Ludum Dare #58compo
RunicForce
Play in browser at itch.io!
Shape the magical ingredients you have into minions and use them in turn-based combat.
HOW TO PLAY:
1. build units with ingredients, there is an in-game recipe book
2. you CAN select a unit to command during your turn, use a left click
3. after moving/attacking the unit will enter a recovery, skipping next turns
4. attacking requires movement points - check out unit stats
Hotkeys:
* ENTER or SPACE to end the turn ("wait")
* R or ESCAPE to restart the level
* ctrl+G to complete the current battle (if struggling)
The combat uses a somewhat unpolished and experimental system. The balance in this Ludum Dare build is quite bad. I used a formula to adjust the stats, but it wasn't any good (and still around 1.5 hours wasted on trying to fix some obvious outliers).
The kind of a creature you get depends on the element types used (e.g. Fire), their order and count. Most units have a specific recipe, but sometimes there is an extra secret way to summon the unit. Use the in-game book to browse the base recipes.
The ingredients also provide passive bonuses, so there is more than one way a single unit archetype will perform after being summoned: it can be a tank, or it can be a very fast skirmisher.
The Arcane element can be used to boost units: Life+Death can become Life+Death+Arcane+Life+Death. While still giving you the base recipe archetype unit (Life+Death), it will allow more flat stat bonuses to be accumulated through the ingredients placed on the table. A tier1 unit can be repeated up to 4 times (e.g. Life+Arcane+Life+Arcane+Life+Arcane+Life), a tier2 unit can be repeated 3 times, and tier3 can be repeated only once. Any valid recipe can be repeated with Arcane.
Tags: #2d, #alchemy, #fantasy, #pixel art, #roguelike, #strategy rpg, #tactical, #turn-based, #turn-based strategy
Genres: strategy
Comments20
Earlybard7 Oct 2025, 06:28
Building different units from ingredients is so unique, nice work, love it!
evgenii-petrov7 Oct 2025, 09:26
Nice game if you are in the mood to combine and experiment with ingredients. Combat part needs balancing, but this is expected for LD. Games like this require a lot of UI work and this is impressive!
Melomaner7 Oct 2025, 16:28
Pretty fun game! Though it took me a while to understand the rules for how we move and attack. Overall, it gives off strong Heroes of Might and Magic III vibes :)
quasilyte7 Oct 2025, 16:59
@melomaner this game would be even harder if you wouldn't have homm 3 prior experience... At least I hope I avoided the difficulty spikes that were so common in my previous games.
Artalasky7 Oct 2025, 23:20
I like the way the jam theme is interpreted in this game.
HNKXOBKA8 Oct 2025, 05:39
I liked the large number of unit stats and the ability to obtain them from ingredients.
it's an interesting concept. And the pawn sprites look very👍...
Like there's a lot going on at once...
And the choice of ingredients with their own features and units.
Perhaps the difficulty of LD is too difficult for me😅.
it's an interesting concept. And the pawn sprites look very👍...
Like there's a lot going on at once...
And the choice of ingredients with their own features and units.
Perhaps the difficulty of LD is too difficult for me😅.
woona8 Oct 2025, 17:22
Great game! I managed to beat 12 missions out of 14 on normal.
It's relatively easy to understand the basics and the difficulty curve is just right. There was a difficulty spike on the mission where you have only one unit available, but after trying different strategies I managed to find a solution.
I can't really judge the balance based on just one playthrough. In my run, the 9-element Pirate absolutely carried me and dealt consistent damage every turn. The Sorceress is kind of insane with that attack range too. I couldn't find a good use for vampiric items that decrease your regen, but I'm sure they can be made powerful, I just couldn't find a good synergy.
I think creature crafting has great potential as a game mechanic either if you decide to expand this game or put it into a different game. The tactics part is pretty standard, reminds me of Heroes 3. Turn order was a bit unclear sometimes, a bar like in Heroes games would be perfect I think.
It would be cool if economic/adventuring part of the game was expanded, maybe with some element trading or element crafting, to get those perfect creatures that wreck everything in battle.
