Ridge Heart

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.76
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.57
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.14
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.48
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.67
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.52
*Built solo in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 57*

Repository: GitHub

🧱 The Story


Beneath the wind-bitten peaks of the mountain ridge, a new dwarven kingdom is taking shape — forged not in war, but in stone and sweat.

You are the newly appointed dwarven Architect, entrusted with a modest stockpile of resources and the ambition to carve a legacy into the living mountain.

As your work begins, tasks arrive from dwarven nobles, guildmasters, and deepfolk elders — each demanding greater halls, longer corridors, and more elaborate constructions. The deeper and more complex the fortress becomes, the harder their requests.

But with every task fulfilled, your name earns respect — and more resources are granted to continue the great work.

Plan wisely, carve efficiently, and see that Ridge Heart rises strong from the stone.

🕹️ Controls


ActionControl
Select & Place a RoomLeft Mouse Button
Complete a MissionLeft Mouse Button
Cancel Room SelectionRight Mouse Button
Rotate Selected RoomMouse Wheel
Pan Camera aroundLeft Mouse Button
Zoom In / OutMouse Wheel or Q/E
Restart GameR


🎮 How to Play


- Draw Room Cards and place them *adjacent* to existing rooms.
- Align rooms to form specific Mission Patterns — like crosses, lines, or corners.
- When a mission is complete, it will highlight in gold — click to complete it and earn new resources.
- Plan ahead: If you run out of cards with no way forward, your service ends (with dignity… or disgrace).
- The longer you endure, the deeper you go — and the more complex the tasks become.

🛠️ Tech



Built with:
- Unity (C#)
- Aseprite (pixel art)
- Zenject (dependency injection)
- BeepBox (music and sound effects)
- Chat-GPT (documentation)

Powered by custom packages from Nebulate.me:
- DI-Tools
- SignalsHub
- Unity-Utilities

📦 Status


6.04 - first release of Windows and WebGL version

7.04 - added camera panning and improved the tutorial to be step-by-step instead. Kept original Windows build for anyone who would like to play it.

8.04 ​- made sure the cards (Rooms and Missions) cannot be clicked through, so no room can be placed through those areas; added Q/E support for Camera zoom on the touch pads, adjusted the balance and added more missions (not changing the base mechanic) to the later game stages

This is a jam build — expect a few bugs, a bit of jank, and maybe even a misplaced rune.

If you enjoyed the game, feel free to ⭐ the repo or echo your thoughts to the depths!

Comments20

pavlov367 Apr 2025, 11:44
Cool game, like the art and music! Is the circles placeholders or don't encounter pattern this it?
grid96
grid967 Apr 2025, 13:41
I really like the purple theme of the game and how the caves transform into rooms when completed is really satisfying. Also the music works well and doesn't get annoying.

Found a bug when I want to select different tile but I hovering over a place I can put the current tile it places the tile through the button. Also maybe scrolling at the edges of the screen would be better?

All in All a very good entry though.
LanaLux
LanaLux7 Apr 2025, 18:56
wow, great design!! i got a high score of 2500. my only wish was to be able to click and drag to pan the screen. again, really great design and execution! :)
boboneoone8 Apr 2025, 14:22
That was great! reminds me of Carcasone. Very impressive that you got the intelligent tile placement working in such little time. Very clean graphics as well with a consistent style.
LDJam user 52438 Apr 2025, 14:23
Great game! Got up to 4000 points before I got stuck. I would have loved being able to remove pieces that are not turned in to structures yet, but that's a minor gripe. All in all, very fun!
Frib
Frib8 Apr 2025, 15:02
That was pretty neat! Managed to reach 16300 as a Deephammer before I stopped, as I still had 24 draws left and I think I've seen everything at this point. One little detail I loved was the construction sound fitting with the music. I wish there was more variety or other kinds obstacles or goals to overcome, but that's the nature of game jams :D Good stuff, I enjoyed it!

