A downloadable game for Windows

Threnodice (a pun on the word threnody (thrĕn′ə-dē) pl. thren·o·dies, a poem or song of mourning or lamentation) is a 3d isometric puzzle game, where you play as a former dice knight, Sir Dice-r who went into a coma for a millenia, and venture into a desolate world. The environment that was once magnificent is now nothing but rubbles and broken down paths. Explore the lore and backstory through environmental storytelling and narrative dialogues as Sir Dice-r completes the challenges in each level.

LORE

Sir Dice-r was once a knight of the glorious dice kingdom, a kingdom so magnificent that they reside in a castle above the sea. However, after a brutal war against the kingdom of snakes, Sir Dice-r was left in a coma for over a millenia and have just woken up to the ruins of the once powerful dice kingdom. While recollecting his memories, Sir Dice-r decides to wander off and explore the doomed kingdom.

GAME CONCEPT AND MECHANICS

The world is composed of rectangular tiles with different variants, there are also environmental items not directly related to gameplay to serve as a narrative object. Sir Dice-r, the player character, can move in four directions, forwards, backwards, left, and right, all of which is shown diagonally from the player's perspective. Sir Dice-r can only move one tile at a time, and for each movement, the side of the dice that is touching the ground will also change (just like how dices roll).

Tiles would be destroyed once Sir Dice-r have stepped on it once (it will be destroyed once Sir Dice-r steps off of the tile). There will be special tiles with circles on them ranging from one to six. The player must match the side of the dice facing the ground with the number of circles on said special tile to activate or trigger an action. There will also be moving platforms that can be triggered by the special tiles that will aid Sir Dice-r in moving around the environment.

All of those mechanics combined will make an interesting puzzle experience with creative and out-of-the-box solutions.

Non-gameplay related features:

  • The in-game music will seamlessly play through every scene (title screen, levels, menus)
  • The title screen will have the current latest level played (or level unlocked) as the background
  • There is a level selector

The origin of the title of the game reflects the sadness and grief that Sir Dice-r is going through as he watches the aftermath of war where everything he once knew is gone and destroyed. 

GAMEPLAY GUIDE

The player's objective is to reach the end of the level where there would be a unique tile to signal the level's end while destroying every tile on that level. When a special tile is pressed (with the conditions explained above) there would be actions to help the player such as a new platform rises or activating a moving platform.

The player can move Sir Dice-r using the arrow keys located at the bottom left corner of the screen. Clicking an arrow will move Sir Dice-r to its corresponding direction.

The player can view the back side of Sir Dice-r on the top right of the screen.

Pressing Esc while in a level opens up the menu screen where the player can resume the game or return to the main menu.

The player can start a new game from the title screen by pressing start (or continue once the player has passed the first level) or by selecting a level from the levels menu.

GAME JAM THEME AND DIVERSIVIER IMPLEMENTATION

  • Break: The tiles that come in contact with Sir Dice-r will break and be removed permanently from the level (until it restarts)
  • Change: The breaking of the tiles will change the level layout
  • Lambdadelta: There is another perspective of the back side of Sir Dice-r
  • PPKM: Since the level layout changes as the game goes on, the places where the player can go becomes more and more limited
  • Queen's Gambit: The player must think thoroughly how to align the right dice side with the special tiles while calculating the correct amount of moves to destroy every tile on the level

SOURCE CODE

3RD PARTY ASSETS

Download

Download
Threnodice v1.3 (Latest) 56 MB
Download
Threnodice v1.2 56 MB
Download
Threnodice v1.1 56 MB
Download
Threnodice v1.0 46 MB

Install instructions

Unzip the downloadable files and run Threnodice.exe.

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