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DownThread

By eyedromeda

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall104.1627
Fun263.9427
Innovation663.7526
Theme284.2427
Graphics194.3427
Audio873.5427
Humor2.003
Mood623.8526

Comments

munmungames 2025-04-07 08:17

Very nice, polished and well executed. Simple yet efficient game loop ! +1 for adding difficulty modes and a survival mode. Lot of potential for adding a bunch of new features and variations to make it a full game :)

eyedromeda 2025-04-07 09:10

@munmungames Thanks! And I agree, if I had more time I would've focused on adding more content, like nests, biomes, and more creature types. I'm considering continuing to work on the project to add the features I didn't have time for during the jam.

sharploaded 2025-04-07 09:12

Wow! Really nice. Audio adds so much to the atmosphere, and it gets very scary when you get down where there are lots of monsters. Animations are super smooth (are the monster animations procedural?). I did not understand what the blue berries actually do. Amazing job!

ghettobastler 2025-04-07 09:32

Great game! The animation is really remarkable: there's the creature's leg movements, but also the reaction when you pluck a fruit or kill a monster. This, along with the sound design and "blocky" graphics gives it a very polished look. Very nice!

eyedromeda 2025-04-07 10:17

@sharploaded Thank you! The enemy legs are indeed procedurally animated using inverse kinematics. Collecting the berries is just another goal in the expeditions, they don't actually do anything beyond that. I was meant to add more collectibles to make the expeditions more varied and exploration-based, but I didn't have the time.

@ghettobastler Thank you! I did put a lot of focus into making the main interactions satisfying, since I feel like it can make a big difference in how fun a jam game feels.

uzpykes 2025-04-10 18:56

Excellent creature design! Game loop is simple but engaging, ended up playing this for a while. Well done!

prunus-padis 2025-04-11 20:51

This is one of those where a simple idea is really polished. The shooting feels responsive, interactions are super nicely done and sounds nice. The enemy hit box felt sometimes small though, I thought it would hit but then the shot just "feels/seems" to go through, hard to say since its so fast and enemies were moving mainly when that happened.

The main loop got a little boring quite fast for me but as you said earlier theres more plans in future development. I would either keep it simple and more variety for things to shoot, some story maybe and more audio, or you could go with a more complex route of having different shooting/abilities etc mechanics.

The enemy animations is really nice with procedural animation and the movement they really seemed to make them "alive".

eyedromeda 2025-04-11 20:59

@prunus-padis Thanks for the in-depth feedback! I made the enemy hitboxes a bit more than twice the width of the enemy bodies, but I do agree they could've been even a bit bigger, since the legs aren't part of the hitbox.

ukulelefury 2025-04-11 21:17

Oooooh, there're some big bugs down there! I got eaten.

:) This was so cool! I immediately loved the feel of the controls. Both controls (move and fire) are so simple, but feel so good. I love the flexible rope simulation. I REALLY love the sfx. They feel particular good for some reason. The skeletal animations are all very effective and satisfying. The bug behavior is fun. Just curious and wary enough. They feel good.

I'm very impressed with this game!

eyedromeda 2025-04-11 21:23

@ukulelefury Thanks for all the positive feedback, glad you enjoyed it!

kukatoo 2025-04-11 21:25

The polish on everything is amazing. Great game feel, UI, enemy animation. Out of the 20ish games I've played so far, this is probably my favorite! The only thing that would have made the game feel more complete is a music track.

eyedromeda 2025-04-11 21:30

@kukatoo Thank you! Some ambient music to set the tone was on the to-do list, but I didn't end up having enough time for it, unfortunately.

aldenwitt 2025-04-11 22:20

Loved the enemy leg animation! That's super cool. That and the sfx really gave the game a polished feeling. It's a simple concept but still felt like a unique take on the theme. I think you're missing a bit of challenge/purpose - you end up just descending and spamming fire. I wonder if adding enemies that spawn from above would increase the sense of urgency? Everything you had time to implement is very well-executed. I'd be excited to see what this game would look like if you kept developing it.

