FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Into The Mousehole

Into The Mousehole

By baldurs and Cr_nch

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2303.8038
Fun1403.8438
Innovation4803.1838
Theme1834.0838
Graphics3023.9338
Audio2173.7037
Humor3193.1036
Mood4493.5436

Comments

frutal 2025-04-07 22:35

I liked this. It feels very fast but never unfair. I wish I had some I-frames from the dash ability but it still feels fair.

morepixels 2025-04-08 08:01

I really liked this! Very cute concept, would've loved some more evolution on the gameplay mechanics.

basekeet 2025-04-08 08:07

Didn't quite figure out how to kill with the dash, but overall the game is awesome! Looks stunning, and the animations are fire. Controls felt a bit clunky — I think with some tweaks to make them more responsive, it would feel even better. Would also love to see the mechanics progress over time (like more dashes, blasting through obstacles, temporary invincibility, etc).

3deimos 2025-04-08 08:07

I like the idea but i'm to slow to play it cool as intended :)

team-9tailed 2025-04-08 08:16

Not sure how I could even suggest a way to make things better... this game seems to be exactly what it wanted to be. A whimsical cat's dream. Mice with guns was so adorably hilarious, the music was wonderful, and the mechanics had a bit of depth without overwhelming. Brilliant work!

matthewdrake 2025-04-08 09:01

Really cool little game! I managed to get to just under 800m. Love the graphics and audio, pretty fun to balance going too fast and risking hitting a wall vs not going fast enough to break through blocks. Awesome work!

baldurs 2025-04-08 09:09

Thanks for all the feedback and comments so far! The highscore currently is 1900, for anyone who wants to try and beat it. [Capturse.PNG](///raw/471/24/z/6b48a.png)

marudziik 2025-04-08 13:03

Love the look and feel, especially the graphic details (godly anims and 1-bit stuff). At first I thought the game is a little unbalanced because when I happen to dive for a couple of seconds, I can break couple of blocks, but if I hit something, it's almost certainly the end of the run. But then I replayed couple of times and I can see now that the dive mechanic should (and was probably intended to) be used sparingly, and the dash-kill helps. I tend to get killed by my bravado or it happened that I got stuck between the red triangles.

I wasn't able to beat the highscore. :sweat_smile: But I did try! Great entry, congrats!

piero-pbes-studio 2025-04-08 23:14

it's a cat-downwell --- i love your art very much--- this pixel art is :3 --- but i think we should dig a little deeper into the gameplay it lacks a bit of challenge... but this animation of the cat falling is great

c0smic 2025-04-10 06:25

Very cute I love it

lectvs 2025-04-10 06:25

Cool concept and quite well polished too! The WASD controls were a bit imprecise for me, I think I would have played better with mouse controls. But it was still fun! I love the little details you put into the animations and level design. Great job! :smile:

breadstick 2025-04-10 06:30

Wow, this feels like an arcade cabinet game (in a good way). Really well done on all fronts: the visuals are nice, the controls feel smooth, the music and sound complement the retro feel--the whole package has all of its elements nicely aligned to the same sharp vision.

Really great game here!

neowhoru 2025-04-10 06:34

nice little downwell like game :) A design tip: if you are making 1 bit pixel art try to just add one more color not more (as their is red and yellow and green in there it fits not perfectly). A collectable to refill the dash would be cool :) Controls were really great and responsive.

poboy 2025-04-10 06:44

LOVE this game. Got to 1747m. Genuinely enjoyed it. The dash mechanic feels good and the enemies are fun to explode and it's fun to build up speed.

cr-nch 2025-04-10 08:32

@neowhoru Thanks for your feedback on the art! I did most of it for the game and was sorta experimenting with other styles I wasn't quite used to (and also tried to pick a style that would be quick to get done in a game jam).

That was definitely something I thought about in the process, but chose to only do so when it was necessary for readability as it would take away time from everything else we had to get done (both in-jam and out). Adding a second colour was something on the "we should get to this if we have time" list though for sure.

nobongo 2025-04-10 08:35

Screenshot 2025-04-09 232453.png I wanted to push for 2K but I gotta go to bed at some point lmao. I had a lotta fun but I wish there were a few less bullets to deal with, and along with that there was a part of the map I died to a couple times where I didn't break the tiles and couldn't dash through or go back out to go around. Otherwise I had fun and I could definitely see this being expanded onto.

albinobat 2025-04-10 10:43

was super fun once I got the hang of it! It was a good idea to not have a traditional health system and just have the top of the screen kill the player, since it gave more opportunity to recover. it's a good challenge without it ever being too frustrating

kahztein 2025-04-10 11:01

Very unique and fun mechanics! I can really imagine this being a game you could get very skilled at. The music and sound effects were nicely done, and the simple art style works well and gives it a lot of charm.

texugo 2025-04-10 13:29

Those damn rats killing my momentum! Nice game, congrats!

ngryyyyy 2025-04-10 13:36

I enjoyed this game a lot ! Very fun mechanics and addictive, I keep the game on the side and try to beat my HS ! Congrats it's a strong proposition !

vidarn 2025-04-13 07:13

The music was great and gave the game a very cool and fast paced feeling. It felt awesome when you got that speed going! At first I thought the strategy was to just go fast, but there was a lot more to it, and playing slow was usually a better idea I found. My high score was 1290.

Really liked that there was no health bar, so that there was a chance to recover from your mistakes. The whole game was very polished and well balanced. I enjoyed the level generation, the way it seemed to combine pre-made pieces. It meant that you could learn a bit how to handle the different situations, but not know exactly what was up ahead.

hinamarina 2025-04-14 20:46

Wow! I think of all the iterations of the infinite falling mechanic, this one is my favorite so far! You manage to make it feel very fresh and full of flow with the idea of using the velocity to kill the enemies, and this together with the dash made for a super nice experience. The controls are quite responsive and the sound effects contribute so much to bring a lot o juice to the gameplay! The overall experience is quite addictive, I couldn't stop playing!

The art is really cute, I loved the lil cat, I love the intro cutscene with the falling block. Overall a super solid entry, super polished and very clever usage of the concept! Congrats! Keep up the good work!

euler-moises 2025-04-21 17:40

I love 1-bit pixel art games. The music is exciting. The mechanics are great and the fact that you don't die from the shots is a relieving detail that encourages you to try more and more.

Congratulations!

saryah 2025-04-24 02:15

Oooh I love this concept for a falling game! You don't die unless you hit the top of the screen. Also the pixel art is great and music and sounds were on point! a great entry! Also would like a global highscore board please and thank you. :D

superpokeunicorn 2025-04-24 20:59

Pretty fun game! Felt great to build up speed and plow through enemies. I especially liked those blocks you can break with enough speed, was cool to be able to take little shortcuts through them if you were going fast enough. I also appreciated that the player doesn't take damage on hit and instead gets knocked back. Made the game feel very forgiving and kept the focus on the movement. I will say it felt like I didn't have that much lateral control during the fall, so it was hard to keep a combo going. Maybe if you've built up enough speed by falling you could move horizontally for a bit without losing momentum, like you're swooping left/right? Just some movement tech to let me do cool tricks and extend my combo. Outside of the gameplay, visuals were solid, very Downwell, colors made everything super readable. Music was solid as well. Overall, a polished game with some fun movement and satisfying combos. Nice work!

mod-wiz 2025-04-24 22:16

Strong downwell energy! But featuring a cat.

Polished and fun with 1-bit pixel art!

digital-bacon 2025-04-25 23:04

Love the art style, gameplay fun -- excellent work, well done!