javasaurus 2025-04-07 07:22
You might want to create an itch.io page and upload your web-build there (disable compression in the publication settings though). This page isn't working for me, so I'll put it on the "revisit" list for sure !
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Nightmare Digger
By onngd
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 225 | 3.16 | 70 | |
| Fun | 174 | 3.19 | 70 | |
| Innovation | 257 | 2.69 | 70 | |
| Theme | 145 | 3.58 | 70 | |
| Graphics | 232 | 3.02 | 70 | |
| Audio | 132 | 3.32 | 57 | |
| Humor | 117 | 2.93 | 68 | |
| Mood | 225 | 3.03 | 70 |
You might want to create an itch.io page and upload your web-build there (disable compression in the publication settings though). This page isn't working for me, so I'll put it on the "revisit" list for sure !
Great music! At base I tought enemies were not harmfull, fool once not twice!
Funny how we both made a game about going into a mine over and over again, although this is a very different implementation of that idea. It was quite fun for a bit, but got a bit stale as going deeper didn't seem to change anything. Adding new enemies and rocks as you go deeper i think would be an improvement. Also, I might just be really bad at avoiding zombies, but energy didn't seem to matter at all. Your starting energy should probably be much less.
Wild. It was pretty fun playing the game and figuring out what's going on without reading the instructions :stuck_out_tongue:
Music really adds to the feel.
wow. im dead?! this mushroom!
I will be watching you.)
Good concept
I liked it! It's pretty spooky, and when the controls inverted I panicked XD good work!
I really like the music! And great job for your first game!
@javasaurus done, the game can be rated, thanks for the feedback)
@badpinkchicken when I added music and sound effects, I was surprised at how the game was transformed)
@dnp yes, you are right, the energy balance is very bad. As well as the fact that there is simply no difficulty progression, I did not have time to make it. Thanks for the feedback)
@dstoc when I let a girl play the game without much explanation of the gameplay, she also figured it out with interest, it seems I didn't make it too complicated
@k1n thank you, I think so too) There are many ideas that will complement the game, but which I did not have time to implement in 48 hours. I will try to bring the game to mind)
@cherrybcake while I was testing the game, I myself panicked and swore at the inverted controls many times. It seems the idea worked)
@reaktori Thanks for the kind words, bro. I'll try to raise the bar in the future:D
I really like the comments, they are so interesting (I got the meanest one at the first time). I think you game fits the theme very well, the "mine" is a good scenario for "depths". Also, the design of darkness adds some taste. However, I got to say there are still some work to do before the game meets the metric of fun and innovation. Considering it's your first game, very good work! Looking forward to your next game!
Interesting idea and gameplay, but looks a bit underdeveloped! Anyway, cool music and nice mechanics
I played a little while and I think the core gameplay with the lighting makes for some interesting fast paced feeling gameplay.
I'm not sure if it's got an end state or if it's just last as long as you can - I think some sort of progress indicator like a floor number would help here.
@immortalfox it's really unfinished, there are few enemies, the energy balance is bad and there is no difficulty progression. This is my first project, unfortunately I didn't manage to do everything I planned, but I will try!)
@argensis There is no final level in the game and it was not planned, but there was an idea to make a difficulty progression depending on the floor. Unfortunately, I did not have time to implement it
@onngd very good for a first entry! Best luck with next project!
Very good for your first submission. i hope you had a good time
i have a pick axe, why cant i kill the zombies with it? :(
@jcmonkey then the threat would become less significant in general, I wanted to add dynamite, which could kill them and blow up large rocks, but I didn't have time to do it)
@psychomonster nice words, bro)
What a banger of a game! Took a while to figure out what was happening with the mushrooms :D Other than that very intuitive gameplay and the pacing is great. Not sure what all the things in the status bar where except for health or if the mattered at all. Fun regardless.
@nyxkn the energy balance was unsuccessful, that's true. the game will be in a state of improvement, I will definitely fix it. well and mushrooms, yes, without description they bring a note of chaos to the gameplay)
@badpinkchicken @immortalfox @reaktori @dstoc @badpinkchicken If it's not too much trouble, rate the music, for some reason I didn't turn it on in the settings, I'd be grateful)
Nice compo game, well done!
