A Tale of Seven Kittens by sorceress

[raw]
made by sorceress for LD22 (COMPO)
I created a Wolf3D type engine and added RPG elements. This is a simple dungeon crawler. The dungeon is procedurally generated using the name you type in during the intro as a seed.

Made from completely from scratch using opengl for graphics + FMOD for sound.

Only pre-existing code was a small module that handles the loading and playing of sounds. This was declared in a blog post before the contest started.

My take on the theme 'Alone' was that of a lone hero. But the hag in the intro brings the 'being alone' theme into the game in two additional ways.

Controls:
Movement -- Cursor Keys
Fire/Use -- Control
Select Item -- Number keys 1-7
Exit -- Escape.

The mouse can also be used with the inventory.

I've play tested it a little, to verify that everything works, and crudely balance the three player classes.

I hope you enjoy it! I've certainly enjoyed making it. :)

Ratings

Coolness 78% 2
Overall 3.60 39
Audio 3.22 74
Community 3.27 86
Fun 3.31 49
Graphics 3.47 114
Humor 2.71 103
Innovation 2.69 247
Mood 3.19 116
Theme 2.62 360

Feedback

dr_soda
19. Dec 2011 · 01:39 UTC
This is a fun concept with a really neat graphic style. Were the ghosts that harm you and then disappear a reference to Gauntlet?
digital_sorceress
19. Dec 2011 · 02:37 UTC
Yes, Well picked up on! :D

Gauntlet did inspire my choice of monsters. The ghosts have a suicide attack that does 250% damage. Note the red dragons that spit fire too.
jagttt
19. Dec 2011 · 11:26 UTC
This is pretty cool. I really love the old school ray-casting looking and feelings. And when walking and using an item it looks exactly like what's in minecraft which is really lovely too. Really a cool game!~
matthias_zarzecki
19. Dec 2011 · 15:32 UTC
Nice adventurer! There is alot of depth in there, once you get far enough and see the glut of items.

One minor problem: Having look up/down on A/Z means in the german key-layout (I'm forced to use) up/down is actually on A and Z.(having the key on, say, S/X would not produce this)

Still, nice complete game!
The Jahn
19. Dec 2011 · 16:15 UTC
I've actually been wanting to play a game like this for a while. Thanks! :D
caranha
20. Dec 2011 · 01:16 UTC
Damn those kittens! Where are they! Where are they!

Heh, I liked your game, but I completely suck at it. I only found 2 kittens :-( I liked that you only had seven slots, so, If I got it right, near the end you wont be able to use any items! Was that a conscious decision? I didnt see it mentioned in your blog posts.

On the other hand, not having ANY means for navigating the maze (map, compass, etc) made the game quite frustrating. Also, for some reason I couldn't pick up the better armor/weapons that appeared in the game. I would walk and walk over them with open inventory slots and nothing would happen :-(

Oh, enemies should be knocked back when you hit them. Or at least freeze for half a second.

Thanks for the game!
Jacic
20. Dec 2011 · 06:02 UTC
My only complaint is that it just closes if you die. Great job on this! :D
digital_sorceress
20. Dec 2011 · 11:39 UTC
Thankyou all for your feedback.

matthias: I was aware of A/Z issue when I wrote it, and being able to redefine keys was a low priority for me. I never thought of using S/X.


caranha: I chose 7 slots because that's how many fit across the bottom, but it seemed like a nice number too. :)

7 kittens were chosen because there is one for each slot. You can carry them with you as you play, or remember where they are and gather them up after you've killed everything.

In the spirit of games like Dungeon Master, there is no map, but you are free to make your own map. I considered adding a compass item, but there was no time.

The knock back idea is good. I'll definitely add that to an improved version over the coming weeks, thanks!

You can't pick up higher level items, no. It was easier to do it like that than write logic to see if an inventory item can be used.

Jacic: Yes, it just closes. In my final playtest I realised that I had -260HP because I totally forgot about the death condition! I didn't have time to add a proper one.
digital_sorceress
20. Dec 2011 · 15:12 UTC
To clarify: You can't pick up higher level items than your current player level.
neilogd
21. Dec 2011 · 11:49 UTC
Good little game :) Seems quite long, I managed to find 3 of the kittens :( I also wondered about being unable to pick up certain weapons? Do you need to be a high enough level to use certain items?
digital_sorceress
21. Dec 2011 · 13:22 UTC
It's normal for games to be quite long and have some depth of gameplay. It takes upto one hour to play through this, which I think is sensible for a dungeon crawler.

I detest games with shallow/mindless gameplay or those which are over in five minutes. Those are more like distractions than games.
Nabakin
21. Dec 2011 · 19:17 UTC
REALLY REALLY this is Notches game Prelude of the Chambered here look: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ld48/index.html now compare I wont even try this game, but if you have a reason why they look so similar please tell.
digital_sorceress
21. Dec 2011 · 19:31 UTC
Notch didn't invent Raycasters. Do you honestly think he did?!! They were all the rage 20 years ago. Go look them up, then come back here and apologize.
Setech
22. Dec 2011 · 07:04 UTC
Great graphics, nice old-school sound, and dammit where is mittens?? Very nice overall. I managed to find four kittens before running out of inventory space and dying :p

Are the maps randomly generated? I felt like they were different my second play through..
idanmiller
22. Dec 2011 · 08:21 UTC
Nice game! Very impressive for 48 hours :)
I liked the graphics, and it was pretty fun.
However, I got tired after finding one kitten and going through endless mazes :) The amount of items is impressive as well, good job!
digital_sorceress
22. Dec 2011 · 11:02 UTC
Setech: Yes they're procedurally generated, using the name you type in during the intro as a seed.
SonnyBone
23. Dec 2011 · 10:20 UTC
OH MY GOD IT'S HUGE! I guess those kittens will just have to die of starvation. Pretty complete for 48 hours!
digital_sorceress
23. Dec 2011 · 12:10 UTC
The dungeon size is set at 64 rooms. I originally chose 16 rooms, but I felt that was too small when I played it through, so it got a quadrupling. ;)
marudziik
23. Dec 2011 · 13:15 UTC
@digital_sorceress
Yes, it's nice that it's a long game, but very few people have the time to play for an hour in a LD game, if they want to rate other games. :)
Overall it's a nice entry, with very nice graphics and audio, but I didn't manage to finish it, as I got lost in the maze.

Also, wanted to see the source, but the link is broken.
Cosr
25. Dec 2011 · 02:17 UTC
Nice little dungeon crawler with a decent wealth of things going on.

It would be nice if there was a way to gauge the strength of enemies, since it seems some have the same appearance but different levels or something and it can be hard to tell how strong they actually are until you're in trouble.
galman
29. Dec 2011 · 17:23 UTC
Hello my friend!
Really sweet game! Maybe after the voting ends I will take an hour to finish the game. Very nice 3d for 48 hours!
Well done!
sirius_black9999
03. Jan 2012 · 03:22 UTC
a few remarks, first off, this, graphically, looks very similar to @notch's ld21 entry: prelude of the chambered, is that what you were inspired by? also, i wasn't able to find any button on the keyboard that functioned as a "drop" key, and that meant i seemed unable to carry all 7 kittens at any time after picking up any item, but then again, i hadn't realised there were seperate mouse controls, and your source code link seems to be broken?
Shigor
04. Jan 2012 · 16:24 UTC
Ahh, it reminded me good old days with Catacomb The Abyss (I liked it much more then later Wolfenstein by the same guy, I think he's called Carmack :D).

For Notch cultists: it might come as a shock to you, but Notch didn't invent 3d games.
binary_girl
04. Jan 2012 · 18:01 UTC
ah i think everyone knows notch didnt invent raycasting like heh.. think people just thought it graphically looked similar especially simple color changes to walls for different areas etc.. anyways good job man.. i liked it..the source link doesnt seem to work (file removed) was hoping to have a gander :)
rawbits
10. Jan 2012 · 01:36 UTC
Black screen after dialog...
pogowolf
10. Jan 2012 · 16:29 UTC
I'm with binary_girl, "the source link doesnt seem to work (file removed) was hoping to have a gander :)"
exphautaz
12. Mar 2012 · 23:06 UTC
it says it was deleted or is missing for the media fire things