Dwarf Monastery by hotaloca

[raw]
made by hotaloca for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

Dwarfs living a minimalist life

Some dwarfs has begun a life long spritial awakening journey in a cave monastery. Space is little, but with clever organization there is sufficient time for everyone to do work, meditation and sleeping.

Main Menu.png

Solving1.png

Solving2.png

How to play?

Please read this section, the in-game instructions are very minimal.

The dwarfs have a very limited space to live in a monastery. You need to organize their living space so they can do so without disturbing eachother.

Dwarf monks want to work (W), relax/meditate (R) and sleep (S). For each activity they have specific rooms, marked accordingly.

As they have limited space in the cave monastery, they need to share their working (W), relaxing (R) and sleeping (S) places. The dwarf monks run on a 4 hour long shift schedule. Your job is to organize their shifts and rooms (so their lives) so everyone is happy.

First review what room should get into the cave (simply drag and drop the pieces). You do not need to and cannot rotate puzzle pieces. Second select "Plan" and review which dwarf should go to what room in a given shift (in the timetable).

The rules:

  • No drawf should be without empty shift. This is for example not OK because the 12-16 shift is empty for the first dwarf. Rule0.png

  • Above the drawf shift empty slots, you have the (spiritual) goal of the dwarf. They look for Work (W), Relax/meditate (R) or Sleep (S). Sometimes the dwarf are very specific - and they want to use a certain room (they have a number, like W2). If there are no numbers (like W) it means the dwarfs are happy to work in any (W) rooms. If the numbers do not match, then the dwarfs are not happy. In the below example the problem is that dwarf wants to have two Working (W) shifts, but gets three instead. Rule2.png

  • The numbers of W, R, S need to match, but ANY order is OK. The dwarf can meet their goals in any order - in the end who counts days or nights. Even they can sleep twice a day.

  • If a dwarf meets another dwarf in the same room at the same shift, then they cannot work! They want to be alone. So the below example is not right, because both dwarf 1 and 2 is assigned to W1 room for the 0-4 shift. This problem can be simply solved by moving the shifts around. Rule1.png Rule1-Solved.png

  • An important and not intuitive rule: a dwarf must have access to the next room he wants to go. This means that the room needs to be a neighbour to the next room. In the below example the problem is the dwarf needs to go from R1 to S1 room (at 16 hour) but cannot because the S1 and R1 rooms have no common sides. Or in other words they are not neighbor tiles. Rule3.png

Bug fixes

  • I have fixed the sound for this web version. Two error messages very mixed up in the audio.

Behind the scenes

I actually loved this theme - limited space. Several years back, I was thinking to have a similar game where the spaceship has very small amount of space, and this needs to be shared/optimized across different people. I remembered this idea, and although it has gone thru a lot of changes (as you can imagine), finally I am able to cross this off from my list.

  • Game Engine: Unity.
  • Graphics: Affinity Designer.
  • Sound, music: BandLab, Audacity.

Ratings

Overall 247th 3.352⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 329th 2.74⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 159th 3.5⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 150th 3.808⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 186th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 146th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 132th 2.978⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 211th 3.208⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

bloodyaugust
02. Oct 2023 · 17:45 UTC
This looks super interesting! Unfortunately, I'm unable to play it, as the UI doesn't fit in the embed window (either here or on your page), and in full-screen it is cut off on my 3440x1440 aspect ration. Comment back if you can address the UI scaling issues, I'd love to play it!
Bizzybee
02. Oct 2023 · 17:47 UTC
Lovely color scheme, art is simplistic and nice, wish the dots were little dwarf heads, love the audio lines and the inclusion of the mining noises, the music is very simple and the chord changes are a bit jarring. Fits into the theme very well! After reading the rules and playing around, I couldn't figure out how everything worked for a decent bit.
greenphox
02. Oct 2023 · 17:52 UTC
it seems to bit a very nice game. I couldn't understand tho how to solve the second level. Probably there is something I don't understand. It seems like a very good idea, I'll definitely see it again if you make a more detailed description or something like that.
Corporation
02. Oct 2023 · 17:52 UTC
Looks like something very interesting with planning, scheduling and acting phases, but unfortunately I couldn't figure out what to do, even after multiple attempts. Really can't go past first level.
Maybe learning curve should be a bit easier, or more tips on what everything means.
I will try this one out later, maybe more comments and tips will appear)
Corporation
02. Oct 2023 · 17:55 UTC
Like here for example. He moves to a neighbour room and then says that it is too far, but I can't really change anything here)