eyedromeda 2025-04-12 06:47

@aldenwitt Hmm, very good point. If I keep working on the post-jam version, I'll eventually upload it onto my itch.io page as a separate title, so feel free to follow me there if you wanna keep up to date. I'll have to think about how to address the lack of a dynamic challenge. Thanks for the feedback!

turbolaser 2025-04-12 12:42

Wow, the game feels amazing. I genuinely feel like I'm in a living world—the spider animations and behavior, particle effects, rope physics—everything works together to immerse you. So glad to hear there'll be a post-jam version, bookmarked it!

eyedromeda 2025-04-12 19:01

@turbolaser Thanks!

djloker 2025-04-12 21:27

Very fun concept and great execution! The pixel art is great, I love the animations and everything feels snappy and just right. I got a little scared near the end ;)

ali-yagmur 2025-04-13 20:30

Well, this was nice, I never really manage to complete a game jam witch such complete games :D This felt like a decent prototype that you can build on. With some random upgrades and stuff like that, you could end up with a unique yet familiar game that is fun to play and might even be addictive :D

oxnh 2025-04-13 21:31

Good job with the multiple game modes it give the game quite a lot of content with a compo game. The game was fun, I thought the spider AI was especially cool. The way the smaller ones run away from you but the larger spiders go towards you faster as they get bigger. I agree with @ali-yagmur random upgrades would help make this really fun in future. If you throw in some variation to levels and enemies you could have an interesting take on the spelunky and noita roguelike formula.

wo-ri-gou-le 2025-04-14 02:10

So juicy! These procedure animations are so juicy!

defrag 2025-04-14 03:08

Juice and polish everywhere here. I loved the squish of plucking a blueberry just as much as nailing a spider-thing right in its little eyeball. Like others noted, the spider things' legs and movements are perfect. Great take on 'depths' with this entry.

Did I get a high score? snipbo.PNG

paulhocker 2025-04-14 03:31

this was such a good game -- i can really see you expanding on it -- the controls and the movement were so fluid -- great work on the game -- thanks for making it

eyedromeda 2025-04-14 06:33

@ali-yagmur @oxnh Thank you! I have been thinking about adding more biomes with different enemies to the post-jam version, but upgrades between runs is a really good idea. That would definitely give more of a reason to keep playing.

@defrag Very good work! Although I don't think you got quite far down enough to see the fourth (and last) enemy type, which starts spawning at 650. I also haven't kept track of my own PB, but it's somewhere a little past 1000. And if you want a sillier challenge, I've made it to 330 once without doing anything.

@paulhocker Thanks for playing it!

eugenik 2025-04-14 11:46

Very good entry! A nice simple, but polished game

agrmayank 2025-04-14 14:10

This game feels really good to play, especially the spiders logic work! That is GREAT. A fantastic job, well executed.

jscommander 2025-04-14 18:18

Your game looks amazing! I really like how polished it feels. The arrow animation looks natural, and the gameplay is addictive. I think it could become an even better game if you added some upgrades for the character and the guy rotating the wheel.

Also, I checked out your BreakBall game and it looks neat! Thanks for the YouTube video explaining character movement, acceleration, and friction.

tireks 2025-04-15 08:48

simple and effective, would love to see the monsters getting stronger or updating the spear :D

ammonit 2025-04-15 08:54

I came to check out what those white squiggly things were on the screenshot — and I was really surprised by the quality of execution!!! The animations are top-notch! So simple yet so cool in motion — my respect!!! The little character that lets us go lower and lower — such a cutie )

atsh 2025-04-15 15:31

The spiders animation and AI was out of this world, really really well done! The rope implementation and controls are very good

I didn't find much reason to move left and right honestly, and I think more variety would help - but I assume the spiders require so much work that it was not in the cards

Fun game with really unique and amazing animation system

ljg 2025-04-17 19:39

Great game! I loved the animations! Grabbing the berries was very satisfying and the fact that the spider thing holds you in there mouth after killing you is a great touch. Well done!