FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Into The Deep

Into The Deep

By clymm

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2493.7855
Fun2313.6856
Innovation3853.3255
Theme1324.1655
Graphics1984.1456
Audio1173.9354
Humor2953.1851
Mood3283.7456

Comments

letmebeme 2025-04-08 11:17

really love it!!

zichemerr 2025-04-08 11:17

Funny game

clymm 2025-04-08 11:23

@letmebeme Thank you for playing!

clymm 2025-04-08 11:23

@zichemerr Thank you!

plidomo 2025-04-08 11:32

I liked this!

The weapon is REALLY fun to use - it's great that it just instantly kills/mines things. I really liked both the soundtracks and the ability to switch between them during game. The sound effects were fun :D The visuals were great too - nice sprites, particle effects etc.

It seems pretty difficult ATM, but that could be a skill issue on my part - I couldn't get much past the text that says 'Find a core' even with a couple of speed upgrades. It seemed to use up all the bought potions/batteries with one press button so even with the 7 potions I bought I couldn't get much further. Really solid concept though!

elian-geser 2025-04-08 11:36

This was amazing, nice guitar mechanic. Made it very chill. Love the going in, gather resources, level up loop. Was a little bit too difficult for me to go into the greater depths. Is there another objective down there? The Spaceship core i guess? :O Really cool game got me hooked for a little while!

clymm 2025-04-08 11:45

@plidomo Thanks for playing & for your detailed review! Yes the game 100% could do with better balancing so you can gather resources faster at the start! :sweat_smile:

clymm 2025-04-08 11:46

@elian-geser Awesome Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the guitar and chill vibes. Yeah 100% needs more resources near enterance. Hopefully update soon..! :smile:

bartholomheow 2025-04-08 15:04

I really like these kinds of games, pretty fun. I'm not good enough to finish it lol

onsz-e 2025-04-08 19:49

Really nice game, especially love the graphics! Music is cool too :) Great work!

zatrit 2025-04-08 19:54

The music and sound (especially at the beginning and when losing) are peak:fire:

brian-russell 2025-04-08 19:57

I really enjoyed it and the guitar theme switch us great! I did find the oxygen mechanic to be quite punishing and having to wait for health at top to get repetitive. Maybe instant health stats after getting back up top? Overall, great entry!

fraukauz 2025-04-08 19:57

Wow, that's a really polished game for this short amount of time (and only one person who created this!). The artwork is great, not only the main character and levels, but the whole atmosphere and backgrounds, particle effects etc. The music suits it so well! I was also thankful for the hints that are placed around the level that encouraged me to go deeper and deeper. I have to admit that I always die pretty soon, and I think I need a couple of minutes in peace and quiet to learn and practise. Bookmarked for later, when the kids are in bed. Thumbs up!

mamboman 2025-04-08 20:02

love the guitar!

jnur 2025-04-08 20:13

Fun! Took me a while to get the hang of it, with the upgrades and stuff. I kept wondering how I'm supposed to get deeper into the cave when I'm constantly running out of oxygen and dying :smile: But it was fun once I understood the potions and stuff. Dodging the enemy "bullets" was pretty hard when the laser effect is so big and in the front of everything, so you can't see them while shooting.

Just as a tip, since you said this was your first Ludum Dare - it's usually better to have fewer, more polished mechanics rather than many. It's tempting to add more stuff, but having a simple and really tight gameplay loop is much easier to do well in a weekend

thedugnutt 2025-04-08 20:15

fun idea. I really liked the audio and the goofy low health beeping sound. I found that I just ran out of resources way too quickly. It felt like my oxygen was always at 0 unless I stockpiled oxygen tanks and maxed it out to 300% or whatever it was. I wanted to try and win but it was a bit too much of a grind.