The music was nice, the pixelart too, and I had fun playing :grin: I went up to 245 before dying :thumbsup:
Maybe add some feedbacks everywhere : difference in the ground texture to see when moving, animation when hurt, when taking the ladder, when getting shroomed, when zombies attacks, etc... and it'll be a very nice litte game! :clap:
I was confused when the character said something about buttons?? :joy:
@colisan In fact, there are many things that need to be improved in the game, balance, graphics, and progression... But I'm glad that my first game brings positive emotions) After the character dies, random humorous, caustic phrases are displayed on the screen, I took this idea as an analogy from the game "I Wanna Be The Boshy", where after death the game kind of laughs. I'm glad that someone paid attention to this:D
Awesome music and overall sound design. Some feedback on actins would be great (for example mining) beside the sfx. Otherwise I really liked the gameplay and had fun playing the game! Well done.
@sevatoxin thank you for the positive words<3
Oh man, the purple mushroom was fun haha. I really enjoyed the game! I particularly liked the song, it got me pumping for some mining. Keep the good work!
@anderson-job-loeffler I think that the topic of mushrooms was fully covered and everyone liked it:D thanks for the kind words<3
This was actually pretty good after figuring out what's going on. I got a couple of ladders that were not usable? And I had to keep digging some more to reveal a new ladder. Is this intended?
@gargantuan-janitor strange, never encountered such a bug. maybe the character was far enough from the ladder, that's why it didn't work? anyway thanks for the feedback, I'll test this to find out the cause of the bug. when I finish this game, I might adopt a feature to spawn broken stairs (this will be visible visually), maybe this will give the player false hope and increase the feeling of difficulty of the game
Hey congrats on your first game! Keep at it!
The music is a blast! The game matches the vibe, it has a cool arcade non-stop feel to it. One thing that could help making the enemies a bit more fair would've been some kind of sillhouette or an arrow showing where the enemy is coming from, because the low visibility can make them very tough to evade. Other than that, nice entry, good job! I kept trying to build a highscore but only got to 116 I think!
@conradoclark Thanks for the feedback, you suggested a really cool idea with the arrow. I've been thinking all day about how this could be played out and it seems the simplest solution will be the most effective and visually understandable!
nice i love the music!
Music makes it so tense ;-;
Like a super stressful version of mining in the Stardew Valley caves! I died a LOT!
@salaro this was my main ideological reference, how right on target you hit the nail:D
изображение_2025-04-08_121915623.png
Классно! Можно было бы добавить ещё счётчик этажей ^_^
Для первой игры - очень здорово, молодец ^_^
@xpoho и прогрессию сложностей с этими этажами, да, ты прав. Спасибо за отзыв<3
That's a very good first game! Music is very intense and the gameplay too! Besides feedback mentioned above, I would definitely welcome feedback effect that would show that I'm digging, but no biggie at all. Well done!
Feels like stardew valley mining, but much faster paced! I love the lighting effect!
"My grandma play better". Outch not fair! :laughing: Nice game, i little stressfull from my point of view but like it, very nice to play. Congrats for this entry!
@cmaks this was my main reference. glad the game works as it should:D
@flying-butter-studio I tried really hard to get that stress effect while playing and was afraid I wouldn't be able to get the right feeling. But I think I did it)
Thanks for the feedback<3
I had fun, but wish there's an ending other than dying (maybe there is I'm just not good enough?) Congrats on your first game! I wouldn't have been able to tell, this is well made, and the music is fire. I appreciate your effort in making this! I do not appreciate you trolling me every time I accidentally run into something, though.
it is kind of hard to tell where you are going since there is no sense of direction. maybe some kind of texture on the ground would help to understand where you are and help to navigate
I love games with mining! fun experience
Fun gameplay loop! The music is good too, giving me a "please wake up samurai, we have a city to singe" vibes.
It would be better if the tutorial was built into the game, some things aren't very obvious! But as a first entry you've done a very good job!
Thanks, good entry ;)
@thisyc the game's references were subway surf as an endless reaction speed game, and I Wanna Be The Boshy who trolled players when they died. I thought it was a good element to make players smile, because the 4th wall is broken. Thanks for the honest review<3
@cinar Ideally, each floor should be completed quickly, it would be difficult to remember the procedural generation of the level each time in such darkness. But there really is a lack of variety in the art of the ground and some decorations
@enad96 we are on the same wavelength, bro that's exactly what I was thinking about when I was making this game:D
@r8teful you are absolutely right, the game needs a tutorial for some things. But at the same time, I would not like to describe to people in advance what, for example, mushrooms do, so that each effect is unexpected for them and creates an additional challenge in a difficult situation. I think it is worth explaining the basic controls and the goal. Thanks for the feedback!
mushroom addiction 5/5
Very nice submission! I wish there was a little more feedback for picking up health and energy, and I wish that our health values was easier to read (black text on red background isnt the easiest to read).
