LudumData

Reap 'n' Roll by Aurailus

[raw]
made by Aurailus for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

Reap 'n' Roll

Harvest the souls of monsters, and exchange them for powerful magic!

card.png

A Cards&Dice Roguelike in which the monsters you slay provide you with more magic. Clear each room by getting to the end portal, and then exchange the souls you harvested (hehe) for more magic cards. Find dice, cards, and souls in nooks and crannies as you go to get extra loot.

CLICK TO PLAY

Controls

W/A/S/D - Move (can be changed to ,/A/O/E if you enter window.localStorage.setItem('dvorak', 'true') in the console and refresh.

Left Click - Attack / Fire Spell

Right Click - Dash

Hold Left Click - Charge Attack

Number Keys - Select Card

Cards System

Cards are randomly generated with modifiers, which affect their roll requirements, outcomes, and behaviours. Each card and modifier has a value, which is used to determine the quality of cards you obtain from loot chests.

Dice have modifiers as well, which affect the roll distribution that they use. Your base die (middle) has infinite uses and is unweighted. Dice you find in the dungeon may be better (or worse!), and they have finite uses.

Thank you!

I super appreciate you taking the time to try out my game. It took over 20 hours of work and wayyyy too much of the time that should have been sleep. If you have any questions, or want to see my other projects (which are pretty cool honestly), come say hi on my Discord!~

Discord

Twitter

Post-deadline Bugfixes

  • Number keys can select nonexistent cards

  • Hit animation sometimes doesn't trigger

  • Friction was inversely correlated with refresh rate

  • Player did not face into dash

  • Room 5 would never get chosen

  • Enemies sometimes spawned in walls

Github https://github.com/Aurailus/ReapNRoll
The Game https://aurail.us/ld52/index.html
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/reap-n-roll

Ratings

Overall 121th 3.587⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 121th 3.565⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 119th 3.522⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 303th 2.717⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 182th 3.457⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 246th 2.659⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 232th 2.237⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 193th 3.174⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

koboldskeep
09. Jan 2023 · 16:19 UTC
Neat idea, wish I had more types of enemies to use all these cool spells on. Would be nice if spells were faster to cast. The ranged mages make me angry everytime one hits me.
Bloodfin
10. Jan 2023 · 00:56 UTC
Plays nice, really like the combo of cards than the dice roll for power. The pause in the game during it builds some nice tension before the big release of your move. Little more audio polish in this I think would also really make it come alive even more. Great job!
salmonmoose
10. Jan 2023 · 01:00 UTC
Love it - there's a lot of potential here if you want to push it further
feor
10. Jan 2023 · 02:43 UTC
I agree with the commenter above, feels like the concept could be taken further. I played this for a while and really enjoyed it despite some things being rough around the edges, but at the same time, considering the scope of the game, it's already an achievement for it to be playable. I feel like the spellcasting could be improved to be made more 'real time', it feels a bit clunky at the moment, and it'd be nice if you could also collect permanent power ups on top of spells. Would play a post-jam version for sure.
archfan7411
10. Jan 2023 · 03:23 UTC
This was awesome! I haven't played many roguelikes, but I might have to try one after this.
🎤 Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:49 UTC
@koboldskeep thank you! I would have liked to implement more enemy types (I was thinking of a charger type enemy that would dash at you), but I ran out of time. I've been thinking of how to improve the interface post jam, and I think that I'd like to make the dice selector a persistent hotbar, and have spells automatically cast using the selected dice to reduce the jarring pacing changes.
🎤 Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:49 UTC
@bloodfin Thank you! I was most excited about the cards and dice mechanic, I'm really happy that you liked it. I hope to continue iterating on this concept after the jam.
🎤 Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:51 UTC
@salmonmoose thank you! I want to keep pushing the game further post-jam.
🎤 Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:53 UTC
@feor it was a mad dash to complete the game in time, that's for sure. I'm really glad you enjoyed playing it! I plan to improve the spellcasting by adding a persistent dice hotbar, and having spells trigger instantly with the selected dice when you fire them. I would've loved to add roguelite mechanics (persistent buffs, unlocking new cards / modifiers, and more), but I didn't quite have time during the jam. If I make a post-jam version, I'll let you know!
🎤 Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:57 UTC
@archfan7411 Thank you! Roguelikes are a lot of fun, I'd recommend trying some :)
Lone_Wolf
10. Jan 2023 · 17:47 UTC
This was a lot of fun!