Enjoyed the loop though and the guitar was nice! Great job

pete-valeo 2025-04-08 20:49

Incredibly impressive as a game jam entry at all, let alone for such a small team! Great vibe, excellent feel in the controls, surprising variety of things for such a straightforward entry. Very well done!

platonenko 2025-04-09 00:36

Excellent presentation of the topic, stylish graphics and enjoyable gameplay!

clymm 2025-04-09 01:13

@bartholomheow Thank you! Yeah it is definately quite challenging. I've fixed some bugs so that might help. Thank you for playing!

@onsz-e Appreciate it, thank you for playing!

@zatrit Thanks! :heart:

@brian-russell Ah glad you liked the guitar haha, was fun to add that in. I've fixed some bugs including the health recharge and oxygen should be easier to come by now. Thank you for playing!

@fraukauz Thank you! It was a intense period of hours haha, I'm happy I managed to have something submitted. I fixed some bugs so hopefully dying should be less of a issue now. Thank you for playing - hope you enjoy when the kids are in bed!

@mamboman Haha thanks, my friend Voovee is a great guitar player!

@jnur Yep I think I probably tried to add too much - thanks for the tip, noted! Thanks for playing! I fixed some bugs, so hopefully oxygen is easier to come by and less dying occurs!

@thedugnutt haha glad you enjoyed my funky sped up voice! I fixed some bugs so hopefully less running out of resources now. Stocking up on oxygen is definately the way to go! Thank you for playing :smiley:

@pete-valeo Thank you for playing, appreciate the kind words :smiley:

@platonenko Thank you appreciate it!

tireks 2025-04-09 08:11

Quite fun! i like the arcade feel and the flashlight mechanic is super awesome, it gives that survival feeling. Art is also cool and the guitar touch is mad niiiiiiiiice

shadyshade 2025-04-09 19:47

That was a little cute fun game, good job! :heart:

caer 2025-04-10 00:56

I love how relaxing the environment art and audio are; it's really lovely! The gameplay loop felt very tight, though I was left a little confused (at first) about how the oxygen tanks and upgrades worked (I'd misinterpreted them as permanent instead of consumable...).

addison-borchelt 2025-04-10 00:59

This was fun! I was able to get to the core and called it "quits" after my stats reset. I love the art direction and multiple music options. One note though is that I think some of the difficulty came from your light and oxygen resources running out too quickly- it felt a little unbalanced to me. Great job overall!

rodorodo 2025-04-10 01:21

Hey! really charming game, love the vibes and how chill it is while still giving you that urgency on the gameplay loop. Great job!

jordantanner 2025-04-10 01:29

Congrats on your first jam, man! Absolutely love the art style and the concept. The guitar feature was a nice touch too -- it's cool to see someone take time to implement little side things like that. The drill was fun to operate, and the player was easy to maneuver. I did feel like it was hard to keep up the battery, oxygen, health. I think maybe making it more obvious when the player receives resources could be good, and make them more plentiful (as others have said). It's definitely hard to find time to balance gameplay during a jam though, and the more variables there are, the harder to balance. But overall great entry, and again congrats on your first jam dude!! Welcome to the community!!

snowdrama 2025-04-10 03:59

Beat the game, definitely could use some balance but I know how hard that is hahaha, I get the oxygen going down at a faster rate when you go deeper but it made the oxygen tanks basically useless after a while since they'd deplete faster than I remembered to use them haha. Displaying the rate of depletion would be a good idea, that way the player knows how fast they're running out of oxygen.

It was also weird that it consumed multiple oxygen tanks per key press, it would have made sense to me that 1 oxygen tank = 100% oxygen, but it seems it was like a certain percentage per tank(10% per tank?) which is never shown, and could just be added to the tooltip in the crafting menu. Finally it would have been nice if it auto-filled using the tank if you hit 0% instead of activating with a key press especially since it drained so fast.

Also was odd batteries went down faster as you went deeper, similarly it eventually became useless because it would disappear almost instantly.

