Fiscal Dungeon by Tom Panton

[raw]
made by Tom Panton for LD 40 (COMPO)

A 2D roguelite game in which the currency is your enemy. The more money you have, the worse off you are!

Controls:
W, A, S and D to move. Move mouse to aim bow. Left-click to shoot.

Ratings

Overall 325th 3.405⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 327th 3.321⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 372th 3.071⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 168th 3.798⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 416th 3.107⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Audio 413th 2.667⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 207th 3.122⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 51🗳️ 44🗨️

Feedback

Bookworm31
04. Dec 2017 · 08:46 UTC
That was a neat concept. It takes something traditionally good, collecting coins, and makes it bad, while taking something bad, tax returns, and making it good. I couldn't tell for sure, but did increasing your weight decrease the responsiveness? It seemed like it did, but that could just have been all in my head. Cool game!
Pecolyte
04. Dec 2017 · 09:12 UTC
Enermy design are good and it's fun to play. I was stuck at the madness level, black chests are nightmare!
tuism
04. Dec 2017 · 17:14 UTC
The concept is interesting, but the execution effectively means it's a reverse health system. Beyond the joke value of it, there's not enough there for it to be an interesting mechanic in this design. If there were aspects like buying upgrades with the money you carry? Or something else that makes it more than just a health system?

Also when you play with theme like this it begs the question of why can't you just drop all your money? Are you a kleptomaniac? If so how does that feel when you play? Shouldn't you be physically drawn to the treasures?

The enemies attacks are well done, the bullet hell sort of feeling is good. The movement speed is lacking. The player's attack doesn't feel fun. Training your mouse on an enemy while moving isn't interesting and gets tedious.

Slowing the movement speed is in theory a punishment, but in gameplay it's not fun. It's like losing a turn in boardgames - it's not interesting.

Would love to see more design on this concept!
🎤 Tom Panton
04. Dec 2017 · 17:36 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, @tuism! I was going to add a shop that the player could use to buy things and get rid of money, but unfortunately I ran out of time and had to add the "tax returns" instead, so I completely agree with you that the money isn't very interesting from a gameplay standpoint.
ghostlygurustudios
04. Dec 2017 · 18:32 UTC
Enjoyed it! we did a similar thing as far as the whole coins make you heavier/slow you down thing.. but games pretty different at the same time. had fun!
Gris
04. Dec 2017 · 19:06 UTC
You made me laugh when I saw the Tax paper. Spot on with the theme. Hope you give my game another try without the browser :b
Congrats on the game!
Jons games
05. Dec 2017 · 22:29 UTC
Not bad, would have been nice to see what health the enemies have, or to know im doing any damage to them. Good work, keep going!
TechnoNugget
05. Dec 2017 · 23:15 UTC
made it to the 5th floor boss, killed the boss, but then died by one of the gem spitters. Good little game, graphics were nice and easy to understand, good job
MRUniverse
06. Dec 2017 · 00:25 UTC
This game made me laugh out loud! I wasn't expecting the explosion of coins upon my death, which came immediately after my utterance "I don't think I can die." It was hard to tell the difference between enemies you could pick up and enemies you had to destroy.
volatile
06. Dec 2017 · 15:15 UTC
Liked the game!
I would recommend to use a different room-loading system in your code (a big byte array, come on :P )
(Besides that it is made really neat)
blobo
08. Dec 2017 · 22:21 UTC
Absolute incredible. The explosion when you die is the most satisfying way to go, but if only there were more taxes. The boss fights are really well made, and this turned out to be the best bullet-hell-dungeon-crawler game I've played in a ludum dare! Bravo.
gilborn
08. Dec 2017 · 22:37 UTC
Good games with nice, distinguashable enemys. If I want to critisize I would suggest to make the whole thing a little bit faster, but thats nitpicking.
Epicsoft
08. Dec 2017 · 23:16 UTC
This game has really got the idea fit the theme
Simple graphics and fine gameplay
10/10
Lukesta
09. Dec 2017 · 12:08 UTC
This game was incredibly funny. I like the general idea behind it, the design of the enemies and the boss and overall the feel of playing a good bullet hell hack 'n slash.
mipelius
10. Dec 2017 · 12:08 UTC
Very nice game, I love these dungeon adventures! Maybe the level design could have been more interesting since sometimes I just managed to run past all the enemies without shooting anyone.
elemel
10. Dec 2017 · 12:21 UTC
Kind of nice, but hard to aim with mouse while moving. Maybe some kind of target locking system could make it more enjoyable. Cool with fairly varied enemies and boss fights, though.
SVR_Audio
10. Dec 2017 · 12:24 UTC
Very interesting game, the concept is really cool, the idea is the best thing in this game, overal is a pretty fun game, the game is more well developed than I imagined for a compo game, really impressive, good job !
BudgieM2
10. Dec 2017 · 14:30 UTC
Loved it!! Wish there were some checkpoints so I could see the whole game, but I guess that adds to the tension. Great job!
jasperarmstrong
11. Dec 2017 · 23:10 UTC
Pretty neat idea. I liked the graphics, but the audio got a little annoying. I like the effect of the player bursting when they get too much money. I do wish there was some benefit to getting money, instead of it just being completely bad, so that you'd have to balance your money and make decisions. Overall, this is cool, and could be expanded into an awesome game with some further thought on the mechanics.
mutatedsoftware
19. Dec 2017 · 21:57 UTC
Extremely happy I decided to give this a try. I'm impressed with how many enemy types/behaviours you were able to squeeze in. Visually, I think it gets the job done and gameplay wise, I found it to be a contender with twin stick shooters I've payed money for :)
Wheffle
20. Dec 2017 · 00:49 UTC
It's funny how I *know* that getting coins is bad in this game, but I can't help but get a tiny shot of endorphin when I get a coin regardless. It's hilarious how gaming conventions have wired our brains like that. Was an unexpectedly deep and interesting game!
BobbyTables
20. Dec 2017 · 03:27 UTC
Had a lot of fun with this game! Damn, never thought I'd be so glad to pay taxes.
basecase
22. Dec 2017 · 15:27 UTC
Really nice! Impressive amount of enemies/behaviors for a jam game!
LanceJZ
23. Dec 2017 · 01:00 UTC
Great game! Great idea! Love it. Hope you fix the issues.
AffinityChris
23. Dec 2017 · 03:23 UTC
Great use of the theme, and the boss battles were a lot of fun!
fusionnist
23. Dec 2017 · 09:48 UTC
Neato! Nice idea, challenging game as well :)