FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → Heart Miner

Heart Miner

By corny

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1193.6343
Fun1033.5843
Innovation1673.3043
Theme1493.5943
Graphics584.0245
Audio1023.4843
Mood1603.3643

Comments

chuckeles 2019-04-29 09:03

Would you be able to make an OSX version? Otherwise I can't play but the game looks cool! :disappointed:

corny 2019-04-29 09:10

@chuckeles I'll try exporting it as a browser version. I think that'll work on OSX, don'tcha think?

itsjustjord 2019-04-29 09:11

I liked it, nice little game I really like the art style too!

chuckeles 2019-04-29 09:18

@corny you it should. In the meantime I switched to my Windows PC :stuck_out_tongue:

dignz 2019-04-29 09:21

Game looks great, took me ages to work out that you are supposed to press 'S' and go through the door at the start! Quite difficult but a good mechanic and put together really well

derpylz 2019-04-29 09:24

The art and music are great. They make for a really moody game. The movement was a bit frustrating, but that might be intended? The upgrade system fits the game. All in all, great job!

robowarrior1982 2019-04-29 09:28

This one remind me Boulder Dash ! Pixel art is good, and that fit the theme very well ! It's good entry, good job.

zubspace 2019-04-29 09:30

This is actually a rock solid mining game. Kudos to the art style. Well done. The character animations are awesome.

I also love the procedural level generation, even though it sometimes seems to work against me, but that's fine.

corny 2019-04-29 09:33

@derpylz Is the frustration coming from the sticking-to-the-walls mechanic mayhaps? Because if so then don't worry, it's all unintended and I just didn't have enough time to fine-tune it. I think it's serviceable for the bare basics, isn't it?

chuckeles 2019-04-29 09:37

Feedback

Well, first of all, I love the splash image! :laughing:

Anyway, I played the game, had a little trouble understanding that I have to use the door to continue. You should mention that somewhere, too. Then I got into the random level and mined a few hearts, found a bomb, and it exploded before I had any time to react. Maybe you could make the timer just slightly longer.

After I died, I tried again, but this time I got thrown into a random level that I just could not finish. The door were out of reach. The problem is that you can't hang on the dirt tiles, only on the stone tiles (correct?).

Overall, I love the graphics and the sounds. The game has very good polish. However, it is very hard and I assume that it is not always possible to finish the level.

Heart Miner 2019-04-29 11.36.04.png

Example: I cannot get the heart above me :disappointed:

lukas-tamayo 2019-04-29 09:51

Ok so I finished the game and it was pretty good. At first I died and I was confused about what to do and what was what. Here are a few reason why.

The control is in the first room, I didn't have time to see a lot because I tested out the control and pressing S in front of the door tped me in the tunnels. So I was very confused and I didn't know what to do. I had to rety to understand I could exchange my hurts on the top left corner to get upgrades. Also on my first attempt I diged in a way that I thought I couldn't get around before I realised I can only climb concrete walls. After that it was easier.

I wanted to stop but i'm glad I went on because the more I went the more I understood the game. I also had some games where I had genuine fun because I had only one heart and fucked up my upgrade and I didn't want to lose anything jumping around.

Still I think that upgrading your jump is the best way to go, didn't use the range at all and well upgrading your life is necessary, at first I thought range was the way to go but there are so many situation where you can't gain height and without that you are pretty much stuck in a linear path.

To summarize :

**Bad**

-A somewhat confusing experience at first

-Upgrades that don't work together too well

-A bug where if you take the mole and die at the door, pressing S will ressurect you and allow you to keep playing

-Bad placement of the first door

-No feedback on damage taken

**Meh**

~A music that doesn't corrolate well with the arcade feel of the game or the shiny graphics

**Good**

+Impressive proceduraly generated maps ( Like really ? During a compo )

+Cool graphics ( even though I thought the mole was a snake )

+Really cool gaming moment that make you have fun

+A system of exchanging life for points that makes the gameplay more tense

+A clear objective

+A system that is simple to understand

Overall a fun game with a few flaws but nothing that makes it bad in any way

corny 2019-04-29 10:06

@lukas-tamayo Woah, now that's some QUALITY feedback, thank you very much! I didn't really plan out anything that's in the game, since I only had around 24 hours (I started making one project on day 1, then scrapped it and reused the assets to make this). I's unpolished, clunky at times, and unfinished in other places, but I'm so glad you and everyone else sorta enjoyed it anyway! And honestly, even if my game got 0 ratings or all negative ones I'd still be proud of that procedural generation. This was the first time I ever got it to work right, too!

Also, @chuckeles, If you're still up for playing, I did include F5 as a "panic button" that teleports you straight to the exit door for half your heart shards, just in case a level is not finishable. You don't need to pick up all the hearts in a level to continue, just enter the door and go right back in to the mines if you want to!

deathbysnail 2019-04-29 11:55

Love the look, and the audio. I got stuck after too many bombs went off, and I couldn't climb back to the start.

gilborn 2019-04-29 14:20

In every LD I find one game that sticks with me till I made it through. In this one its probably the first I tested, this one. Spent over an hour to see the end screen.

The Double Jump ist a must have, the extra range for the Pick axe didn´t work too well for me because it slows down the game because aiming gets difficult.

I loved how you learn some strategys to beat the game:

- how to dig tunnels (first up, once you´re up, work down to the Door, but slow, mostly horizontal) - Don´t stay too long, if you have the chance to get the hearts back, its probably the best.

- Stones can be your friend to get up, but be aware, there can be teleports you run in if you dig towards them.

