Shadowy Monster Land by Space Wumpus
Press F1 for in-game instructions. If F1 opens browser help page instead of the game help then you need to click on the game window first.
My first game jam. It's been intense, but great fun. Definitely doing it again! Didn't get as much done as I wanted - biggest disappointment is that I didn't have time to make any proper levels - I spent too long implementing mechanics which are then barely used...
Here's the story (also in-game, with helpful graphics): Because you had NOTHING else to do, you've randomly found yourself in Shadowy MonsterLand.
You START WITH NOTHING. If you enable Dark Mode (over on the right), you will be able to see almost NOTHING.
On each level, you need to find the exit.
If you are lucky, you'll find a torch. Press 'T' to turn it on and off, Up/Down arrows to focus the beam between short and wide and long and narrow. Legend speaks of spare batteries...
Beware of Monsters, and don't fall into any Volcano Pits!
Monsters mostly sleep. But they will wake if you get too close, or if any light shines on them.
Some blocks can be pushed, and some have lights on top, for some reason. If you stand next to one of these, Up/Down can be use to focus the beam (like the torch), and Left/Right can be used to aim the beam. Unlike the torch, these don't use batteries. (Since you asked, they are powered by zero-point energy extracted from nothing. That's right, they START WITH NOTHING.) Oh, yes, and hold SPACE to drag them!
A solo effort, all my own work apart from graphics - which are taken from the following great libraries - thank you! https://opengameart.org/content/dungeon-crawl-32x32-tiles https://opengameart.org/content/dungeon-crawl-32x32-tiles-supplemental https://jasonlab.itch.io/seamless-real-texture-pack https://opengameart.org/content/rotating-orbs https://vectorpixelstar.itch.io/food https://arcadiaxdev.itch.io/chonkly-pixel-font
| Youtube | https://spacewumpus.itch.io/shadowy-monster-land |
| Youtube | https://spacewumpus.itch.io/shadowy-monster-land |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/shadowy-monster-land |
Ratings
| Overall | 887th | 3.086⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 928th | 2.793⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 583th | 3.138⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 708th | 3.138⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 354th | 3.38⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 493th | 2.865⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 408th | 3.519⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
I like the idea though, but yeah the graphics could use alot of love and the sound track got repeatative after a while, mechanics are solid ill give you that!
@kekkodude. Yeah, keeping stuff between levels would make sense. Soundtracks are really short - I just did a live recording of some hastily improvised stuff (DeepMind12 synth), and they are only about 30 seconds each.
The game very nearly had no sound at all, until I unexpectedly had a few more hours available on Monday!
@pablotitan. Thank you, glad you liked it! I am quite tempted to continue working on it. But not just yet - I need a rest. :-)
Yes, in retrospect, the help page had far too much on it. Would have been much better to have quick popups whenever you encountered anything new - I have these for the torch and batteries, but nothing else.
For my first game jam, I'm pretty pleased with it. Wish I'd given myself a lot more time for designing levels though - spent too much time adding mechanics which were then barely used due to the lack of levels!
I might well continue working on this after the jam - once I've had a rest!
@coatline Totally home-made audio! I did at first have separate controls for beam direction, but at the time felt that was too more complexity in the controls. I think this was actually a mistake, and having direct control of the beam direction would have made for a better game.
I may well continue working on this, and will speed up the player, and will add back in direct beam direction control.
Thanks for the feedback!
Good job with the audio, particularly the random unit noises.
Glad you liked the audio - making monster noises was fun!
@rubixnoob13 Thanks - the monster sounds seem popular! BTW, this was a Jam entry not Compo - though I realise that there's a message in the game help saying written in 48 hours... This is sort-of the case, and was what I intended when I put the message in as I didn't expect to have any time to do anything other than package and submit on Monday due to work being busy - but I unexpectedly managed to get half a day. Good job too as without that it would have had no sound, and even fewer levels! Anyway, total WORK time was less than 48 hours, and this was submitted to Jam not Compo. (It had to be anyway as I used third-party sprite graphics, which is why I've opted out of graphics rating). I spent a total of 39 waking hours actively working on it, though elapsed time was 3 days.
I do plan to update/improve the game, so if you are at all interested then please follow it on itch.io to get notified of new versions.
The raycasting ist super nice. But looks a bit incorrect at wall tiles.