aterlamia 2017-07-31 11:18
I like very much how the running out of power is implemented here, it is not teh end it just makes things a lot harder so you realy need to think your steps ahead.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Powerless Miner
By majamiltu
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 115 | 3.72 | 138 | |
| Fun | 103 | 3.66 | 138 | |
| Innovation | 150 | 3.51 | 137 | |
| Theme | 60 | 4.05 | 138 | |
| Graphics | 256 | 3.46 | 138 | |
| Audio | 259 | 3.02 | 135 |
I like very much how the running out of power is implemented here, it is not teh end it just makes things a lot harder so you realy need to think your steps ahead.
I like the idea, but maybe a reset button? Or is it a bug? (Window turn black after loosing). But in general ok :D
Cool! But the window just turn black when I loose, but I could still hear the sounds though.
This game is through and through well put together. Level design, Visuals and gameplay all work really well together. My only critism is that I don't feel the BGM fits with what you're going for but that just my opinion. I like how remembering the terrain and predicting bat movement is a core element. Almost like a brain training game! Good job!
This is a great puzzle, mechanics are really interesting. Pixel art is cool too. @rakowu (I found the reset button with Escape)
Forgot to mention the pause button, updated the controls. I'm really thankful that you played it :relaxed:
I was also confused at first when the screen turned dark but when I realized playing in the dark was part of the game I really liked it! Makes you plan your steps like Aterlamia said.
Oh man, I'm in two minds about this one. What makes so different is also what makes it so terrible. At its basis, it's a sokoban-style puzzle game. All good there. Count the steps, achieve some goals. Except that the resource of time is now also an incentive to use memory. I think all games that *require* memory is bad - trying to remembering things is not a fun challenge, nor an exciting skill, or choice.
But! I really like the way this was put together, the darkness mechanic has some charm to it. You could actually do the entire thing without picking up batteries if you just remember it all. Is that good? Logically, I don't think so, but it's intriguing.
Also the control scheme, why do you require a mouse click on a thing when you're REQUIRED to stand next to it? Moving into it should be just as much a valid action. Just like in roguelike games, moving into enemies = attacking. Makes perfect sense. But the clicking also feels like it mimics digging in the dark. So the thematic link is interestingly novel, if hugely frustrating.
Allowing clicks to do nothing is also really frustrating.
Man, overall, I don't know. It's as "badly designed" as it is interesting because of those designs.
This game is amazing! I had a blast playing it and wanted more when i finished.
Very nice game!
I love puzzle games, your game was great, with a good amount of difficulty, keep it up! :)
ha, neat. at fist i was like wtf... why does my screen keep going black... then i realized it was limited move based game. Not bad, not bad at all. ( but if i read the description more i suppose i would have got the idea :P)
As others have said, very well put together. I think your level were designed very well, I was able to plan my moves out before executing, and understand what I needed to do; I also dug the art style.
Great work! I liked the fact that the game doesn't end just because you can't see. You can memorize the paths. And you added enemies as well. This game have a lot of potential! Congratulations
Awesome little game. Really like the simplicity and color choices.
Enjoyed puzzles a lot. Great idea of "power" mechanics. Overall full of fun, good job!
I really liked the game! Found it was very fun. The only thing I did not like was that the bats killed you in one go. As well that you could not kill them form what it seems. Very good otherwise.
Just love it. Based on strategy, memory, bat attacks... just very good. Keep Moving forward.
I got to the end - really enjoyed it! Completed the last level by accident though. Woops!
Music and sounds were its only downside. Can you imagine loud bass music in a real cave mine? I'd be *very* worried of sudden music-induced cave collapse and having to spend the rest of my days inside. Kind of like real life really...
Restart key on R would have been nice though too. Not that I had to use it much because I'm a PRO!
Nice entry! Congrats. :thumbsup:
Good entry, very cool retro graphics! I like the idea of running out light and having to remember where things were! I have that mechanic in my game too!
The theme felt a bit forced on this one, I just didn't feel like it worked with the other game mechanics. Some of the last levels were pretty interesting. I would like if the bat movement was more predictable.
Love the idea
Excellent game with nice puzzles. I took a few times before I understood how to play it but after that it was a nice experience. The song got a bit annoying after a while though.
