FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD29 → Space Driller

Space Driller

By jmaggard62

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Fun543.73
Overall773.74
Theme1333.65
Audio1443.59
Graphics2563.67
Mood2563.31
Innovation3133.14
Humor3732.56

Comments

exeneva 2014-04-29 02:03

Very fitting to the theme. Music is very spot on. Great level design principles too.

My only complaint is the jumping puzzles got a bit repetitive, but it was still a blast to play!

xrxr 2014-04-29 15:36

Wow! Fluid controls, great art, perfect music. 5/5! Very well done!

officialcodenmore 2014-04-29 17:19

Well done with the theme idea! Great controls, graphics, nice!

loxo 2014-04-29 17:42

Really great! Sadly I had two problems with it. The first time I played, the game was somehow zoomed in, so only a part of the screen was visible. And then I got stuck in a wall after drilling and using the passage. I was followed by an enemy, maybe this has something to do with it.

triplevisiongames 2014-04-29 19:28

Good level design and I like the drill mechanic, works well with the levels and I can imagine this being great if there's more chance to cut your own route. I think the controls and collision for the jumping could have been a bit more forgiving

mcburrobit 2014-04-29 21:25

Awesome controls, one of my favorite games in the jam by far!

bitserum 2014-04-29 21:38

Loved it!

algerus 2014-04-30 01:16

The character art is wonderful, and there's a surprising amount of depth here for something done in a weekend. The music fits well but the sounds used just seemed a bit off to me, but it did nevertheless work quite well in the game. What really stands out to me is the design work, especially the level design. The tutorial flows very nicely and feels really natural instead of a text dump. The level design after that is also very good, I was never confused as to where to go for too long but at the same time that information wasn't explicitly given to me. This even extends to the very end, where during the part leading up to the final room you tend to naturally discover the mechanic needed to cross the final gap. Knocking back a horde of invincible ghosts also felt really cool, and the timing on their stun is just long enough to be fair while still being panic inducing. Really well done, especially given the time constraints!

empyrealhell 2014-04-30 02:48

I made it pretty far, but I got lost and going back over some of those incredibly unforgiving jumps was too much for me. Until that point I really liked it. After getting the second upgrade, I got to a room that was full of ghosts I still couldn't hurt, so I assumed I missed an upgrade. There was one area I couldn't jump to, and I figured it was just me being bad at platforming, and that's where the upgrade was. The level design was incredibly well done, the enemies were just annoying enough before you could hit them that it felt satisfying to tear into them once you got the right upgrade.

cr2crstudios 2014-04-30 03:19

Metroidvania! :D Love it!

stencyltuo 2014-04-30 03:20

Overall, it's one of the better games. I liked the leveling up system, but the jumping did get tedious. There wasn't much that really amazed me, but there also wasn't much I can complain about, which is better than a lot of entries.

kevinalbs 2014-04-30 03:24

Extremely well done. Graphics, music, and gameplay were all great. Only minor thing was that the jumping was a little to quick. But great job all around.

savethejets1 2014-04-30 03:36

Really well put together. The music reminded me of Doom! Gravity was pretty strong for some of the jumps but I really liked it overall. Reminded me a bit of Metroid.

noom 2014-04-30 06:40

This was a great entry you guys did really well with this one. I immediately experienced nostalgia and it reminded me intensely of my childhood playing games the ilk of Duke Nukem1/2 etc. Captured the mood perfectly, the music was fantastic, the art was brilliant and the gameplay was the icing on the cake. The feeling I had when I upgraded my drill and went and stuck it to those ghosty bastards was awesome. Great job guys!

ahmeni 2014-04-30 12:58

Fantastic work! Glad to see another Futile user!

_adamturnbull 2014-04-30 20:46

Love this! Great job

munkeebacon 2014-05-01 01:37

Great game, best mining related game I've see so far, very well done and very pretty too. Music is great as well! Very good game overall.

carrier_signal 2014-05-01 01:46

Nothing short of incredible. Great job!

drilltail 2014-05-01 01:50

A LD Metroidvania, awesome! Love that you can fly with the drill.

karaajayde 2014-05-01 02:34

Nice, this is a very slick experience considering the amount of time spent on it. The art is awesome, the level design is good, and the mechanics are simple and effective. Personally, the jump mechanic felt very temperamental, and either it should have been a little more consistant or the level design needed to be better balanced to accommodate the jump/double jump ease. It wasn't overtly difficult, but felt more difficult that you were probably aiming for. Loved the overall experience though.

kyledaudio 2014-05-01 02:41

Nice, interesting mechanics and really fun to play through!

jupiter_hadley 2014-05-01 03:08

I very much enjoyed this game! well done! I included it in part 5 of my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you'd like to check it out :) youtu.be/HquvNllyc50

yword 2014-05-01 04:48

The actions are pretty cool! Well done.

papygaragos 2014-05-01 16:31

The drilling mechanic feels good to play, good job about that.
The ambiance is also nice, even if the choice of colors may not be appropriate for some items (the recharge station looks like it could be an element in the background for exemple)

Good entry

xaychru04 2014-05-01 16:47

The level/enemy design was great, and there was quite a lot of content for a LD game! I had fun playing it, good job! :)

tuism 2014-05-01 16:48

Very well designed in all respects - the Metroidvania principles are all there, it's awesome to see sound design principles play out :) You maximised the limited enemy types and movements you had as a toolbox, and that was awesome :D

The only real gripe would be the core mechanic is a bit bland, I was hoping for something besides the drill, so having the strength go up but essentially doing the same thing over and over got a bit much.

