Watch your step by Haematite

[raw]
made by Haematite for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

A unique twist on a roguelike dungeon crawler, every step you take the floor crumbles away! See how many floors you can go down.

I struggled a bit with time on this one, and it's not quite as good as I wanted. I'm still pleased with what I've done though.

WASD / Arrow keys / ZQSD to move Space to use sword to kill enemies, flick levers, push crates and smash pots.

Tips: Crates can be pushed into holes to make a pathway. There is a map in a chest on each level

image1.png image2.png

Ratings

Overall 179th 3.982⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 201th 3.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 350th 3.679⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 328th 3.964⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 734th 2.923⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 462th 3.661⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 33🗨️

Feedback

Its_F4llen
05. Oct 2021 · 14:00 UTC
Really good game! i really liked the falling floor mecanic and find it to fit the theme perfectly, i hope you keep making games!
sawdust
05. Oct 2021 · 14:15 UTC
Very tough roguelike! The art is great! I only ever got to floor 1 and that was only by chancing upon the room with the stairs. I wish perhaps there more of the solid floor tiles. Maybe there could be a cross shape of solid floor in each room connecting all the doors so you can always get to any room again, and then the choice would be about which parts of which rooms to explore first? Anyways, I did enjoy it and want to try it again to see if I can do better next time. Thanks!
alpharock6
05. Oct 2021 · 19:09 UTC
Pretty tough! Very sad the first time I finally got to a chest and realized I had to pay to open it D:
A lot of really nice polish on this, with some cleaned up room/map generation and a couple other enemies this has a lot of potential as a fun roguelike :) Nice work!
Barrier
05. Oct 2021 · 19:12 UTC
I didn't even make it to the second floor. Would be nice if it started a bit easier :D
But otherwise nice art and sound.
David Bohan
05. Oct 2021 · 19:14 UTC
This is a really well done game. I understand how hard these sorts of logic games can be (enemy movement, making sure the puzzles are solvable, etc) and you did an excellent job addressing all these challenges. It's a surprisingly complete game given the time constraints, and it plays/sounds/looks well polished as well. Reminds me of a roguelike -- are the levels all randomly generated? If so that's even more amazing.

Very well done, and congrats on your second game jam! Looks like all the confusion at the start for you really sorted itself out. Can't wait to see your submission next spring :wink:
Ekilibr
05. Oct 2021 · 19:17 UTC
Really nice, have you been into jams before? Noted it's your second LD, if it is also your second jam overall it's pretty impressive :)
I have some bugs with random damages while being close to "holes" without actually going in them, which made me loose a couple of times. Maybe a nice bug to get rid of to polish the experience ;)

Well done!
🎤 Haematite
05. Oct 2021 · 19:28 UTC
@david-bohan Thanks! All the levels are randomly generated, but each quarter of a room gets selected from a random list and then reversed or flipped - provides quite a bit of variation whilst making it always possible to get through

@ekilibr Thanks! I've only got into jams this year, and this is my third already; they're great fun. But damn, I'll take a look at that bug!
Tom Stephenson
05. Oct 2021 · 20:35 UTC
A challenging but fun concept! I really love how movement is similar to playing snake, it makes you plan out each move and how you tackle each level/room. The art style is consistent, polished and cute; a really satisfying look that compliments the gameplay well!

I'd love to see this developed further! Currently it's very tough to play, but with some work this could be a really enjoyable commercial game. Congrats on a great entry; I enjoyed it a lot :)
Edoardo Talamini
05. Oct 2021 · 20:45 UTC
Very very very cool and unforgiving roguelike. The art and the atmosphere blend together truly nicely.
One of the best I have tried until now, good job!
TomBuston
05. Oct 2021 · 22:12 UTC
This has so much potential, really good work!
I managed to reach the 2nd floor :) I do feel like it's a bit harder than it needs to be, maybe each floor is a bit too big?

The RNG element is quite punitive as you can sometime enter a room with no other exit than where you came from, and holes preventing you from going further.

Maybe an item like a ladder that can be looted and that allows the player to cross a tile (and consume itself in the process) could be nice to give more chance for the player to control the map generation.

Displaying the number of gems and the "cost" of each chest could be good too as it's a bit disappointing to make holes everywhere to reach a chest that can't be opened.

I was also surprised that items such as the map didn't persist from one floor to another, I thought it would be a great way to reward players who took time to explore the place.

I really liked the game, I hope you'll keep working on this because this has the potential to be a really fun game with lots of depth!

Good work and thank you for your game!
TomBuston
05. Oct 2021 · 22:12 UTC
(I forgot to compliment the art. It's really clean and polished. Well done again)
QueenOfSquiggles
06. Oct 2021 · 00:49 UTC
Looks really good! I got to the 3rd level. I'm usually pretty bad at rouge-likes so maybe the game was a bit too difficult, but maybe it's just because I'm really bad at that type of game. I really like the art and sound effects. The little slashes from the sword are cute!
maxds98
08. Oct 2021 · 19:30 UTC
The game is really cool! I like the simple design with small details and very relaxing sound. Also I appriciate webGL build here :)
Jin9310
08. Oct 2021 · 19:32 UTC
Such a great idea and originall as well. Instantly goes to my list of top games from this LD as this is just exactly my kind of a game! Love it, great job done
Fedora
08. Oct 2021 · 20:08 UTC
This is a cool idea. Maybe a bit too easy and lacks some more content. Made it to floor 5 and felt like I could keep playing endlessly.
Overall, well executed and fun to explore!
aslan
08. Oct 2021 · 20:37 UTC
Wow really cool game. I didn't expect it to be randomly generated.
filgru
08. Oct 2021 · 20:57 UTC
Very nice pixel art! Cool game, quite challenging. It would be nice if this game was more developed in the future. It's got a nice potential. Great work!
GloomyFolken
08. Oct 2021 · 21:04 UTC
Wow, that's an unique idea and a really solid entry. Falling floors turn it from a roguelike to a challenging puzzle real quick :laughing:

Very impressed you've managed to do this in 72 hours all alone, that would be a great game even for a team! I'm especially surprised with the world generation, didn't expect it to work this good, worldgen is usually very time consuming to implement properly. Sometimes I was unable to find exit to the next floor, but that's probably just me driving myself into a corner.

The only nitpick I have is a little confusing floor tile textures: tiles around exits are not breakable, but have the color of breakable tiles, this was unclear to me in the beginning.
froissant
08. Oct 2021 · 22:14 UTC
Great entry for someone working all alone! I caught the jam fever this year too and I hope we get to compete again :smile:
Fis
08. Oct 2021 · 22:52 UTC
So many baits everywhere - attempting to make everything possible to notice "oh no, there is no way back".

Really nice entry :)
Lumbigui
11. Oct 2021 · 21:10 UTC
Very cool concept, good graphics and interesting gameplay. Good job!
Rs11s21n
13. Oct 2021 · 14:39 UTC
Like this concept and graphic =) Nice entry
rubenwardy
15. Oct 2021 · 21:01 UTC
This is very well done. Nice graphics, gameplay, and concept
c64cosmin
16. Oct 2021 · 14:55 UTC
Woah such a good concept, the graphics are really nice, the music is pleasant and fits the overall vibe and the design makes playing really fun.
loveapplegames
16. Oct 2021 · 16:54 UTC
Great entry! Very playable and polished. Sometimes it seems unfair that you have no floor left to go somewhere, and you have no way to cross it, and you lose. It would be nice to be able to trade a health for the ability to cross a collapsed floor tile.