It's kind of a bummer when you have some elements but can't make any creatures out of them just because there are not too many creatures in the game. But it could be fixed just by adding more content and I mean there's more than enough content for a game jam now. 😁
It's relatively easy to understand the basics and the difficulty curve is just right. There was a difficulty spike on the mission where you have only one unit available, but after trying different strategies I managed to find a solution.
I can't really judge the balance based on just one playthrough. In my run, the 9-element Pirate absolutely carried me and dealt consistent damage every turn. The Sorceress is kind of insane with that attack range too. I couldn't find a good use for vampiric items that decrease your regen, but I'm sure they can be made powerful, I just couldn't find a good synergy.
I think creature crafting has great potential as a game mechanic either if you decide to expand this game or put it into a different game. The tactics part is pretty standard, reminds me of Heroes 3. Turn order was a bit unclear sometimes, a bar like in Heroes games would be perfect I think.
It would be cool if economic/adventuring part of the game was expanded, maybe with some element trading or element crafting, to get those perfect creatures that wreck everything in battle.
It's kind of a bummer when you have some elements but can't make any creatures out of them just because there are not too many creatures in the game. But it could be fixed just by adding more content and I mean there's more than enough content for a game jam now. 😁
LDJam user 2806248 Oct 2025, 17:36
A very complex game! It gives off vibes of the early Heroes of Might and Magic, but the core mechanic is of course different. I really loved the enemy death animation and many difficulty levels
grid968 Oct 2025, 19:39
Wow, that's really a lot of content for one weekend! Also a lot of pixelarts you squeeze in that time frame. Everything looks very nice and polished! Good Job!
automatonvx9 Oct 2025, 00:15
I really like the concept of crafting your armies, combining different ingredients to see what new units are revealed is somehow just very fun and a neat twist on the usual ways of building armies in strategy games. Only thing I found weird was that the combat area was very tiny compared to the UI. I put it in full screen but everything was still very small would have been nice to be able to appreciate the pixel art more. Obviously some music would be nice too for the atmosphere. I guess if you wanted to focus more on the crafting and combining meta-game you could make the combat an auto-battler, although personally I quite like the manual combat aspect. Anyhow very solid effort. Great work.
PoshDan9 Oct 2025, 12:53
Very impressive for a compo game! I liked how the units talk to you. I got this cross that made me think "this looks badass, I'm sure I will make some mega monster out of it" and the best it could do was a light slime, needless to say my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. I played up to level 4 at which point the archers whooped my ass and I couldn't figure out how the cover mechanic worked exactly. Good game though
Eugenik9 Oct 2025, 14:45
Awesome art!.
02FC9 Oct 2025, 22:33
Great job! The graphics, sound effects, and mechanics are unique and enjoyable. A bit more handy tutorial would be nice, but it's LD, so it's fine. I'm impressed with the amount of work you've accomplished in just 48 hours.
hijomo11 Oct 2025, 16:28
I like the feel of the audio, the bit crushed "lets GO",
kiv19 Oct 2025, 15:08
This is an incredible result for the such limited amount of time - a lot of content and mechanics, very nice art. Btw why fantasy ahah, I expected sci-fi cosmo battles!
RubixNoob1321 Oct 2025, 09:56
I played this for a bit longer than I expected :3
Sound effects were nice and fit well with the art style, but sometimes I was a little confused on what some of the effects meant (although this could be because I was trying to play it while working as well lol)
Great job!
Sound effects were nice and fit well with the art style, but sometimes I was a little confused on what some of the effects meant (although this could be because I was trying to play it while working as well lol)
Great job!
2) Забавные звуки. Порой, правда, немного надоедают
3) Не интуитивно эффект аркановых ингредиентов. Да, есть подсказка между уровнями, что тебе надо между двумя рецептами вставить этот ингредиент НО они еще и должны собирать одинаковое существо (либо я невнимательно прочитал)
4) Радует наличие рестарта на R
5) Как и в игре фанбанана (Ashveil) очень топорное управление действиями игрока. При истечении ходов автоматически не переходит на следующего персонажа, при ходе нельзя нажать атаку на врага чтоб подойти и ударить.
6) жаль в таком маленьком окошке играется :sob:
ИТОГО: Если вас не пугают минусы, перечисленные сверху, сыграйте и не пожалеете! Все остальное в игре на высшем уровне (Лич просто соска) :krutoblin: