itch.io

“Prototype” is right, but what is there is suggestive of a potentially very exciting game, should it be fully fleshed out.

As of current, the actions which the player can perform are simple: As the dungeon master, you can place 2 types of ghosts, or swap to the dungeoneer; and as the dungeoneer, you can attack or swap to the dungeon master. That’s it! Though no other options exist, I could easily envision this being extended to the dungeon master being able to create complex dungeon setups with the dungeoneer traversing them with equally complex set-ups.

The choice of graphics was excellent. Picking bright, small-sized pixel art—combined with the name—really leans into the “cute” sense, rather than aiming to be something grim. Though, a gameplay perspective, I do wonder about the logistics of having the dungeon master have a first-person view rather than a top-down perspective, perhaps something to investigate.

I’m also slightly confused by the interaction of the dungeon master & dungeoneer. Is it meant to cooperative, where the dungeon master assists the dungeoneer without overwhelming them? Or competitive, where the dungeon master tries to overwhelm the dungeoneer whilst inadvertently assisting them? Either of those options sound interesting, though possibly hard to implement in practice given the fact that really both characters are controlled by the same person as of now. Unlike similar tools, such as Super Mario Maker, I do think that this game may benefit from separation of responsibility of the maker and player as separate individuals.

Perhaps—though very much outside what I imagine your current scope is—you could have some online compatibility, where one player becomes the dungeon master and the other the dungeoneer. Honestly, the potential this prototype extrudes is fantastic, it could be taken in so many unique and fascinating ways, and I’ll be curious if you develop on any of those.

“Prototype” is right, but what is there is suggestive of a potentially very exciting game, should it be fully fleshed out.

As of current, the actions which the player can perform are simple: As the dungeon master, you can place 2 types of ghosts, or swap to the dungeoneer; and as the dungeoneer, you can attack or swap to the dungeon master. That’s it! Though no other options exist, I could easily envision this being extended to the dungeon master being able to create complex dungeon setups with the dungeoneer traversing them with equally complex set-ups.

The choice of graphics was excellent. Picking bright, small-sized pixel art—combined with the name—really leans into the “cute” sense, rather than aiming to be something grim. Though, a gameplay perspective, I do wonder about the logistics of having the dungeon master have a first-person view rather than a top-down perspective, perhaps something to investigate.

I’m also slightly confused by the interaction of the dungeon master & dungeoneer. Is it meant to cooperative, where the dungeon master assists the dungeoneer without overwhelming them? Or competitive, where the dungeon master tries to overwhelm the dungeoneer whilst inadvertently assisting them? Either of those options sound interesting, though possibly hard to implement in practice given the fact that really both characters are controlled by the same person as of now. Unlike similar tools, such as Super Mario Maker, I do think that this game may benefit from separation of responsibility of the maker and player as separate individuals.

Perhaps—though very much outside what I imagine your current scope is—you could have some online compatibility, where one player becomes the dungeon master and the other the dungeoneer. Honestly, the potential this prototype extrudes is fantastic, it could be taken in so many unique and fascinating ways, and I’ll be curious if you develop on any of those.

It took me a couple attempts at playing and rereading the description to figure out the rules and gameplay—you are given an excerpt from a poem, though missing a word, and you need to click on the correct word whizzing by.

Unfortunately, this isn’t particularly creative nor enjoyable. This style of gameplay is often seen in certain puzzle games, the gameplay loop is perhaps too basic (click the right word), and the challenge is mostly “just guess”, unless you happen to actually know the poem. I don’t think it’s a lost cause, but nor do I think this is a massive success. Another commenter has already suggested a way into modify the concept into something better.

Possibly doesn’t help that the poems chosen are very short (of which, there are only 2 anyway), so the game ends up being very short. In the end, the game feels more like a tool for learning these poems than an actual game. I’d personally try to think of ways to lean into gamifying it, perhaps doing better/worse makes the concussion worse resulting in an easier/harder challenge, or consecutive successes builds up an audience.

All that aside, visually, the game is quite nice. While not consisting of much in the way of dynamics or, well, scenes in general, what is there is good, although, perhaps stylistically confused, With aspects of pixel art, but also hard-edged brush painting. Though that may be intentional. There also appears to be some animation on the game’s submission page, but alas, it seems that this does not appear in-game itself.

All in all, while I can’t say I’m a fan of the game, I do think this could be a good starting point for something even more. The puns are great, though.

Sorry, I possibly should have made it clearer; outside pressing the "RunGame" button, this is a keyboard-only game—that is, it isn't controlled by mouse—you use the arrow keys, "Z" (confirm), & "X" (back). I've posted the controls in the comments, as I'm not sure how much information users browsing the submitted games can see.

It seems to work on my end.
Do note that this is a keyboard-only game—that is, it isn't controlled by mouse—you use the arrow keys, "Z" (confirm), & "X" (back).
I've posted the controls in the comments, as I'm not sure how much information users browsing the submitted games can see.

Controls:

• Left, Right: Move/Select
• Up: Hard "Drop"
• Z: Rotate Contraclockwise/"A"-like button (accept, modify, etc.)
• X: Rotate Clockwise/"B"-like button (cancel, back, etc.)