FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Sporelunk

Sporelunk

By brainloaf-studio, crelish and joshedev

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall524.2553
Fun2123.9154
Innovation5363.5454
Theme604.3854
Graphics94.7654
Audio204.4254
Humor604.1952
Mood664.3654

Comments

2021-04-27 04:17

The villain creature made me piss my pants :-)

a333 2021-04-27 13:19

Superb animations, tight gameplay, a bit more dependence on luck than I'd prefer, full of anxiety, trippy and scary as fuck. Awesome.

Btw don't forget that if you don't rate other games you won't get any ratings yourself

logan 2021-04-27 21:40

Haha, good lord, that was some kinda bizarre trip. It's very polished, and solid. And very hard. I love how you can see and hear the distress in the mushroom's voice, sobbing as he digs for his life and tears apart the little mushlings. He doesn't want to be doing this. He HAS to. He has to survive. To flee from that... thing. Very cool.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 00:33

@everette-h We did too while designing it. We don't blame you

justinmullin 2021-04-28 00:35

Wow, that was quite something! Every time I thought I was at the end of content there was a bit more I discovered one layer down. The slow descent into insanity was quite a trip. I love the polish here, the flavor of the whole thing is just exactly on point, and everything clicks. I only ran into one (very small) bug, where I couldn't turn around if I had my back to a wall. Everything else is tight, put together, and has a remarkably unique feel to it. Spectacular work!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 00:36

@a333 Hey, thank you! It means a lot to hear all of that- we were really hoping to accomplish a tight gameplay loop and invoke that sense of fear. And we can't wait to play/rate everyone's games!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 00:40

@logan Thank you- that means a lot! Poor mushroom man might have bitten off more than he could chew (pun intended) when he ate that first little mushling. Maybe it's justice for the mushlings, though?

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 00:42

@justinmullin Thank you so much! We're so glad to hear that we invoked that 'descent into insanity' lol. Definitely would like to fix up that glitch in a post-jam patch- thanks for bringing it up!

peace-of-cake-games 2021-04-28 06:04

When the little mushroom guy screams in agony as it is ripped apart I'm mentally screaming too. Amazingly made horror game!

I kind of root for the horrifying monster to be honest.... being ripped apart is what the little mushroom guy deserves for ***being a cannibal!!*** The cannibalism really completed the horror bit.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 06:23

@peace-of-cake-games Hey, good to see you again- Hope LD48 went well for you! And thank you! Honestly, we can't blame you for rooting for the monster after what the mushroom man has done. Poor baby shrooms...

chtimy 2021-04-28 11:04

Wonderful aniimations! The vilain is really successfull and creepy :p

The gameplay is efficient, and the atmosphere is really dark (eating baby mushrooms to survivre, what a horrible thing ahah)

Is there an ending?

Thank you for your game!

elektroney 2021-04-28 11:25

I hate you but nice game

majadroid 2021-04-28 11:34

Funny game, great animations. The controls felt a bit slow or wonky. But cool game with great visuals.

2rek 2021-04-28 11:39

This is actually a bit creepy. Graphics are gorgeous, animations are so fluid :o I very much like it :)

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 11:49

@chtimy Thank you!! There isn't a true ending - the only way for the game to end is for our poor mushroom man to be torn apart. There are 5 biomes though, so there's more content to discover as you delve deeper!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 11:50

@elektroney We don't hate you, but the giant abomination with arms for facial hair might think differently. Thanks!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 11:52

@majadroid Thanks! The slow digging was definitely a goal to add to the horror of the chase lol. We're glad to hear you liked the animations!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 11:53

@2rek Thank you thank you! Glad to hear it!

rick2112 2021-04-28 15:58

Wow the game is well polished and damm is the creature creepy, but in a good way.

microchasm 2021-04-28 16:01

Animations and sound are awesome, and pair together perfectly. It's a weird and disturbing little place to be. Adding to that, I don't feel great playing as a creature that eats cute mushrooms. The concept works well, but I wish that there was something to collect other than eating little mushrooms. Also, seems unnecessary to ask the player to hold z while digging-- if they are moving into a wall, then they always want to be digging it. The last critique is that the player;s collision box is huge, it's usually better to keep it a bit smaller than the graphic on the screen. I really like when animation, music, and sound effects work well together, and this was the best I"ve seen in the jam so far.

tryston 2021-04-28 16:14

Love the atmoshpere that the sounds and visuals produce, wish their were some more interesting things to find though.

hippolytea 2021-04-28 16:16

The sound design is truly amazing! Im not a big fan of game studio making entry on the ludum dare, but the high quality is here, can't deny it. Amazing game and good luck with your point n click!

divford 2021-04-28 16:16

The art is so good! The death animation is absolutely horrifying, as is the monster.

My fan theory is that this is how mushrooms view humans.

m11 2021-04-28 16:19

Super atmospheric - love the sound design and the death animation!

kaihyo 2021-04-28 16:21

It's cool to see people producing games at such a level of polish during a jam. Animation and SFX are well balanced, plus I loved the pressure the sound gives the player. A different sound may have helped to tell if something is unbreakable, but that's a matter of taste. Good job !

tyreyes32 2021-04-28 16:31

+ Simple, elegant, and addicting game design. A "one more run" type of game. + Cool music all around. Especially the menu music and when you go pretty deep in the game. + Clever and succinct way to tutorialize the game via cutscene. 1) Cannibalize mushroom children to stave off the dark. 2) Somethings chasing you. All shown in few seconds

@brainloaf-studio I dug 123 layers. How much more content am I missing out on??

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:16

@rick2112 That means a lot, thank you!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:29

@microchasm Thank you! Disturbing was the goal, so we're glad to hear it worked for you. When it comes to more items to collect, we wanted to keep the scope of the game realistic for the jam, but we do have ideas for more content if we ever expand it! Also, automatic digging is an interesting concept, but ultimately we feel there are more tactics to be had when the digging is manual. We'll keep in mind the hitbox as well! Thank you very much for the feedback, we appreciate all the thought put into helping us make this game better!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:31

@tryston Thanks! We agree that there is potential for different items and content, and love the idea of expanding on this game some day!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:46

@hippolytea We agree that our sound designer did amazing work! We understand that 'Studio' is a scary word, but to clarify, we are an indie game team made up of only 2 members (we had 2 more friends join us for SFX/Music and Voice Acting on this game jam!) :)

Thank you for the good luck!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:50

@divford Many thanks my friend! It means a lot that you believe we achieved a horrific death scene for our little hero. Also, thank you for our first fan theory :)

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:50

@m11 Thank you, thank you!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 18:52

@kaihyo We appreciate the feedback very much! We also agree that more varying sounds for different blocks would have been a nice addition.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 19:09

@tyreyes32 It truly is gratifying to see your list of feedback. Tutorializing the cutscene was almost accidental, but we're glad it worked out that way!

There are 5 'biomes' total- 123 layers deep being at around the 4th one. Although the 5th biome doesn't add new content, its a terrible amalgamation of all of the ones above!

mvasko2 2021-04-28 19:45

Holy s**t, what is that thing?

Great graphics, sounds and music first of all, I really like the style. I would like to see some more variability in the environment and more things to do other than dig. I missed some ways to stop or at least slow down that... thing.

Also it seems the only way I could switch to dig to the side was to actually go into that direction for at least a short distance. If I was digging downwards very close to the left wall and I suddenly wanted to dig to the left, I had to first go to the right a bit and then come back.

Oh and the creature was terrifying.

Nice game overall :slight_smile:

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 20:51

@mvasko2 Thank you!! That glitch is indeed a pesky one, we hope to fix it up soon in a post-jam patch! We're also not sure how much you played, but there are 5 different environmental biomes that appear the father down you dig to add some variation with tile types. We appreciate the feedback a lot!

fraukauz 2021-04-28 21:07

Waaaaattt

This is super scary and nightmarish :D. Very atmospheric, music and graphics are great, it fits the theme perfectly!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 21:09

@fraukauz Thank you! We're glad to hear you enjoyed (is that the right word?)

fraukauz 2021-04-28 21:24

@brainload-studio ask me again tomorrow morning after a good long and relaxing dreamless sleep :D

yeppe 2021-04-28 21:34

WOW! I love the feeling this game gives of. Fantastic visuals and scary sounds, i like this game very much.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 21:57

@yeppe Thank you, we're glad to hear it!!

nahuelito 2021-04-28 22:48

Just amazing, nothing else to say. Don't know how you managed to do it all in just two days, but damn, this is very impressive. Awesome game!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-28 23:08

@nahuelito Thank you!! We entered the jam instead of the compo, so we were able to work with 3 days of time, thankfully. We're glad to hear you enjoyed!

cdunham 2021-04-29 02:57

Cool little game! Simple mechanics but it keeps you playing. Played it a bunch but only got around 21 digs deep. At a certain point I kept getting blocks that I couldn't break through. I probably just got unlucky. A jump mechanic would be helpful in case I get stuck on a dead-end path.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 04:05

@cdunham Thank you for the comment! You can jump with the up arrow key :)

cdunham 2021-04-29 04:15

@brainloaf-studio Really? Could've sworn I tried up, space, w and so on. I just played it again and it was because I was holding the dig button :/ I got to 25 this time though!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 05:05

@cdunham Here's to 30!

boclow 2021-04-29 05:35

What a nice and horrible game! I liked it. I liked the slow build up and polish in the art overall.

pancho 2021-04-29 13:38

A very very fun game, the artistic style is spectacular and it goes very well with the music, the difficulties are somewhat complicated but it is okay it is more fun like that, great game and great job.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 19:36

@boclow Thank you!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 19:37

@pancho We appreciate the compliments, thank you!

revetoon 2021-04-29 21:33

Really cool game !! Simple concept but great execution, I loved the creature and the different transitions to new block types. The atmosphere is truely unique and disturbing I loved it. Music and animations are very cool. I got to layer 122 :)

jojopalambas 2021-04-29 21:35

Well that was terrifying. Take my stars and go summon Chtulhu somewhere else

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 21:52

@revetoon Thank you so much! Extreme props for reaching a layer that deep!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 21:53

@jojopalambas Yesssss... more stars to fuel the ritual...

sakura-magika 2021-04-29 23:48

very cute! your animation and art is just incredible for a game jam! i love the slippery wibbly wobbly movement of the shrooms. The mechanic of eating your own kind to survive is grusome in a very fitting way.

I made it to level 84. Ended up getting trapped by the wormy-like blocks.

I think finding some kind of powerup to get that perhaps gives you superdigging for a limited time/number of strikes, so you can one hit any boulder, would be a good addition so the gameplay doesn't get as repetitive.

The controls were fairly tight, felt responsive and not floaty, though i think i hit a few edge cases in pressing various buttons at the same time that left my character unable to move until i released and pressed the buttons again.

Over all, very fun and well polished entry!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-29 23:53

@sakura-magika Thank you for the awesome feedback! We also thought about adding a speed powerup like that, but ultimately had too many other things going on to properly rebalance the game around such a major addition. It's something we think is very possible to add in a post-jam update though! Those edge cases are indeed pesky too, and something else to fix for sure. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the game though, we appreciate the comment!

advay 2021-04-30 02:39

Top notch. Great animations. That feeling of anxiety will never leave me i guess. Solid Entry!

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-30 02:43

@advay Thank you!!

manan 2021-04-30 03:28

This was a genuinely horrifying experience! I wasn't sure what to do once it was completely dark, but I ended up at level 74 before I heard a bunch of screaming and demon sounds and died. I love the death animation too. Very original.

brainloaf-studio 2021-04-30 03:30

@manan Thank you! It's basically game over once it gets complete dark - be sure to collect the little mushrooms along the way to replenish your light!

eximir 2021-04-30 13:14

Great game ! The sound design and animations are excellent! Every thing just works together ! I had one minor inconvenience that was already mentioned though, the not being able to turn when to far to the side you want to turn thing.

mpetrus 2021-04-30 16:32

Very nice game!!!

ghubert 2021-05-01 06:24

Graphhics and music great. Mood very good.

ddrkirbyisq 2021-05-01 22:10

Made it to level 129, woooo.

Untitled.png

The idea of a slowly approaching wall of limbs and flesh inexorably coming towards you at the very edge of your vision radius is brilliant.

mhorth 2021-05-01 22:31

Nice :wink: lol Screenshot 2021-05-01 182807.png

This is really really good! I'll try to find one tiny thing to nitpick. Some of the tiles seem to be totally unbreakable. If this is true, maybe a different animation (like the getting hurt animation) to tell you that it's never going to break. The dark gray rocks cost me a little time because I thought I'd eventually get through if I hit them enough times.

