Dungeon Crawlers Jam 2021

[Chris Koźmik]

zooperdan from dungeoncrawlers.org is organizing a Dungeon Crawlers Jam (7 days) between 1st and 8th April 2021. At the moment there are 39 participants (and raising). EDIT: There are 633 participants now. There are some modest rewards


Details:
https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2021

EDIT (results):
https://dungeoncrawlers.org/post/dungeon-crawler-jam-2021-results/

https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2021/results (rated according to jam participants)

In the end there were 78 qualified entries.

 

[Wysardry]

Currently, there are less than 9 days left before this starts and 478 people have signed up for it.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Well here is hope that something good will come out of this. Maybe if we are lucky some sleeper hit like Grimrock.

 

[CryptRat]

The games are starting to come : https://farsmile90.itch.io/callan-escape-from-dungeon.

 

[Chris Koźmik]

633 entries

 

[JarlFrank]

zwanzig_zwoelf made a game for this:
https://surt-r.itch.io/efcc-escape-from-cosmic-cube

 

[Strange Fellow]

As did CryptRat: https://cryptrat.itch.io/from-a-lost-tunnel

Looking forward to trying out both of these. A 6DOF crawler sounds very cool.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Been playing the submitted games, some of them are pretty impressive. Will post my notes later, or at least mention projects that I *really* liked.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Some highlights so far:

Shiro's Dungeon
Hedgerow
The Reign of the Lizard Wizard
Kingdom of Yergoval
Callan: Escape From Dungeon

 

[CryptRat]

Been crawling.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Been crawling.

how would you drawn a 3d map though?

 

[CryptRat]

In all seriousness since the games from the jam are tile-based I guess you can in theory make one map per "floor", not sure you can really use those to navigate, I probably could not, maybe the ones from Grid Cartographer with other floors in transparency can work but I prefer paper, anyway I won't map the 6 direction games, already completed Escape from Cosmic cube and it was very fun, also I stopped playing Ankehotep's prison after completing the third level, no problem with the game, there's just not enough variation for wanting to roam one more level as is, it's fine, other games were "2D", I don't know if there's one more 6 direction game.

 

[CryptRat]

I've played more games than not, now, the remaining third are games I've got technical issues with. The most relevant game among those may be Ivory Tours, this game looks really cool but it's one of several Unity games where I get a pink background instead of textures.

I won't comment about promising but currently not fun games, there are plenty but it's not really useful at this point because most of these will be abandoned and we can't be sure which ones won't, better wait to see which ones provide updates in the future before talking about those.

Now about a loose list of games which are at least vaguely relevant now :
- The reign of the lizard wizard : this one looks good, you get skills from opponent and buy stat upgrades. It has an ok 1-vs-1 turn-based combat whose main twist, that I really like, is that the number of action points you get each turn is randomized. It also has some content, you're going to play for more than 5 minutes.

- Freebooter of SPLORR!! : this one gives you one random dungeon to bet and uses a simple combat system but it has very cool (boost especially) resource management.

- Escape from cosmic cube : let's mention zwanzig_zwoelf 's game which has good production values, 6 direction movement, feels good and is intense because at the beginning you can die and the more you advance through the game the less you want to die, I recommend to check for all upgrades before going from one location to the next.

- Characternik : this one is challenging, you don't have ton of flexibility neither in combat nor exploration but depending on what you do you're going to die or not. It looks cool and is based on Cossack's tales and uses a kitsch song.

Callan : Escape from dungeon : at least a bit harder than many of the other games, the game has cooldown-based combat but actual resource managenemnt (life, stamina, hunger and thirst, and you can rest) and an appropriate length single dungeon floor which felt fun to beat.

Kingdom of Yergoval : This one is detailed and polished, also offers fun open exploration, it's easy anyway.

- Mork's Trial : this one looks notably good, for the rest you're sent into a procedural dungeon and probably have to hit and go back or step dance at least a little bit, I'm not certain because it does not work great anyway or maybe I'm old, or both.

Some more :

Spoiler

- Tria Insomnia : a small party-based turn-based crawler. It does the job.

- Labyrinth: I/O : an FPS were you walk on tiles while targetting enemies with the mouse. It's fun.

Kronos 6 is an action adventure (like real adventure, with puzzles) game, it's very short but I thought it was satisfying to finally beat it.

- Beat of the bard : this game is rythm based, you know if you're interested or not, but it's well executed.

- Funk dungeon : another rythm-based game, actually, which looks better (the skeleton dancing animation is hilarious) but from what I've played (it's hard to me, I'll need to spend more time to manage to beat it) it has no gameplay variation except for the speed of the tunes and the layout, only one type of enemy and nothing else, while the other game above does.

- Psycho Princess : the labyrinth : this one was made with RPG Maker, or it's a good imitation. I like the gameplay loop, you have some time to gather some skills and spells and are teleported to a next area when the timer ends, a couple of times, then you need to fight the ending boss with what you gathered, I think it's appropriate for the context.

Easter infestation : this one does not only look like a game boy game, it is a game boy game, it's simple and easy but I thought it was cool for one precise reason I won't spoil.

- Hedgerow : this one was made by the guy who's taking his sweet time making Flamberge. It's trippy, artsy, and uses a QTE-based combat system, you are warned, but it's among the most classy games here.

- Shiro's dungeon : this one has simple 1 vs 1 turn-based combat and some cool stuff like golden penguins, I thought it was fun enough to be worth a mention anyway.

By the way, in case you'd wonder, From a Lost Tunnel, the game I made has simple and easy combat but a crazy, small dungeon with plenty of teleporters and spinners, depending on how you like those you may want to give it a try or avoid it at all cost.

 

[CryptRat]

OK, I found another pc to play the games I could not play on mine so let's complete the list.

- Ivory Tours is indeed very good. It is a party-based turn-based dungeon crawler which looks and sounds great and is detailed and polished, the dungeon is good and is a spaceship, the combat system is based on rolling 4 dices which are sword/shield/...-edged and your xp is spent on upgrading dices. It works and, if maybe not each thing taken apart, the overall package does feel fresh.

- Calderan Chronicles - Prologue is very relevant to the Codex, obviously, since it's a classic party-based crawler. I think the combat is real-time but I pressed A for the biggest part so there may be nuances I missed, anyway what's there is promising, there's one quest basically, not ton of content yet but still already substantial visible work in multiple aspects.

- The Dark Forest In Heaven is a turn-based tile-based shooter with enough management of different ammunition especially.

- I need to play more of After the Light but it's essentially based on the kind of puzzles you find in Dungeon Master and Legend of Grimrock.

- Finally Ard'af is a manic game where you smash zombies and skeletons, picking keys and trying to avoid traps, the game is hard and fun and I've not completed it yet but I'll probably take the time to try.

 

[Chris Koźmik]

Official results are here: https://dungeoncrawlers.org/post/dungeon-crawler-jam-2021-results/

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

It's been a fun ride. As an added bonus, I've confirmed that my 3D pathfinding library is functional and only needs minor adjustments and some optimizations to handle large maze-like maps.

 

[Naraya]

Hope this is a good place for this. Dungeoncrawlers 2022 jam has ended and submissions are here: https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2022/entries

 

[Chris Koźmik]

Hope this is a good place for this. Dungeoncrawlers 2022 jam has ended and submissions are here: https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2022/entries

BTW, there is a dedicated 2022 jam topic: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/dungeon-crawlers-jam-2022.142302/