What happens if the heroes suddenly stop being able to solve your puzzles?

You are the puzzle designer for a dungeon. No, you prefer to think of yourself as a visionary architect. A fiendish master of traps and puzzles designed to foil any attempts from so-called heroes to reach the treasure.

However, something changed recently. Heroes keep moving the same way, in predictable patterns. They aren't trying to solve your puzzles any more, or fight the monsters you've carefully placed to ambush them!

Looks like you'll have to apply your unique talents in other ways. Get the hero through the dungeon and maybe they'll snap out of it?

The dungeon puzzler's lament is a game for the Gameboy Advance built in 48 hours for the GMTK Game Jam 2023.

Controls

Since this is a game for the Gameboy Advance, buttons are referred to as if they were on the console. The default key bindings are as follows:

Gameboy Advance button
Button on your keyboard
In game action
AZSelect
BXCancel
UpUp arrow
Move cursor up
DownDown arrowMove cursor down
LeftLeft arrowMove cursor left
RightRight arrowMove cursor right
StartEnterSend hero on their way
SelectBackspaceOpen menu

You can remap the keys by pressing Escape.

Credits

Art and programming - Gwilym Inzani and Corwin Kuiper
Background music - Soft mysterious harp by VWolfDog

Spoilers for the puzzles

Don't read ahead unless you're stuck!
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7
Level 8
Level 9
Level 10
Level 11
Level 12
Level 13
Level 14
Level 15
Level 16
Level 17
Level 18
Level 19

Download

Download
Dungeon Puzzlers Lament.gba 4 MB
Version 11 Jul 20, 2023

Install instructions

You'll need a Gameboy Advance emulator to play the ROM. We recommend mgba.

The official way to play is the browser version.

Development log

Comments

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(+5)

1. THIS GAME'S CONCEPT IS SWEET.

2. IT'S ACTUALLY PLAYABLE ON GBA.

3. PERFECTLY FITS THE JAM THEME