Maze of Misfortune

Maze of Misfortune is a game made for GBJam 13 by Pumpkin Head Training Dummy. The theme for the jam was "Unlucky"

Misfortune has fallen upon you at every turn, and similarly, you have fallen... into a hole...

You find yourself in a maze crawling with monsters. Thankfully, you have your semi-reliable revolver, a compass, and some paper to make a map out of. Will you be able to find your way out?

Controls:

Arrow Keys - Left and Right will turn your character 90 degrees. Up will move you in whatever direction you are facing. When in combat, Up and Down will function as menu navigation.

Enter - Enter will togggle map visibility. You cannot open the map during combat.

Z - the Z Key functions as your interact button. If there is an item on screen you want to interact with, a character who i offering you a trade, or if you are in combat and want to select an action, press the Z key to do so.

Mechanics:

Maze of Misfortune is inspired by table top RPGs and classic dungeon-crawlers. It uses a d6 system, meaning most outcomes are decided by one or two 6-sided dice, sometimes affected by your stats.

There are 4 main stats: 

• HP
  • HP is your hit points, run out and its Game Over. This is your most important stat.
• Ammo
  • Ammo reflects how many bullets you have to use, and comes in the form of Loaded Ammo and Extra Ammo. You can have Six bullets loaded at a time, and it must be loaded to shoot.
• Charms
  • Charms reflects the number of Lucky Charms you've found throughout the maze. These increase your luck, and can be traded to certain characters you may find in the maze.
• Luck 
  • Luck is your second most important stat, behind HP.  Luck affects your chances of hitting with any kind of attack. It also affects other things like the odds of your screams scaring monsters, or how much ammo you find throughout the dungeon.

Combat

In combat, you have several actions. 

• Shoot
  • The first option you have is to Shoot, you must have bullets loaded, which can be checked in the bottom right panel on the screen.
  • Rolls 2d6 + Luck
    • On an 11 or higher, Critical hit: double damage, ammo decreases by 1.
    • On a 5-10, regular hit, ammo decreases by 1.
    • On a 3 or 4, your gun jams, no damage is dealt and no ammo is lost.
    • On or below 2, you miss your shot, ammo decreases by 1.
• Reload
  • Below Shoot, you have the Reload action. This moves ammo from your Extra Ammo (which can be counted in the top left of the screen) into your revolver., which can hold 6 shots at most.
• Scream
  • Scream lets you get out any primal feelings you may be experiencing in the maze, and has a chance to stun and bewilder your opponent, causing them to waste a turn and potentially miss future attacks, if you're lucky. If successful, the enemy's luck is permanently lowered by 1.
    • Rolls 1d6 + Luck
    • On a 3 or higher, the target loses 1 luck and cannot act on their next turn.
• Prayer
  • You call out to whoever may be listening for help, they may respond with bullets, health, or steady aim that guarantees a devastating blow, or they may ignore you completely. The gods are fickle. Prayer is not affected by luck.
    • Rolls 1d6
    • On a 6, your next attack will crit. 
      • If you already have this bonus, you will either get healed equal to half your max health, or you will receive 2 or 3 more ammo, depending on whether you have more or fewer than half your hitpoints. and whether you have any stored ammo or not.
    • On a 5, you will receive 2 extra ammo if above half health, or a heal equal to 40% of your max health if you are below half health
    • On a 4, you will receive one extra bullet either loaded into your revolver or into your stored ammo.
    • On a 3 or lower, the gods won't answer your prayers.

Exploration

You have a compass to help you keep track of which direction you are going, which is always visible in the top right corner of the screen. Additionally, you will automatically fill out your map as you explore new rooms. It won't help you find new areas, but will prove useful when you need to backtrack (and you WILL need to backtrack).

Credits

This game was made by Pumpkin Head Training Dummy, specifically Garrett Hobson and Will Warren, for GBJAM 13. All assets, excluding the font, were created during the jam period.

The font we used is Nudge Orb  by Sysl, and is part of the Role Playing Fonts III pack which was found here on itch.io