Great puzzle that fits the theme perfectly. Awesome work!
Neat little game!
I really liked the power mechanic! It works well with the game-play, forcing you to have a game-plan before you start moving. One could technically memorize the level, avoiding the batteries, but you could just plan your path around them, and use them to plan as you go to think on the fly. The mechanic really makes the game stand out.
It feels odd having the mine button on the mouse, since you don't use it at all. I'd suggest also putting it the space bar.
Overall, good work!
Game is awesome. Level design was very well-planned, art style was nice, and the main mechanic was great. Played to the end and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Great game man! Is the first LD39 game that I finish :D
Congrats!
This is a great game. I really liked the concept. The strategy in choosing which order you make the pickups made it challenging. The only thing that I would say would be not taking off power for moving into solid objects, but I guess that would make it too easy to navigate in the dark.
I liked the game!
One thing, though, is that I would have appreciated it if I didn't have to click on rocks to break them. Why not break them when I try to walk into them instead?
Man that level with the two gold and three batteries and bat was impossible. I couldn't get past it no matter what I tried. Cool game though! Very unique.
This is great! Actually loved it :D
Thanks for the support guys! I made a little [log](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/powerless-miner/addressing-problems-in-my-game) about some things. And if you're stuck don't forget that there is a [walkthrough](http://imgur.com/a/cOF4e)
The first bat level also got my confused for a while. Then I realised you can just walk over the batteries. The final two levels were not as challenging as the the first one that introduced two bats. Thanks for the game and participating. Keep up the good work :)
Great entry! I was confused by the black screen when I lost, especially when you just start the game and don't understand the commands, i tried to go to the gold to mine it then i read the game description :) I would display the commands list on the menu page and add a redirect to the menu with a small message when you loose. This kind of very small improvements would make your game reach another level and give the feeling of "totally finished game". Keep up the good work :rocket:
Yes I beat the game!!! Haha it was quite a fun little puzzle game. The clever power mechanics adds another layer of complexity to the otherwise a bit simple puzzle game. The music and sound effect is simple but it makes the game better because i can use the sound effect as feedback as to if i collect something or not. Like the others I was a bit confused at the first 2 level but afterwards it was fine. A little bit of help text or tutorial text would be greatly helpful in the beginning. The level where the bat first appear is much harder than all of the levels I feel like, i spent the most time on that level, maybe you can rearrange the levels so that the hard level is at an later point of the game. Overall it was fun and it made me wanting to finish it. Awesome work!
Nice, simple but works so good. Nice project! Good work!
This uses the theme very well. I appreciated the extensive explanations you wrote on the itch.io page.
The game mechanics are very simple and effective! I was reading the first line of instructions but then I thought "nah, let's see if I can understand the game without instructions". And I succeeded! Or better, you succeeded. Love the way that in the first levels there's no menace, so you can just move around and get used to the controls. Love the fact also that in the screenshots you put in the entry there is no mention about the bats, so it was quite a nice surprise (I was thinking the game was too easy before the bats arrived).
A nice entry indeed, I would have loved some more levels but it is perfect as it is for a Compo entry!
Great game! Fun Puzzles, fairly well designs, though it wasn't quite sure why the bats seemed to speed up sometimes i probably just didnt read some of the directions haha.
Incredibly simple yet addictive game!Congrats!
Great idea! Leveldesign, visuals and sounds are also well made. Keep up the good work!
Loved the turn based mechanic. Had a lot of fun playing this!
Nice system and level evolution
Audio was a little repetitive but loved the graphics and very unique and fun gameplay :) Also very impressive level progression for such a short time!
The level design worked out perfectly. I really appreciate keeping the game short and sweet rather than going for tons of content. The 'puzzles' felt like actual puzzles where I had to think about my moves rather than just a point a to point b we see in a lot of jam puzzle games.
The art style worked well, and while the music was repetitive I think it worked well as I didn't really focus on it which is a good thing.
Overall it was a great game. Only suggestion could be some sort of short cooldown after moves (even just translating the character from one tile to the next) just to avoid accidental actions.
Fun gameplay, nice puzzles. The audio gets repetitive really fast, you must have felt the same too, when developing the game. Otherwise nice work
Great game! I really liked the creative use of theme. Puzzles were also great
It is really a functional idea. It could be a full game. I my opinion is the best thing that can be told in a game jam. So congratulations! I have nothing I would change. Good luck!