One nitpick I have is that when you have a tile selected for placement, and you click on a card, if the tile can be placed then it will be placed. Would rather it just switched with the card, because I may or may not have placed a few isolated rooms here and there. I hope nobody notices it :D
firellon
firellonauthor8 Apr 2025, 21:25
Thanks, everyone, for the constructive feedback!

@pavlov36 no, Reliquaries actually serve in a bunch of missions later, so keep an eye on them :)

@grid96 @frib made sure the card areas are not clickable through, so no more unintended tile placement

@lanalux added camera panning and Q/E to zoom with, so should be much better now

@frib 16k points?? wow, that's magnificient! Feel free to share screenshots of your architecture, by the way

Added more challenge for the later game stages, so it's not a cakewalk anymore ;)

@daandruff removal of tiles - maybe, some day... it was part of the design that the depths you've explored stay in place and obstruct your further advancement though :D
Frib
Frib8 Apr 2025, 22:23
@firellon I hate to be that guy, but it's against the rules to make changes like that during the rating period. Unless it's a fix for a critical bug that completely breaks the game, you shouldn't touch it. Things like balance changes, additional content and UI tweaks aren't critical, so I recommend you revert those changes and wait for the rating period to be over
LanaLux
LanaLux8 Apr 2025, 23:21
@firellon nice! i played it some more: high score of 5250! :)
firellon
firellonauthor9 Apr 2025, 05:43
@frib Fair enough. I've marked the Windows build as the original Compo submission. It was not changed a bit since publishing and will not be, so anyone who would like to see the game in its original state, still can.

Also, I've added a changelog to be very transparent what exactly has changed: none of the base game mechanic, graphics, audio, etc. have been updated, keeping the game essentially the same, but a bit more accessible and fair in the late game than before. I believe that should not significantly affect the grades, but then again, it's up to your judgement.

Thank you for the feedback!
ThatSommeS
ThatSommeS9 Apr 2025, 19:32
I spent too much time playing this, thank you!
I was a little confused as to how the missions actually worked in my first play, but figured it out an had fun!

Thank you!
DazyLude
DazyLude9 Apr 2025, 20:54
I love Carcassonne, and I love dwarves, so in my eyes this is a perfect mix :)

Pretty good puzzle game, I found it really fun!
SoundJammer
SoundJammer10 Apr 2025, 06:52
Awesome music — really motivates you to build big! So far, my top score is 1100. I think I’ll definitely come back to this game, if only to listen to that soundtrack again! =)
SYPIAC10 Apr 2025, 13:28
Love the game! My favourite of the compo so far. Great music as well. I don't know how you managed to fit so much work into 48 hours! My score's not the best, I think I need to figure out some more.
JovialKnoll
JovialKnoll15 Apr 2025, 01:36
I really like how you decided to implement this type of placement puzzle game! Reminds me of Carcassonne, but more exploratory. The music and sfx came out great as well, and the UI doesn't get in the way. I wish that moving the mouse wouldn't keep scrolling the field when I'm just trying to select something above, but that's a small issue.
MEGA Marlon15 Apr 2025, 16:02
This was really fun, I found it a bit tricky once it started only giving me weaker tiles and wish i could destroy already placed tiles at some form of cost. Played a few rounds of it and had a good time!
NonDev
NonDev19 Apr 2025, 08:51
I found this really quite compelling. Smallest of gripes would be that the scrolling from click-dragging doesn't map one-to-one with mouse movement, so it feels a bit sluggish. But otherwise great stuff!
Yanato
Yanato20 Apr 2025, 19:07
Cool game, I like that you have to think and remember the types of orders. But it is quite difficult. Only 3K scorepoints 9_9
Euler Moises
Euler Moises21 Apr 2025, 20:58
At first I thought it was boring. Then I realized that I had been playing for an hour and wanted to expand the cave even more. I don't think I need to say that I liked it. :D

A nice and relaxing game.

Just the fact that I made a game by myself already deserves my respect and admiration. One day I will be able to do something like that.

I'm glad I found this game.

Congratulations!

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