Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Exploroka
By krunoslav
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 565 | 3.08 | 39 | |
| Fun | 656 | 2.57 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 310 | 3.26 | 40 | |
| Theme | 684 | 2.60 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 544 | 3.00 | 40 | |
| Audio | 500 | 1.85 | 16 | |
| Humor | 652 | 1.64 | 33 | |
| Mood | 644 | 2.65 | 40 |
Great job! The world generation was very good, and I felt the world was huge. 3D world generation seems amazing in such a short time. I did indeed get lost a few times. I would have enjoyed a bit of background music to accompany my roaming, and maybe a texture on the ball, but overall great game.
The game looks great, even with the simple hand-drawn sprites. It invokes memories of classic 90's strategy and god games for some reason. Truely lovely. It was fun to gather stars (I got 5), looking for the best biome to find them in, getting lost and wandering aimlessly. Oh, and I wish there was a zoom function to see the whole world. Would definitely look as amazing as on the picture you attached.
Cool how it generates more map when you get close to the end. @Zantamar is right some background music would've been nice. But there is so much you can do in 48h. Congrats(Enhorabuena)
Cool concept! I love how calming it is, good game for meditation :D If you added some soothing music it would be great.
I got the ball fly up in the air by pressing near the middle of the screen!
Impressive job! It´s amazing what some people can do in only 48 hours.
Game is awesome! Sadly execution was a bit bad, no music, art was 2D in a 3D game. Still, 4/5 overall because audio and graphics aren't the most important things.
That's a cool map dude! As been said before, this game needs some chill background music! Thanks for the game! :-)
I like the graphics, world generation works nice. Good job.
I like the concept, world generation feels natural and it's fun just wandering around the map. I'd say the same as other people, music would have added more charm to the experience. But overall I think this is a solid game, congrats!
The world generation here is really solid. Well done!
The world looks really nice, i'd like to see it zoomed out. Cool stuff!
The game itself is very basic (no surprise :D), i think it would be very nice for smaller kids. I started to get relaxed just rolling around and looking at the land, i think this would really be nice with some relaxing background music. A rolling simulator ;)
Very impressive, this is not a small planet, it´s a endless one :-D
I liked the Bitmap trees (and that they fit to the place they are) and the environment feels natural. It´s a pitty that there is no background music. It got a bit buggy wenn I went in the water and back (I was falling through the map).
Very nice work! I feel that a bit of background music would help a lot setting the mood and improve the exeprience, but overall great entry!
:) fun!
I woudl suggest more sounds to the diamond grabs, and a way i can collect more than 1 tipe of then.
Overall cool game :D !!
Nice game bro :thumbsup:
Please hate us on https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/deep-bottom
Nice world generator. Some 3d houses, trees and gems would've helped to generate a more immersive feeling. Maybe the next time.
Thank you for your comments!
It is true, a relaxing background music is a good idea. I added one in the post-ludum version.
@adrian0901, @holgk, I am note sure what would be better in this case, I hesitate. A ortographic camera with 2D trees it could be more coherent but I like the 3D terrain. So I prefered to do like *Dont Starve* (with lower graphics, of course :P)
@gilborn, @rinberd, Thank you! I tried and in fact, I could go up until see all the world, as @shodanon says. It is true that when you play you would like to see more, but it makes it easier.
It's a nice exploration game. A background music in the original entry could have been interesting. A more detailed character would be nice too. The randomly generated world is perfect, but it makes the game be contrary to the theme. On the other hand, if you're controlling a golf ball, well... it's a small world indeed. :D
@breno-m, I wanted to take it in a ironic way. Small World, ok, lets make an infinite world! :D
Nice exploration game!
Yeeeeee, I'm a ball!!! Nice little exploring game. The look of all the stone is so funny ^^ But it's weird with the map which are more realistic. Thank you for the experience!
Nice game! I loved the world generation and graphics, it created a nice feel for the whole game. Exploring felt quite relaxing :)
The world generation is super cool. It was really fun to explore and look around in, and the 2D trees didn't even bother me, I thought it fit the aesthetic. It got a little dull quite fast though, which might have been better if I could pick up/hoard allllll the diamonds and dole them out to houses as I please. Very ambitious infinite world, and really impressive.
I like the terrain and trees. The sound effects are well made too.
