Welcome to the Evolution Dungeon, the Genetic Roguelike...
You will take control of three creatures on a unique quest through the genetic playground.
Evolution Dungeon is a Roguelike RPG adventure game. You take control of three adventuring creatures and explore a series of cavern dungeons. Each dungeon is procedurally generated, so no two games will play exactly the same.
Quick Guide: (2016-04-18 edit)
NUMPAD keys to move your characters. Each character can move 8 spaces, or attack once, per turn. Move into enemies to attack them. Press '5' to wait. Mouse over creatures to view their stats.
When you kill an opponent, you can merge your DNA with its own. Your new genes will be an average of your old ones and the ones you inherited. Kill enemies that are more powerful than you so that the average goes up.
Unlike other games in the genre, you do not level by gaining "experience points". Rather, when you defeat opponents, you have the option to merge your player character's DNA with the opponent's.
Full manual is available online, and includes tips, strategies, and a few more explanations of features.
It was kinda cool, but there wasn't really any info given about how much life you had left. Might have given it a more strategic element. Also it was very dark and small. :)
The music is not absurdly repetitive like some other games, and it appears to have a good amount of thought put into it. The only real negative thing is that it is a bit small.
You can hold the mouse pointer over any creature to see their stats. I would've liked some kind of HUD, but ran out of time to get it in.
Combo attacks would have been fun >:) Had I had more time, I would have put in some special moves and abilities.
@hijomo: The site can be slow at times. The .swf file may not have loaded enough to even see the loading bar.
If I do a postcomp version, I'd definitely make it bigger and better resolution. I'd probably go with an isometric perspective instead of top-down. I think this LD version was a good opportunity to play with the concept and mechanics. I spent a lot of time on math and rules (hit vs miss probability, etc.), which is where the time for more graphics effects went.
I liked the music and the idea with 3 "heros" instead of one. It is a bit dark and small, so sometimes hard to see anything. Also it would be nice if you can see which of the two DNA is yours.
The game does not work in Firefox, but Chrome is ok.
Cool concept, and nice execution as well. The visuals and sound were good, and I would love to see this a bit more fleshed out to make it easier to get into it.
Interesting idea! Though I find having more characters to move around the same dungeon feels a little tedious. Maybe there should be some sort of exploration mode that "groups" the party to move as one, which you can switch in and out of for battles? Also to consider if you want to work on this some more (and you should!) is to try to clarify a little bit more what the DNA merging does exactly, and how it works. Having only the vaguest idea of what it does means I didnt feel I was making informed decisions when merging. Still, this is an interesting prototype, you should definitely keep this going!
Interesting concept, but I don't think you needed 3 characters, especially when there is no indicator that you're going to switch. I also missed any special attacks on the characters, so combat was a bit slow. Nice mood though! The music also had a familiar ring to it, you used a procedural website right? If memory serves right :)
I really like the concept here, but why can't I play the other characters after one has climbed the stairs? the adventure should continue regardless of where you are, no?
@rayman1900: The main reason you can't have control of characters on two different floors is a technical one. Switching between screens would require saving the state of the original screen so that it can be restored when control has been returned to its occupants. It's a neat idea and a fair point, but a bit too tough to program within the time limit.
@wheerd: Given more time I would have elaborated the displays. It would've been nice to have highlighted the ones that would improve, and maybe shaded the ones that would decline in red.
But, your character's DNA will always be on the left, and the acquired DNA on the right. The result of merging will average each of the red/green/blue scores.
F
Freank26 Apr 2016, 08:40
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35. Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free) So we can include also your game in the video ;) p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Comments22
Combo attacks would have been fun >:) Had I had more time, I would have put in some special moves and abilities.
@hijomo: The site can be slow at times. The .swf file may not have loaded enough to even see the loading bar.
If I do a postcomp version, I'd definitely make it bigger and better resolution. I'd probably go with an isometric perspective instead of top-down. I think this LD version was a good opportunity to play with the concept and mechanics. I spent a lot of time on math and rules (hit vs miss probability, etc.), which is where the time for more graphics effects went.
It is a bit dark and small, so sometimes hard to see anything. Also it would be nice if you can see which of the two DNA is yours.
The game does not work in Firefox, but Chrome is ok.
Also to consider if you want to work on this some more (and you should!) is to try to clarify a little bit more what the DNA merging does exactly, and how it works. Having only the vaguest idea of what it does means I didnt feel I was making informed decisions when merging. Still, this is an interesting prototype, you should definitely keep this going!
Needed to adjust to the control-transfer. But nice atmoshpere!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2016/04/26/evolution-dungeon-post-mortem/
@rayman1900: The main reason you can't have control of characters on two different floors is a technical one. Switching between screens would require saving the state of the original screen so that it can be restored when control has been returned to its occupants. It's a neat idea and a fair point, but a bit too tough to program within the time limit.
@wheerd: Given more time I would have elaborated the displays. It would've been nice to have highlighted the ones that would improve, and maybe shaded the ones that would decline in red.
But, your character's DNA will always be on the left, and the acquired DNA on the right. The result of merging will average each of the red/green/blue scores.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description