A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Buy Now$4.99 USD or more

Colmen's Quest is a turn-based fantasy RPG. You play as Colmen, an aspiring monster hunter, who is on a quest to unveil a dark threat that haunts the village of Valkirk. You will explore Valkirk and its villagers, descend dusky dungeons, fight monsters and eventually collect a bunch of loot and treasures.

The game is inspired by classic Hack & Slays like Diablo and turn-based RPGs like Rogue's Tale or Stoneshard, however it's not a roguelike game.

Features

  • Retro pixelart look
  • Fully turn-based
  • Story & quests
  • NPCs for trading and gossip
  • Lots of items
    • From armor over melee and range weapons to consumable spell scrolls
  • Progress your character with stats and new equipment
  • Choose from 20+ very different skills
    • From melee knockback over permafrost stuns to summoning minions
  • No classes - you can mix skills and stats the way you like it
  • Playtime of 8-10 hours for one playthrough
  • Many enemy types with different skills that may require tactical decisions
  • Procedural generated dungeons and outdoor levels
  • Traps, secret areas and hidden treasures to discover
  • NOT a roguelike game
    • You can always 'Save & Quit' and start again in the village. Your character progress is also saved every time you enter a new area.
      No permadeath!

(The DEMO version only contains the first dungeon and roughly 1.5 hours of gameplay.)


If you like the game I'd ❤️ to read your feedback in the comments!

You can also follow me @coldi where I tweet mostly about game dev.


📣 Attention YouTube LetsPlayers

If you use YouTube's monetization features and get a copyright issue due to the background music in Colmen's Quest, please let me know by mail and we will get rid of it. 👌 You can also disable the music in the Options Menu to avoid that. 🙉


Purchase

Buy Now$4.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

colmen-win32.zip 80 MB
colmen-linux-x64.zip 87 MB
colmen-darwin-x64.zip 86 MB

Download demo

Download
DEMO Linux 81 MB
Download
DEMO Windows 75 MB

Development log

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Comments

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Hi there.

Tried to run it on Linux and got this :

[615062:0430/183441.242576:FATAL:gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc(439)] GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye.

Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

Currently using an Nvidia GPU and proprietary driver. Any ideas ?

(1 edit)

try running the game outside of the itch.io app or start itch up with --disable-gpu-sandbox

This game is one of the best ive ever played and Coldi is so talented.  Please add more content to this game.   I never want it to end.

(-1)

I love the clean and straight gameplay.  There is no requisite to literal witchcraft use by play!  You can be wise instead!  That makes me happy.  I am not even annoyed by the inventory screen open for item swaps and tactical management.  For, too, there are miracles.

I've tried your game because it was free for a certain amount of time and it is pretty cool! I like the exploration and custom stat progression. I also like how you can choose your own custom playstyle instead of forcing a role on the player and limiting their options. I also really like the combat because it feels turn based but more action and real time it seems. I also like the style of the game too! Loved this game overall and happy 1 year anniversary :D~!!!

(+1)

Cool game! But is there no way to move diagonally by keyboard?

(-1)

Thanks! There is no dedicated key for diagonal movement. You can walk around diagonally by pressing two directions at once but the first step will always be horizontal or vertical.

Great game. I play an archer, roughly at level, 10. 

Two questions pop up:

- I gained the skill of "rushing eagle" (or so, the last one for DEX), but it does not work. It tells: you cannot use it here, neither on enemies, nor the puppet.


- Also it would be great to have the option for "Sell next time" when picking up loot. Now I pick up the loot, open the inventory, and sell it. That takes time.

Thank you!

- Oh, yeah. This skill is a summoning skill and you can't cast it on an enemy directly. You cast it on a free tile and in the next turn the eagle will charge the enemy (if reachable). I'm sorry the skill description is not clear here. Also summoning doesn't work in the village.

- I see. That's a great idea! However it will not make it into Colmen's Quest as I consider it done by now :) I will consider this option for my next game though! Thanks!

very nice game 

(+1)

What game engine did you use to make this game

(+3)

It's a self-made engine written in JavaScript (ReactJS).

If you're interested in this topic you can learn more about it here: https://github.com/coldi/r3f-game-demo

(+1)

Hi and many thanks for this great game!

After playing the Demo version of this game, I was addicted to the game. So I decided to play the full version which I already played through. I do really like the game mechanics, sounds and areas to discover. The difficulty is very good and not too easy. So you have to try different ways to defeat the enemies.