With something to give a stronger sense of progression, and some music, I'd personally put this on level with Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Very impressive for a compo game.
ImInSoftware
11. Jan 2023 · 02:03 UTC
Great game! I liked the art style, and how the levels were colored. The game has an impressive amount of content/fun/replay-ability for a compo! Also, the death text was pretty funny :P Keep going!
Sikowny
11. Jan 2023 · 06:08 UTC
Definitely wish there was a big enemy to use the more powerful spells on. Could definitely see this scaling to something bigger with more characters to play as, maps, and enemies. Very cool concept!
LDJam user 221750
11. Jan 2023 · 07:31 UTC
I like the aesthetic! but cards were a bit hard to use/choose in the heat of the combat.
LDJam user 252856
11. Jan 2023 · 07:51 UTC
Very innovative idea. Just a little janky but could be pretty cool if its polished up!
🎤 Aurailus
12. Jan 2023 · 08:06 UTC
@lone-wolf Thanks!!! Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a high bar, but I'd like to keep pushing this game further and meet it eventually :)
🎤 Aurailus
12. Jan 2023 · 08:07 UTC
@iminsoftware Thank you! I'm glad you liked the art, I was pretty happy with how it turned out given how much I had to rush. That goddamn timer screwed me at the end haha. I'd like to add even more content, and proc gen in the future to give it even more replayability.
🎤 Aurailus
12. Jan 2023 · 08:07 UTC
@sikowny I initially planned to have bosses and more enemy types, but I totally ran out of time! I would like to flesh this game out further post-jam, and add a lot more content to it. Thanks for your feedback!
🎤 Aurailus
12. Jan 2023 · 08:09 UTC
@kiberptah Thanks! I'm thinking I might add scroll-wheel selection to get to the different cards, as well as showing the current card (either with a name or an icon) beside your cursor, so you always know what you're about to cast.
🎤 Aurailus
12. Jan 2023 · 08:10 UTC
@offdutyextractors I'm glad you liked it! The idea had been bouncing around in my head for a few years now. I definitely want to polish it up and take it further.
Medow
12. Jan 2023 · 19:40 UTC
I like this game a lot! It felt rewarding to try and use my cards to maximize their utility while also trying to not save them to long and take too much damage. I got into the strategy of saving my cards to use on the ranged mages because I hate them.

Well done great game!
LDJam user 314423
12. Jan 2023 · 20:47 UTC
Found it hard to understand what spells were useful; text maybe a bit dense for reading whilst under attack :-). Good concept though and I think it indeed has a lot of promise if you wanted to take it further.
As a note, I had to change keyboard layout to play. The game should be looking at physical keycodes rather than the actual letter on the key — other HTML5 games are largely doing this fine; might be worth looking into for the next one :).
crashbashash
13. Jan 2023 · 00:35 UTC
Great game and was very fun watching you work on it. This could easily be turned into a full game.
mhorth
13. Jan 2023 · 01:14 UTC
Congrats on compo! That alone is always an impressive feat to me. It's a great base and I'm happy to see your comments that you want to continue taking it even further.
Phlip45
16. Jan 2023 · 01:25 UTC
For a compo game this is super well done. Shame there is no music, but the core gameplay is fun and has some great tension when using the spells. I love the simple pixel graphics.
DJTequila
16. Jan 2023 · 17:27 UTC
This game loop is really fun. Dash feels satisfying to use. I like the suspense of pausing the action to roll dice. I think the cards could have unique colors/icons, and casting should require just one key press. That would make them easier to use in the heat of combat.
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 06:55 UTC
@medow Thanks! I'm glad you liked the card management aspect. I'm happy with how the maximum hand size encourages you to use spells liberally. Hating the mages seems to be a common theme :)
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 06:57 UTC
@reivilibre Thank you for your review! You're intended to read the cards either when you're not being attacked (enemies have an aggro range, you won't be hit right out the bat), or in the safe rooms between every level. I'm not sure how Javascript behaves when checking for keys that have had their software layouts changed, I was just using regular event bindings. I have a different keyboard layout, but it's set on the keyboard side with QMK, so I wasn't able to test software layouting.
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 06:57 UTC
@crashbashash Thank you! I'm hoping to turn it into something more :)
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 06:58 UTC
@mhorth Thank you for your comments! I'm really relieved I managed to get everything done for the compo deadline, I worked a *lot* of hours over those two days. If you're interested in seeing how development continues, I have a Discord server that's linked in the description :)
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 07:00 UTC
@phlip45 Thanks for your review! :) I added the sound effects in the last 15 minutes of the submission period, so I didn't quite have time for music haha. I spent most of my time on the programming and art.
🎤 Aurailus
20. Jan 2023 · 07:00 UTC
@djtequila Thank you! I wanted to add unique colors and graphics to the cards, but I totally ran out of time. Cards are literally the first draft placeholder art that I initially made unfortunately :)
Dev_314
21. Jan 2023 · 21:21 UTC
Great job! The art is really good! Overall this is a great game with so many different mechanics! The card system alone adds so much variety. Excellent work!
burnedkirby
26. Jan 2023 · 13:53 UTC
Wow, I really wanted to keep on playing this one for a long time. The card and dice system was really neat. Too bad that there were no variations to the enemies that appear, but I guess that's the nature of the short amount of time of the game jam. I think it would be neat to see this more fleshed out as a bigger game.
🎤 Aurailus
27. Jan 2023 · 06:20 UTC
@dev-314 Thank you!!! I'm really glad people are liking the card system, as to be honest, that was the mechanic I was the most interested in :)
🎤 Aurailus
27. Jan 2023 · 06:21 UTC
@burnedkirby I'm glad it kept you hooked! I wanted to have at least 3 enemy variations, but I got really short on time. I'm pretty sure I only implemented the ranged guys like 4 hours before the deadline, and then I spent the rest of the time cleaning up all the bugs and trying to get the game barely functional. I'd really like to continue working on this project in the future and make it a more full-fledged game. I have a Discord linked above if you'd like to see that when it happens.