Foon →
Ludum Dare Explorer →
LD44 →
Dark Cave
Dark Cave
By rayriver
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 177 | 3.82 | 27 | |
| Fun | 322 | 3.54 | 27 | |
| Innovation | 938 | 2.66 | 27 | |
| Theme | 365 | 3.58 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 290 | 3.98 | 27 | |
| Humor | 769 | 2.42 | 23 | |
| Mood | 204 | 3.76 | 27 | |
Comments
You did a great job in the game ! I really like the minimalist look, it's very clean and beautiful, compared to the mechanics, they also work really well (the only thing that might change would be to add a bit more speed on the player). The game is very difficult (at least for me haha), however the incredible system of checkpoints that you created, makes it accessible even for the worse players, like me hahaha. Overall, it's a great game, congratulations on the beautiful work ! Sorry for bad english.
I got immediate hollow knight vibes going in. I got pretty pissed while playing, mainly because in order to wall jump you have to be running into the wall, so before you have the double jump it can get kind of frustrating. Although while saying that, I did complete it(dark dash was very hard to find), and I did have a lot of fun.
Difficult but fun! Nice minimalist graphics and sounds go well with it too.
I like the graphics: minimalistic but strong. Player movement is quite solid, I could always land between two saws with no problem. I only miss a dark soundtrack :)
jk5000
2019-05-02 11:45
The visual style is pretty cool. The game idea is good, and it fits the jam theme well. The difficulty is a bit high, but for incarnated platform gamers this will be okay. Overall a pretty good LD game.
Oh wow my White Palace trauma is tingling. Clever use of the theme. Great looking, well polished. The hollow knight feeling is there. I think you tackled it better than I did in my game :-) The wall jump needs maybe a bit of polishing, I was often double-jumping from sliding a wall.
I love games like this. Minimalistic, difficult, with the ever growing abilities of the character that allow you to discover other parts of the world. This is a game I will probably play again, until I beat it. However, the whole "sacrifice life in exchange for abilities" mechanic doesn't feel like a natural part of the game (altars after sacrifice look rad, btw), because you **must** sacrifice part of your life for abilities, there is no way to beat the game without these sacrifices. Anyway, overall it is a very well done entry (some parts of it rare, even blue, if we use steak cooking terms)! Congrats!
Nice style and level design. But if to play it on normal there is no scence in lifes and life sacrifices. Also sacrifices is not an option, but a necessity. Overall good job =)
rayriver
2019-05-02 12:12
@tangiblegames Oh thank you for your useful comment!
rayriver
2019-05-02 12:16
@marsheleene Thank you for playing! Yes, you're right, the wall jump is not that good. I don't know how to polish it now, and I will try later.
rayriver
2019-05-02 12:31
@damantisshrimp Thank you for playing! It's the problem of spike colliders, I make them small than they look, also the player's collider.. I am really don't good at sound things, I hope there are some dark style bgm and sounds, but I can't. Maybe later I will learn to make it :laughing:
Nice idea. Good mechanism. It's a good example to explain the theme in the perspective of mech. I really love the atmosphere the game exhibit. It's sad but stubborn. However, the mechanism is emphasized too much but I would like to see more detailed story telling in the game(Am I asking too much?). Good job ~
zitao-ye
2019-05-02 15:32
Very nice Metroidvania game full of mood! The graphics and animation is pretty good! I like it! I think the level design is good but after wall-jump, there is one place that is still too hard for me, so I give up, the collider is not very precise, but it's good! jiayou!
2019-05-03 14:09
The wall hanging mechanic reminded me a lot of NGame.
Theme is beautifully integrated into the game :)
myrmyxo
2019-05-03 14:32
Good metroidvania ! I think that the character is a bit too high, f you see what I mean : He is thin ang tall, and the game is mostly a game where you climb and that gives a very tall hitbox, sometimes passages of the game are very though to pass. You should have made him smaller. I see in the comments that there is a dark dash, but I have finished the game without finding it. The platforming can be very though and the camera is very small : I think that it would have been better to have a larger camera to fully see parts of the levels. The graphics are beautyful, but the game has a lack of music and sounds. Overall pretty good game, if the platforming wasn't as tough, it could have been better. And as a lot of people stated before, I can feel a very strong inspiration of Hollow Knight, especially in the double jump, but it doesn't matter ! Congratulations !, although I have founded it a bit frustrating sometimes.
Nice game! inspired by Super Meat Boy?
I like minimalistic design!
Tutorial in the start of the level was brilliant! Great job!
kaeveris
2019-05-04 06:24
Very cool game, reminds me of Super Meat Boy and Limbo. Great controls, cool sounds, awesome graphics!
what an insane game, please continue to do it, have a good time, congratulations
Really nice art!!! That dark vibe!!! and the level design is cool too! keep creating games!!!
Pretty good platformer actually! Controls and movement is good, I love artsyle, buying skills with lives literally fits the theme.. except "W = left" there's nothing to complain about. Maybe since you submitted into "jam", you could add a fitting music to make atmosphere even better. But overall really great game!
duke
2019-05-05 11:07
Nice idea and I like those games in general, but you really should work on your wall jump mechanic. I quit the game because I really don't like how you implemented it. Half the time, my character just falls off the wall when I switch direction keys and press jump. There should be some kind of threshold where you can switch directions and jump without punishing the player for not pressing the buttons frame perfect. I played another entry here that had the exact same problem.
Other than that, it played really nicely. The controls were responsive and jumping felt very intuitive. Good job on that. The game could also really really use some good music :) Felt a little lonely without.
The theme felt a little tacked on, but that's fine.
Really good entry with an amazing aesthetic. Respectfully you did a clever clone of one of my favorite games - PinkMan but with a dark theme. Mechanics work well but I assume that you could improve all physics. I love this one and I would like to see soon a final project with more feature. Don't forget a background track - something oppressive and good sounds. Overall it’s a great game - congratulations on the beautiful work. You deserve more ratings. I wish you the best developing your game. Thank you for this entry - one of my favorites ++
jjjjason
2019-05-06 02:51
Ohhhhh christ the last escapade made me feel like four of *my* hearts had been taken out. Definitely had to turn off Hard mode for that one :dizzy_face:
The level design I feel altogether is quite good: especially the discovery of the dark dash, and especially *not* that final wall spike :^). Movement-wise I think what would help the most is a short air-timer to still trigger single instead of double jump. There were so many occasions where I'd jump right off the edge of a platform (or wall) and it would trigger the double jump because technically I was in the air for a frame or two. Having a little bit of leeway (or increasing the current bit of leeway if there's any!) I think would make the movement feel much better and decrease a bit of frustration.
Also, I'm surprised you said you're not good at sound things, because that chord when you pick up each power is gorgeous. I'd love more of that.
I don't see there innovation, but the game is generally good. I simply don't like difficult games, but there's nothing I can complain on, so I guess it's like a Celeste phenomenon :D I don't think the graphics are beautiful, but their minimalistic style is comprehensive and effects are great ;) The upgrades system is a good idea