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Dicebound Loop (GMTK Game Jam 2025)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #3397 | 2.446 | 2.446 |
| Audio | #3666 | 2.831 | 2.831 |
| Artwork | #4150 | 2.954 | 2.954 |
| Creativity | #5112 | 2.969 | 2.969 |
| Enjoyment | #6645 | 2.231 | 2.231 |
Ranked from 65 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The dungeon loops back on itself, forcing the player to find the exit where they started.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See Description
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Zandolie Arts
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Comments
I like the idea, but it definitely needs a lot more polish. For instance, the walls aren't solid. I can just walk right through. Using dice to power your actions in a dungeon crawler has potential for some interesting gameplay mechanics. I'd be interested to see what you come up with.
Thanks! Yeah, it's only after I submitted it I realized the walls were permeable. I didn't have enough time to get proper polish down, but I'm pretty glad about how it turned out in the time I had. Thanks for playing!
Yeah, it happens. There's only so much you can do in 4 days. Still, nice job. If you have time, come check out our game.
Cool submission! I really enjoyed the combo of dice rolling with dungeon crawling, clever idea :D
I don't really see the point of the movement dice though, whats the benefit compared to just having free movement? A tutorial for how combat stats work would also be helpful, it took some time to figure out.
Artstyle and music were both good, and I liked that you put a boss fight in there as well ^^
So, most people didn't play the game to the "switch point" (when you kill the last miniboss), but this is a jam and I should have taken that into account. The movement dice come into play when you enter "Indiana Jones" mode, which forces you to run for the exit as fast as you can (hence the "loop" thing). If I had more time I'd have done a tutorial dungeon. Thanks for playing though I appreciate the interest!
I totally understand then. I think some level design to make the rooms look different or guide the player would be really helpful, I felt like it was really hard to navigate and remember where I've been, and there were no new information or feedback when I killed the miniboss, so I just assumed that was the end.
An interesting concept, everything being dice rolls could be a really fun mechanic but there are things I'd recommend to make it a smoother ride;
1. Enemies moving - I don't see a point in the movement dice rolls otherwise?
2. Have the movement dice rolls happen automatically in the corner. Having to stop and resolve the rolls every few steps was annoying.
3. More clear indication of what's going on in combat. I was lost by a lot of it.
4. The "first person Old School Runescape" look is really fun, lean into it more! :D
5. The ability to side-step with Q and E would have been suuuper handy
6. A map that fills out as you explore (like in old dungeons crawlers)
7. Some kind of motivation to explore, like treasure chests that contain one time use dice or something.
I honestly think although a rough start you've got the ground work for something with real potential here. Also well done on making something I'd never dream of in only 4 days XD Good work dude!
There's a LOT of stuff I had on my "to do" list for this gamejam and I just didn't have the time to finish it. Some of those "nice to haves" were on there, but working out the kinks in the movement and combat were priority one. I admit I suck at UI though, so I should update the UI more. It's nice to see you enjoyed it!
That's totally fair! I honestly hope you develop this concept further though as I genuinely think there's potential for a fun little rogue like in here :D
I found this really confusing, but I think that was the point? Either way, it's clear a lot of thought went into this one and it was a really refreshing take on the theme. This was a pretty momentous idea to attempt in such few days so it's really impressive that you even got something playable. I can't even imagine how good this could be if given more time!
Thanks! A lot of it is stuff I've been fiddling around with in other projects. Implementing it here was just redoing what I'd iterated on before. Most of the assets and music/sound I have lying around (I'm a compulsive asset collector). The longest (maybe like 36-40 hours) was spent on the combat system. It's hard to get it feelign right y'know? Thanks for the wonderful words!
I like the idea and the models but the whole map looks the same so it's difficult to tell where I am. The combat system is interesting but there's not much to it. It's a decent entry.
The aim was to make the map look the same so that the player would be turned around and confused. There's a second "part" to the game where you have to retrace your steps with a "step counter" a la Indiana Jones. I could have done a better job with more time, but I am kinda proud of how far I got in the time I had.
For some reason none of the Unity web builds in this jam let me go full screen, so I think a bunch of UI was cut off.
As a result I didn’t really understand the mechanics of the dice system, and it wasn’t clear to me what made the dice UI pop up or what I was meant to do there.
It looked nice and I liked the atmospheric sound effects. Seems like a very ambitious jam project, nice work for getting it this far along!
Yeah I know I bit off more than I could chew so it kinda ended up being a half-assed attempt. Next time I'll try yo scope smaller. And yeah, the UI was a problem in the web build, but I felt more people were likely to play a web build than a PC build. Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
fantastic atmosphere and sound work but the enviroment is kinda weakened by the flat lighting.
the combat is a bit confusing at first but getting powerups/more dice feels nice when you see your dice count go up.
the move dice seemed kinda redundant in practice as im just stopping to roll the dice every few steps, and when the collapse starts i just die before i can reach the exit.
overall though: great atmosphere with decent gameplay that kept me entertained enough to retry for a better run several times.
