Controller/Keyboard
Mouse and Keyboard
Gameplay
Crowded Dungeon Crawler is a mix of puzzle and dungeon crawler. Your goal is to defeat enough enemies to open the door to the next level.
- The TIME bar depletes as you play. Once it's empty it's game over. Attacking enemies and buying items will stop time for a few seconds.
- Melee items require HP to be used. When attacking multiple enemies, only the strongest one in the group will damage you.
- Magic items require MANA. Each item has a specific mana cost. If you don't have enough mana to cast an ability, you can hold the attack button to convert TIME into MANA.
- You can have up to 7 items in your INVENTORY. If you pick up more than that, you will drop the currently equipped item on the ground.
- Defeat enough enemies to open the EXIT. If you clear ALL enemies you will receive an additional reward.
Pause Menu
The pause menu has some special options:
- If you don't have any plays left, select RESTART LEVEL to try again.
- Select REPLAY PUZZLES to play previous puzzles in which you didn't collect the golden gem.
- CLEAR PROGRESS will restart the game from the beginning but keep your scores.
- CLEAR SCORE will erase your scores but keep your progress on the puzzles.
- You can't interact with the pause menu with the mouse, only with the keyboard or controller.
Puzzle Levels
Each world consists of 7 puzzles and a sequence of random levels at the end. In puzzle levels, you have to defeat enough enemies before running out of resources. If you don't have any more health, mana, or items to use, pause the game and select RESTART LEVEL.
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Puzzle levels have some specific rules:
- In puzzle mode, your TIME bar doesn't deplete unless you use a magic item to convert time into mana.
- Clearing all enemies will give you a GOLDEN GEM. Golden gems are used to unlock playable classes.
Adventure Mode
In world 6 there are no puzzle levels. Instead, you can play with different classes in an endless sequence of levels for high scores. It only ends when you run out of time.
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- Clearing all enemies gives you a RED GEM. Red gems can be used at special shops for unique items. If you keep them, they count as much as 100 coins!
- Each class has its own score counter. Try to see how far you can go with each one!
- Every 3 levels the dungeon type changes. You can see what's the next type on the STAIRS!
- Destroy the GOLDEN IDOL to double your score! Defeating the golden idol ends your run. Try to defeat it only when you think you can't go any further!
- After each level, some of your resources (HP, mana and items) will be refilled according to your class.
Items and Enemies
You should be able to figure out the item and enemy mechanics on your own. In case you get stuck here is some additional information. SPOILERS!
Credits
BoneVolt - Design, Programming, Graphics and SFX
Jamaass - Music and Quality Assurance
Special thanks to our Discord server for additional testing, feedback and support!
A player told me they were stuck in a puzzle level because they didn't realise you can't convert time into mana. I updated the game so you start puzzle levels with more mana and removed the time bar on these levels. Also, put a message that the game autosaves in the beginning.
Im already stuck at 1-5 :/ Great game tho, nice, art, feels polished.
@NikoHippo Yeah, the game has a lot of mechanics, might be too steep a learning curve for some... I plan to release a simpler version, with fewer mechanics, and only adventure mode (no puzzles) at some point. Might take a while though, I'm always juggling 3+ projects at once -_-"
I made a video showing how to get all gems, in case anyone is unable to unlock all classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wskGsHhYZJs
@NikoHippo I just updated the game, the kill requirement on each stage is lower and each puzzle has several tips now :)
Here's the changelog:
Decreased the number of enemies required to progress on puzzles;
Added tips to most puzzles (can be disabled in the pause menu);
Added: "R" key resets the stage;
Added: "T" key skips all puzzles so you can go straight to adventure mode;
1-6, 2-1, and 4-1 slightly changed;
Freeze ball: enemies hit nerfed from 15 to 12;
Fixed final score displaying incorrectly in some cases.
@N1ghtshade You have to destroy the stone without hitting the golem. Then use the 2 bombs where the stone was to kill all golems, and kill all demons with the sword.
4-1 also needs a redo, the new water elementals really mess up the old strategy
I really enjoyed this game, I can never get past the 3 or 4rth level but it's fun nether the less
This game is amazing I'm addicted and I haven't even gotten to adventure mode yet!
You might wanna check out your magic weapons because I think encountered a bug where I take damage from using magic weapons.
@Kaine Do you have any evidence for that? Magic vs melee weapons can be a bit confusing. For example, Fire Sword is not a magic weapon, it's just a melee weapon enchanted with fire, so it consumes HP, but no MP.
@BoneVolt The magic weapons do seem to take up hearts (look at the pictures), but besides that this is pretty AMAZING!
Looks like a bug introduced in the new version of pico-8, even the title screen is bugged...
Yeah sorry I didn't respond in time I was doing lots of other things so i didn't have time to get back to Pico-8 but thank you Orisgrat for giving proof.
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