That's all I have though, everything else was perfect and far surpasses my expectations of a game made in a weekend.

bereg 2021-05-02 15:05

Sooo cool! One of the best games I've seen here. It's so bizarre and beautiful! Graphics, animation, music, everything fits, everything sits. The amount of work behind this is outstanding. Congratulations!

brainloaf-studio 2021-05-02 23:29

@mpetrus @ghubert Thank you!!

@eximir That means a lot! That's definitely a pesky bug, but we'd like to fix it in a post-jam patch!

@ddrkirbyisq Woah, that's pretty deep! Glad you liked the concept!

@mhorth Thank you! That's definitely something we'd like to make clearer in a post-jam patch - we agree that it can hard to tell what's breakable or not at the moment. Appreciate the feedback!

@bereg That means a lot to hear, thank you!!

denzil-gomes 2021-05-04 15:40

Simple clean design. I think you could've streamlined it even more by removing the need to press z and just have the digging in the direction you're going automatic. The art is great and the animations are really well done! I got 95 levels deep! overall very clean and polished entry well done

mateusboga 2021-05-04 19:39

Damn that was intense! The music was too loud though, and I really miss an audio settings menu, but other than that great work!

Here's my highscore: Screenshot_109.png

brainloaf-studio 2021-05-04 23:34

@denzil-gomes Thank you!! We opted not to make digging automatic so that you could jump and retain a bit more control when things get hectic. We're glad to hear you enjoyed!

@mateusboga Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear it was sufficiently intense! Volume options are definitely something we'd like to add in a post-jam patch!

molpe 2021-05-05 14:59

Love the art style, love the audio, hate the monster :smile: This game is very unforgiving, one wrong turn and you are done... :smile: Seriously, it is very nice :slight_smile: I would also appreciate some "super dig" or maybe some other instruments, like pickaxe for the rocks etc. :slight_smile:

There is my LP :slight_smile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orrg7NucML4

mamon 2021-05-06 09:23

69 layers! I like relieving feel when you get lightsource again... main hero animation is outstanding and sound esign support the idea. Cool!

toadietechnika 2021-05-08 07:03

Fun game, eccentric graphics yet I don't want to die at the end... It's a morbid one.

quetzakol 2021-05-08 17:28

Fantastic game, I loved everything. The animations are great, the sounds / music are great (I especially liked how it evolves to become more and more horrific). The gameplay is nice and original and fits the theme well. I almost missed the more creepy parts, thinking it was only about the first 3 types of blocks. Fortunately I persevered and went deeper.

A few (tiny) things to improve: - the two types of rocks are very similar and at first I didn't realize that one of them could be broken, since it didn't work for the first type of rock. - sometimes the character didn't turn in the direction I wanted to dig, I guess because I was too close to the block and it turns only when it can walk.

But I'm nitpicking. Awesome job!

brainloaf-studio 2021-05-09 00:03

@molpe Thank you very much! We agree that more features like that could be cool to add. And thanks for the let's play! We will definitely check it out : )

@mamon Thank you very much!!

@toadietechnika That was the goal! Glad you felt the urge to survive.

@quetzakol We appreciate the compliments! We are aware of both of the issues you pointed out and would love to incorporate those fixes into a possible post-jam update.

one-seed-fruit 2021-05-13 06:08

HOLY MUSHROOMS. Love this game. Another perfectly made entry for me! It's 5/5 to all! SO FUN TO PLAY. And the visuals, and the animation, WOW!!!!! I'd play as a digging mushroom anytime! Really dig that animation! Feels good to look at!

Maybe if digging on different rocks giving different sound would be nice. Also, maybe arrow/directional keys to dig too instead of a separate key Z, I can imagine playing this on my Android with just swiping left/right, swiping down to dig, and swipe + drag to jump, I'd get so addicted!!! (Would be nice if there are builds for other platforms too. Btw I played this on Linux via wine, game looks incredible, couldn't resist wanting to play it just from the screenshots. But I have no Windows, thankfully it runs perfectly!)