fernofai 2025-04-08 09:49
~~B~~DIG fun!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → You Gnome the Drill!
By p3ngui, cgraen, UmbraLux, Spedinja, Dephos and bene-labs
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 487 | 3.48 | 56 | |
| Fun | 522 | 3.25 | 56 | |
| Innovation | 396 | 3.30 | 56 | |
| Theme | 195 | 4.06 | 56 | |
| Graphics | 439 | 3.65 | 56 | |
| Audio | 219 | 3.69 | 54 | |
| Humor | 404 | 2.87 | 50 | |
| Mood | 544 | 3.41 | 52 |
~~B~~DIG fun!
Fantastic art, animations, controls and sound design! Lots of stuff to collect and everything feels useful.
You have to jump off right when the game starts or you are going to miss the entire dungeon ;)
Haha true, we probably should have started the drill a bit higher. :laughing: You can always wall jump tough. ;) Thanks for playing!
I liked the style and the idea. On my first try, I just stood on the drill and waited for the attack. While doing that, I spent all my ammo and ended up facing the attack with nothing left.
I was pretty confused at what to do for a while, i also just stood on the drill not realising I had to jump off of it! But once I realised and started playing was a cool little game!
Great game, loved your sfx and music in particular, it greated a fitting atmosphere. My only point of critique would be the character movement combined with the cave design at some points. It was really frustrating to fall off a blocks other side multiple times (maybe its a skill issue, i must admit) and missing the attack. Broader platforms or a little more control over the character would fix this and make it perfect. Keep up the grind. :D
Note from the devs: After checking the update guidelines we fixed a small typo in the code that caused the wrong value to be used for the progress bar. Other than that our game is still exactly the same as before the deadline.
Awesome game! Love this type of shooter and the drill element and it's fuel tank cause great sense of urgency! Spent quite a bit of time playing this and had a blast. Great job!
got to 13337 meters :open_hands:
Great game! The graphics are really impressive, and the sound design makes it truly immersive.
If I had to suggest something, it would be about the initial clarity of the gameplay. At first, I struggled a bit to understand what I was supposed to do. Even though the instructions are clearly written in bold in the game description, it didn’t quite click right away. Maybe it would help to display a message at the very beginning of the game saying something like: "Disembark from the drill, gather resources, and defend it!" Just to highlight the player's main objectives from the start.
That said, I can only congratulate you on creating such an awesome game. Well done!
I feel like there needs to be an easier way to get back to the drill, other than that great job.
@jamesgames1000 Thank for playing! The idea for our game was to have a risk-reward system with how deep you go into the mines as you must make it all the way back, so that aspect is by design. If you make good use of the dashes, you can get back up very quickly. We will also try to adjust some of the level designs and to make the controls less slippery after the rating period so that it becomes more manageable tough
@milq Thank you so much for the kind words! You’re right there definitely needs to be some kind of tutorial at the start. We made the classic game jam mistake of stalling on that and then ended up fixing bugs until the deadline xD
Man i was really lost at the start hahaha didnt know you were supposed to get out of the drill I liked the sprite work and gameplay, althoug it the map is a little too big for the movement speed Good job tho!
It took me a while to realize you need to gather resources first. The game play is pretty fun. I didn't like that you can enter a wave with not enough ammo to fight it and no way to get more.
the game is cool, i liked the implementation of the character's movement, there is not enough marker on the drill to make it easier to find
Very cool game, I like the art a lot but it feels a bit weird to have different pixel size for some objects: player/drill/background. The controls are really good and the ressource gathering mixed with the waves is a great challenge.
Very cool concept! I loved the title xD. I would recommend making the first encounter a bit sooner, it feels a bit too long until something happens
EDIT: I missed half the game because I did not leave the drill soon enough, i would recommend a way to visit the cave even after the drill has started ex. a rope or zip line. Also getting back to the drill during an attack is troublesome at times, maybe teleporting the player would up help with that. Overall excellent job I really enjoyed gnoming around
Very cool. As other have said, my first play I jumped down after the drill before it got too far away - I missed the whole open section and stood there like a lemon for five minutes! Second play was much improved, very nice job. The wall-jumping was especially welcome.
It would be nice if there was a better indicator of where the drill/central tunnel was compared to the current position, maybe an arrow or something. Otherwise, a great game with very satisfying movement!
I think this is a really cool concept, have a moving base that you need to return to. That said, I found it really difficult to get my way back once it said it was time for the attack, and it seemed like the drill enemies were just coming to me. I'd love to see more games with this idea though! nice work:)
I definitely struggled returning back to the drill, so I tended to stay too close rather than do a full loop, perhaps with more skill I would have been able to. Then if I missed an exit I would have to spam jump up the wall to get resources. Was lots of fun though and a cool concept!
Great concept, reminds me of several different games. I think the concept has great potential. As others have said, moving back is too hard, will be better if the player can dig a way out or leave a few exit in the map.