Oh dear, I love this one ! The first game I see which has a similar concept to mine ! Totally enjoyed it, I appreciate everything in the game, congrats for the work ! :)
Like this game! Good puzzler, and the running out of power is a good mechanic as it isn't strictly necessary to collect the power if you've got a good memory! Very smart idea. The levels are very challenging too and you need to be very strategic in your route, which i can tell the levels have been crafted very deliberately and well too! Great entry good job
Really nice one.
Liked that you could still play after power runs out.
That was fun, well done. Everything works well together. I definitely appreciate the mechanic of the game not ending once you're out of power. I think its a nice game, especially for 48 hours.
Interesting gameplay, good graphics. Did not even need description in your page to understand the game. The only suggestion I have is to show the map after the player dies, so he can understand where he got stuck. O šiaip viskas patiko, sekmės :).
Great twist in allowing the player to continue after running out of power! Also quite a lot of content for a compo game, well done overall.
Awesome concept of gameplay. Really fun to play with nice pixel-art graphics(reminds me some of the old games from NES) and simple, but fun sound effects. I was surprised by enemies' AI(A* algorithm? or other path findinfg), they do not struck in wall and can even make player go to dead end corner. Good Job!
Nice take on the theme! Unlike most games where losing power = game over, your game just has losing power = harder game which is pretty nice!
Things I liked - Audio Sliders - Functional Graphics
Things for improvement - Instead of having to 'click' just 'move' into something to break it like the old rogue likes - Was unclear if you could attack the bats
I thought it was an arrow, not a bat, so it was weird for me that the arrow attacks me:) Otherwise the game is a very cool puzzle and sounds fit it well :D I saw one game already with the lights going out and where you had to remember what was on the screen, a bit different, but I guess it must be a common theme here. But the outcome is very cool. Thanks!
Would have been nice if the game explained that the light going out isn't a fail state.
Similar concept to my game, although you were able to implement some more mechanics! really nice work and great game
Bats+Darkness really spice up this style of puzzle game. Mouse-click to 'mine' was a little rough for me. Well done and clearly executed. Good job!
Cool little puzzle game! The darkness plus the fact you can still continue and win is a nice twist. Bats are assholes. Musics could use a little less repetition but nonetheless a really solid entry! Good job!
Maybe the light could get drifting more and more with the decrease of the batteries . Cool game , well done!
Really good puzzler! I have nothing bad to say about this, it is what it is and does its job more than enough!
PowerlessMiner.PNG
I should stop dancing to the music and leave a comment
+++ The art was well done - especially the colour scheme. The greys and browns fit in so well with the mood of the game. ++ The upbeat music was great to listen to. +++ Solving the level puzzles was a lot of fun. It seemed easy until the bats appeared.
-- I liked the music but it didn't seem to fit in well with the underground feel of the game - unless there were goblins underground doing the drumming
This was a great game to play. Thanks.
Was sort of enjoying it until I got stuck on a level with a bit I just couldn't figure out how to outsmart the fucker!
@coomzy [this may help](https://m.imgur.com/a/cOF4e)
Very nice puzzle game! Great idea, to let the player continue in the dark, when out of battery. The level design is quite well thought out. Impressive! I like the pixel art graphic design and the sfx. Though I found the music a bit annoying. Overall, really good entry!
This game is decent. I liked how you made the theme essential to the main core of the game, but it didn't overcomplicate gameplay. I also thought this game was fun as it required the player to think about their strategy in how they were going to collect the gold. I however thought the soundtrack was too repetitive and would like a less repetitive and better soundtrack. In conclusion, this was a pretty good game because the theme was used wisely in gameplay and the gameplay contained many challenging puzzles, but the audio needs improvement.
5/5 I loved it. It reminds me of a puzzle game like Stephen's Sausage Roll or something. Totally amazed that it has this much polish and effectiveness for such a limited timeframe.
Good Puzzler, perfekt on Theme.
Nicely done! Totally enjoyable! If I could change something I would only make that you don't spend energy/turns on actions that don't happen like moving towards a wall.
