RedditLudum Dare 24
August 24th-27th 2012 :: Theme: Evolution
Cannibal Slugmage of Eden - triliyn - Jam Entry
Windows | Windows (post-compo)
Note that when the game is started, a CMD window will appear with a lot of errors (though this seems to be fixed in the post-compo version). Rest assured that these ARE normal and usually do not interfere with play once the SDL window appears.
There is no tutorial right now, so this will require some explanation.
CONTROLS
* Move around with wasd. (In the post-compo version, controls have been changed to qweasdzxc to allow diagonal movement. Sorry, non-qwerty people. :( )
* Press g and then a direction key to grab in that direction.
* Press t and click a slug in your inventory to drop it.
* Press m to enter magic mode. While in magic mode, you can eat slugs for mana or click a spell to enter casting mode. While in casting mode, click the world to cast your selected spell. (Note that, as in Magic: The Gathering, ending your turn resets your mana to zero!)
* Mouse over a slug or a spell to see its stats.
* *** If you get stuck (such as by entering Magic Mode or Drop Mode without any slugs in your inventory), in the post-compo version, you can press escape to end your turn. ***
SPELLS:
* Lightning: 1 mana. Kills exactly one target slug.
* Hand: 5 mana. Puts the target slug in your inventory.
* Fire: 10 mana. Kills all slugs in the target square and all adjacent squares.
* Dawn (unimplemented): 100 mana. Ascend to godhood and remake the world in your image.
STATS
* Mana: the amount of mana you receive for eating this slug.
* Docility (TAME): the slug's aversion to fights. Slugs with low TAME will frequently kill slugs around them (but not you, for they are lowly slugs and you a mighty Slugmage!)
* Perseverance (PERS): the slug's attention span. Slugs with low PERS will frequently switch targets.
* Weight (WGHT): currently no effect. Originally, the Slugmage was to have a weight limit, so that slugs would have to be bred for low weight in addition to high mana yield.
* In addition, each slug has a color that is derived from its weight (green), docility (red -- low docility means HIGH red!), and mana yield (blue). Slugs with radically differing colors will have trouble mating.
MONSTERS
Monsters in Slugmage, as lesser beings than yourself, cannot harm you. However, as they are the main source of the mana with which you exert your divine presence, you would do well to learn about them.
* Font of Life: actually a type of venerable slug, Fonts give up their mobility in exchange for independence and asexual reproduction. Fonts remain capable of sexual reproduction (but cannot initiate it) and grant renewed life to weary slugs around them.
* Slug: a stupid creature that has nothing better to do than chase random other monsters. Slugs require constant rejuvenation from their home font, and will return to it when they begin to shrivel up. Certain slugs with low perseverance may give up their futile chasing altogether to become Fonts.
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View triliyn's journal. | View all entries by triliyn
Ratings
 | Coolness | 74% |
| #97 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.06 |
| #129 | Theme(Jam) | 2.79 |
| #133 | Humor(Jam) | 2.23 |
| #196 | Audio(Jam) | 1.69 |
| #234 | Mood(Jam) | 1.84 |
| #247 | Overall(Jam) | 2.26 |
| #262 | Fun(Jam) | 1.76 |
| #271 | Graphics(Jam) | 1.48 |
Comments
djtjj: Uh oh! Unfortunately I only really had time to test it on one other computer. Are you sure it actually crashes? The executable I currently have spawns a cmd window and spits out a LOT of errors, but runs fine after that.
If it is actually crashing, I have no idea what might be causing it, but I'll do some more testing and get back to you!
A very interesting idea, though the CMD window with errors is a little disconcerting... It needs a LOT more polish, but don't give up! I could be a great strategy game, especially multiplayer.
Sorry, I don't know what might have made it freeze.
There's not really a goal right now, but you can interact with the slug ecology by killing the slugs you don't like.
Bonus points for the name. It's a complicated game and without graphics it's hard to understand what is happening. I think I can see where you want to go with this game and it has potential. You just need to put more into the presentation and slowly teach people your magic system, which I understand was probably in your tutorial.
It froze after a about 3 minutes, however the idea is pretty cool, and keeps up with the theme. It has somekind of a mood...
However there is no audio, and the game is barely started! It lacks colours, at leas the background, for an examole green background could represent grass.
It looks promising! ;)
Gidaio: I agree that it needs much more polish. I was SO disappointed that I didn't have time to add animations for spells, combat, and slug mating. :(
PickledBrain: Thank you! I am actually quite proud of the name. And yeah, I realize the presentation at this point is terrible. I was scrambling by the end and I was like an hour late for the Jam.
zx81: Sorry about the freeze. I really should have tested this on more computers, because its behavior doesn't seem consistent at all.