It would be nice to see more upgrades like improved oxygen tank which doesn't leak so fast as you go deeper, that would bring the value of oxygen tanks back up, as well as improved battery vs battery charges, if a battery is 100% light, then making it go down 5% per second and then 2% per second, going down to like 1% per 5 seconds as you upgrade etc. would make the light much nicer.

Overall a good game!

2025-04-10 05:58

The gameplay loop is clear and it's pretty fun, it is sad that currently the game consumes every item in a click and make it impossible to beat it without exploits... I beat it by stocking on HP potions which seems to be the only resource that doesn't deplete faster the deeper you go, and managed to reach the core... which luckly teleport us right back so we don't need to make the trip back! I had to stay really close to my screen though since it was dark due to the speed that batteries deplete.

Overall fun game, would be perfect without the current bugs.

enad96 2025-04-10 06:48

Very cool idea, and the art style works super well for it! I reckon this type of game could take off as a terraria kinda thing.

clymm 2025-04-10 21:51

@tireks Thank you, yes definately wanted that survival feeling. Haha glad you liked the guitar - thanks for playing!

@shadyshade thank you! :heart:

@caer thank you glad you liked it. Yeah, totally get that it's a bit confusing thanks for giving it a try!

@addison-borchelt Nice! Grats on beating the game :clap yep there was a balancing issue for sure. Need to work on that! Thank you for playing!

@rodorodo Heya! Thanks for checking it out, glad you enjoyed it!

@jordantanner Ah thanks glad you liked the style! Yeah absolutely, A introduction would probably be better as well as better balancing. Thanks so much for playing! :heart:

@snowdrama ah awesome well done for beating the game! Yeah the balancing on the oxygen, light and health needs some work to fine-tune it better for sure. Good idea about the auto-filling and upgrades would be great to add. Thank you! :heart

@bebeyoshi Yeh 100% balancing seems to be the biggest issue - thanks for checking it out and for completing it! :clap:

@enad96 Thanks for checking it out! :heart:

keeta 2025-04-10 23:24

This was a fun game! I like the idea of gathering resources to get supplies and upgrades, and being able to go a little deeper each time. I thought the enemy bullets were a bit hard to tell apart from the resources that you're collecting - maybe giving the bullets an outline could help with that. I did also find that only the health potions mattered when going into the deepest parts since your oxygen ran out so quickly. But I do like the idea of the deeper parts being a greater challenge. Overall this was really well done and has great potential for even more.

rack47 2025-04-11 01:53

This was fun! I didn't realize at first that you could go over 100% but after I got the hang of it I was hooked.

ansible 2025-04-11 13:55

Really great submission, there's so many quality features and touches for a jam! I like the regrowth of everything, feels very alien. Having to break through the rock again when you resurface is fun when you're panicking about your last bit of O2! Lovely graphics and music too, nice!

jtap 2025-04-11 22:44

Very beautiful unusual game with nice voice acting and especially sounds. It was fun to collect resources going deeper and deeper into the beautiful abyss. Thank you for this game!

mdsalomon 2025-04-13 03:53

surprisingly chill game, mood was great and the guitar just made it all better. Took a little while to figure out how the resources were used, but the game was never frustrating. Just consistently fun to fly around and blow stuff up. One quick thing to consider would be to push your UI elements to the top of the screen. Since we're constantly digging down, I found my vision of what came ahead blocked by the resource windows at times.

gustavo-christino 2025-04-13 15:49

PT-BR :flag_br:

win.png

Primeiramente, obrigado por ter jogado o jogo da minha equipe, @clymm.

No geral o jogo me deixou bastante contente. Tem uma pegada atmosférica e me entreteve com seu desafio. Há questões de balanceamento, mas está incrivelmente polido para o tempo em questão.

Foi divertido, especialmente quando vi sobre a parte da música. Isso deu um pouco de profundidade ao personagem.

Não que seja uma imensa inovação, mas achei bem diferente e interessante jogar com tais objetivos, habilidades e tal.

O uso do tema foi bacana.