I have spent round about 10 hours with this game yet as an archer. I believe that this game is one of the few I will play through again, with a different skill set and weapon, like sword. So another 10 hours of this hidden gem :-)

Another positive aspect is that the developer provides updates of the game and listens to user feedback actively. E.g. now there are three save slots. Good job!

I am looking forward for a Colmens Quest 2!

Thanks a lot for this amazing feedback! Great to read that you finished the game, so apparently most critical bugs should be fixed right now ⚔️🐛

Good luck with your second run and thank you so much for supporting Colmen's Quest! 

same will play through again

(1 edit)

Hmm, black screen when going down first stairs of first dungeon level? Help?

Saved, existed, started again, now I see something. Nevermind.

Yeah, that's a bug in the dungeon generation. It will be fixed in the update today! Make sure to download it later on and thank you for playing.

(1 edit)

Hello, publishing a gameplay video on Youtube, with only the game sounds and musics, with my voice, i see an alert claim from Fesliyan Studios (The Unsolved Murder-39688, and Dark Fog-39688).

So no money.

I don’t care as i don’t get money anyway, but that’s always unfortunate when it happens for "nothing".

(+1)

Huh, that's unfortunate! I just reached out to them and will see what we can do about this issue.

Thanks for bringing it up!

(+1)

Link to the videos (2 episodes) if interested :

(+1)

Hi ! First, thanks for Linux PC support. No visible issue after a quick testing.

I only went into the first dungeon, XP to level 3 (picked bow skills), and died fighting recklessly in the underground.

First impression is very good, but i barely played. Yet, i have already several suggestions !

In no order but it’s easier to answer :

1/ If you can, please add "very soon" full key rebinding options, it would be easier on non-qwerty layouts, or for lefties, disabled or anything not "standard qwerty able".

2/ Add options to control sound effects and music, so it’s possible to lower one or the other based on preferences. ie I almost alway play with 0-30% music, and 90% sound or whatever similar depends on games.

3/ a small zoom in and out option maybe ?

4/ breaking crates feel slow. If they don’t fight back, maybe just skip the "attack" animation to make it smoother ?

5/ Separate save slots, at least maybe 3, so i could start a Warrior run, without destroying my Sorcerer run ?

6/ Options to remove screen shake, flash etc ?

7/ Option to show raw numbers (not %) of health/mana/damage/etc on screen, instead of bars ? Also raw numbers on Health/Mana big orbs on the main GUI

8/ Maybe make the bow unable to shot in melee, but raise damage a little ? I felt it was difficult to fight with a bow, with the 4 turns cooldown of the first skills.

9/ I’d prefer no diagonal move and direct attack, only cardinal, and allow non-cardinal for projectiles (bow, fireball...) only, but that’s just me.

(+1)

"died fighting recklessly" - Definitely a Tchey run! I think i second all these but i have only played the demo and will be starting my "release" run soon.

Hi Tchey!

Thank you for playing and giving feedback! I'm very glad you like the game. Let's get straight to the points:

1) You can already use the arrow keys and the numpad (for skills) right now. I agree that this is also not ideal but it's an alternative for anyone not having qwerty layout. I might look into keybindings later.

2) Yep, I try to add basic options for sound controls and fullscreen in the next update.

3) It's already in the game but more or less experimental, hence no "documentation" ;) You can press the Page up/Down keys to zoom in/out. You may or may not experience some minor pixel rendering issues.

4) I'll see what I can do about it :)

5) I have save slots on my list for quite some time but as no one ever requested this I thought I might not need to implement it :D But I'm glad that you bring it up. I think Colmen provides some replay value in terms of different builds and I will try to enable save slots in the next update.

6) Nah, those crits need to rumble!

7) I will consider adding raw numbers for the health/mana orbs.

8) Hmm... I don't quite understand this point. You've found it difficult to play with the bow and want it to get nerfed so that it can not be used in melee (distance=1)? I'm sure I misinterpret something here ;)

9) I want to wait for a lot more player feedback before deciding on any changes here.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to put this feedback together! Much appreciated!

(+1)

About flash and shakes, it can be disturbing for some players. Like key rebinding, it’s all about accessibility (and preference).

About the bow, yes, nerf but ! Make the damage higher, so the idea is to kill before contact, and if you go into melee it’s unlucky or you did something wrong or exception.