The movement was super smooth and I like that you only need one button to play it. But why do I have to press the button at all? This could be a no button game, just track the mouse all the time.
It's a bit of a shame that there is no gravity. I bet it would be more fun if the ball would roll down hill.
I got 7 stars. It was demotivating that my only reward for collecting and returning the gems, was an increase in difficulty. The game lacks a goal.
As every has already said, the procedural biomes are really cool, including the elevations, ground color, and tree sprites. Great exploration game!
Both your game and my game have limiting cameras. It can be easy to get lost in the world because of the camera angle. Maybe you should allow more camera controls (like vertical tilt or rotation for example).
I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but if you click on the player repeatedly, you can essentially get the character to "fly up" over the world and see it from a birds eye view. If it's a bug, it's one of the coolest bugs I've seen yet. :)
Also, I don't know how to quit because it goes full screen and Esc doesn't do anything.
exploroKoCoolBug.png
I like how you went from Kolonizoka (initial project name I suspect) to Exploroka! :D That happens to me all the time - planning too many features for a LD game and having time to barely do half of them, if even that.
I really dig the generated landscapes from your screenshots and from the bug/feature screenshot above, too bad that the game camera doesn't do them the justice. After looking at those screens I thought it would be some kind of a strategy, they remind me of a sim city landscape or something like that.
Overall I quite liked it, got 6 stars, but it gets repetitive fast.
Thank you @mortus! haha, indeed, my ambicious project was Kolonizoka. Do you think that camera should be more flexible or fixed but with a wider view?
Cool game :) But that is not what I call a small world x) It lacks music, but you know that, you made a post-jam version. I think the fact that each type of gems are at the same place is not a really good point. Keep making games :) I think you can improve this one, the idea is not too bad :)
The garphics of this game are fantastic! The controls also feel smooth. I found the gameplay quite confusing, until I discovered the messages in the top right. I think it would have been better to be able to collect all kinds of dimaonds and not just one. Or at least to not pick up diamonds of the wrong color if you run over them. Otherwise, a very nice game. I find that the world is very big and impressive for just 48h. Well done!
Visually charming and technically stunning, but it lacks a real goal, or more precisely some loose condition. Maybe a timer, or other "treasure hunters". (Also a sort of compass or diamond detector would be nice). Without that, this all quest of finding a house and collect the diamonds it needs doesn't motivate me nor gives me a sense of accomplishment. BUT it's a good base, a technical demo in which you can easily add rules now or adapt an universe. Maybe we could play a kind of traveling salesman that collects diamonds on his way and sales them to cities depending on supplies and demand. The goal would be to always have sufficient stock but also enough resources to travel. Or maybe the concept could be more like a survival game like Don't Starve.
Well done for this anyway, really a cool tech demo for just a week-end!
I was learning procedural generation of terrain not long ago myself and I find your game absolutely stunning from a technical point of view. But I wish there was a way too zoom out or a map, as I've managed to lose track of the house that gave me the quest. Still very impressive experience!
I did not make a zoom because it could be too easy to find the diamonds, but reading your comments and playing, it is true that it is too frustating, it could be better to have a wider point of view (or a zoom out).
For instance, this point of view is better for me :) exploroka2.png
I like the idea, but the game is a little difficult to play. When they start asking 9 diamonds, it starts disorientating as you have to travel for a while. I found it annoying that the diamond counter was reset when you touch other houses. Also, for some reason, I kept falling off the ground. The graphics is pretty and I think that's the game's strongest point.
@krunoslav I mostly meant that you have to look at that landscape from afar to appreciate it, don't really have any good ideas on how to use it in game. The screenshot from your latest comment looks nice though, and it would fix the tediousness of finding 6+ gems without losing your bearings somewhat
I really like exploring this little world. Reminds me of my early days in Minecraft just running around to see what generated, it's nice. Music would really set the mood, but I see you added that in a post-jam version and it does make a difference!
I think zooming out would make finding the gems too easy, but I would like a way to appreciate the landscape more. Perhaps something like a... spiral tower the ball could climb up to get their bearings?
I collected gems for a few houses but a lack of final goal or challenge other than running around for diamonds didn't keep me motivated for too long I'm afraid. It was nice to see the landscape change when I did give those gems to the houses though.
I do like this entry a lot and it feels like a solid base to expanded on. Lovely job! :)