Macabre Hollow by shundread

[raw]
made by shundread for LD 42 (JAM)

A bug-free* dungeon crawling game. By compressing character stats together I demonstrate how to use data without loss of information*.

Note: For rating purposes, consider this as a 'desktop-only' game. I found some scaling issues with it this morning and fixed it in a separate branch, hosted at a different location. The link provided in the Downloads and Links section is the done on time version.

If you are done rating the game and are curious or interested to see it on mobile, you can visit: http://rags.xen.prgmr.com/macabrehollowmobile/

Ratings

Overall 1015th 2.976⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 968th 2.842⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 904th 2.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1225th 2.316⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1102th 2.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 724th 2.333⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 3🗨️

Feedback

arcadonauts
14. Aug 2018 · 06:00 UTC
The is the beginning of a nice little Rouge Light.
stellaryyan2
14. Aug 2018 · 06:07 UTC
Enemy attacking each other is really great design.
It would be great if the game has keyboard support.
langep
14. Aug 2018 · 06:10 UTC
It took me a minute to get the controls but then it was fun and challenging. Is there a way to not take damage but still attack? I think this would definitely benefit from some music.
Shadoninja
14. Aug 2018 · 06:13 UTC
This reminds me a lot of the game Hoplite! You should check it out if you haven't already. I liked the mechanics. Got stuck on level 7 though.
🎤 shundread
14. Aug 2018 · 06:39 UTC
Thanks for the feedback so far. :)

I regret I couldn't fit keyboard support into the deadline, nor actual proper UI design & scaling for mobile, so I ended up providing the worst of both worlds! The one thing I was able to make sure is that it's a "complete game" & that it's beatable, even if it gets far less intuitive later on.

I might look into remaking this outside LD as a more full-featured game with proper art, sound & music once I'm able to get my hands on an artist and have time to redesign the data structure so it's easier to factor the joke in the game design into the level designs.

Also, hoplite looks dank as hell and I think I'm getting it once I'm done playing World of Xeen.
Araklaj
14. Aug 2018 · 08:49 UTC
Huh, very peculiar game with far more strategy than I first thought. Good design choices on enemies being able to attack each-other, and strategic layouts with buffs/debuffs anyone can use, makes for an interesting puzzle game.
sosaddude
14. Aug 2018 · 20:03 UTC
Wow, i really satisfied about this visual style. It looks great !
AwiX
15. Aug 2018 · 06:34 UTC
A good game idea, the music should be improved. The graphics are good.
But our game is better)))
The Vall
18. Aug 2018 · 09:38 UTC
Solid entry, good work.
CristiHKJ
23. Aug 2018 · 14:09 UTC
Nice game! Really cool and interesting! :D
Crafty mine
27. Aug 2018 · 13:08 UTC
nice game!he graphics are nice and i liked he powerup system.it could go really well if it had some keyboard controls!and the texts are a little small
overall,nice game
Optimans
28. Aug 2018 · 08:54 UTC
At first, the lack of information made things a little confusing and I am still not sure what compressing the data really added to the game. However, when I realised that enemies could damage each other, it became a lot more interesting. You have developed some elements which could make for a very interesting puzzle game if developed a little more.
🎤 shundread
28. Aug 2018 · 10:17 UTC
Part of the joke is also that compressing the data adds a bug to the game, namely "carry one" operations bleed onto the next field. I take extra care with the subtractions and ignore what may happen in additions because "it's so hard". I guess for extra joke value I should have added a test like "if (digit > 9) { digit = 9; }" while ensuring beforehand the carry-one operation has already happened, thus making the condition unreachable.

I didn't quite get to design enough levels making explicit use of the bug :/ - but some of the last levels 6-10(?) require you to understand the bug.

There's a remake in the works, and I'll rework the "bug" to be more understandable, as well as more visible, I'll also be adding more content to the game.