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DIG_POD
DIG_POD
By a333, icxon and graal
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 37 | 4.21 | 49 | |
| Fun | 13 | 4.26 | 49 | |
| Innovation | 382 | 3.44 | 49 | |
| Theme | 568 | 3.42 | 49 | |
| Graphics | 257 | 4.06 | 49 | |
| Audio | 217 | 3.78 | 49 | |
| Humor | 482 | 2.61 | 41 | |
| Mood | 179 | 4.05 | 49 | |
Comments
lllarso
2026-04-20 22:43
Very cool and polished game! The atmosphere was great. The upgrades felt satisfying, especially when you upgrade the collector. :)
I like that the armor of the ship visibly changed in the upgrade screen. Would be even cooler, if it would be visible on the ship while playing. The overall graphics are great.
I was not expecting a boss fight, but I really liked it. The audio feedback was on point. The "signal wave" was a nice addition. The movement felt also very responsive and good. I had a lot of fun exploring this game and get deeper into the level. Really great entry! :)
pres2300
2026-04-21 05:16
This was really well done, and I played it through to the end and got all the upgrades! The progression felt really well balanced. The one small critique I have is the damage taken from bouncing off walls seemed pretty unforgiving at times. That said, it didn't seem to be that much of an issue, and I still had a blast playing this. Nice work!
Loved the game. The art is cute and the sound design is solid. Felt like if Noita and Motherload got mixed up into a game together. The end screen left me a little confused for a moment, as it felt like i might've just died because i didnt run from the explosion. Also the damage taken from bouncing into walls, while miniscule, was still a little annoying. Overall though, really good job. One of my favorites so far!
anku
2026-04-21 11:45
It’s honestly hard to believe this was made in 72 hours. So many things are done really well: destructible environments, procedural generation, and surprisingly solid enemy AI. The balance is also pretty good for an incremental — though focusing mining upgrades first feels a bit too optimal, probably because early threats are limited and don’t really ramp up until the boss, so weapon/armor upgrades aren’t as necessary early on. Still, this already feels like a strong, working prototype that could absolutely be polished into something viral.
game is a good old fashion mining game ! took me a while to realize that mining and shooting where different so i spent about 5 minutes shooting the ground instead of mining the upgrades make you feel far more powerful and that's a major plus its a game that had me playing for about 15 munities juts watching my number go up the boos at the end was fun too
the drone controls are a bit strange i kept getting stuck on one pixel I could not see and the damage form hitting the ground seems to happen when i land form a few pixels down so i lost lots of health form just mining
other than that fun game !
a333
2026-04-21 12:02
@laurlehepuu thank you. You indeed died from explosion, but there is another ending more suitable for peaceful research mission @anku thank you for feedback! I've tried to make the game not too hard for fellow oversaturated LD players, so it might've ended on an easier side. Lots of things to tweak for a proper experience! @rise12600 great feedback too, thank you! I've battled 'stuck on single pixel' problem a lot but ultimatately failed) same for ground hitting - could be relaxed further, but it was intended to be a challenging experience. End up being a bit of a frustrating one)
Really liked the noita style & harvest system, and the final boss was very cool too. Just had a bit of a struggle with my keyboard layout (azerty) but I don't think this will be an issue for most people 😅 Congrats on your entry !
a333
2026-04-21 12:43
@valentinwb ah damn I forgot about that) should've used proper input system! sorry!
bobanko
2026-04-21 14:25
Great game. Idea is really - minblowing. Sometimes i got stuck because some micrograins, but it`s okay. Love to see some updates in this game, it`s have great potential!
saloid
2026-04-21 14:29
Feels really polished overall, shooting is satisfying, and the movement has a nice, weighty feel. Gravity comes through well, which makes everything feel more grounded. The movement and damage system reminded me of Noita in a good way.
Sound design is strong too, especially the gunshots, though after extended chaingun fire, it started to feel a bit overwhelming and fatiguing. The plasmagun and cannon feel like the sweet spot. Progression feels intuitive.
Overall, really enjoyed it. Great Work!
2026-04-21 14:31
Insane cool. Really technically impressive
Very cool and pretty finished game. I like the pixel based digging as a mechanic very much. The audio was a bit much but that might just be taste. great job.
tori
2026-04-21 17:41
I loveeee this entry and i finished the game ! the particle graph and system felt really satisfying. made me want to dig the whole planet haha i felt a bit frustrated with the dmg i got from touching surface, felt like i was always bumping into something, but it wasn't that much of a big deal and i enjoyed the ride !
Great game, after the first playthrou it looked like i died to the boss explosion so i went for it again, made a nice hellevator, beat that vertical wall of flesh, flew towards the sky, just to insta click the "retry" button ._. Gave up on ever knowing if there is indeed a "you survived" endscreen x) But enjoyed both playthrous, sounds were fitting, sprites are nice, everything worked smoothly - only slightly sad thing is that full upgraded you cant just insta mine wherever you go, maybe a few more mining laser upgrades just for the fun of "deleting" the world would be great :D Overall a nice entry!
muzzlove
2026-04-22 16:47
Great project! I really like it!
Loved the scope and gameplay, the ending reminded me of noita. Amazing job, don't bother justifying the use of AI tools, its obvious that AI alone wouldn't make a game this good, so your team's effort is very much valued here.
nordin
2026-04-22 17:06
WOW, great game very polished, very impressive that you guys could make this in 72 hours :open_mouth:
Really enjoyed this one, it gave me strong Noita vibes, especially with the terrain and particle interactions. Especially liked the resource collection mechanics, it felt satisfying and made me want to clear of large sections :sweat_smile:
The start felt a bit slow, and I sometimes got stuck on small pixel fragments.
Overall, a solid and fun entry
I really like this one. Fells like op mining in Terraria. The general look and feel is top!
corbak
2026-04-22 18:04
Loved it! I tried to do it two times to see if i could... ok no spoil. Anyway great game! Well done on your entry
a333
2026-04-22 18:25
@juanrod707 thank you, it's really nice to hear that) I feel like it's important to state the info and then people can decide by themselves.
@corbak thank you! indeed you could, there's a !>peaceful ending if you don't kill the boss
mezaka
2026-04-22 18:43
This was super fun! I didnt understand the mining tool in the beginning and just shot my way through, but once I got it, it was sooo satisfying to use and upgrade.
liquid
2026-04-22 19:22
Great game! It felt very satisfying to play and like a really polished overall experience. The comparison to Noita with its simulated pixel-based engine is pretty obvious, and I honestly wish more games experimented with that kind of system as a modern successor to classic (non-simulated) pixel-based digging mechanics. (Anyone here ever played something from the Clonk series?)
A very polished game - I understood how to play almost immediately after starting. The controls feel great, and even the upgrade prices seem well balanced. You even managed to add a boss at the end, which is really cool!
2026-04-22 21:50
Awesome game, was having a great time playing thhrough was surprised at how well refined things felt and was very happily caught off guard when boss fight came round!
lereveur
2026-04-23 00:47
I'm not sure if I finished the game or not. I killed all the eyes, including the special one, but the screen after the energy wave destroyed the pod was not very clear if it was the end of the game, or just that I didn't get how to avoid the wave (I retried one time more just to test but get the same ending). Gameplay speaking, fine adjusting the moves to avoid the fast punishing collisions was very challenging, but I finally found equilibrium combining the thrusts and mining at the same time. Well done anyways, the arts are good and I had fun playing it!
joegreen
2026-04-23 08:18
The upgrade system is super well-balanced — it takes time to grind, but you can still hit the max even during a jam. I thought I'd find some signal source at the end, but nope — it was a boss. Freakin' awesome!
I love games with pixel physics, very well done. just a small suggestion, but when mining you always fall down a little bit and use a tiny bit of health, which is a bit annoying. I know you can just fly up a bit to cancel it out, but it's tedious to do that - might be better to only cause fall damage when falling for longer distances
also, this is uncommon for jam games, but for this game I actually felt it was a little bit too easy, especially beating the boss, not a big problem though, the game could always be expanded later :D
Wave from boss is OP, in my opinion. So I couldn't completed the game. It is just frustrated :( But I've spent about 30 minutes for 2 attempts, so I can say, that I've had a fun playing it
a333
2026-04-23 18:09
@universeflow @krakadushka ahah as you can see, difficulty is really hard to pull off right. For someone it's too easy, for someone its too hard. I wish I had time to add easy/normal/hard modes.
@a333 ahah, yeah)
Hey, really liked your game!
Initially, I thought that I wasn't able to mine rock yet and that I needed some kind of upgrade. But it turns out I can, just very slowly, and the 'heating' visuals didn't really **_signal_** that to me. I thought I was somehow turning rock into gold.
Also, my first encounter with a boss was a little strange. I mined right down the center, and when I got to the big cave area and saw the 'survive' message, I just completely ignored it and went to mine gold in that cave. After a while, I saw the 'escape' message, but the boss was still there, so I returned and killed it. And died because of explosion XD
Oh, and also I feel like the pod takes falling/impact damage too easily! Like even minor moves hurt!
Otherwise, really liked the visuals and sounds! It's a pretty nice game!
Very polished game. Had fun playing it. The controls felt bad at the start but then I got used to it. Thanks for the game!
caer
2026-04-25 14:52
I totally missed that "collect resources" also meant "mine". Once I figured out, I fell in love with the game: The resource collection animation alone is so mesmerizing, but the combat and particle system are equally delightful. Great work!