It was a great, addicting ride, I loved the animations (The 2 hearts to one Heart machine especially :-)). Really good job, the theme is also well covered. Thank you for the entry.

andidebob 2019-04-29 15:27

A lovely game which is really hard if you don't get the upgrades. I loved pretty much everything about this. Great Job!

niteb 2019-04-29 16:43

Interesting concept and the visual and audio styles work great!

tudvari 2019-04-29 17:56

I really liked that background music, and the fact that I can rapidly traverse through the mines :smile:

And also... I dig... digging.

devbat8712 2019-04-29 23:10

Neat game. I think it'd be something I'd play quite a bit if it were a bit more polished. Very good graphics,and the song is cool.

dziukoala 2019-04-30 12:11

This is a really good game, i love the idea of reserching hearth shard and trading hearth, maybe some feature aren't really comprehensive (i died and i don't know why :D). Congratulation guys for this game!

nisanick 2019-04-30 17:54

controls are quite hard to get right, especially the "stick to wall" mechanic but otherwise great game. every death just made me want to play more :thumbsup:

sebastien-bourgeois 2019-04-30 19:35

This is a really cool game, i like the graphics and the mood of the game. I also really like the climb on grey rocks mechanism, and dig others.

The music is great, but maybe a little bit too melancholic for the atmosphere of the game ? Or maybe that was intended ?

Very good entry, will live to see updates for this one after LD!

abraxas-interactive 2019-04-30 22:46

Thank you for sharing this, that was a lot of fun! It took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out that I needed to go through that door to get to the actual game, but once I got in and started finding heart containers I was having a blast. I love the art style!

mrstari 2019-05-01 19:26

such a cool game, i love the art. the controls are little bit confusing, but otherwise great work! :hearts:

yukimiitsuka 2019-05-03 14:19

My world's bleak.

stuck.png

corny 2019-05-04 20:41

@yukimiitsuka The most unbelievable thing about this screenshot is the fact that you somehow lost 1 HP! If you still feel like playing, F5 is a "panic button" that teleports you right to the exit, just in case something like this happens. But it's been a day already so I'm not gonna be surprised if you don't, tbh

pixel-boy 2019-05-07 14:27

The gameplay is cool, but there is a kind of lantence between each pickaxe use that is not very pleasant which is make the rhythm of the game more slow and discouraged me to continue to play, the fact of being able to hang on the wall of rock is nice, art is good too, he could do a very good game in a more advanced version !

webox 2019-05-21 17:06

This is an amazin game, art is really cool, everything seems to fit just right. As any jam game there are a few bugs and missing visual effects but it's on the right track. I really like this spelunky like games, I think theres room for more of them. Amazing job!

duke 2019-05-21 17:58

Awesome! The art looks really good and the game feels pretty polished. The control are responsive enough but I think that the pickaxing mechanics are a little fiddely. The general flow could be improved. It kinda feels like there's something like a stutter or a lag when using the axe. Also, jumping and picking against walls feels weird as well. The rest of the core gameplay works nicely and the music and sound effects add a lot to the general mood, which you catched awesomely.

The upgrade mechanics were a mystery to me though. I used the forge to convert heart shards to hearts, but there was no indication of how many hearts I had. I used the forge two times and it only took away my shards without adding anything to my hud. I could'nt buy antyhing from the upgrade store aswell, even though I was really looking forward to the range upgrade :( did I miss something?

All in all, still a pretty neat entry. Great art and good gameplay. Good job!

corny 2019-05-21 18:07

@duke Weird, seems like the gained hearts didn't register, I suppose It might have something to do with a known bug - when you die to a Mole there's a window of opportunity where you can teleport back to the base and continue playing, even though your health is 0. That also makes you invincible.

So it's either that or you didn't have enough heart containers... which is kinda impossible since the first range-up costs only 2 hearts. Weird!

Or maybe the heart containers didn't render for you for some reason? So many possibilities...

Still, I noted that, thanks for the feedback!

ectucker1 2019-05-21 18:13

I really like the graphics of this game; it's got a very cohesive and well put together pixel art style. Like some others, I had difficulty figuring out S was also the button to use doors, upgrades, etc. I also had a lot of trouble with the platforming, and would often miss jumps by a few pixels, which felt frustrating. It would be nice to have a slightly more powerful jump to start with, or maybe to be able to place blocks to avoid impossible jumps. Nice work overall; I really like this use of the theme.

dis0rder 2019-05-21 18:52

I dug myself into a pit of despair, but then I checked the comments and found out about the panic-button.

Miner2.png

Clearly a welcome addition, since I found myself stuck more than once.

I like the pixel-art style and merciless mechanics, since I grew up playing games like this. Maybe that's why I find this so addictive?

Sombebody here suggested that you should make the bomb's fuse-time longer so the player would have more time to escape. I disagree. I think it's perfect as it is. It's really merciless, since you have to react immediately, but everytime you come across a bomb, it's such an exhilirating experience :D (at least for me)

It's really impressive work in such a short time. I hope you expand upon this.

---------

*Note: I ran this on a Linux-machine using Wine. Otherwise everything works smoothly, but I noticed that whenever it generates a room with lots of dirt, it uses a hell of a lot of processing power, and it slowed down a bit. Just thought I'd point it out if you continue development and need to optimize.*

corny 2019-05-21 19:56

@dis0rder As for the processor issues, this was my first time ever doing procedural generation. Since I made that game I've been hooked on making these generators and I've already decreased the drain quite a bit. If I ever make a postmortem version of the game I'll make sure to optimize it, don't you worry!

Also, I'm very glad you liked it!

And by "it" I mean both the game AND the panic-button, of course.