LD54 - Krasnoludzki Shelter

So, you can probably tell I’ve had an idea for the other themes that reached the final round (Shelter/Underground/Folklore, etc..). And when “Limited Space” won, I thought, yeah, I can make it work, somewhat.

The original idea was simple: the player would control a small group of krasnoludki (Polish for gnomes) in a mine or shelter of some kind. You could order them to dig out the walls, gather resources and build a few simple buildings. The end goal was always a bit murky; building a “rescue beacon” was what I landed on.

The problem is by Sunday afternoon, I was pretty much bored with the idea; I didn’t like where the game was going and lost most of the motivation to do it. But as this was the last LD of the year, I pushed on implementing the core mechanics and putting some graphics in place. To make things worse, I woke up on Monday with a much better idea, a completely different premise and genre, so there was no way I could pivot with just over 12 hours to go.

Right enough of moaning, what is working

• WASD camera navigation
• LMB to select a unit
• RMB to order it to go to a location/mine a wall
• hover over the map to “select” a target for building
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to “build”
• Resources disappear based on whether your colonists are doing something or not

The few models, images and animations are all my own. There is no sound - that is deliberate.

That's it; there is no win-or-lose condition; running out of resources doesn't do anything, and the buildings don't do anything. Oh well, LD 55 is just 6 months away.