A Friendly Dig

risk4bisk 2021-04-27 03:12

I really dug the aesthetic and tone of the game! But it took me longer than I'd like to admit that there was a typo in the control instructions on the start screen and that S, not D was what I needed to do to dig. I also wish there as a different command for hitting and carrying the bodies since often they will all start to pile up and it can quickly get more frustrating than challenging. Lastly I found some hitbox issues that would make me fall underground, though I was always able to climb back up regardless, so despite being the bigger technical issue it didn't really get in the way of the fun that much. Keep up the good work!Screenshot 2021-04-26 22.05.05.png

chillen 2021-04-27 12:03

Thank you so much for the play and feedback! Tiredly tweaking collisions and adding tutorial text is always a bad time :sweat_smile: Luckily, they could all be patched faster than it took to boiled my morning kettle. I absolutely hear you on the whack-pickup control! I was doing my best to keep the controls to directional+1, but ultimately it just ended up being a bit too clunky. Thank you again for the feedback! It's already improved things :)

sevkron 2021-04-27 13:00

Great job on the Atari-esque graphics and sound design. It really felt like playing one of those old titles. I really dug :wink: the little bits of text from the protagonist's perspective. Super eerie. Also I didn't find a way to dig diagonaly, could be useful feature to create escape routes.

wizard-sino 2021-04-27 22:10

the graphics and sound design were nice. I found it fairly fun, but i had some difficulty filling holes?

beachboogeyman 2021-04-28 01:41

great aesthetic! a little simplistic mechanics wise. would love to see some more ways to dig/ trap/ survive

theblindeye 2021-05-06 20:56

Nice game!

I really love the graphics and how the player moves. I also found out some bugs.

image_2021-05-06_235859.png

Somehow I glitched into the map and I could climb out of the scene.

chillen 2021-05-06 21:04

@theblindeye haha, yeah, good catch! It was actually way more difficult than expected (not that tough, but more) to make the player feel more "clunky" than normal, and it led to multiple refactors that always introduced new traversal bugs. As someone who usually focuses on systems design, my goal for 48 was aesthetics over mechanics, increment over planning, and while it worked out all right I definitely found the spaghetti getting a bit too much to handle after a while. Thank you for checking it out!

chillen 2021-05-06 21:06

@wizard-sino Definitely agree on the holes! Part of a refactor I made last minute changed the raycasts that governed how close you needed to be to edges to bury AND how much you move on each tick, and the combination led to a bunch of falling down holes and digging underneath instead of burying. Definitely could have solved it with more buttons, but I tried to restrict myself to a few keys. Absolutely hear you on burying :) Thank you for checking it out!

chillen 2021-05-06 21:08

@beachboogeyman Awesome to hear! This jam I really wanted to emphasize aesthetic over mechanics, since I usually focus on systems design, so I'm really grateful for the aesthetic feedback :) My design doc originally had stretch goals for consumables and upgrades, but I'm honestly not sure those would even add enough variation to make the core loop a bit more engaging. Thank you for the play and feedback!

chillen 2021-05-06 21:11

@sevkron Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciated! First time focusing on the aesthetic feel of it, so I'm glad to hear it hit. I'd originally had some diagonal movement, but too often found I was getting my little dude stuck. Specifically targeting escape routes is an interesting point, though! I could certainly see crumbling blocks that fall behind you if you dig sideways, but you can suffocate if you didn't build an exit tunnel. Definitely some neat ideas with that in mind, thank you again for that feedback, and thanks for playing!

pe7e 2021-05-06 21:40

I didn't get the game but I loved the graphics, sounds and mood. Good job.

cvetk0 2021-05-06 21:40

Nice! I love the retro style with CRT like (shader?) looks. It works great together with the sound and music. The animation is also pretty cool, just what I would expect from a retro game. Keep up the good work, and keep using Godot, it's great :slight_smile:

bbaf 2021-05-06 22:17

Atari aesthetics in this entry is stunning. Enjoyed the gameplay loop as well.

Personally for myself, I found the best tactics just to dig separate holes along each other to maximize the travel path for zombies

Unfortunately died somewhere in the middle after falling in it myself (tried to stun a couple of friends with a shovel):smile:.

shovel.jpg

Played several rounds and found it funny as hell. Good luck with the voting phase!

zype 2021-05-07 12:16

I love the mood of the game! It really reminds me of those animations in the FNAF games with the pixel art part. By far one of the most innovative and cool games i have played this LD

chillen 2021-05-07 19:48

@pe7e Great to hear! I agree myself with the gameplay part :sweat_smile: Didn't quite get time to finish the game loop given the restrictions I put on myself, but I'm glad to hear the aesthetic worked :) Thanks for checking it out!

chillen 2021-05-07 19:50

@cvetk0 Thank you for playing! Yeah, the CRT shader felt like a necessary element to throw in to bring it all together :) First time tinkering with pixel animations and Commodore chip synths, so it was a blast to work on. And I'll definitely keep using Godot! I've been using it since pretty much right when it open-sourced, and extremely excited for 4.0 :smiley:

chillen 2021-05-07 19:53

@bbaf Thank you so much for the play and kind words! I definitely feel like some iterations to focus on gameplay would help to motivate some more inventive strategies, and block out some of the more dominant ones. I really appreciate the aesthetics feedback! Pretty much my first time working with pixel art and old synths, so I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

chillen 2021-05-07 19:55

@zype Very happy to hear this! Definitely partly inspired by FNAF minis, but intentionally avoided looking at any as direct references to try and keep it its own thing as best as I could. My first time working with the style, so I really appreciate the positive feedback on it!

leapyearboy 2021-05-07 22:18

Your graphics and style were great. If I'm honest I didn't know how to play until I seen the comments, but I really.... really liked the style :v:

jajo 2021-05-07 22:19

Spooky as heck. The 'ancient' ( sorry if this makes anyone feel old haha (: ) art style is awesome. Collision could be weird sometimes but that's just a minor nitpick. Very good overall!

ty-victorson 2021-05-07 23:01

The game was pretty fun! like a few others I found the best way was to just dig hold all the way down across the level then I waited near the end! Nice work on the graphics and the aesthetic, defiantly looked the part!

vixenmink 2021-05-08 01:01

This is such a strange concept. Only thing I would change is maybe making the font bigger if you choose not to be full screen. I have made so many friendsssssss

mariszin 2021-05-09 20:13

Nice game! Managed to go into the ground without digging a hole. Hoped "friends" would not go through ground wall, they did :(

loveapplegames 2021-05-15 10:55

Very unusual and atmospheric game. Graphics look great, there's a atmospheric 8 bit feel to them and there's great attention to detail. The ground looks black on black on my screen, I had to turn up brightness to max to even see it. Controls are a bit slow and clunky. If I understand correctly, there is no way to win the level, eventually you will be overwhelmed. I think it would be nicer to have a way to win the level.