FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD58 → GOLD DUST

GOLD DUST

By starduster

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall7292.8526
Fun7082.6626
Innovation5782.9126
Theme5423.4126
Graphics6762.6826
Audio1
Humor4702.7926
Mood1

Comments

deadcode 2025-10-06 20:33

I really like how you incorporated falling sand simulation into your game! Very creative!

paroxysmal 2025-10-06 20:38

Love the concept! I did a similar design..hah. The character controller is pretty rough. Good entry though.

ckane144 2025-10-06 20:56

I agree that the way the player picks up the gold dust is the best part! It's very satisfying walking through a big stack of gold. It was tough up front to know that I had to throw the gold bags into the hole to save it. Great entry!

starduster 2025-10-06 21:29

Yeah, I went overboard on the difficulty, too easy to make a platformer difficult! Not enough time to make it balanced. I like NES Mario style character control, but here it's pretty evil with all the nasty jumps.

baluj 2025-10-06 22:03

I enjoyed it, although the character controls seemed quite rough to me.

tony-li 2025-10-07 01:04

I really like the falling sand! The main character is neat, too. I agree with other players that it's a fun challenge deciding whether to risk going a little further or to go back and deliver the gold. I think maybe having 3 "hit points"/hearts would make the game a little more forgiving

temmyt 2025-10-08 09:35

Though the game is quite difficult, I think it fits the NES/Atari aesthetic

tkap1 2025-10-08 11:23

This might be the hardest platformer ever made

zoeek 2025-10-08 23:16

10/10 got lacerated by a cactoid. Both directions seem like death traps but was a fun play :)

mysticgames 2025-10-09 07:05

Good game really hard but its fun. I do like how the character gets heavier with the more gold you have.

eugenik 2025-10-09 13:34

Cool! Good job!.

beebster-games 2025-10-09 14:35

The game is excellent. Not too easy and not too hard. The mechanics are good and the gold physics are excellent. Well done.

jonasolsson 2025-10-09 18:44

Nice game! Having to resist greed to not be encumbered is a fun game mechanic. Good work!

tardis2snej 2025-10-09 20:14

You mentioned the issue with some monitors, but I didn't understand what you mean until I read the comments and realised that I don't see the sand haha After that moved to another laptop and that was fine.

Sand physics is super satysfying! I found the controls to be quite hard to get used do, I keep sliding and it's hard to do precise jumps, so I didn't manage to get far. But still, nice game, great ideas, well done!

ehtd 2025-10-10 00:53

Weird game, but interesting mechanics

stefaink 2025-10-11 20:54

In love with game idea

jelch 2025-10-14 04:59

Great idea and the gold pile was really cool! I found the controls and physics to be frustrating.

dis0rder 2025-10-16 17:13

It's janky in all aspects and really hard to operate but still charming in its own way. I liked the different death-messages depending on how you expired, and it had a certain _old-school feel to it._

---

The second horde of cactoids couldn't be killed with the money-bag which was annoying, and the other route led to a dead-end, so I quit before making through.

Some of the ideas here could certainly be expanded further. :moneybag: :cactus:

Cheers!

sergs-workshop 2025-10-19 14:13

Unfortunately, the dust isn’t visible, and the character controller feels a bit floaty, with a lack of sound effects. On the bright side, I love the death screen messages and the core idea of using the target resource as a weapon - that’s a clever touch. Solid submission overall!

starduster 2025-10-19 18:15

@sergs-workshop

Sorry about the dust not being visible! That's a bug with hi-dpi monitors where I mixed up physical resolution with logical resolution. The dust shader uses gl_FragCoord which is physical resolution but it's passed logical resolution.

deadjolly 2025-10-22 01:30

Vacuuming up the gold is pretty fun! My absolute favorite part of your game is the cowboy's face. Makes me laugh. The actual platforming was pretty unforgiving. Maybe I just struggled to get good at the game but it did feel difficult. Took me a minute to realize I had to throw the bags, but that is a fun risk/reward mechanic.

Nice entry for a first jam!