I liked that occasionally (or when you pick up energy?) all the nearby rocks and pickups get illuminated, and I liked the blue mushroom especially to run away from enemies if I was getting swarmed!
Very driving music and nice graphics. Great job!
Really great gameplay idea! Would love to see it expanded! It was really fun discovering what the game had to offer :)
Nice first Ludum Dare! There are a couple of things to improved in terms of visual feedback.
Really interesting idea, good job!
The game's comments about losing are hilarious and give a little goal of collecting them all, ahah :) Liked the gameplay, love the action, maybe would have liked auto-attack on rocks as I got tired of clicking, but that's subjective
@onngd No worries you are good. I did smile when you trolled, it was a nice touch. I was kidding before, maybe it was hard to convey through typed words. Congrats again on your submission! I enjoyed it.
Very cool! A nice idea for the game. You sold the pacing and zombie panic well with the flashlight mechanic, and I like the idea of running from zombies while trying to mine.
I also think the different mushroom hazards are very cool. It is a solid bases for a fun, interesting, randomized game.
The music is very nice, and I love that droning metallic bass sound throughout. The sounds aren't bad either especially for using bfxr. Cool looking character, zombies look good. All very cohesive
So my main issue with this is the UI is quite hard to read. The thin black text in front of bold colors is difficult to decipher, and it takes a lot of focus off the game. Replacing, for example, the health numbers with 5 heart icons would have been huge.
When it comes to the time and other things displayed, it made it really hard to tell what was going on overall. Did I just die? Did I reset? How much time do I have? How far did I get this time? Eventually I realized that the goal is simply points, and it shows your high score. However the initial impression of the game is a bit of "I feel like I'm running around doing stuff for no reason".
A simple "You died, you got this many points, and survived this long" screen would have really helped especially on those first impressions. Not to sacrifice the sassy judgement, I loved that part :)
Also last nitpick here, I wish the actual descent into deeper floors was a more important aspect to the game given the theme. There really isn't much different between each floor, and even a simple "you made it 10 floors" would give that sense of depth. In its current state, it does feel like it could tie into the theme a bit more.
I really didn't have issues with the gameplay itself, it was pretty tight with the zombie speed. Sometimes it's a bit unresponsive to enter the next floor, but just a nitpick, I think that aspect was well polished.
Overall very good job,! You put in enough features and tuning to make some solid dynamic gameplay with interesting obstacles. The randomness is used effectively, and it's quite entertaining. I think the UI, while it didn't make the game more challenging, it made it a bit harder to get engaged with what's going on. Well done!
@swooty This is probably the most complete and conceptually developed analysis of my game, I am very flattered by such attention, I appreciate it<3
After the game jam, I will fix everything mentioned above. Just today I was thinking about how to improve the interface and came to the same conclusion that replacing health with hearts is a great idea. And if you also place them above the character's head, then it's just gorgeous.
Now I am writing down in a notebook everything that I need to improve and it seems to me that the game will become much better after such detailed criticism. Once again, thank you very much)
Great game, I like the mushroom effects and the game is beautifully drawn. Great music. It would be great to add some level details and progression. Thanks for this game!
haha that music made it extra intense. nice work.
Awesome! The SFX and music set the mood great. Controls and mechanics were straightforward. This seems a lot like [Core Fault](https://play.date/games/core-fault/). Adding an upgrade system would make the game much more engaging. The limited light was good, and visibility would have been an excellent part of the upgrade system. I noticed that sometimes I could see rocks even though they were out of range of my light source. Why was that?
@nimbushead At the moment, the game is designed so that the passage to the next floor spawns randomly after a broken stone. If there are few stones left on the map, and the passage does not spawn further, it becomes very difficult and tedious to look for small stones in a large space without any identification marks. Therefore, it was decided to add temporary highlighting to the stones to somehow facilitate the gameplay
Hit the spot for me after 24 hours of sleepless game dev session. 5. 5. 5. 5. 4.5 5.
Nice! I love the music of this game! Also, the graphics looks finely made
Can't add anything that other people haven't mentioned. I liked it!
Sick audio track! I had fun! Tried to shovel the zombies at first, maybe be fun to knock them back with the shovel anyway but running away was quite thrilling as gameplay. It was hard to tell when I lost a life to an attack. The lighting effect works really well and the cave edge was clear, good graphics and character design! Congrats!
Neat game! I liked the audio. Simple enough concept with good implementation.