This a is gem! The weapons all feel really chunky and satisfying to use, and the final boss is a great excuse to unload them after most of the monsters become pushovers. The upgrade system was great and the visuals that accompanied them were cool to see. I LOVED the particle based digging system. I'm a huge fan of Noita and Cortex Command, and this felt like a similar toy. The flight felt very unstable and slidey, and punished you with impact damage, which didn't feel great until I just learned to ignore it. I wish you had just a little more "hangtime" when hovering and the impact damage had a more generous lower cutoff. This didn't prevent me from loving the game though.
Since the planet is called Wasabi, I immediately pictured the pilot looking like Jean Reno.
From the art and previews (I’ve actually been following your game since the very first post), it reminded me of Noita and Barotrauma (my misconception about the sonar, which I mention below), and I was curious to see how much you’d end up implementing.
I was surprised that the arc shown in the screenshots turned out to be a suction tool—I thought it was sonar, which would’ve fit perfectly with the signal theme. Like, you scan, explore, search for something in the soil, and fend off enemies.
I didn’t like that any hit, even a minor one, takes away health. On the other hand, crashing into a wall at high speed results in the same punishment… I guess that can be attributed to the short development time.
I only really understood the game on my second attempt. It’s not obvious at all that the monsters’ blood, which gets turned into gold by that thermo-gun, can then be collected by shooting the gold (really not intuitive). It’s also unclear why you even need to collect gold—what’s the point of the total cargo mass increasing (and why is it shown in blue, like it’s water)? I also lacked an immediate understanding of whether I could upgrade my digging arc. As soon as you reach stone (which happens almost right away), the digging speed drops, and you instantly want to improve it. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem possible.
= = = = = But my complaints about the inconveniences became irrelevant once I progressed further and finally looked at the screen properly, noticing the key for upgrade configuration 😅 Same with collecting gold using the gun (still, it probably would’ve been better to have auto-pickup for it, or at least allow easy collection even with a weak tool).
= = = = = The game is great. So far, it’s the best thing I’ve played from Ludum. Atmospheric, sounds great, and feels good to play. The map generation really encourages you to replay and start over again and again. It’s very cool that there are new systems you encounter during the run. At the same time, it’s a bit disappointing that armor upgrades are only visible in the menu, not during gameplay.
About the sudden explosion and the need to run… that was a nasty trick. I had to replay just to see the ending… but didn’t manage it. After collecting 600 gold on the level, I tried to grab all four golden bubbles from the boss, and the explosion caught me off guard again. It really needs some kind of visual and audio indicator to show how much time is left, so you can properly assess the risk… I didn’t go for a third attempt.
It’s a bit disappointing that the jam theme is only implemented as intermediate goals (I just can’t consider a distance-to-finish bar a gameplay mechanic—it’s just an indicator). If there had been sonar like I originally imagined… but that’s not really important—the game is great, and the work is excellent. Thanks for the experience.
During gameplay, I also ran into a situation—I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a feature—where I went back to collect previously left golden blood, and suddenly a pack of four-headed monsters dropped down on me from above. That turned into quite an unexpected challenge.
a333
2026-04-25 22:18
@cat-in-hat-games Thank you very much for such a detailed review, it's a rare sight on Ludum Dare! Glad you liked the game, too!
There is a bit of mixup between temperature (hot terrain glows yellow) and monster blood, which is also yellow, this might create a confusion. Monster blood should be collectable even with tier2 dig tool, which you can upgrade at the very start. If it's not - its a bug.
For the signal theme, you need to listen a lot if you want to find all 3 hidden components and some medkits, but yes, that's it. Active listening was a feature planned, but I havent been able to do it in time. Same for making the terrain damage right. New version is much better and has sonar, but I wont publish it until LD is over, of course.
Second ending is my personal pain =) I thought that adding delay before explosion is a good idea, but it turned out to be a huge red herring. You are, in fact, a research vessel, supposed to immediately escape with report once you see the signal source (boss), not fight it. But when game conditions you to fight enemies from the start, it's quite nonintuitive.
ruruie
2026-04-27 07:52
I think the early part the chip damage from collision was a bit too much. By comparison later on you got a lot of health and everything got much easier.
The game is very enjoyable, with many mechanics, but it’s quite difficult to learn. It lacks clearer tutorials, and I didn’t even notice the text right away.
dqso
2026-05-07 13:47
This game feels like something from my dreams :grinning: The upgrades progress fast and smoothly, and the boss is not too hard. Cute little game that just needs more levels :nerd:
allexeee
2026-05-07 14:31
Great game! I really liked it!
Wow, a fully destructable world on gamejam. That's impressive. The atmosphere is awsome too. I killed the boss (I think) and died of shockwave. I will definitely try again later. Didn't really understand how to navigate to signal's sources. I just found them by accident most of the time. Anyway, the game is great!
marks
2026-05-08 22:49
I probably loved the digging part way too much. The guns sound quite satisfying to shoot and was a nice surprise to find modules that you can also upgrade. The progression pace is quite nice for a jam!
The slight bumps causing damage (and denying shield recharge) was probably the only annoyance.
Very cool, nice work!