. This can lead to lead to many
different types of benefits; it's really an interesting way to look at things in life!
Anyways, I got inspiration for this game based upon playing many dungeon-crawlers, where
I'd often end up hoarding all the items that ever fell on the ground, thinking that there'd =
be some benefit in doing so. More often than not, had I not hoarded all that loot, I may have
been able to reap other benefits that could have come along.
Too Much Loot sort of simulates that, along with the concept of minimalism. In order to advance
in this game, you'll need to rely on the items you find, but you'll also need to make decisions
about what you really need instead of what you want, and having to get rid of unnecessary items.
That's the spirit of the game at least; I didn't have as much time to game-balance this game as
I wanted, so keep that in mind when playing. Also, I wanted to learn about making randomly-generated
levels, which means that my implementation of it may lead to cases/levels that are just unbeatable.
Unfortunately in those cases, just press the 'R' key to restart. :/
Feel free to send me any comments/suggestions!
------------
HOW TO PLAY:
------------
WSAD or Arrow Keys
- Move
Q/E or
- Cycle through enemies to see their stats. Note that attacking an enemy will automatically see their stats.
Keyboard 0-9 keys
- Drops the item equipped in that slot. Essential for progressing in this game!
R: Restarts a new game
ESC: Exits the game.
----------
ATTACKING:
----------
Basically, it goes like this:
- Walk into a monster to attack them. They will attack you back afterwards.
- Every monster you encounter will take damage from one of five elements: (F)ire, (W)ater, (L)ightning, (N)ature, and (D)ark
- Every monster also absorbs damage (heals) from those same elements.
- Every item you pick up will add a certain number of points of those elements; the sum of points in one element is considered your attack strength for that element.
- The amount of damage you do is your attack strength of an element that a monster is vulnerable to minus your attack strength of an element that the monster can absorb.
- This means that you can deal negative damage, which means you can heal monsters!
- You can only advance to the next level once you've beaten all the monsters on the level.
----------
TIPS:
----------
- If your inventory is full, you cannot open new treasure chests, and hence walk past them.
- Is is important to drop unnecessary items in order to collect new items and fight certain monsters.
- Think about what items you'll be dropping! You may inadvertantly drop the item you need to fight later monsters!
- Picking up a treasure chest will heal the player.
- Due to the not-so-awesome procedural generation, if you find yourself unable to pass a level, you'll have to press the 'R' key
to start all over. Sorry! :(
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.25 | 471 |
| Audio | 2.38 | 748 |
| Fun | 3.07 | 478 |
| Graphics | 2.60 | 901 |
| Humor | 2.61 | 327 |
| Innovation | 3.34 | 390 |
| Mood | 2.80 | 626 |
| Theme | 3.07 | 976 |
Also, it'd be nice if you could see what a chest contains before picking it up, because you might end up dropping an item for a worse one just because you can't progress otherwise. Like, there are a lot of chests blocking your path, and you actually have to drop an item to be able to pass by opening them.
@Gama11 I agree with you there. I wanted to color-code the text, but I didn't get a chance to. The GUI was the last thing I worked on before submitting :/
Couple of thoughts:
I feel that the color of the monsters should indicate both what it absorbs and what it can be damaged by. I get the sense that the color of the sprite currently communicates what it can be damaged by (when I was playing, for example, all red enemies were hurt by fire). Maybe a future iteration could color code the eyes to hint at what it absorbs?
I also wish I could use the mouse to preview the stats of an enemy. Using Q and E works okay, but sometimes it took longer to find the stats of a specific enemy quickly.
Aside from that, I liked it! Good job!
Unfortunately it becomes a bit of "spreadsheet" management after a while. What if you started with only three elements for the first level, and added an element on level 2 and three... Also, if there was a way to graphically show the weaknesses/strengths of the monsters (a symbol for each color like Magic the Gathering and a number) that would speed up the game and remove a lot of tedium for me.
I'll try to look more into it to see if it could be something else. Worst case, I've provided downloadable builds you can try playing on.