GMTK-2022 submission.

Roll dice --click roll to begin!-- to either move minions or alter the terrain --first click a dice to select effect!--.

(So for moving units, click red dice, click unit, then click destination. For a spell, click green dice, then click 1 tile near or on a unit.)

Beware of the undead reaching your dragon, as the dice are its hit-points! Luckily you can gain new dice by defeating their boney mages. (Also all undead only move up to 1 tile per turn.)

Tutorial included in game --press '1' to skip a tutorial level--, but if that's confusing or not enough there is (an attempt at) a full manual --including unit-type, spell, and terrain-type references-- below the credits.

Known issues:
- (Bug:) Attacking an opposing unit stronger than 1 with the dragon will defeat the dragon, and then only game-over at the beginning of your next turn.
- (Bug:) The first two pairs (movement, spell) of dice you get may seem 'linked' in that they'll almost always show the same face as the other one in the pair when a roll is done. Fortunately any dice added when defeating mages don't have this problem.
- (Intentional:) The player can't spawn any unit type on Plain terrain.
- (Intentional:) On the final map, there are some enemy bases outside the play area.

Full Credits:

All code & assets where made during the 48 hours of the jam, for the jam, by:

Erwin Burema / 'deetwenty'
- Concept (shared)
- Art Lead (all except some little icons/buttons and tutorial screens)
- Music Lead (all)
- Sound Effects Lead (all except 'movement')
- Coding Assist (Menu Screens only: Start Screen, Volume Controls Panel, Game Over Screen)
Remco Burema / 'remco'
- Concept (shared)
- Art Assists (only 'parchment button', volume button, 2 dice faces, tutorial screens)
- Sound Effect Assist (only 'movement')
- Coding Lead (all except Menu Screens)

Manual

Complicated? Nonsense! Typing out the manual only took two hours our so ;-)

The goal of the game (as opposed to the tutorials) is to survive, as a dragon and their minions, for as many turns as possible, against an undead onslaught. (Note that in the final map there are towers that spawn undead just outside of the top of the play-area --and therefore your-- reach, so the game is effectively endless.)

The most important unit is the dragon, they need to survive. There is only one dragon, and you cannot spawn more of them. The number of dice you posses (4 at the start) is also your dragons hit-points. You lose dice equal to the ammount of units attacking your dragon, so it can be over quickly!

The game is over when you have no more dice to roll and therefore your dragon is defeated.

Fortunately, dice are not just there to be pretty and be hitpoints! Each turn, you roll your dice, and perform actions, which can be move actions (the red dice) which move units (different maximum distance per dice face), or spells (green dice), which either change terrain, or spawn friendly units on certain types of terrain in an area. (Note that normal plains don't spawn any or our units, try it on swamps, water, forest or mountain tiles instead!)

It also helps that undead never move more than 1 tile per turn, I suppose. And that opposing mage units only cast tower spells, and do not have any attack strength.

You begin with only four dice (two movement and two terrain), but can gain more during play by (actively!) defeating the enemy mage units. Mage units defeated by one of your own in your own turn, will grant an extra dice -- either a new 'movement', or a new 'spell' dice, chosen at random.

The play area consists of a map (left side of the screen), on which the landscape and units (both your red dragon ones, and the opposing white/purple undead ones and/or the tutorial target) are shown, and a dice tower (on the right side), where the actions currently available to you are displayed.

Note that in each tutorial, the goal is slightly different, reach the tile with the target sprite on it to advance to the next tutorial. There are three tutorials. (Note that the tutorial levels intentionally have blank spots on the map, where no units can reach. This isn't the case in the full map.)

Controls

On the title-screen, click the start-button to begin the game.
(Read and) click anywhere on the screen to dismiss the tutorial(/game start) message.
Click the volume button in the upper left corner to bring up the volume controls panel.
In general, this game can be controlled fully with the mouse. There are a few handy/cheaty/debug shortcuts though, available only through the keyboard:
- Press '1' or '+' to skip a (tutorial) level.
- Press '0' or '-' to go back to the previous level.
- Press 'R' to reload the current map.
- Press 'Z' or 'M' to toggle instant enemy faction turn resolution (default is all of their moves will take 1/4 of a second each).
Click 'Roll' to begin you turn -- this will roll the dice, of which the upturned faces will determine your possible actions for that run.
To end your turn, even if actions are still available to you, click 'Skip Turn' (this will not undo any actions already taken).
To begin an action, click a dice. After a click on the dice of choice, it will be highlighted as selected. After a dice action is done, it cannot be selected again for that turn (it will be shown faintly in the background -- you haven't lost it!)
Note that, if a dice is selected, but the action can not be taken (for example, a misclick), the current dice will be unselected, and needs to be selected again to proceed.
If a movement dice (red and has arrows) is selected, first click on the unit you want to move (selectable units will have their hex highlighted in red), then click on the destination.
If a spell dice (green and has a drawing) is selected, click next to or on a unit (selectable tiles will be highlighted in red). This tile and all of its direct neighbours will have the effect of the spell applied to them.
If all dice actions are taken, or if 'Skip Turn' is pressed, your turn is over and the opposing undead faction will take the helm for their badly programmed 'CPU' turn. Control will afterwards return to you for the next round.

Combat

To attack an undead unit (the purple/white ones), move into that unit with one of your own (the red ones). Defending will happen whenever an undead unit attacks one of yours.

Note that, to attack a unit needs to be able to move to the hex it is attacking. So a water unit can't attack things on land, even though it's right next to it.

In general, stronger units defeat weaker ones. Even the strong can be decimated by weaker attacks though...