I beat the game! Some of the levels were pretty hard, but overall it was fun take on the theme.
Hi, MajamiLTU!
Finished your game. It is really cool! Impressive that you did it solo for Compo!
Appreciate your level design work! :) But I need to mention that it is really not intuitive that game continues after the light turns down. Thank you for making a detailed description and a walkthrough, it really helps!
Wow how did you get 100 ratings? You are now the most popular person I've seen. :)
Neat game, too! Watching it on lerpish's twitch stream first, and then tried it:
Likes: - intense puzzles and hardcore power mechanic - well designed situations
Try differently: - it often becomes a "only 1 step is the right step" situation...
Overall: - decent puzzle game, remotely has a boulder dash or rogue feel to it.
Nice game
One of THE BEST implementations of the theme for this jam! Fun, great all around, I gave you high ratings.
When all in dark - it`s strange but interesting! Great compo!
I love puzzle games! Good job!
5 stars! When I evaded the bat in the dark and got both of the gold, I felt clever! If you continue to develop this, at first I didn't recognize that I could destroy a gray rock without gold and wasn't clear what the different obstacle icons represented.
Wow! Very good game with a clever design and very good puzzles. Well done!
I uploaded my gameplay of this game on youtube, you can find it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_6TSomvKKQ
Thanks for being part of the stream :)
I played on stream, _(VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/164456874)_ so you were able to watch a lot of thoughts live as I played. However I _**promised**_ I would come back to rate and give feedback. Any questions/comments use [@timbeaudet on twitter](https://www.twitter.com/timbeaudet). And **finally** a link to _my_ game if you wanted to check it out: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/edrive
I liked the game. The art was quite simple, but things were recognizable and that is the primary objective of art. The game scared me when it was going to require a bit of my memory as I have a really poor memory. As well as puzzle aspects. Luckily I was able to figure it out, with a little help from people on stream from time to time. The cave bats were really challenging, especially when the light went out!
Each level seemed to get a little bit more difficult or challenging, so great job on level design. As well the first levels taught the mechanics quite well. If any thing could be improved perhaps the introduction of the bat could be made in a level that gives you more time before it catches the player. I did manage to get to the end and it was a little anti-climatic at the end, but that happens often during short development cycle. It did at least acknowledge that I finished so that is a great start!
Good entry!
I love it man ! It's simple and really addictive, I really appreciate the detail of this game, create two sound and music slider, create a save/progress system that the kind of detail that we don't see in all the game in Game Jam ! I like the idea to be able to continue the game in the dark even if we should have a button or something. All the level are very well done and think. For me a game doesn't need superficial feature, we have to keep it simple, fun and addictive. That's one of my favorite games test so far !
Very nice game, clean and very well crafted. Well done.
I think it would have been nice to have more feedback than the screen just turning black when you lose, but overall an okay puzzle game. nice take on the theme
Excellent use of the theme and cute art style, the music because a bit grating after a while though :)
Puzzles were challenging and I liked the fact that I could memorise them and continue in the dark. Great entry!
Nice little game - Simple gameplay.
It's good but when the screen turns black at first you might want to tell the player that they are not a dead and that it's simply part of the game(in the game not at the description). I can clearly see that a lot of people in the comments do not get the concept because there isn't enough explanation. But in the end it was a very good and well made game
Please use another key than ESC to bring up the menu: in the HTML version, ESC leaves full screen mode, so in order to play in full screen mode you have to press ESC twice to bring up the menu, and then go back to full screen, which is needlessly annoying.
Just played it. A nice interesting take. Great game.
A combination of counting and memorization.
Running out of power mechanic and turn based gameplay go really well in your game. Great entry.
The game miss a restart button ! Nice anyway !
Great entry. It left me wanting more
We streamed your game with Danae plays on Twitch. :) Here's a link:
[Danae streams Ludum Dare 39: Day 3, part 1: Powerless Miner](https://youtu.be/LN1svjCl2z0?t=2h56m52s)
Very nice puzzle concept! I can only say, it was a bit too easy overall :) The levels only started exploring the various things you can actually do with the gameplay rules towards the end, and then the game was over. It is rare to find a lot of well-designed levels in a gamejam game though, so this is hardly a criticism.
Good job!
Fun game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk2ETXlss4Q