Interesting idea and beautifully drawn. At first I was going down for a very long time and nothing happened. I remembered the beginning of Half-Life. Thanks for the game!
the aesthetic is fun! reminds me of broforce, but for some reason shooting wasn't working for me? I just ended up waiting and sprinting around the drill
Ok, so first time I just stood on the drill and was very confused that the game was taking so long to start letting me do anything! Maybe it'd work to just not move the drill until the player has jumped down?
I like gameplay!
Very nicely done
Interesting game, good idea. The game is addictive for a long time. But terrible platforming and annoying that the fuel runs out while you shoot off monsters. You can't find fuel and kill monsters at the same time.
@tireks You ammo is limited and you need to pick up more in the tunnels to the side of the start rooms before the drill reaches the combat arena. Sorry about not making the initial objective clearer, I know a lot of people were confused by it :sweat_smile:
The game is very awkward to control, but I really liked the gameplay and the idea! Great job!
fun gameplay and I really like artstyle of the game
@greenradiation Thanks for the feedback! What makes the controls akward? Just the slipperiness or did anything else bother you?
@JackShadow @morepixels @mysteriousjuice @lucas-verardino @jamesgames1000 @genesis @iPhen @athospap @fungus-mundus @Bea @keith-wang @jtap @the-stewarts @johneyd
Thank you all so much for your invaluable feedback! I just uploaded a new itch build which should address a good chunk of it. (The builds on this site will remain the same of course.)
- To make the start clearer I added a text that only disappears once you enter one of the side tunnels and made the drill start much higher. I also added a rope that you can climb up to always reach the side room from the drill quickly. - To make getting back up easier I added an arrow that points to the start which appears once the drill is 2/3 to the combat room and made the drill a bit slower. - To (hopefully) make the platforming less frustrating in general I made the player much less slippery and widened a lot of the very tight passages in the rooms. I also made the mazes wider and a bit smaller on average. - To make the combat room fairer/fun I stopped the drill from draining fuel by itself but made it so that the worms don't die when they touch the drill and can damage it multiple times. I also added a mechanic were the enemies take a small amount of damage when touching the player so you can use health to make up for a small amount of missing ammo.
I love the animations and the sound! Thank you for the nice movement and drill updates!
The idea is great and fits the theme really well. I have to admit, I kinda gave up once I realized that I'll never be able to backtrack to the starting shaft :sweat_smile: Other than the arrow you added to the post-jam build, I think there's a couple of ways to turn that annoyance into a fun little addition to the gameplay loop:
* Either make it so that the environment can be destroyed (which means that the player can dig their way back to the shaft) or * Make it so that the caverns will eventually cross back over to the center, where the drill will go through at some point
The game played well and was scoped perfectly in my opinion, that's my only complaint
@jnur Thanks for the feedback! We actually planned to make all the blocks destrutible but couldn't implement it in time. Maybe they'll be another post-jam update for that. :D As for the lack of loops in the maze: that's already a setting we can toggle, I'll try out how it plays with a higher chance for loops
Quite fun, but challenging for me — I was constantly getting stuck and not being able to jump back in time. Probably gamedesign decision, but still.
Also is it me or ammo is quite scarce with no melee available? At least my every playthrough ended like that — I'm with no ammo, dragged away by enemies (off-screen, a bug? a feature?) and unable to shoot.
So, without imposing on anyone I would've kindly suggested:
1. add branches of cave along the line of the drill (I'm not climbing 5000 meters in time, yeah). Perhaps smaller ones. 2. at least some way to fight without ammo or less scarce ammo
Anyway, great game!
@t90 Thanks for playing and the great feedback!
Getting pushed into the wall is a bug, in the post jam build the flying enemies can’t push you any more to avoid it.
About the ammo issues: I made it so that enemies take a bit of damage when they touch you so you can trade health for extra attacks. I‘ll consider increase the ammo count as well.
As for getting back up: that is by design as we wanted to reflect the theme in the gameplay by having a real risk-reward factor with how deep you go in the mines. I think I will add a mini-map to make it more fair tough
the collecting part is fun. feels quite difficult once drop into a hole and try to climb up, really a long journey!
@resty Thanks for playing!
You're right, there needs to be a faster way to get back up. We had some ideas for that for the jam but couldn't realize them in time. For the post jam version I added a rope you can use to climb back up super quickly :D
The game is very fun and the artstyle and sound design is great! I just struggled a bit with returning to the drill and got a bit lost at times, but I think that with more skill I could find a strategy that would help me with that. Great work!
