The Winding Paths Below
A small roguelike about exploring unknown paths. Made in a few days for 7DRL with music by cyan11.
Playing in fullscreen (and using a desktop build) is highly recommended.
Drag the tetris pieces to the grid to create a path. Your character will move to the new piece if it's connected to a yellow tile. If your character moved, it'll trigger any items connected to the piece you just placed. The game ends after floor 7.
Updates:
v 1.2: You can now speed up time by pressing "S" (instead of the spacebar). Attack has been replaced by defense (the mechanic remains the same, it's just assets and text). There's a tutorial right after the menu that explains the main mechanic. A bug that allowed players to place a tile on top of an item (or an enemy) has been fixed.
v1.1: Pressing the spacebar (while using fullscreen or a desktop build) makes the game go faster. You can use this to fast-forward animation.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- The Winding Paths Below v1.2Mar 17, 2021
Comments
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This is great. Taking out the big screaming square takes a combo of preparedness and luck - really spicy stuff. I still didn't win but I got close, and I finally got the jerk back!
I really like the way the creatures look (and the overall presentation).
Possible refinements? A 'next' window a-la tetris, and maybe the ability to choose what order to process multiple encounters (or maybe showing some numbers so you know what the logic will do).
This is so fun to play. Thank you for making it! I hope that I’ll get to ten health one day!
Very cool game and game concept
Very cool game!)
A different kind of Rougelikes.
best tetrislike game
a well done game, im always a fan of roguelikes
absolutely wonderful omg
It was a pretty fun to play and i would definitily pay for a Steam Fullrelease with new Graphics and more content
I love this game, the art is not the best but somehow I love it. I spend a few hours or so playing, and it's never boring. :D
Somehow I managed to do it.
congrats! :-D
This was a really well done game. I made it to floor 6 on my second try, and I love how the difficulty keeps going up. Really good strategy game.
I played your game way beyond my expectation. Your game design is coherent and interesting. The overwhole is good, congrats !
this game is so cute and wonderful!! i love the art style, and the main mechanic is v satisfying. I did run into one bug, where if i double clicked on the next land piece it would place it on the side of the screen.
overall such a fun game tho!!!!
Oh, thanks for spotting this! I think it shouldn't be too hard to fix (famous last words).
I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the game!
I'm amazed by this, super inspiring and original. The grame evokes a Broughlike feeling while introducing a whole new mechanic to the genre. You even made the .c3p public, you're awesome! Thank you and congratulations <3
Thanks for the kind words! :-D
Handle the source with care, I was working quite fast and it's super messy haha.
This is great. I hope to see it expanded upon.
Great concept! Well done!
Cool concept, but it could use a better tutorial, even just a screen with some text and icons would be enough.
At first I was just placing block to build a path ahead, but then later the guy wouldn't move there. Took a while to figure out that there's really no point in placing blocks that are not adjacent to your character. But why does the game allow it then?
You can place blocks around to try to get the shape you need, but it's like a gamble since you might end up blocking cells you want to use for a path later on.
Really good game. Original, simple and polished.
I'm not really sure what is the effect of swords. Are they actually shields ? (they save you one hp for the next fight?).
EDIT:
Nevermind: it is written. But I still think shields would have been more clear.
Got to the end! (2250pts)
Yeah, they are like shields. The next update will correct that. I changed that mechanic right at the end but I didn't have time to update the sprite/text.
fun game; took a bit to figure out, but when I did, it all clicked pretty naturally.
very strong concept, and a nice, chill execution.
Still could not complete the last floor, but i am having such a great time trying. Very nice.
it took me a couple of tries but i finally beat the last level! this is such a cool concept.
I love this concept. This has so much potential! I come for the tetris but stay for the brain busting puzzle! Don't take this post as a sign that I didn't like the game. I really enjoyed playing and would like to see the game expanded. I loved the evolving enemies per floor and the lock mechanic for the stairs to the next room.
I have some problems that I as a player ran into. Please take the next few sentences as constructive feedback. It took me to my second try to actually read the directions that you need to connect to the yellow parts to have your character move. I also didn't understand why the 'attack' square was labeled as it is. When I saw attack I thought it meant that I would hit things harder. This might just be me but I think it would make sense more to make it a shield and call it such.
Again, thank you for the game.
These are all very fair points. I actually wanted to replace the sword with a shield in an update, I changed the mechanic to a defense-like thing right at the end and I didn't have time to tweak the assets.
Regarding movement and interacting with items, I was very worried about players struggling to understand that concept, but I couldn't figure out a clean way to show it (without using an annoying pop-up window) in time for the jam.
Thanks for taking the time to write this and record the video!
Very nice concept! So clever to use these Tetris shapes we're familiar with, but with a completely different game!
I’ve been looking forward to your submission, and you did not disappoint! This is really fun. It took me a while to properly grasp that it’s only the tiles directly connected to the new tetronimo which trigger. Each level is like a little puzzle, and it works well. I have only managed to get to floor 6 so far, but I’ll get the elusive 7th floor sooner or later…
If I could offer one suggestion: it would be to make the animations much faster. After getting the mechanics down, I want to be able to zip through a run!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked the game. I was very worried about properly explaining the mechanics, I added a bunch of tips but I fear they're still not super clear haha.
Regarding the fast-forward mechanic, I'll probably upload a patch with it either today or tomorrow. The actual reason why I didn't include it is that my code was pretty crappy and I feared it could break lots of things without some proper testing (and I didn't want to rush it).
Just added a quick option, though it's not hinted in-game. Just press the spacebar while on fullscreen mode or using a desktop build.
Nice, thanks! This feels much more responsive to me, big fan : )
I like the concept, very understandable even without a tutorial. The progression is well managed and the discovery of new mechanics very pleasant. Well done!