Looks like we were making cousins of the same game during this jam. Compared to mine, yours is definitely the kinder one to a new player. The torch crackle and the footsteps are nicely done too.
One thing I learned building my maze game: never let a deadlock happen — a monster parked on a corridor the player has to pass through, with no way around. Did that come up when you were designing the map and the monster behaviour? Curious how you handled it.
Thanks, that means a lot coming from you, and "cousins" is exactly right. I really enjoyed Torch the Sky and your write-up of how you built it.
On deadlocks: the shades back off from a strong torch and stay away from braziers, so a fresh light pushes them out of a corridor. They only come at you hard when your torch is dying. Passing the torch also leaves a lit brazier behind, so the path you've already made stays safe.
The way you built it, playing, writing a note, letting Claude fix it and playing again, is pretty much what I'm trying to build a place for. I run a small free Discord for people making games with AI, where members post their games, play each other's and trade notes. It's a few dozen people, small but active. You'd be very welcome, and your write-up would make a great post there: discord.gg/waw7dmS3Kb
Thanks for explaining — the brazier trail is a different way around it than mine, and it's got me thinking about the problem again.
And thanks for the invite, I'll drop by. A place where people actually play each other's games and trade notes is what I've been missing — most of what I learned this week came from a few comments like yours.
