Mori

Got it working on Mac - only change was to the makefile (attached)
Not played it much yet but looks really polished!

I was curious about this game from the start, you updated your log frequently and you got some cool graphics up early on. So I played it last night. It compiled neatly on my linux box with the provided makefile.

For a first speedhack entry you should definitely be proud. It's a complete game with a clear goal, plays smoothly, implements all rules, no annoying bugs. Graphics are nice and colourful, the choice for low resolution is good because it allows you to rapidly get something that looks nice. It's simple though, I can think of a lot of things that you could do with this to add more depth and replay value - enemies, variation in the quests, more different objects that interact in different ways with the world.

I have to ask, when you meet an NPC speaking Japanese, what does he say?

As for the controls, I think I would have preferred a separate key for actions, rather than having to put the cursor on the exclamation mark.

I'm glad the Makefile worked.

Originally I wanted to add a building aspect to the game, where you could craft sticks into wooden blocks to build a home, or something to that degree. I also wanted a day/night cycle and some enemies to kill. I ultimately spent more time than desired working on the trading system to implement the other ideas though.

I wasn't sure what I wanted them to say, so I had them say this: 「昨日、わたしのくるまがジャイアントなねこにたべられた！けっきょく、いのちはもくてきといみがない・・・きみは日本語をよめるか？」, which means "Yesterday, my car was eaten by a giant cat! In the end, life has neither meaning nor purpose... Can you read Japanese?" The NPCs essentially die when you trade with them, thus the "life has no meaning" part.

Now you've spoiled it for everyone else! I threw that in last-minute, because I felt the game needed at least some reward. I thought it would feel "cheap", but I'm glad that doesn't seem to be the case.

Would using the number keys be a good alternative? 1-9 to correspond to the items/tools/controls on the HUD?

Wow! That's about 23 minutes! Good job sticking it through 'til the end!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Once reviews are all said and done, I might go back and rework this entry into something a bit more. The code is a total mess though (I ended up cramming A LOT into src/player.cpp).

Wait.. why is the compile time so huge? Did he implement a ray casting engine using templates?

Yeah, that too. I got started on that in the beginning of the competition with being able to plant acorns. What kind of things would be good to farm? Wheat? Melons? Berries?

Oh, I see what you mean. That's doable. For the competition, I just kept it simple with the single action.

It's about 4 seconds to compile on my machine. What's it like on your end?

Ah, excuses excuses.

Edit
What are your thoughts on the graphics? I'm not an artist by any means, so I try to keep "art" within 8x8 tiles. Would an improved game do well with these graphics?

I designed the character sometime back in 2013 shortly after I learned about Allegro. I was eager to make a game with a friend, so when asked what kind of game to make, I jokingly said, "A 2D top-down 3D platformer starring a blue blob with an eyepatch whose end-goal is to eat a legendary cheesecake," or something to that degree. Although that was just a joke, I ended up rolling with the blue blob with an eyepatch idea. Due to the limitations of 8x8 graphics, having two "normal" eyes on the character looked really weird, so the eyepatch was a nice way to avoid weird eyes. That's why, if you notice, the NPCs' eyes are narrower than the player's, to avoid them looking "bunched" together.

Wow, that's a fun little game! The graphics are limited, but fit just nicely.

I think I'll move forward with developing the game into something a little bit bigger and with more polish. The game is pretty "open ended" right now, what with the randomly generated terrain. I think I'll design some of the terrain by hand, and then let the game generate the rest itself (like have a fixed village somewhere, but let the game spawn trees and whatnot wherever else it wants).