The 'strength' of a unit is basically how many of them there are on a hex-tile. All of our units, are always alone, and thus have a strength of 1 (excepting that our dragon uses the number of dice as strength when defending). Undead units can appear from 1 to 3 strength, except for the mage, which has a strength of 0 and can't really attack or defend against anything (but can summon towers).

When attacking an undead unit with one of your own, you win if it has less strength equal to or greater then the strength of the opponent. Their unit is gone and yours replaces it. If the strenght of the undead unit is greater, you lose your unit, but it gets weaker by your strength. (So attacking 3 skeletons in a hex will result in 2 skeletons and your attacking unit gone, but attacking 1 skeleton will mean the skeleton is no more and our unit moves to that space.)

The same thing happens in reverse when you are attacked by an undead unit. If it has strength greater than or equal to our unit, our unit is gone and theirs replaces it. If our strength was greater, we lose that amount of strength on our unit though. (This comes into play with the dragon.) (So if a 2 undead sharks attack our dragon and we have 3 dice left, we will lose 2 dice for a remaining total of 1, and the sharks will be gone. If a single undead bird attacks a Nessie, then Nessie will sink and the bird will take its place. If a mage, which has strength 0 runs into 'attacks' one of our units, it will just be gone. This will not result in a dice, as only attacks do that.)

Attack and defeat a mage for an extra dice, usable from next turn onwards.

Unit Reference

Dragon side: All units in your horde are single, and thus have a 'strength' of 1, except for when the dragon is defending in which case their strength is equal to the current amount of dice. Movement is equal to the arrow-pips on the dice used.
- Kobold: Land unit. Can move on: Plains, Swamp, Forrest. Can spawn on: Swamp, Forrest. Strength: 1
- Sea-drake/'Nessie': Water unit. Can move on: Swamp, Water. Can spawn on: Swamp, Water. Strength: 1
- Air-Drake/'Wyvern': Air unit. Can move on: All except Towers/Walls. Can spawn on: Mountain. Strength: 1
- Dragon: This is you. There is only one. Moves as an Air-Drake. Can't spawn anywhere. Strength: 1 when attacking, number of dice when defending.
Undead side: Note that all undead units must spawn next to (or on) a Tower. A Tower will (almost always) spawn one hex of undead units per turn. Movement is a maximum of 1 tile per turn.
- Skeleton: Land unit. Can move on: Plains, Swamp. Can spawn on: Plains. Strength: 1 - 3
- Shark: Water unit. Can move on: Water, Swamp. Can spawn on: Water. Strength: 1 - 2
- Bird: Air unit. Can move on: All except Forrest. Can spawn on: Mountains. Strength: 1 - 3
- Mage: Spell unit. Can move on: All. Can spawn on: Wall, Tower. Strength: 0, but can spawn a Tower (+ Walls) as an action.
- Target: Only relevant in the tutorials. Can move: No. Strength: No. 'Defeat' to win a tutorial level.

Spell Reference

Note that spells which change the terrain to a type where that unit can't live, will destroy that unit!

Dragons' side ('The green dice') Click on the green dice to select it, then click on any tile within one space away (including) one of our units.
- 'Volcano' Terrain spell (dice with a picture of a erupting volcano): Heightens and/or burns terrain.
- Water -> Swamp
- Swamp -> Plains
- Forrest -> Plains
- Plains -> Mountains
- Tower -> Walls
- Walls -> Plains
- 'Flood' Terrain spell (dice with a picture of a storm cloud with rain): Lowers and/or floods terrain.
- Swamp -> Water
- Plains -> Swamp
- Mountains -> Forrest
- Tower -> Walls
- Walls -> Plains
- 'Spawn' spell (dice with a picture of a hatching egg): Spawns our types of units on different type of hex. Note that Plains don't spawn any of our units!
- Swamp: Kobold
- Forrest: Kobold
- Water: Nessie
- Mountain: (Air)Drake
- Tower/Walls: Skeleton(s) or Mage (under control of the CPU opponent)
Undead side
- Mages can spawn a Tower. A full spawned Tower includes 3 walls at its neighbouring hexes.
- A Tower can spawn more undead units in its vicinity (one tile per turn). Undead units can not otherwise be spawned. The full game (not tutorials) has a couple of towers out of reach of the screen, so the game won't end, unless you are defeated.

Terrain Reference

Plains: Passable by land units. Cannot spawn anything for our side. May spawn skeletons when next to a Tower in undeads' turn
Swamp: Passable by all units. Spawns kobolds or Water-Drakes if en-spelled. During the opposing turn, may spawn skeletons or sharks when next to a Tower.
Water: Passable by water units. Spawns Nessies if a spell is applied. May spawn sharks when it's the undeads turn if next to a Tower.
Forrest: No undead units (except for the mage) can pass forests. Not even their birds! Will spawn kobolds if the 'Spawn' spell is applied.
Mountain: Passable by airborne units (this includes our Dragon and the Mage). Will spawn air-drakes in case of Spawn spell, or, during the CPU's turn, birds, when next to an undead tower.
Wall: Passable by undead units only. Can spawn a random assortment of undead units when next to a Tower.
Tower: Passable by undead units only. Will occasionally spawn mages during the undeads turn, or definitely when targeted with a spawn spell.
'Void': Only relevant in tutorial levels. Impassable by all, not affected by spells.

Dice Reference

Each Red Dice: 2 sides with range-1 movement, 3 sides with range-2 movement, 1 side with range-3 movement.

Each Green Dice: 3 sides Volcano spell, 2 sides Flood spell, 1 side Spawn spell.

Lose dice whenever your dragon gets hit. The amount of dice lost is the strength of the unit. Your dragon is sadly defeated when there are no more dice.