Os gráficos estão bem bonitos, especialmente considerando o tempo que teve e o fato de ter trabalhado solo.

O som do jogo acaba cansando depois de um tempo (mas é muito tempo, para além do tempo de duração do jogo). E o jogo tem um bom trabalho com dublagem, então ficou muito bom.

Não creio que a ênfase seja no humor, mas teve um momento que achei graça (antes de ir embora com a nave).

A ambientação foi bacana também, mesmo. Se tivesse um ciclo de dia e noite acho que ficaria mais difícil, pensando em (quem sabe) uma bateria solar para a iluminação ao redor da nave, quem sabe a primeira missão fosse construir uma.

Acredito que o jogo possa ter potencial para mobile, especialmente se a narrativa deixar de ser reparar a nave, e passar a ser algo que envolva diversos estágios e um trabalho de dedetização ou exploração de diversos mundos para coletar algo maior a ser criado por algum propósito maior.

gustavo-christino 2025-04-13 15:49

EN :flag_us:

win.png

First of all, thank you for playing my team's game, @clymm.

Overall, the game left me quite happy. It has an atmospheric feel and entertained me with its challenge. There are some balance issues, but it's incredibly polished given the time frame.

It was fun, especially when I saw the part about the music. That added some depth to the character.

Not that it's a huge innovation, but I found it quite different and interesting to play with those objectives, abilities, and so on.

The use of the theme was nice.

The graphics are very beautiful, especially considering the time you had and the fact that you worked solo.

The game’s sound can get a bit tiring after a while (but only after a long while, beyond the game’s actual duration). And the voice acting was well done, so it worked really well.

I don't think humor is the main focus, but there was a moment that made me laugh (right before leaving with the ship).

The atmosphere was also really nice. If there were a day and night cycle, I think it would be harder—maybe imagine a solar battery for lighting around the ship, and the first mission could be building one.

I believe the game could have potential on mobile, especially if the narrative shifts from just repairing the ship to something involving multiple stages and a pest control job or exploration of various worlds to collect something bigger for a larger purpose.

clymm 2025-04-15 22:18

@keeta - thank you! Yeah I liked the idea of gathering and mining too. I think working on the balance a bit more would make it better. Yep that makes sense the bullets are a bit difficult to see. Thanks for playing!

@rack47 - Ah glad you figured it out! Thanks for playing!

@ansible - Thank you :smile appreciate it!

@jtap - Thank you appreciate it! Also thanks for the follow on Itch you're my first :smile

@mdsalomon - glad you liked the chill aspects and had a good time despite the resources. Good point about the UI will keep that in mind thank you for playing!

@gustavo-christino - Thanks for playing, appreciate the thoughtful feedback and suggestions. I agree It could work on mobile too! Thank you!

pkenney 2025-04-16 01:25

Nice job on a solo jam! The optional guitar soundtrack was a very nice touch, and overall the audio set the vibe really well. Graphics really worked well, too.

The pleasant vibe with just a touch of danger combined with the one-more-run mechanics to create a nice game loop. Well done!

clymm 2025-04-16 09:08

@pkenney Thank you appreciate! Thanks for playing :smiley:

perrin 2025-04-16 09:17

Quite an impressive amount of complexity to the game here for a game jam. I do think the difficulty ramps up way too fast for you to ease-in and get hooked on the core mechanics. Also it was a bit confusing realising I should be crafting and using items to make even a minor amount of progress, resources seem to drain so fast. There's definitely something cool to the idea, but right now it's a bit of a sensort overload before you've barely moved at all.

