Ruggnar Windows, Mac, Linux game

Ruggnar

Ruggnar | Released Jun 2022

Ruggnar is a platformer set in gloomy places, with nothing but candles to light the way.

Ruggnar, the dwarf, left behind his former life as a miner to explore lost castles, looking for hidden treasures.

He took with him only one item: candles.
They are his most valuable tool and prove useful in a variety of ways:
Lighting: See Ruggnar's immediate surroundings
Throwing: Light up the way ahead, but don't forget to go pick them up!
Puzzles: coming soon

Ruggnar is an experienced dwarf, and his time in the dark mines taught him different ways to handle dangerous areas. Which way do you wish to explore?

Take your time exploring and find every treasure?
Or would you rather speedrun your way to the end?
Maybe you want to speedrun AND collect all of the treasure?
Or, maybe for an extra challenge, don't use a single candle!

Ruggnar also stumbled upon an ever-changing castle. He swears that every time he approaches it, the castle changes, having different amounts of treasures and different placements of hazards.

Do you think you're worthy to take on this Procedurally Generated Castle? If so, enter and use the code given, type one in yourself, or generate a completely new one. Keep the code for yourself to retry it later, or share it to see how others fare.

This game already has:
A map to easily choose levels
5 hand made levels (Windows only, OS and Linux have 4 for now)
Leaderboard (Windows only, OS and Linux coming soon!)
1 Procedurally Generated Level every time you enter
Options to turn blood on/off and turn automatic candle pickup on/off

Things planned for the future:

At least 24 hand made levels!
Different environments!
More hazards!
Ability to trade coins for special candles!
Unlockable abilites!
Daily Challenge based on ProcGen levels!

Ruggnar is in active development. Some Core mechanics are implemented.

This game is playable on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, using the keyboard or a game pad.

Gamepad Controls:

Control Stick or D-Pad: move
A - Jump
B - Action (open chest, pick up thrown candle)
X - Throw candle (hold, aim, release)
Y - Change candle on helmet

Keyboard Controls:

Arrow Keys: move
Space - Jump
E - Action (open chest, pick up thrown candle)
T - Throw candle (hold, aim, release)
R - Change candle on helmet

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Adding elements to improve the gameplay

Jan 12 2017 News

Night and Day

From day one, I have in mind the use of the candle to light the path of the dwarf.
But in order to keep something fun to play (and because playing only in the gloom could be exhausting), I've added some ambiance light.

There are 5 ambiances :
Gloom
Night
Dusk
Noon
Dawn

The idea is to be able to create levels either on exterior or interior environment (Cemetery by night, Hill path at dawn, Lost castle in complete darkness...)

PowerUps

During the last event, some of the feedbacks pointed the lack of visibility of the powerups. I've added a box around with a little reflection effect to make it more readable.

The player is able to pick some powerups :

- a feather for a lighter and higher jump
- a mirror to see the coins and power ups through the shadow
- a lantern to remove the shadow for a moment (new)

Each powerups has a specific time and there was no indicator on the screen. Now on top of the screen, there is the powerup with a progress bar.

Spikes, water and sound

Nearly all the players complained about the spikes : the tile was not clear, was it harmful ? Yes it was, but you couldn't tell without falling on it.
Now, there is an animation of the spikes. When the player approach, the spikes move out, when he moves away, the spikes move in. It's clear now it's harmful.

The water was static, not very appealing. Now it moves.
Speaking of the water, I've added a little something : sounds.
When the player throw a candle, if it lands in water there is a splash sound, he is aware of the water in this direction. If it lands on something else, there is a bump sound.

The sound has some sort of spatialization, according to the distance and position the sound is more or less loud and on left/right or both sides of the speakers.

Some PNJs

In Ruggnar, there will be some PNJs, they won't kill Ruggnar, he'll can't kill them either. But they will be annoying, for example, with a Rat, the player will be slowed down, with a Bat, the jump will be shorter.

(Animated Rat by Calciumtrice)

Treasure chest, what's inside ?

In the first demo, the treasure was always filled with 7 coins, nothing more, nothing less. But there was no indication when the player opened it.
I needed to change this behaviour. Now the treasure shows what the player gets when he has opened it (and the content is not limited to coin anymore).