Two Games for Two Game Jams

From February to the beginning of March, I participated in two Game Jams: The Brackeys Game Jam 2024.1, which had the theme “What’s Behind the Door,” and the 7DRL Challenge 2024, which had the theme “Roguelike.” Both jams had a duration of seven days.

I submitted a game to the first one (here’s the submission page), and I got very close to having something reasonably playable to the second, but I did not manage to finish it.

Next is an account and a playable instance of both games.

Classic Dungeon!

In this game, you walk around the corridors of a dungeon. Several rooms are scattered throughout it; their content is only revealed after you open their doors.

The rooms may contain a monster of random difficulty; you battle it turn by turn. For each turn, you can choose between your basic attack, leave the room, or use one of your items.

Upon winning the battle, you’re awarded a new item, which can improve your stats or give you a special action in the following battles. Items range from armor to spells and a magic eye that lets you reveal the contents of a closed room.

The game’s main loop is fun, but I did not manage to execute any resemble of a balance in the game’s flow. Each room has a random enemy and a random treasure, so anything may happen depending on the roll and the sequence of doors you open.

The game also lacks some mechanics that create a choice as to which door the player should open next or a mechanic that dictates which doors he can open. It does not matter which door the player will open next, so there’s no risk calculation or option for the player to do here.

Loop Spire

For the second game, I wanted something similar to the first one, but I wanted to swap some mechanics and change the approach in certain areas a bit.

I swapped the map with a similar one used in “Slay the Spire”. Made the combat fully automatic, similar to “Loop Hero”, with each creature attacking after a certain amount of time. Damage was calculated as (attack - defense). I added more stats to the hero, defined 6 slots for its equipment, and gave the option of three items to be chosen from when each battle ended.

In the end, I did not have time to create different types of rooms or work on the game’s balancing.