Foon →
Ludum Dare Explorer →
LD20 →
Curse Of The Golden Pearl
Curse Of The Golden Pearl
By hamumu
View on Wayback Machine
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Fun | 18 | 3.74 | 47 | |
| Innovation | 97 | 3.22 | 45 | |
| Theme | 179 | 2.51 | 47 | |
| Graphics | 45 | 3.68 | 47 | |
| Audio | 109 | 2.70 | 44 | |
| Humor | 45 | 3.19 | 42 | |
| Overall | 36 | 3.53 | 47 | |
| Community | 123 | 2.81 | 31 | |
| Coolness | 75 | 8 | | |
Comments
Perhaps it's because I'm playing on a laptop trackpad, but this is really hard! I could only just get the first two items before dying. Perhaps recharging your health on the surface would help?
Also the world felt very small - going all the way to the right and the left there just seemed to be empty space. Would have been nice to be able to explore more.
Nice graphics and setting though, and an interesting idea. I'll probably give this another go when I've got a proper mouse handy.
atkinssj
2011-05-02 12:40
Good game! Managed to win in 22:28, which is probably a terrible score.
I never did figure out what the pants were for though.
hamumu
2011-05-02 15:30
I got 22:46, so you beat me! But I did have an extra golden pearl at the time, that should be worth something. As for the world, it's not just empty space - it has a fixed width (not that wide) and there is "interesting" stuff filling it all. It's just deeper the further you go from the middle, so you need more air and a flashlight. And a duck doesn't hurt either.
pythong
2011-05-02 22:42
very nice and solid entry! something that was annoying was to find the ship everytime i came back to the surface to go shopping, it would be nice if it would follow you (slowly, more or less. does it want to lose its single customer?). also, the exit button on the shopping screen was more annoying than helpful. i loooove your pixel graphics! what do you use to make them? overall, VERY nice entry :)
erik
2011-05-03 01:34
As always, an interesting and fun game. If you have a run of bad luck at the start, the beginning of the game can be frustratingly slow.
Took me 26 minutes. I just couldn't find any dang ol' GOLD PEARLS! Ow. Now my wrist hurts. :(
This was pretty fun but lacked something that I can't put my finger on... It controls very well and looks nice.
eli
2011-05-03 07:45
High score for humor =)
I wouldn't have wanted to make it shorter, but it did get tedious about halfway through.
Also, I couldn't figure out how to use the depth charges.
Lovely graphics and style. Wish the pants had done something.
hamumu
2011-05-03 14:30
For depth charges and duck, they make an icon in the lower left. Hold the duck down as long as you want to use it (you can also keep it held and move the cursor elsewhere if you want to steer), click the depth charge to place one (then run!).
the-jack
2011-05-03 22:58
Best one yet. So fun, great feedback loops and progression.
You definitely put your skills to good use here, Ham. Thanks for making this one for us!
Very slick! Impressed.
jonbro
2011-05-04 13:48
a pretty polished game for the amount of time. You must know what you are doing. I felt that the difficulty ramped up pretty darn quick on some of my plays, but not so much on others. is the world randomly generated?
recursor
2011-05-04 13:53
I think there should be a keyboard button for the mines instead of having to click on them. I kept getting gnawed on by the sharks when I tried to deploy a mine. One other thing, there is a small bug with the purchase menu. If you are have the store open and you press escape, the store doesn't go away but you can still swim around behind it. Very fun game! 35:00
hamumu
2011-05-04 14:58
Yes, it's a random world. It adds in a fudge so that it's shallowest right where you start and heads deeper off in both directions. If you get a lot of platforms near your start, it probably is a lot easier than if you don't!
lingmops
2011-05-04 17:43
Is that Brendan Small from Home Movies I spot? Solid little game this, I really enjoyed playing this! The only criticism I have is that the random map creates some impossible to get to areas, which is mildy annoying, and it isn't always clear how some items work/affect the player. Overall though, excellent game. iOS version please! It would definitely be iThing compatible :)
Made me giggle a few times too!
hamumu
2011-05-04 18:40
I googled "patron saint of scuba divers", and of course there is one. Saint Brendan, so I google-imaged him to make sure he came out accurate!
You can actually reach anywhere you want eventually, because Depth Charges can blow up rock. You may have to hurt yourself to set them off though.
And lastly, yes it was designed with tablet play in mind! That's why there's no key for mines (or arrow keys to steer), though I did allow ESC in a couple places. Planned for Playbook specifically, because I don't have a way to port to iPhone, even though that would be a better market.
covenant
2011-05-04 21:47
Amazing work! :)
lingmops
2011-05-05 00:40
Aaaah, I never tried the depth charges! Fair enough then :)
treeman
2011-05-05 10:11
Wow this is so addictive, clearly one of the simplest yet funniest games here.
drpetter
2011-05-05 17:47
Addictive but slightly tedious. I wasted a few gold pearls before I realized they were useful for something other than exchanging and buying stuff. Collecting got a lot quicker when all the stuff was equipped, but it also got less exciting since the whole ocean was relatively harmless and not scary anymore. In the beginning I had hoped that there would be increasingly large and spooky things below. Would have been nice if there were at least angler fish and other creatures that you only saw beneath a certain level, in the dark. Maybe they could flee your light as you approached. The light could also get dimmer the further down you go, so maybe you have to upgrade the flashlight a few times to reach bottom. Anyhoo, fun and casual.
cirrial
2011-05-05 19:37
Nice little game. Seems a bit sparse to the left, though. Also I was pretty terrible at playing it and couldn't finish but I enjoyed the stuff I did play. Pretty solid little game.
telluse
2011-05-06 17:39
Not bad, not bad at all.
Kept me going constantly, think I've been playing half an hour straight so far :P
great animations, really nice effects with the darkness and bubbles. Excellent detail with the drift on the clam feed in the water.
Tack on a select few features (more upgrades, more locales, achievement or score systems) and get this thing out :)
bmfs
2011-05-07 15:44
I really like the kind of play-and-get-stuff-to-evolve gametype Only felt the control was getting in the way. Maybe because I was using the trackpad, it was kind of difficult to control the diver.
endurion
2011-05-08 13:45
Really nice :)
As usual I'd like to add ;) Very nice increasingly useful items and you get to see more and more. However I got too greedy and drowned 17 minutes in :(
Well done!
yrael
2011-05-08 18:36
Very nice game, congrats !
Ver ver nice. Feels complete. THAT is an achievement in itself.
danik
2011-05-13 12:31
Addictive and fun, nice one!
cybs
2011-05-16 20:53
zee pants do nothing!
case 15: // pants
items[w * 5 + 2] = 0;
break;
*waves fist*
hamumu
2011-05-16 22:41
Well, there are no cats in the ocean.
jfroco
2011-05-22 19:07
Nice game. Congratulations