(2 edits) (+1)

Great game, the demo is spot on. I wish more developers made a demo as I might not have bought this game without playing the demo. I'm using the Linux version and have seen no issues at all.

I played a strength character with mainly Charge/Heavy Blow skills and that was nicely balanced - although I've to admit I'm a very casual RPG player.

I didn't realise the dungeon level (including switch) got reset after a save/load, so I was looking for a second switch in a hidden area when the metal door wouldn't open. Apart from that the gameplay is very intuitive.

A few small things that would be nice to have:

  • Remember the previous window/full screen setting
  • Add the same sections (weapon/potions/etc) you have in the inventory to the trading screen

Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much for playing and your feedback!

Will put that on my list for post release.

(1 edit) (+2)

Updated 5-Star Review by https://turnbasedgamer.itch.io/

This is exactly the game I’ve been looking for without even knowing I was looking for it. The pixel graphics might turn you off at first, but that’s part of the experience- it’s intended to evoke old school RPG dungeon crawling in the vein of Ultima with a dash of Diablo. It’s not a party-based game though, you are Colmen, one man on a quest (multiple actually). The movement and combat will appeal to old school RPG fans, rogue-like fans, and even Diablo fans. You start in a town, explore a dungeon full of baddies, collect loot and upgrade your equipment and skills. It is turn-based and monsters move and target you as you explore. However, you have an arsenal of skills and spell scrolls to collect and use in your quest. It has decent replayability as you can try different builds and those builds can develop organically based on equipment stats and your whims.  The latest build has about 80% of the game finished with a 5-7 hour run time, which can be more if you replay. The developer Felix Laukel (@coldi) is still looking for feedback and ways to improve the experience. I highly recommend giving this little gem a try and let the dev know how much you appreciate his old school turn-based dungeon crawler, they are in short supply nowadays.

(+1)

Still love this game so much. Didn't have any lag problems. The new areas are quite challenging, you can't easily run through the game, but that made it even more exicting. Thanks for your great work!

(+1)(-1)

After 10 minutes or so, the game starts to lag really strong.

There might be something wrong with the programming, check for freeing memory.

Otherwise, quite nice.

(+2)

Very immersive, I loved it!

I played a DEX archer, with long range shoot (1st DEX) + knockback (2nd DEX) + regeneration (1st misc) + heroic aura (4th misc). It felt too OP sometimes (the boss was nearly an insta kill).

The mixed, free ability tree is awesome. I really liked the idea of having swords that have INT, allowing some sort of warrior mage. However, since I'm not very good at RPG, I was getting worried of not having more DEX skills and having to start to think about what's next. Luckily, the demo ended, leaving a very sad feeling (good job!).

Finally, I felt that the STR and DEX stats were too similar. It looked like I could just go and acquire all the STR abilities after the DEX tree without any penalization on my bow damage. Maybe that is intended, given the free nature of the ability tree, but introducing some opportunity cost would build another layer of decision making (should i keep increasing DEX even if I have access to all its abilities or go with STR?).

I'll purchase the full game, thanks!

(+4)


I was in the neighborhood looking for a good RPG to play, and I happened upon Colmen's Quest. And boy did it not disappoint. For a demo it is really fleshed out, and you can get some real enjoyment out of it. Plus I'd say there is replay value even in the demo because of the freedom you have over you  how you build and play your character.

And I really like that character customization. It isn't revolutionary or deep, but it adds a fun twist to the game. In my single play through so far I played as a strength and vitality stacking warrior, but while I was looking at the skills available I got ideas to play a vitality stacking mage that utilizes the damage over time skill and regen to basically be a walking field of death. And the fact I could potentially do that is awesome. 

The item system plays right into that helping enable you to do and try different things. For instance picking up intelligence on gear so you can use a spell while being a strength and vitality stacking character is pretty awesome, it opens up new ways for me to play my character and the game. It's just a nice little touch that I really appreciate.

Aside from the gameplay, I enjoyed the music and style of the game. The music in town reminded me so much of Minecraft with a fantasy twist. The pixel art is simple and sweet, but has a modern feel to it with glow effects - secretly this is one of the things I love most about pixel art games. They look really cool with good lighting. 

Unfortunately, the game doesn't have a settings menu. I know it's a demo, and I know one probably isn't really needed at the moment, but a simple one with volume sliders, fullscreen, and resolution would've been nice to see. And as an added thought, perhaps key mapping? The current layout is fine for me, but I know people who like to have things setup a certain way so that'd be nice to see as well.

Finally I have some rapid fire thoughts and ideas for the game.

  • Equipped gear is at the top of the inventory list to prevent accidental selling.
  • One click sell with a buyback system - also helps with the above.
  • When looking at gear you've picked up, show your relevant equipped gear piece next to it to easily discern if it is an upgrade.
  • Be able to spend extra skill points on leveling skulls up and potentially more variety - I really enjoyed the AoE knock back, but what about AoE pull in and stun? Combos well with other AoE damage skills.
  • Limited time food buffs (10-15 minutes) - I feel like this would be nice to have, you eat some food and get a stat increase for a limited time to help you.

That's all I have. I really enjoyed the game and look forward to the full release! :)

(+3)

To be fairly honest this is probably the most playable indie game demo I played within last few months. The game design is just amazing. I had really good time playing it though getting closer to the end I started to feel the gameplay is a little bit repetitive. Saying that - I would be more than happy to pay for the full version. 

I love the 'return to town in order to level up' mechanics. It forces the player to plan his/her endevours and constatly monitor number of return scrolls. At this stage however the village seems to be pretty dead. The NPCs are great but there is really not much happening. There is literally no interaction besides trading and leveling. 

It's hard to say what type of attack the enemy performs. I just guess that the goblin shaman uses magic, though I haven't seen any indication of that. 

The UI is awesome. Looks beautiful and is very readable however there are few improvements which I think could be nice: 

 - Drag & drop scrolls and potions to the hotkey bar to use them. That would mean at least 2 extra spots would be needed.

- Single click selling items and single click buying the whole stacks (e.g. health potions, teleport scrolls). 

The character builds could benefit from some balancing (or maybe I just sucked as 'warrior'). My dex based ranged character was much easier to play than str-vit warrior. Being on the second floor I literally decided to reset the game. 

The items that drop and the blacksmith items seem to be completely random. Would be great if at least one of them was slightly influenced by the type of build the player has. It was very hard to find items that would actually support my playstyle. 

The chest in one of the levels was just AMAZING to find. The feeling was great but the feeling turned into a little bit of frustration seeing that the items that dropped are completely not for my character build haha. 

Would be awesome if the dungeons where at least in some part randomly generated. I still think the game will have quite great replayability however this would increase it even more. 

I do think this project has amazing potential. I would love to see the world evolve into more than village with dungeon. Please do not make it simple 'dungeon crawler', I really believe it can be much more than that. What I mean by that - you managed to create amazing, quite unique gameplay experience, the only part that could ruin it is repetitivness. I hope the game world will have various locations that you can visit, each being unique and giving something fresh :). 

Over all - really great job. My next project will definitely be influenced by your game. 

(+1)

It was a pleasure to read your feedback! Thanks a lot!

Some of your thoughts went straight on my todo list. I can also assure you that there will be more (outdoor) locations coming ;)

(+1)

Awesome! Cannot wait for the updates! :)

(2 edits) (+1)

i really like your game but there still some bug,  glitch. when i try to go back to the first layer of the dungeon to go to the secret room after save file at layer 4, it tp me back to layer 4 so i play the game like normal, then  i was killed by a monster and when i try to respawn the game stop at the black screen for few minutes then crash. I try to start the game again and all my save file gone so i was play the game again.

(+2)

Loved the demo, the sounds and music were a nice surprise and I'm personally a fan of the artstyle.   I like the pathing display, and no permadeath, and also that enemies have their own skills and cooldowns too.   Definitely gonna replay it to try the magic skills.

Some random thoughts & suggestions:

  • Ranged weapons and skills seemed far stronger than melee, they deal the same or more damage plus you get more attacks in before they reach you.
  • In the shop it'd be really helpful if the prices of all the items were shown next to them without having to hover over them.   Also a check box for sell selected items would be nice since you get so many items.
  • Movement can be a bit slow when you are traveling back through cleared rooms.
  • When aiming with a ranged weapon, it would be nice if the reticle turned red if you are able to attack.  A few times it looked like I could attack but the target was actually blocked so it moved me closer instead.  
  • Bug with the first str skill, when 1 tile back from a corner, you can aim at the tile behind the one around the corner and it shows the path will hit around the corner now.  If you use it you wont move but you will still stun the enemy around the corner.  (I can get you a gif of this if it will help)

Looking forward to what else you have planned!

(+2)

Thanks for the feedback! I will definitely try to buff melee combat / str based skills a bit more. I already have some ideas for that.

I also like your other suggestions and will see what I can do. The bug with charge skill will be fixed with the next update, btw.

(+2)

Very enjoyable so far, would be happy to purchase this at release or if it was on Steam early access. Love it!

(+3)

This is our first impression about Colmen's Quest. Keep it up Felix :)
https://turnbasedlovers.com/overview/colmens-quest-first-impressions/

(+2)(-2)

Hi.

This is a really fun game ! I really appreciate it !
But. There is lot of mistake with programming and game design ;(
In about 10 minutes of play the game start to lag a lot ! I was forced to quit and reopen, probably because you was exploring too much terran, and rendering all in the same time may cause optimization lag (maybe) a good thing could be to only activate square that are maximum 10 squares away of the player.

And then the major problem is the game design. We don't know when we select a spell, we do it randomly sometimes, you should show the range of the spell more clarifying by make a color or something.

It's what i do in my games. Emulp if you want to see.

And give more spell point.

But yeah that's a great game ! 

(+1)

It's a fun game, but I did have a couple of bugs.

Once when I returned to the dungeon using town portal, the fog of war had all reset (so I had to re-map the floor, but all the monsters were still dead).

Similarly, the secret door to the shrine on the last level stopped working when I returned to that floor - it looked open, but I couldn't walk through it, and Colmen said he saw a secret door again.

Finally, is there any way to use skills after the fourth? I had all 4 Dex skills, but when I unlocked the regen spell, I couldn't assign it to a key, or seem to activate it in any other way.

I thoroughly enjoyed it overall, so keep up the good work!

(+1)

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Your first 2 issues seem to be bugs that I will look into!

Regarding the skills: You can learn more than 4 skills and you should be able to reassign them to your active skill slots with the keys 1-4 when hovering them in the skill overview.
I guess the info on the right side isn't prominent enough ;)

Thanks for playing!

(+1)

Did u make this in Unity?

Nope, it's made with JavaScript (ReactJS).

(+1)

Great work! I usually don't really enjoy turn-based crawlers like this, but, for whatever reason, this was definitely an exception.

(1 edit)

Nice! Really happy that you like it!

(1 edit) (+1)

Loving the game! Found a couple of small bugs

- used the book of learning when i had a level up and didn't get a skill point

- had enough stats to get Heavy Blow but couldn't add it to my bar. then on my next level up (before adding any stats) i could see it lit up and could add it

- same with Recovery (had 7 vitality but couldn't make it "lit" and add it to the bar)

(+1)

realized later that i can only add a skill every other level. 

finished the demo and the best thing i can say about it is that i was really upset it was over haha.

great work!

Thank you! Really happy that you like it! 🙌

You get a new skill point every second level, that's right. I will look into the issue with the Book of Learning then. That should grant you a skill point in any case.

(+1)

I loved playing that demo, can't wait for more levels, NPCs and quests. I really like the sound of those goblins, it's quite fun. The big Ogger at the end was giving me a hard time ;) Love the fact that you've been updating the game all the time. Keep up the great work. <3

(+2)

Really loved the demo, very good implementation of the transition from free walking to turn based battles. Looking forward to the full release!

(+3)

I wrote my love of Colmen's Quest of D&D about it recently on my blog which is longer but here is the basics: "It was exactly the game I’ve been looking for without even knowing I was looking for it... I would highly recommend giving this demo a try and let him know how much you appreciate his old school turn-based dungeon crawler, they are in short supply nowadays." Funny to quote yourself, but yeah, I agree me. I want everyone to find, play, and support this demo so it will get made into a full game. It shows real promise.

Wow, thank you so much for mentioning the game in your blog post along with all those other amazing indie games: http://www.turnbasedgamer.com/turn-based-demos-id-play-that-edition/

I haven't seen it until now :)

(+1)

I start the demo and couldn't leave the game until the end. It's amazingly fun, and have a pixel art style that is haunting and beautiful. I recommend this to everyone, it's very solid for a demo, and it's gonna be and amazing game!

Thank you! 😊

(+2)

I love this game and will definitely  be playing more ;) 

(1 edit) (+3)

Thanks for posting! I had the best 10 minutes watching a random dude playing my game for the first time :)