Ludum Dare #57compo

FOREMAN

by sypiac

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.27

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.19

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.38

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.63

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.42

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.35

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.75

Made for Ludum Dare 57: Depths.

Please play on the itch.io page for browser https://sypiac2.itch.io/foreman
Or download the standalone.

Screen must be at least 800 pixels tall for the game to fit.

A short tile/card placing game about plumbing the depths. Expand the mine for high score and more cards to play, but continue to dig down until you can reach the bottom.

Left click to hold cards, right click to rotate them. E to end a shift. There is a bug with the end shift button if you want to press it with mouse - only the right side of it works(whoops :))

My high score is 11500 :)

Heavily based on the saboteur board game. Coded with a lot of help from claude 3.5. sfx by sfxr

UPD: Thank you everyone for the feedback. Going to keep working on the game after Ludum Dare is over since it seems like it could turn out to be a fun game.

Genres: card game

Tools: Claude, LÖVE, sfxr

Comments20

Gargantuan Janitor7 Apr 2025, 03:13

There's a great game hidden here. I'd love to see this worked on after the jam is over

Rinevard7 Apr 2025, 07:02

Intersting game! Joining path together is coool.

psychomonster7 Apr 2025, 07:15

I remembers me a lot of Carcassonne. Nice Idea, it fits the theme well and its a good strategy game. I liekd it.
Have a good time.

Tristam MacDonald7 Apr 2025, 07:15

I enjoyed the path-placement mechanic, and the grimdark narrative flourishes before each level set a great tone. Definitely something worth exploring here.

thisyc7 Apr 2025, 07:23

Nice! Getting board game vibes like Carcassonne and Saboteur. I like the idea that you are sometimes playing 'against yourself', finding the best placement for a bad card.

gemcc7 Apr 2025, 09:14

Super fun game. Combines all my favourite genre's. I can totally imagine this being expanded to include slay the spire like deckbuilding or something similar... Also having your high score there I knew I had to beat it - got 13200 on my 3rd playthrough.

SYPIACauthor7 Apr 2025, 09:24

@gemcc Thanks for the feedback and congrats on the new highest score.

The original idea was to include a bunch of tiles on the map that needed to be approached from a certain direction that would serve like slay the spire upgrades - restore cards from discard, restore shifts, copy or delete cards from the deck. Alas, there are not enough hours in a day.

Scrawach7 Apr 2025, 13:10

Yeah, putting the pieces together, building a maze is an enjoyable activity. I liked it. At first try rules weren't quite clear, but the mechanics themselves do a good job of holding it together. At least for players like me. Good job!

Aleksey4adoff7 Apr 2025, 14:33

When you said we were similar, you probably didn't dive into the story we wanted to tell. The mechanics are indeed similar, especially if you were so inspired by the game Saboteur.
It's better to leave rectangular cards, they don't give anything and only interfere with the versatility of the graphics and mechanics, with squares, ease of production and more interesting gameplay.

Xwilarg7 Apr 2025, 19:28

I didn't really get everything about the goal itself but thinking on how to place the cards and creating paths was really fun!

Helagos7 Apr 2025, 19:34

Great idea ! Creating a good path is interesting and it's easy to mess it up.

The tuto is a little... scary. But the mechanics and controls are not so difficults.

OnnGD7 Apr 2025, 19:52

interesting game, I had to rack my brains to understand what was required of me)

librory8 Apr 2025, 05:11

Jesus, u made it all along? Nice job! I like retro vibe here and sure I played Saboteur and now it's kinda solo game, good one! Thank u for sharing)

Sviborg8 Apr 2025, 17:27

The path-building mechanic feels fresh and strategic. It’s already fun, but with crearer ttorials and expanded tile interactions, this could seriously shine post-jam.

LDJam user 3719969 Apr 2025, 05:50

It's really an interesting game. I love to see the roots growing deeper and deeper.

However I think that how long I can live highly depends on the RNG rather than my strategy. Maybe if more mechanics are added into the game, it can be even better!

Pusheeneiro9 Apr 2025, 12:42

Great puzzle mechanics

SYPIACauthor11 Apr 2025, 09:58

I've decided to keep working on the game and adding more features for a full release on Steam later. Keep an eye out.

grid9611 Apr 2025, 12:57

Nice card game and solid entry! What did the yellow dots on the cards mean though?

SYPIACauthor11 Apr 2025, 14:56

@grid96 thanks for the feedback! The cards with the yellow dots can be flipped, they're assymetrical. It's a hint for the player that they're special in a way, in case someone skips the tutorial.

Cobear2514 Apr 2025, 16:32

Cool game, though to be honest I was a bit confused at times. I clicked on the screen when the tutorial text was up, so I didn't get to read it all. I was mostly confused about what the "danger" stuff means. And also a bit confused about when I should expand outwards, does it just increase the number of cards you can place?

Also, I got a game over saying I ran out of cards, which was confusing to me, I still had cards in my hand and spaces to play in.

Apart from that though, I think this has a lot of potential. I really enjoy games with this type of gameplay. Well done!

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★2.83

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