A fun game with a brilliant core ideas! Yet I feel like, it can be improved a bit. Here some scattered thoughts:
- platforming felt a little clunky and controls feel floaty (like on ice) at one point, then very snappy and the character would stop instantly - the "dynamic" climbing animation is really cool and very well done! - Did you take inspiration from spelunky level generation? Sure feels like it :D - I don't understand the dash. Sometimes it works well and I dash quite a distance, then it's weak af and doesn't move me at all. Is this intended as a falloff for double jumps? Aiming the dash is really difficult for me. :(
Level design: - The arrow when the drill is close to the arena fight is really confusing. It points in the direction of the drill, so I thought I can just go there and the level would loop around. Yet, it landed in a dead end and had to backtrack and platform through already cleared sections. - Why not allow the level to loop back into the drill shaft? As is, the level seems to be two large linear corridors, so why the arrow?
Defense arena: - I like the idea of prepping for the "final boss" of the level that is triggered on a forgiving timer! Great design! - When I first reached the boss I had two bullets left. At first I did not realize I had limited ammo. With two shots left, I could do nothing but watch the drill die. :( Maybe some pitty ammo pickups would help in the boss fight? Placed far off, so I have to sacrifice drill health for ammo while plattforming towards the pickups? - The second time I got to the boss, I had one enemy left, but it never spawned in so I got soft locked. - Is the arena walled off? I think I can just walk off infinitely in one direction
Sorry if this is a bit negative, but I do really like the game! I think there are some great design ideas that can be expanded upon for a full release :) Great job y'all!
@tosmaster Thank you so much for the great and detailed feedback! (Also no need to apologize, there's nothing more valuable than an honest critique! ^^)
I think a lot of the platforming issues are caused because everything is velocity based and a bit hard to balance - you are slowed by a fixed break rate each frame which is much higher on the ground. Because of that you are more slippery the faster you are. I think I will just increase the break force further for now. The dash is tougher to handle because it adds a fixed velocity (in the direction of the mouse) to you current one - so if you jump and dash in the same direction at the same time you go much further. I'll have to see how i can adjust it tough I personally kinda like this "combo" potential.
The arena is walled but it goes a bit further so enemies spawn can be more randomized. As of now you can see after combat when the camera becomes unlocked. xD
Also the arrow was more of a quick fix - I'll try to add a mini-map
Great idea - would love to be able to drill out terrain or something so i could get back to my drill more easily.
Jumping is annoying. Controls could have more polish. I found myself struggling with the walls most of the time, to the point my fingers hurt. In the end, I ran out of oil, while I've been climbing out of some deep hole in an attempt to return to the drill under attack. I've reached the depth of 17000+ though.
This game was somehow fun. It could become a lot better if you invest more gameplay effort in it.
I'm also in a big sorrow because of the way you've treated the pixel art. Different scale of pixel pieces is a flaw you don't have an excuse for.
fresh idea! just the backtracking of the caves feels repetitive, maybe they could wrap around to the main tunnel, but nice entry
@sohei A bit harsh but fair. I'm glad you still had fun and can see some potential. Fully agree that the controls need more polish but I think we'll figure it out.
About the pixel art: I can see why it peeves you. We didn't really account for how big everything needed to be in game and had to re-scale most spirtes in-engine. We gonna try to plan better for the next jam, another thing learned ^^
@potatobrain Thanks! I think the idea of adding some extra tunnels is fair, I'll will give it a try
Nice entry, fun to play, I liked the controls and the assets. The music gave a nice atmosphere also. Keep up the good work!
Pretty good. I sometimes got lost, but I liked the music especially.
Love the look and feel. I kinda got lost after descending for awhile and also wasn't sure what goal I was trying to achieve so decided to call it. Maybe a map would help and defining a bit more the goal. Overall great game!
The game is pretty fun, a few suggestions i have is: Don't start the drill right away, or you might get stuck Have more ins and outs to the drill, so you don't have to retrace yourself every time to go back, a map would be great. THe movement is to ice-y, ideally remove the acceleration parameter out and give crisp and precise movement to the player. Have some sort of progress inidicator on the screen, like a score, so there is clear sense of progression. But overall, very good, the music is very nice as well.
@ian-mcd, @mysteriousjuice, @anderson-job-loeffler, @jadener and @detectivedirk: Thank you for your positive feedback on the music! We put some effort into musically creating an atmosphere that matches the vibe and making the soundtrack change the vibe to remind you to return to the drill and battle!
@detectivedirk: I agree on most points! Some of your feedback may already have been changed in the Post Jam build on Itch.io. For our game idea, we specifically didn't want to have more ins and outs to make it riskier to go deeper and harder to calculate the time you need to get back to the drill. But I understand that it's frustrating to memorize and go back the same way.
@j-rara: A map is a great idea! Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to implement it. :/
Great concept, reminded me a little of wall world. Think you got to dig a little deeper to make it full game but there is potential , great jam game.
@antonin-granados, @sohei thanks for the feedack ^^ Yeah the planning was a little lacking there since we set some ratios in size in the beginning but later had to change them when everything was already finished. some of these are just scaled up and I did not have time to repixel everything since it was in the end :(