matthewdrake 2025-04-08 16:49
Really tense and creepy atmosphere, it's an interesting balance knowing when to use the fast fall or just climb down manually. Awesome stuff!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS
By red
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 92 | 4.06 | 26 | |
| Fun | 112 | 3.91 | 26 | |
| Innovation | 92 | 3.97 | 25 | |
| Theme | 1 | 4.75 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 141 | 4.27 | 26 | |
| Audio | 176 | 3.78 | 25 | |
| Mood | 38 | 4.32 | 25 |
Really tense and creepy atmosphere, it's an interesting balance knowing when to use the fast fall or just climb down manually. Awesome stuff!
cool atmosphere! the music was great for the mood and once i figured out how to actually fire the gun (i read the directions backwards i think lol) it was fun! i suck so i didn't make it very far but good job!
Wow this was great! Has great vibes, very fun. This could be really good with continued development. Couldn't figure out how the boulders worked but the spiders were a great obstacle
Mechanics are very well balanced. Maybe cancelling reload would be a bit fairer, but otherwise nothing frustrating . The boulders sometimes are blocked and wouldn't reach the player. Probably better to trigger them only in position that can reach the player. Was so much fun i played it to "insert boss" level :laughing:
Really nice unique and concise idea, I think insta death is a little harsh for a randomly generated longer type levels because you wouldn't be learning from your mistakes as much. Otherwise great job on really make sure everything is equally polished!
Thanks everyone for the feedback, one of the best ways to avoid the boulders is to hide under the platforms, that was the idea haha!
This is a simple concept executed really well. The little mechanics such as the time it takes to reload, the fact that you don't immediately stop when you quit falling and way the light reacts to the ledges really sell the game. You can tell that it's been well though out. Great job this is a really nice entry.
As others have said, really nailed the atmosphere! The reloading also adds a satisfying amount of tension, and the ability to slide down gives a great sense of risk/ reward attached to it! Only minor gripe would be to add an element of red to the lizards crawling horizontally just to give them that same weight of threat that the spiders have. Stellar work!
really nice lil game you made there. especially enjoyed that spacebar, a key normally associated with jumping was used to accelerate you downwards.
Wow, the level of polish across the board in this game is really, really impressive! It's nice to see a game that is narrow in scope, but developed to such a nice level of quality within the confines of that scope. The gameplay might be simplistic, but all of the elements here (art, animations, sound design, and even game *feel*) are really impressively rendered--and perhaps most importantly, it's fun to delve deeper and deeper in the cave!
Very impressive work!
Fun game! The mechanics are intuitive and I had a good time learning how to deal with the different obstacles you threw at the player. The art and shaders are *very* well done. The spiders' eye glow is a really nice touch that gives a little more warning which is always welcome. Overall, I think you did a great job!
With that said, this game feels like it's at its best when you're just on the edge of death and barely manage to escape. In levels II and III it feels like this balance works well but for me at least (possible skill issue alert) IV was very difficult. There were many many times where I was surrounded by 3-4 spiders with no escape and many times where I died while reloading to spider that just happened to walk into my vicinity after I started reloading. I also couldn't quite figure out where the boulders spawn, I originally presumed they fall where the debris falls but that doesn't seem to be the case. All of my criticisms are more minor gripes and skill issues, you've honestly done a very good job with the only 72 hours you had to make this game, fantastic job my friend!
Thanks all! I was trying to make the lizards different in that they were more camouflaged, but their movement was way more predictable, but in the end they do probably sneak up on you a little too easily. For the later levels I wanted to introduce harder mechanics / enemies but ran out of time so I opted for overspawning the stuff I alread had, which probably wasn't a good choice in the end. The boulders are really just RNG where they will spawn (anywhere from a little bit to the left to a little bit to the right of you) so the idea was that you need to always be aware of where the closest spike platform is to protect you, or as a last resort pick a direction and hope it didn't spawn in that direction. It would probably be more fair to use the initial debris as an indicator, yeah.
Really good entry. I loved the visuals a lot. There was a surprising amount of detail despite the chunky pixel art. From the little faint bugs in the background to the small particle puffs from your feet occasionally as you climbed. Seeing the spider eyes beyond your lantern light was critical due to the slow nature of your weapon, and learning the behavior of the enemies, like the spiders hunting the camouflaged lizards and the lizards following their horizontal level, was critical too. I felt safe under those spike ledges. The falling rocks curiously would always hit me if I tried to dodge straight right, but never if I dodged straight left.
I feel that the reload is perhaps just a little too punishing considering that on stage 4 and 5 there are a lot more enemies and even finding two in one area is enough to overwhelm the player and gives no option for counterplay.
Very impressive entry! Subtle and atmospheric sound effects brought it all home.
Nicely done! Graphics are really cool and the mechanic with reloading the gun fits in perfectly with the setting. Kudos!
Great game, unusual idea, very beautifully drawn, nice sounds, various problems on the way. I missed the music. Thanks for this game!
The polish here is great. The graphics and feel of the game are fastastic.
Gameplay wise everything felt tight and had good risk/reward, but the random generation would often create situations that were unwinnable, so several retries often felt necessary. Since the levels re-generate every time you don't get to learn from your last run either, which is unfortunate.
This lead me towards a high risk strategy instead of encouraging smarter play, but I kind of wanted to be rewarded for playing smarter.
Overall nice work!
Awesome! Great atmosphere and mood. The SFX is on point and the low detailed pixel art is top-notch! Very well done. Really enjoyed playing it :)
great gameplay idea! the one shot pistol withg long reload gives tactical depth, to engage or risk it and slide past. I just wish you could move super slithly to left and right so it doesnt feel so stiff and gives a little more room for error. ambiance nice too, with the lightning, nice entry!