Thanks for the feedback. In hindsight having an autoroller for the dice sounds like a better option. But I didn't want to trivialize the dice. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Cool idea! I'm sure you already know this but you can move through the walls 😂I had fun playing though.
Yeah, there are some "glaring" bugs that only popped up after I started fixing shit, so I didn't notice them. Thanks for the kind words!
I liked the upgrades in-game, especially when you get more movement dice! It felt like a solid way to upgrade the player and make them feel stronger as the game went on. Its also just crazy impressive to get a turn based fighting system done in time for a jam, so great job with that!
I had to think about a realistic way to "level up" the player, but the hardest part was balancing the enemies to make sure that after a certain amount of upgrades it didn't feel like a cakewalk. Thanks for the feedback!
Wow, how did you achieve so much in so little time?! I loved the aesthetic. And the upgrades felt very rewarding. Choosing between them was actually pretty tough. I didn't manage to get out of the dungeon after the loop started. The time felt very limited and I think with my meager +1 movement die there was nothing I could do. But the part before the loop was very engaging! I think in combat having the ability to choose which dice to use for attack/defense could be cool. The way things are I saw almost no reason to manually roll the dice. But none of that distracts from how impressed I am with what you managed to achieve! Good job ❤️
A lot of it are things I've done and done and done again so building it was relatively simple. The hardest part was getting the kinks worked out in the combat system. I admit I had some help from a friend to get that working properly. Thank you for playing!
Nice game! I really liked the dice mechanic, and the art and music.
Appreciate it bro :)
I think this really could be a cool game. Unfortunately, most of the UI was cut off, so I couldn't play much of it.
I noticed that only after I submitted it. Although I think in the actual game page it shows up all the way.
Fun loop, loved to build my dice up! Felt like i had a little too agency but thats part of the fun with dice
Dice games are always a power fantasy. I wanted the player to feel like they earned it.
Let's get GAMBLING !!!
*Clears throat*
Yes ..; humm yes indeed this was rather enjoyable my good sir,
my thanks to the chef
LoL so you're saying the next step is loot boxes?
and don't forget the season pass that lasts a whole 3 weeks XD
I had a fun time ambling around and murdering everything I came across. I got lost almost immediately, but I feel like that was at least somewhat intended :D
There was a point where the game change to have a step limit at the top. I'm not sure how I triggered it, or what I was supposed to do when it showed up. I immediately ran down the steps and lost without being able to interact with anything.
If the dice for movement was rolled without needing to click through a popup I think the experience would be much nicer to play. The dice roll so fast I'm not sure there's any benefit to clicking them one at a time manually over using the 'stop all' buttons.
Yeah I had s feeling that it would need tweaking. But since I only had like...6 hours worth of polish on it I couldn't get all the kinks out. I think I'll release a second version of this with some cleaned up stuff and an auto roller.
I felt like i had not much of an option to fo anything, walk aimlessly through the dungeon with no objective and "fighting" the random enemies that appeared but the actual fight was just "press a button". Its a good idea of a game but its not very polished, even for a game jam. There were no wall collisions and when you press a move button when already moving it just waste 1 move points instead of not wasting it or queueing the next movement. Also it was hard to see when to turn the camera to the sides because of the FOV and sometimes i found myself turning too early and wasting multiple points to correct it which felt bad.
I enjoyed the combat rolling, and liked collecting a load of extra rolls and boosts to beat the minibosses - the UI was not very clear with how it worked, but I did piece together that each die would either land on an attack face or a defence face, and 1hp goes if a combatant has more attack than their opponents defence? It was hard to spot the difference between an attack roll and a defence roll, and the next turn started very quickly
I should have staggered the timing for the rolls. I admit I wasn't very clear in letting you know what was what. Thanks for playing it anyway I appreciate it!
I want to believe this game has really good potential, but why does the game not have wall collisions...
Also using the dice all the time feels a little pointless currently; there's not enough player feedback and urgency felt in the gameplay to compensate for the movement restriction.
Lol, I thought the wall collisions worked, damn. Ah well, thanks for the heads up!
I felt so lost when turning around in first person. I didnt get to the second phase so the movement mechanic just felt like a hindrance. I enjoyed racking up attack and defense from killing enemies tho!
It was supposed to be disorienting, at some point it's supposed to switch into a timed escape game, but I'm guessing that part was wayyyyy longer than anyone played.
very cool idea! nice work
Thanks, I appreciate that!