![11.png](///raw/3cc/b2/z/5d6f2.png)
🎤 hotaloca
02. Oct 2023 · 19:10 UTC
@corporation Thank you very much for the feedback. You actually entered a bug, I have mixed up the audio error messages. In your case the problem was that the two dwarfs occupied the same room at the same time - both at shift 0-4 are supposed to be in room W1 which is not allowed (they want to be alone). I have corrected this bug, and uploaded a new version. Also, I have revised/edited/extended the how to play section so the next players dont have to suffer that much.
Corporation
02. Oct 2023 · 19:28 UTC
@hotaloca no way)) And I spent like 10 minutes trying to figure it out and thinking I'm so dumb)) will definitely try it again later
jellycopter
03. Oct 2023 · 00:31 UTC
I really like this concept! The last two levels were a bit tough to figure out but a good challenge. Aside from some general interface cleanup, this is a really interesting game. I can see the potential for a larger scheduling style game from it! Good work.
Sown
03. Oct 2023 · 06:11 UTC
Game is good but confusing. Some more explanation could have been provided
kasmilus
03. Oct 2023 · 06:35 UTC
It's an interesting idea but trying to find solution feels more like work than fun - but that might just be a me problem, I don't play puzzle games much. I really like the music and voice overs! Together with that art style it makes a very good atmosphere.
Endurion
03. Oct 2023 · 07:05 UTC
Interesting concept :)
Getting quite tough. And filling the schedule is a tad tedious.
Also, you might want to add sub titles to the complaints, they are a bit hard to make out.

Still, very well made, and fitting music/sfx!
tjm
03. Oct 2023 · 20:06 UTC
The graphics and audio feel nicely tactile and boardgame-y!

It was sometimes difficult to understand why plans were failing, especially since I often couldn't make out what the voices were saying. I'm still not sure why this didn't work, for example?
![Dwarf Monastery Level 4 Screenshot](///raw/d2e/63/z/5f63d.png)
It would also have been nice if the "playback" of the dwarves schedules could be quicker; I felt like there was a bit of waiting around during the experimentation phase.

But the basic idea is a fun twist on set-up-and-play puzzle games; I enjoyed my time with it!
kaliuresis
04. Oct 2023 · 00:23 UTC
Interesting puzzle concept and neat art style. I enjoyed the middle levels a lot but the last two felt a bit too tedious with so many dwarves. As others have mentioned the animations are a bit slow. Maybe having a ghost preview image of all the dwarves when you hover over a time slot could help.
LDJam user 262525
04. Oct 2023 · 18:54 UTC
It's a bit hard to figure out the game. I got the first level, then at the second something is probably wrong, but I can't figure out what it is. The game looks really nice though, and the sound design is nice, however some of the sound effects (like the pickaxe thing) makes me feel really uncomfortable for some reason. Maybe it's just my headphones. The sound when you move the text to the timetable is also weirdly bassy, which also makes it feel like a bone in my neck is cracking or something.
LDJam user 280036
04. Oct 2023 · 19:57 UTC
I cannot figure out how to play :slight_frown: I'm able to place tiles but I can't seem to do anything with the Plan panel and the voice complains about an empty shift.
EvoGenGames
05. Oct 2023 · 18:08 UTC
Hi, looks like an interesting game, but I am pretty sure something is wrong in level 2:

I had as layout:

R2 - R1
S2 - S1
S2 - W1

And as agenda:
dwarf 1 : R1 R1 R1 R1 S1 W1
dwarf 2 : W1 S2 R2 R2 R2 R2
PhoenixStroh
06. Oct 2023 · 03:19 UTC
fun crunchy logic puzzle to figure out! difficult to understand at first but once i took the time to figure it out it was fun to figure out the puzzles. i liked the simplicity to level 4 while still being difficult! i think that ease of play could have been focused on more, making it easier to rearrange the schedule or the rooms, and maybe not have them as separate tabs? overall strong work!
Ethan G
06. Oct 2023 · 03:36 UTC
Very nice little puzzle game, as you probably know the rules are a little unclear but after reading your rules in the description that helped a lot, very nice art style and use of the theme! nice work!
Kilthorne
06. Oct 2023 · 03:43 UTC
"I cannot skip, I need to follow my spiritual order"
APG
06. Oct 2023 · 12:32 UTC
Neat idea! I had a problem where I would plan out a level (level two in my case), then I would click the "act" button and nothing would happen. However, once I gave up, the next level was available.
Other than that, I quite enjoyed the game and the little messages of enlightenment that come up when you finish the level.
🎤 hotaloca
06. Oct 2023 · 13:38 UTC
@tjm Thanks for playing and giving a try. For first dwarf W1 and S1 are only diagonally neighbors, so that's why it's not accepting it. I realize it is confusing because then the dwarf go diagonally but this later behavior came from what fit into 48 hours... Yes also great idea on simulation speed and replayability.
🎤 hotaloca
06. Oct 2023 · 13:40 UTC
@evogengames Without seeing the map I cannot tell - the shift agenda looks right. I think likely one of the rooms are not next to each other (not diagonally but with sides) and likely that's why - so it breaks rule 4.
🎤 hotaloca
06. Oct 2023 · 13:46 UTC
All thanks a lot for playing. Very valuable feedback, it made me think quite a lot. Based on your feedback, I concluded the mechanics were nice, but the getting an intuitive and fun play was horrible (i agree felt more work sometimes). Likely I would change for next time actual dwarf, visible during planning too, maybe even make it playable so the player could record movement of dwarf vs moving text, make ruleset more foregiving (Eg. get more scores if your plan is better vs. if you did not solve you fail), if you play the dwarf for a day (10 sec) let's say rule 1 is not needed as dwarf always does something, cannot violate rule 4 either because of colliders, speed would be built in, plus would be more intuitive for players to avoid themselves as well (rule 3)... Let's see. Anyway thanks a lot for great feedback and sorry for the struggles - clearly not intended :smile:
tjm
06. Oct 2023 · 13:48 UTC
@hotaloca Ah, I didn't realise that the shifts needed to be able to loop (that is, that the dwarf needs to be able to get from his hour 20 shift to his hour 0 shift). Thanks for explaining!
snesgaard
09. Oct 2023 · 18:51 UTC
It seems like there's a very interesting and rich game buried here. But feel like a lot of additional player feedback and guidance is needed in order to make it playable. I, at least, wasn't really able to figure out what to do.
noya
18. Oct 2023 · 15:34 UTC
I can relate to the dwarfs when they don't want to deviate from their schedule. 😄

The palette, the art, the sound effects and voice acting are all very well done! 😊 And funny! After reading all the instructions, I still got stuck in level two, and could only continue after @tjm mentioning that it is necessary to build loops. But then it clicked, I had fun solving the puzzles, though I didn't manage to finish level 5. 😅 I like that you added audio feedback when a condition is not full-filled, but I would suggest to also highlight the affected dwarf. Even better, how about letting the animation play also on failure and visualize what went wrong (e.g. two conflicting dwarfs in the same room etc.)? TLDR; A tutorial and better feedback would go a long way, otherwise well done! 💜
gizz1
21. Oct 2023 · 11:40 UTC
Has some problems but still well done!