Has real potential if that was just expanded on! Well done!

2hitadam 2014-05-02 13:34

Good amount of gameplay for 72 hours! The metroidvania aspects were pretty well realised but I think a full version would need something slightly more versatile to upgrade than the drill -- using it to float later on was cool, but otherwise I think just having harder rocks to break to move forwards limited the gameplay a bit.

soy_yuma 2014-05-03 20:56

It's purely gameplay, but it's good! I think it's well designed and the game is extremely fun. I missed some sort of story or reason for going forward. Maybe an ending? Good job anyway!

perfect-victim 2014-05-03 21:41

good game, had fun playing

pinkmonkeyhead 2014-05-04 17:06

Nice level design!

nickzangus 2014-05-04 19:57

One of the best entries I've tried so far... Great graphics, immersive audio and really fun to play! The keyboard control are pretty uncomfortable, It would be better to use a gamepad.

oddly-shaped-pixels 2014-05-04 20:53

Just one word: impressive! This Metroid feel is just perfect, it's super polished, super addictive. Congrats!

rojo 2014-05-04 21:07

Nicely done! The game's really well polished, and it looks and sounds great.

ragzouken 2014-05-04 22:13

drilling is fun! liked the driller sprite and the audio adds up to a nice mood. not sure if the flying ability of the drill got stronger with the upgrades or i just didn't realise it until late

javadocmd 2014-05-05 03:58

Classic metroidvania design. A very solid entry.

csanyk 2014-05-05 17:38

This took forever to download in the Unity web player. Big game though, and worth playing and exploring around. I couldn't get past the black spectres in room after The Cave. I wish I had a better idea what my goals were.

terraco 2014-05-06 08:19

Metroid. So much Metroid! I'm now going to play through all previous Metroid games and get a divorce thanks to this :p

jacob-peltola 2014-05-06 17:04

So much fun!, I wish was a greater variety in enemies and colors though

puzzlem00n 2014-05-07 03:08

Wow. There may not have been many enemies, but those that were there were really interesting and thought out. Falling spikes that fall UP and LEFT and RIGHT too? Awesome.

Some more variety in the graphics for the different areas would have been nice, though, if you're into criticism. If not for their names, they'd just be plain dirt holes.

chuigum 2014-05-07 05:47

Very innovative, like the game and graphics

ditto 2014-05-07 06:21

The controls are really good! The drilling bechanic is really good, although drilling through "doors" is a bit annoying, it just takes a bit too long! Good game!

ilo 2014-05-07 11:05

I thought the player sprite looked like you had a little bit more range than you actually did. That aside, the enemies and player sprites looked great, and the controls were tight (don't recall missing a jump), and most importantly, it was well designed and fun to play.

I only got as far as the room beyond the corridor of purple ghosts. Thought I might have missed an upgrade, but apparently not.

zanenga 2014-05-07 12:38

Very nice entry! I like the drill mechanic and upgrades :)

mollymus 2014-05-08 08:48

Has a very nice touch to it, and its surprisingly fun! Good job!

paps 2014-05-08 15:15

Wow. This is amazing. The only complaint I have it's that I need to draw a map to escape those caves. Well done

invisiblewonder 2014-05-09 04:58

Rock solid. Matt Thorson, look out!

invisibleman 2014-05-09 20:41

(slightly off topic, but: Nice! You have it up on Kongregate :D)

First impression was really good: I like the graphics, audio, and the core idea of the game.

Unfortunately I then spent about a minute trying to mine out a hole in the wall, eventually giving up; I am guessing you can't actually dig your way through everything, which I was originally expecting would be possible. Not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected :) A similar thing happened when I tried to kill the ghosts, but the damage number "0" eventually gave it away.

It's a fun game!

soupwithbits 2014-05-13 12:24

Everything is awesome!

gfm 2014-05-14 01:41

Could be an awesome game! Keep working on it! :)
Flying with the drill while hitting enemies beneath was really fun! Also, the game was really polished!

aelita1992 2014-05-15 10:13

Nice to play, it could be easier to get the blue drill, as I spent a lot of time trying to push the blue ghost into the blue wall, thinking it will activate them :D

make-a-game 2014-05-15 23:02

Great Genesis-sounding music! It wasn't a problem for me, but the passageways should have the same destroyed rock sprite on both sides so that the player doesn't mistake an exit for a wall. Loved it!

jlay 2014-05-16 13:42

Woah, I loved the sounds! The graphics were good too! Fun little game, I love the instructions as you go along.

jsmars 2014-05-16 18:07

Really nice overall! Good controls, feel and music, nice job!

badpaul34 2014-05-17 12:08

Very well done, this is a good game! Nice to see that we can upgrade the weapon. Music and sounds are fine and suit to the mood ;)

nightshadow0 2014-05-17 15:17

Love this game, i'd dare say it's the best drilling game i've played in this LD, save for one thing. The drill flight is REALLY unresponsive, i couldn't get it to work half the time, which made me quit at the mandatory flight bit in The Cave. Great work otherwise!

5elephants 2014-05-19 14:41

Very good game with an original drillin' twist!