The graphics are intentionally minimalist, but I agree, a background would have been nice. I'm not sure how I feel about audio because I'm mainly in this for the programming, but maybe next time I'll try to have at least placeholder sounds.
I also got a freeze, but I was enjoying myself in a very confused sort of way before that. Good job.
When I enter into the "magic" mode with m key I cannot do anything :/.
infinitedog: Unfortunately, magic mode kinda sucks right now. The biggest issue is that you can't really cancel; you can only get out by casting a spell (which is impossible if you have no slugs in your inventory). What did you try while in magic mode? You're only supposed to be able to click slugs (to eat them), click spells (to select them; this only works if you have enough mana for that spell), and click the ground (only after you've selected a spell; this casts it).
If you can't do any of these things, that is genuinely a problem. I'm planning to upload a post-compo version in a bit, but I don't know how much I'll be able to fix.
Good ideas, and I'd like to see this polished up. But i think you guys bit off a bit more than you could chew for a 72 hour game jam. Learn from it and come back stronger!
AaronGordon: Thanks! Actually, I'm only one person, which explains why I was so rushed. I do plan to do a remake of Slugmage though (at this point I feel like that would be easier than to improve the mess I made of it at the end). I'm also about to release the source and a post-compo version with some minor improvements in a bit.
I played until my character was the only thing left and I had no idea what I was doing :D
It did freeze for me closing down.
Really does need some sort of tutorial.
Interesting idea. There's a flaw in the game mechanic at the moment, in that to "win", you just need to grab a few slugs and cast the spell, which doesn't require using any of the other game mechanics at all. One way to fix this would be to have an inventory limited to 5 or 6 slugs (or limited by weight like you'd intended I guess), so you'd have to find a way to breed better ones before you can win.
X-Out: Yeah, even I have a hard time keeping the fonts alive. It's slightly better in my soon-to-be-released post-compo version; slugs have a small chance under certain conditions to spontaneously become fonts, but due to the way they behave in the compo version it almost never happens.
Norgg: Exactly. I hope to fix that in the post-compo version by adding the weight limit and hopefully also implement the win condition itself. (Right now when you cast Dawn, it sets the game state to "win", but after every spell it sets the game state back to "end-turn".)
This is experimental prerelease support for the Windows platform: use at your own risk. "Your Kitten of Death awaits!"
WARNING: Error calling finalizer #<CLOSURE (LAMBDA # :IN INITIALIZE-INSTANCE)
{22981085}>: #<SIMPLE-ERROR "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" {24B6F3F1}>
VirtualAlloc: 0x1e7.
fatal error encountered in SBCL pid 55: handle_exception: VirtualAlloc failure
Welcome to LDB, a low-level debugger for the Lisp runtime environment.
Grabbing into empty space filled my inventory with green slugs (?). Pressing T and clicking dumped the whole inventory (and not just one slug). Clicking nearby slugs in magic mode did not work (a slug was not collected). Sounds like an interesting idea, would love to play that.
jarnik: currently you can only eat slugs from your inventory, so the last thing is not a bug (although I agree it would be nice if you could eat slugs directly if they're next to you).
The first two bugs are... interesting. Which version are you using? Did the multidrop thing only work with the green slugs from grabbing an empty space? Are both of these things replicable? I think I understand the drop thing given the grabbing bug, but I have no idea what could be causing the grabbing bug.
Pushing G twice spawns a green circle in the inventory, but it doesn't look like a slug. Game tends to freeze after various amounts of time. The idea is quite interesting, but it needs some more work. Would like to see a post-compo version.
Marudziik, I will probably not be developing the original slugmage anymore, but I plan to do a sequel with a more manageable codebase. I haven't started development on the sequel yet, but today I finished the first version of the UI library that I will be using. (I also have one more version of Slugmage that I've been meaning to upload that should fix a crash or two, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to that.)
Too too too complicated to play and understand this game for me. I never played this kind of game then i don't get it.
I like minimalistic games (dwarf fortress!) and from what I read there is al lot of depth> I was too tired from all the other entries to really try it so I wont rate it. Maybe later.
demonpants: unfortunately I don't have access to a Mac and I don't know any way to cross-compile lisp (although I'm working on getting a new lisp implementation running that can compile to C). I'll try to upload the source soon though. If anyone wants help compiling it, feel free to ask!
Pressed 't', there was no slug in my inventory -> stuck -> no restart button - > quit...
RawBits, in the post compo version you can press escape to end your turn in emergencies like that. My fault for being uninformative, sorry.
I couldn't see what the challenge is - the slugs never attacked so I was free to just roam around and eat them until I could cast the Dawn spell
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Opens but freezes or crashes after a few seconds.
Windows 7 64 bit