RPGDX > Action RPGs > Cave Adventure

Cave Adventure

Posted by	Moonlight
Prog. language	C++
Last update	29-04-2003
Links	Download;

Contributors:

Bjørn Lindeijer (programmer, script writer and graphics artist)
Frode Lindeijer (graphics artist)
Georg Muntingh (map maker, graphics artist and script writer)

Description:

A Cave Adventure, made for the Spring 2003 MiniRPG compo. After washing down a river, Frode (the main character) falls down a waterfall but just manages to reach out for a branch that was hanging about halfway down. Incidently, swinging towards the rock side, there happens to be an entrance to a cave behind the wall of water. Frode has the choice between either falling drop dead on the rocks below the waterfall or entering the cave to face the perils within. Naturally, in the spirit of bold exploration, he enters the cave...

Read the readme.txt, especially when you are planning to fiddle with the config file settings.

Graphics: All done within contest, except for the player and a single tile.
Engine: Was nearly finished, has been enhanced in some places.
Scripts: Almost all done within contest, except for generic scripts for handling sequences, animations and conversation windows. The real-time combat was done from scratch within the contest.
Maps/story/dialogue: Thought up and created within the contest.
Bugs: Some fixed after the compo deadline (see below)

------
29 april, 20:00
While playing the game and getting killed, I noticed I made an error while merging the game-over screen Frode created. That fixed makes for another new download. As this and the previous updates haven't added anything to the game's content but are basically bug fixes, I've updated the main download.

29 april, 11:45
Well after the compo deadline, we found an obstacle bug, a sequence bug and two difficulty bugs. So we've uploaded an updated version.

29 april, 2:30
Today lot's of things got solidified. Things like player control, character animation, startup and gameover screens, etc. Now, the game has been uploaded and preface to the game has been written down. Waiting for judgement. :-)

27 april, 23:45
Well, it was supposed to be only two hours before the deadline now. We were still optimistic about finishing this little game, leaving some of the cool things we had planned alone, but now we might even have time to add some of that stuff. Real-time combat is in, we just need to add the animation frames for the dead monsters. We won't have any levelling though, as the balancing would take too long and the game is too short for it to make much difference anyway. We had to let go our plans for having music and sound. For now, on to the new deadline!

27 april, 0:45
Well, we made it to the end of the day, though we are behind schedule. One map is nearly finished, but no objects have been added yet. We are using few previously drawn graphics (only one tile and the player), but we've got a cave set and two baddies completed now. Meanwhile, the engine is being extended a bit to adjust to new demands. The game is still in the Action genre, as we're planning to have real-time on-map combat. This is still to be implemented though.

Georg just went home, and should be back at 10:00 tomorrow, completion day. :-)

26 april, 11:05
Bjørn: Woke up an hour ago, had some breakfast, waiting for Georg to arrive. Frode has started drawing the first baddy and a skeleton of the mini-story has been thought up. We will be using an enhanced version of the engine we were using last time, for Sauerkraut.

Cave Adventure won 2nd place in the Spring 2003 MiniRPG compo.

Reviews

Review by akOOma on 01-05-2003

A very nice game. I think the 10 points are right, because the graphic (within the animations), scripts and the gameplay are very well coded. I like this game.

Review by Aj on 04-05-2003

This deserves to be the winner of the competetion! It is very addictive and the simple controls and action involved all add up to a very accurate score, brilliant!

Review by Jihgfed Pumpkinhead on 07-05-2003

This game has really excellent graphics, an interesting setting, and generally a nice interface, but is pulled down by shallow and repetetive gameplay. Combat is almost always a slugging match: you hold the CTRL button and stand there until the thing dies. The same applies to every enemy: the only strategy exists in making sure to attack them one-on-one. The end boss battle was much more interesting, however; if the other battles were a little more like this, it would have improved gameplay substantially. Even something simple, a spell or "special manoeuvre" or two, would have greatly helped. I would also have liked to see more RPG elements, particularly some kind of character progression, whether statistical or equipment based.

That said, the graphics are beautiful (particularly the cave wall, I thought) and the little humanoid enemies are really, really cool, as is the game boss.

Altogether the game is good, but it could have been great if there was a little more depth to the gameplay.

Review by kbomb987 on 17-07-2003

Pretty nice for such a short period of time to create. Graphics were impressive as well as the bit of original twist to the action/rpg aspect. I would have liked to see more character development like leveling, spells, or something. But anyways, I like squashing bugs. The battles got a bit repetitive, and I didnt like how a dead bugs body would block your path until it dissappears. Meanwhile, you have another bug attacking you cuz you cant move over the dead body. heh, kinda funny. Good job.

Review by janus on 17-01-2004

Good graphics.

No sound or music, as far as I can tell.

Gameplay is repetitive and not very interesting, and there was a major input bug that prevented me from finishing it.

No save system.

Story is almost nonexistent, but what's there is pretty decent.