clymm 2025-04-16 10:38

@perrin Thanks for playing and appreciate the feedback - definately the balancing needs work post-LD. Thanks for giving it a spin! :smile:

hatmajaster 2025-04-16 21:04

Hello fellow almost the same digger game maker! I understand that the game loops after leaving the planet (considering that you loose all the upgrades) Its pretty packed, and looks cool. In my game i made sure to go for pixel perfect, but i also wanted to do something present here - some modern effects, nice glow, lights, rotations. Makes the game look not as retro end empty. The only thing that kinda didn't feel right was buying and spending - you can buy upgrades by clicking mouse on buttons, but to use the you press a button and it goes all away immediately. I think I should be able to use one tank at a time. Also the balance seems a bit off - you loose energy and oxygen quite fast, but after reaching 500% health it runs away so slow, you can pretty much ignore that you don't have oxygen ;) VN entry, like i said in the beginning i like the most that it does not feel as retro as pixel art often feels. And the plane really flies! :D

clymm 2025-04-16 22:25

@hatmajaster Thank you so much for the feedback and for checking it out! Really appreciate it, and totally agree with your comments about upgrades and balancing. Hoping to work on that post-LD. Thanks again, and I hope to check out your game real soon - pixel perfect sounds interesting. :smiley:

lduser125 2025-04-19 01:54

Great vibe! I really liked how fluid the controls are and the music fits perfectly, great work!

clymm 2025-04-19 13:39

@lduser125 Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! :v:

ditam 2025-04-19 17:13

Oh, the ice (?) regrowing at the entrance while you're digging was a sneaky touch - I lost a couple of times because I was cutting it too close, and I didn't have time to dig myself back out. These little touches like that, the guitar option, or the colorful spaceship just chilling by the entrance give this game a very cool character, something that sets it aside from many of the other "dig for resources and bring them back to the surface before time runs out" games I've seen this jam. Well done!

(The sci-fi + steel guitar music combination reminded me of Hardspace: Shipbreaker and Firefly, there's something about the open frontiers of space and the wild west that just make this vibe work so well...)

ezduzzit 2025-04-19 19:01

I had a ton of fun with this game!sounds and gameplay are solid and its just a generally enjoyable loop to fly through and mine :)

clymm 2025-04-20 11:17

@ditam thank you for playing glad you enjoyed it! I'll have to check out those games, they sound interesting :smiley:

@ezduzzit Thank you glad you had a good time overall! :heart:

ammonit 2025-04-21 12:14

Awesome art! Killer soundtrack — the guitar gets a separate thumbs-up))) The beam’s look, like a lightsaber, feels a bit off with the rest of the environment, IMO. But overall, you nailed it with a great game! Best of luck!

clymm 2025-04-21 13:22

@ammonit Thanks appreciate it! Yeah the Laser could definately be refined with more time so it's not like a lightsaber :laughing: Thanks for playing!

dios 2025-04-21 14:52

I am completely amazed by the cool meta-gameplay through constant diving to extract resources, which are then used to purchase bonuses to overcome diving.

Among the advantages, we can also highlight the cool graphics with VFX and excellent music (It's very cool that there is also the ability to switch soundtracks).

Because of what raised questions - for some reason when using bonuses, they were activated (for example, I accumulated 4 life flasks, used them and sat with 243%, which looks strange. I did not understand whether this was originally intended or this is some kind of problem). I also do not see the point in dividing resources into such a large number of types, since for each resource only 1 type of bonus is bought, which could have been done through a single currency.

In any case, it was a lot of fun!

P.s. It would also be cool if there was an opportunity to buy bonuses in the store by holding down a key, and not constant clicks per unit

clymm 2025-04-22 21:14

@dios thank you so much for playing I really appreciate it! Definately good points about the over-complexity for different resources and the amount going over 100% feeling weird, and buying more items with less clicks - good feedback! Thanks again! :heart:

digital-bacon 2025-04-25 23:02

Nice game! Excellent work, well done!

clymm 2025-04-26 00:45

thank you! @digital-bacon

texugo 2025-04-26 00:50

I loved the way the characters moves, attacks and the sounds! Great vibe and gameplay! (voice acting made me giggle)

clymm 2025-04-30 14:25

@texugo Thank you for checking it out! :heart: