FoonLudum Dare ExplorerUsers → 2bitcrook

2bitcrook

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMo
202148Deeper and deeper👥Frogjam794.194.153.923.034.494.273.634.08

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by 2bitcrook

LD48 — Deeper and deeper

Monkey Quest by paulloz 2021-04-27T18:29:52Z

Woo I saved all the monkeys, that last level really packs a punch! What a wonderfully polished game, absolutely stunning GBC visuals/Links Awakening DX/Oracle seasons/ages influence mixed with some crypt of the necrodancer/cadence of hyrule influence makes for an extremely charming game filled with monkey magic ;D.

Great job and would love to see this fleshed out into a more zelda/frog bell game, but even as a more rogue-likely randomly generated experience it'd be bound to be a hit!

Deeper and Deeper by minibobbo 2021-04-28T04:27:04Z

Very polished and neat concept! I loved the atmosphere and mood, the sound effects of the pattering feet, that lo-fi chill and kind of spooky ambient song really sold the entire thing.

Control wise, absolutely spot on. Super responsive and buttery smooth. The torch mechanic is great and the way you handled the shading with the pixel art is nice and reserved. I've seen some lighting systems matched with pixel art and the results are strikingly off/typically just way way way too much bloom making it a visual strain but you really matched the lighting system to the art style!

Level design wise I would have preferred it if the ghosts had a more understandable and defined movement type (the ones that don't chase you). A lot of the time avoiding them just meant waiting slowly for them to move over. I think perhaps a neat thing (and I might be preaching to the choir/you've probably already thought about it) but if the ghosts followed you when you had a torch that could be a good risk reward thing for seeing more but then being a target.

Springboarding off that, unsure if you had the idea but the concept of picking up torches from the background to then use, and throw, and not having one permanently on you/being able to teleport the torch back to you is a possible design change. Not better of course, just a different take.

Overall though one of the most polished games I've played in this jam and one of the most atmospheric! Great job.

INSIDE the BOX by IcyLava 2021-05-01T14:42:34Z

At first I was a little confused on the mechanics but once I understood it, wow it all slid (like the main mechanic of the game haha) into place.

I think you did such a unique take on the theme, and that the concept of going deeper and deeper into the world, and then back, and then back into it being deeper, then back out but in a new way and thinking about exactly what direction you left a sublayer to an upper layer made it a real interesting puzzle sliding game.

I think this has a real strong base to be ported to mobile with swipe functionality, or just released as is on the switch as a groovy short puzzle game.

The only thing I would work more on/or include is a longer or perhaps dynamic musical track that could perhaps add layers/and instruments the further you go into the world. Actually saying that, perhaps it could do the opposite and the further you go in, the less instruments and it gets a bit quieter, and then the ending scene of you escaping/getting to the top layer could be a full layered song. I think that would be nice.

Oh and another perhaps thing to work on is it was a little tricky sometimes to remember what key went where so it did involve some backtracking but I'm not exactly sure on how to fix that. But it did get easier the more I went on and I think you did a good job of flipperising the layers of the keys to the floors, so top floor is Z key and bottom is A key and such. That was good.

Either way stunningly polished game that had very satisfying movement and puzzles and I am always amazed at single person teams. To do this in 48 hours is incredible and you did a fantastic job.

Great stuff and look forward to what you work on in the future =].

Adelie - Rolling in the Deep by Meep 2021-05-03T08:02:05Z

I always love to see Pico 8 submissions and this one ticks all my boxes!

Great art, satisfying movement and wonderful mood all rolled into a perfect penguin rogue-like shoot-em up! I really can't stress how wonderful the graphics are, as someone who has dabbled with Pico 8, it's such a fun challenge working with the palette and the sprites are fantastic. I also adore that wave/underwater effect you included and the surface waves are so pretty and atmospheric.

The different types of powerups are really varied too which is really nice, you're always getting stronger in some way.

The only crit would be some ambient music, or some nice bumping music in the background would have been the cherry on an already tasty entry!

Great job on the compo entry, it's always amazing to me what a one person can do in just 48 hours.

Jean GADIN on the Prairie by mlho7 2021-04-27T03:51:08Z

When I saw the sheep from Black Sheep I had to check it out. That's quite an experience! Very strikingly odd, love the different sheeps you have to avoid. Nice simple and straight forward gameplay, I was a little confused on what the space bar did, so I left it until it was full. Then I realised ahhh slow down, that's a nice mechanic. I love the drunky slo-mo warp sound and effect you did. Music was nice and trippy. Funny stuff! I made it to 310m :D

Cave Bound by Sn4pi 2021-04-27T19:34:55Z

Neat concept! It's like spelunky but perma-on a bungee-rope. I ran into a few bugs like clipping outside the level and just sliding down the side to go lower and enemies would randomly fly offscreen/despawn (all stuff you mentioned) but I think there's a really strong basis here for a fun game loop.

I think post-jam wise a shop to spend your treasure in for weapons/powerups/health would be really cool. With the time constraints and outside life getting in the way you did a great job getting this done. Well done =]

Cave Jumper by ThatRumme 2021-05-01T20:04:26Z

A speedy straight forward FPS platformer, great stuff!

Loving the low poly models and the chill music.

Movement is very solid and the only crit I have is similar to @jrevel you can superjump and jump, but not jump and superjump which feels a bit frustrating. I almost feel like you could design the game around superjumping only even, and have the ability to superjump only once in some levels, and later on have to chain them together maybe. Love the sense of speed you get and the speed lines/visual effects of that.

Throw in some moving obstacles/projectiles, I think you've got the complete package. Or even as it is currently with just a "the floor is lava" deal works great.

Solid entry and great job.

Boombox by auxC 2021-04-29T23:27:29Z

An absolutely stunningly well polished game!

Everything blends together so well, top shelf art, music, sound effects and design all work in tandem to provide a wonderfully frustrating, heart bumping puzzle game.

Really can't think of anything to crit, your team did a BANG up job (hehe) and great entry!

Pipes All the Way Down by kroltan 2021-04-28T18:39:11Z

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First thought I could only manage 100 points, and then 200, eventually got to 1000! No way am I going to try and top @ulisses but just goes to show how addictive and well thought out you've made this!

Super simple to pick up, easy to understand and the art is really nice and simple/straightforward. Love the shapes which are super readable and with some fleshed out art, I can see this being a great mobile game and time sink.

Add in some music and satisfying sound effects you're on your way to having a stand out time =].

Great stuff and good job!

Project Drillco by Iron Leonem 2021-04-29T05:13:27Z

Really interesting game! It took me a second go to truly understand what I was doing wrong so a tutorial that showed me the ropes a little more would have been nice but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun.

I loved the hectic frantic type of gameplay, more and more layers of things having to be maintained, first it's just keep an eye on the angle, and feed the fire, then feed gems to make fuel to feed the fire, oh and now watch the heat, oh and now DEMONS. I also love the fact you were really cartoony and gave everything faces which not only is charming and has its own style, means you could treat them like a living thing/feed them, so animations that arose from this of having them be ready for fuel or crystals with an open mouth, it's really readable and friendly.

This is a really cracking game and the only downside is the music was a bit too repetitive. I also would have liked a final score at the end of "you got X feet/floors down"

I made it to about 105 down and had a blast, great job and a solid entry.

For Whom The Diving Bell Tolls by Jakob Willforss 2021-04-25T23:35:13Z

Phew! What a tense experience! It really made you feel more and more tense and fearful the deeper you went. I would have suggested one or two checkpoints but the feeling you get going a little further each time, knowing if you get eaten by a shark adds to the sinking feeling!

Enjoyed the movement in junction with using the harpoon gun for a boost. Underwater ambient sound really sold the setting and atmosphere. Great usage of the theme. Those sharks really made the descent the most frightful!

Magic Worm by namnam 2021-04-27T00:21:28Z

What a novel concept! Really makes you think and try to memorise all the strengths/weaknesses of each spell and what to wager if you guess wrong without knowing the multi-triangle of what beats what but is weak against what. Also love the palette you chose and the art, reminds me of the original Gameboy and the music really sets that medieval fantasty mood! Wonderful game =]

GRAPPLE the Abyss! by lectvs 2021-04-27T01:47:07Z

Jaw droppingly well executed and polished. Really unique movement/mechanic! The design was great, ramping up difficulty and new obstacles/interactions with the grapple hook. Witty writing paired with solid art and great music, what a package! Your management of game scope is admirable! Great stuff.

Date Night by Togis 2021-04-28T23:31:22Z

Wow, what a really polished and neat game!

I loved the low poly artstyle, it worked really well. The music was great too, it was chill (for an otherwise stressful experience haha!) It's both so simple but so stressful the more jobs that get added on.

I love the different tasks you had, they were all super easy to understand but also once you layer them on top of one another, and tweak them via decaf vs regular, sugar or no sugar, milk or no milk, and the types of emails you had to do were really solid.

It also made me really hate our boss and I think if ludum dare had a horror category you would get 5/5 for that because this would make anyone who used to work in an office get horrible flashbacks haha! It's also funny that the repetitive tasks work PERFECTLY for the situation, because I can imagine a boss saying go get them a printed out paper, and then another one right after. "Didn't I just do that" you may think, but you have to do it again, and again, and again!

I can see this game getting fleshed out to have increasingly difficult levels of tasks (more coffee options like syrup or sweetener instead of sugar, or with a pump of cream) and emails you have to send contain special characters like @ or ; and just longer stuff. Has real potential to be even better! (and it's already great!)

Excellent game, felt really polished and look forward to seeing what you work on in the future =]

Masseuse you Loose by ColeSlaughter 2021-05-01T08:57:24Z

Just floored by the absolute charm and personality you three crammed into this! The style is overflowing and it really exemplifies why jams are such a fun experience, just the wacky and fun stuff you get to play!

Love both the 2D art and the 3D art in this, great stuff all the way through and the voice acting matches perfect with it. I know you said you don't have good voice acting, you just have....voice acting but you're selling yourself short. It's perfect to the tone of the game!

Love the mechanics of each of the types of massage, it really reminds me (and in fact I could 100% see this being) a DS game akin to the Trauma Center under the knife games. Unsure how hard it would be to rework the design due to the use of keyboard input for two of the massage types but a handheld only Switch game (Like Pokemon Cafe) I think would be great. Either way it's a fun experience so if you work on this more and have it as a PC only/or controller input deal it's still solid!

The only slight crit I have is the pointer/knowing exactly where my cursor was at times sometimes was a little tricky, and the title screen seemed to be very picky about where my cursor was for clicking.

But great entry and great job at finishing! Look forward to any future projects you do/if you work on this post jam :D.

Tooth Toss by MadNukin 2021-05-02T19:44:03Z

Stunning game with a whole host of bugs! (But good ones!)

Absolutely love the mechanic your team came up with, it's extremely intuitive, makes sense and the feeling of WEIGHT it has is just so good. Love the pixel art and bug characters too, not enough bugs are the main characters of games!

When I started playing I literally said "I hope this ends in a boss fight" and end in a boss fight it did. A small crit is upon retrying a boss I'd have enjoyed it if it skipped the initial dialogue or was able to skip but that's a very minor thing.

I can really see this being fleshed out to have more levels or even as a metroidvania. The latter of which might mean you could run with the sword which would change the design space a bit. I would probably compare it to something akin to Yoshis Island on SNES, where you can stop and shoot eggs and aim, but also run and shoot. Might not be the kind of game you envisioned though and it's not a criticism of the game, more so just throwing ideas out there that I'd do haha.

Overall a really solid game that has such a unique and fun mechanic and a cute buggy world (again, the good kind ;D).

Great entry!

Mine Zhero by Colisan 2021-05-01T17:42:40Z

Any game made in ClickteamFusion/MMF/etc always gets a grimaced thumbs up from me. As someone who uses it to prototype stuff, the fact you made a game out of it is awesome.

I love the simplicity of this, very easy to understand and it has a great arcade game/quarter muncher style vibe to it which I really dig.

The movement as it currently is feels very functional but with some post-jam clean up and reworking would feel better.

I almost feel like if the timer was a permanent fixture at the top, and the tunnel went on for a good while, players could incentivized to try and dig really far whilst also having enough time to make a mad dash backwards. You could even have a roguelikey/litey type thing where ever few floors you have a shop to buy items/speed up or pick axe/weapons maybe? Just spitballing so don't consider these things as objective criticism, more just speaking out loud haha.

Perhaps a combo counter could be included too, if you chain mining jewels fast enough you'd get some sort of bonus. Again, thinking out loud.

Random feature-creep musing aside, really solid entry and great job!

Down Dog by Scowling Pastry 2021-04-27T17:17:08Z

Cute game! I really liked the intro story of losing our dog down a well, gives us a nice short and good reason to go down there! Movement felt pretty solid, the graphics were nice and readable. I love the main characters design, their head reminds me of the aseprite logo haha :D.

The end boss was really a nice surprise, I love that you had it have multiple attacks. I thought when I got below it I could cheese it/avoid the laser super easy but then it drilled down! And then it let out that whirlwind attack made it really intense. Great stuff, good job finishing your first jam!

Autumn Hike by Brusi 2021-04-26T22:48:03Z

What an absolutely wonderfully charming game. I don't know if there's a single thing I didn't give a 5/5. The presentation was great, the writing full of humour, and though my name might be 2bitcrook, I'm a big big fan of the 1bit art which you knocked out the park. And the theme of going deeper and deeper into the world to find stuff, remarkable. Wonderful job and you should all feel mega chuffed!

Orpheus by Ametentia 2021-04-29T05:31:46Z

Love the 2bit/Gameboy pixel art as its something very near and dear to my heart and I also love the fact it's a rhythm game.

Like others said I think adding a visual marker for when the notes should be played/like in ocarina of time when you first learn a song would make for a more smoother experience.

I'm really intrigued that you went with a roguelike basis because to be honest I could see this as a short JRPG style game too or even like zelda with random battles.

But either way really cool concept, very novel and I hope you consider working more on it after the jam or use the idea for a future release.

Great job on the game and to your team!

Miner Vitalya by Cardboard Box 2021-05-02T05:43:56Z

Always love seeing Pico8 games as the limitations and small resolution size always make for a great design space and it typically always means seeing some snazzy pixel art (this game being no exception)

Really enjoyable little digger arcade style game! Sprites are great and the sound effects really add weight to the animations and drill. I enjoyed the boppin song on the title screen but felt a track that played in the drill section would have really gone a long way.

Like some others pointed out the controls felt a little awkward. I think having jump and drilling down works fine, but jumping to drill left and right always felt a bit odd and awkward. Trying the harder drill mode actually felt a lot smoother so potentially having that/tweaking that and making it the default drill mechanic might also be an avenue.

Either way really solid entry and great stuff!

Kicks'n'Relics by Valden 2021-04-27T00:41:42Z

Super duper solid beat-em up action with great art, great music and very satisfying movement and combat. Really great proof of concept I can see becoming a superb game. My only addition would be for when you double tap to dash, the attack you do would be some kind of attack that carries the momentum! Other than that, no complaints, great stuff!

Ski Trip by Rhoka 2021-04-29T01:03:49Z

An absolute trip indeed!

Wonderful visuals and music make for a great ride all the way down. This is the first game I've played that made me go "wow...this in VR would be perfect!" but even without that, is a wonderful visual splendor!

So glad you implemented checkpoints, and quite a good number of them too!

A very minor crit would be the hitboxes on the collectables being a little bit bigger would be nice as I felt like sometimes I missed them and was quite close, but that's really the only thing I can think of that was room for improvement.

Great job everyone who worked on this, you did great!.

Super Turtle Drop by JavaSaurus 2021-04-30T08:55:29Z

Really enjoyable, almost like a Mr Driller on cocaine style game!

The first time I played it was with the mouse and didn't really get the controls/movement and I got around 140000 points, then I switched to keyboard and got 245700 points so I don't know if you *might* be better off making keyboard controls default at first or not. If you made mouse the only input/or really tweaked and polished it I can see this being a really awesome mobile game/very addictive. (Seems like some other people mentioned keyboard too)

Art and music very cute, gives me bubble bobble vibes!

Overall a really solid entry, great use of the theme because you're constantly going down, and great job finishing!

Heart of Forest by Wieczny 2021-04-29T01:13:39Z

Really into the low poly artstyle and moody lighting, those are the strongest elements!

Controls don't feel as tight as they could and pressing up to jump is always a bit weird for me. Remapple controls or having jump be up but also a different button.

I think you have a strong start/base engine for a metroidvania or puzzle platformer for sure and like @mcdown said, some animations and textures for a player to convey their state like wall climbing would really elevate everything. A short tutorial level too that shows the player what they are expected to do and learn the mechanics would have been nice too.

Overall great job and good job finishing!

Where's grandpa? by Holy 2021-05-01T19:08:04Z

Nice little head scratcher!

Love the set up and the reveal and it's a shame you couldn't implement the final puzzle fully but I enjoyed the puzzles you had. With more time I'm sure you're aware of quality-of-life fixes like being able to pull down the handles for the lever puzzle instead of having to cycle through states by clicking and having the picture puzzle shape having the objects perhaps snap into place when correct (if you wanted to make it easier) and better hitboxes/detection.

Other than that I think a bit more puzzles and a more fleshed out narrative (that I'm sure you have!) would make this a great little puzzley/point n clickish game =].

Great stuff and congrats on finishing!

Deeper Daddy by AguaHervida 2021-05-02T08:55:21Z

Very cute run' n avoider!

The blend of ultra cute pixel art and 3D was a fun experience, I think it's the first jam game I've played that has done that. I like the little spinny spin animations our main character does. I also really like all the pinks in the palette, very charming.

Movement felt pretty fine but hit detection seemed a little off. Sometimes I would try to pick up an egg but it would bounce around (maybe I ran into it too fast?) and I'd have to walk away and then go back to it. I could only manage to get to 2 eggs before dying! Are the fallen blocks always set to hurt you even when they've finished falling? If they could be set to not hurt you after they've fallen I think that'd make for an easier time. To add onto this I think if there was a shadow for where they would fall that would help, and perhaps if we could take multiple hits.

Overall a quick paced and funny entry (especially that name!)

Great job and entry.

Hungry Jungle by mitsu.artemius 2021-04-27T06:15:06Z

Cute game! I like the real-time-strategyish/command and conquery king of control system. The graphics are nice and set the atmosphere and the spooky skeletons the further you go in add to that! Nice atmosphere and I love the little differences between the characters and the weapons you can get to spice it up. The different berry bushes are a nice touch, always creating a "is this going to heal me, hurt me, or worse!" feeling :D. Great job!

Iby's Descent by OddSocks 2021-04-27T04:14:46Z

Absolutely adore the character design, you do so much with so little! Overall such a cute little game, love that you have a stock of jumps you can use. The particle effects were SO COOL! I loved how extravagant they were in comparison to the pixel art, made for a fun juxtaposition. Nice music and I love the pewpewpew sound effect of the magic wand. Great job!

Ixcar'th by Zliebowitz 2021-05-02T09:21:16Z

Solid action hack n slash platformer right here!

First thing that sticks out that slapping soundtrack, my word it was banger after banger. Serious props to the sound! The second to stick out is that smooth as silk running animation from our main character, great stuff. I would have loved it if we had a jumping animation but that running animation did a great job. I also enjoyed our attack animation, that big ol whoosh slice and a bit of knockback really added weight to the whole thing.

Level design was a bit wonky, I got lost sometimes and just ran into dead ends and had to go back but it was at least only a small set back/small amount of distance to go back. Jumping and wall jumping felt a bit off and I think post jam, tweaking and polishing the movement would make a great base for a longer/fleshed out action adventure hack n slash, or even potentially the groundwork for a metroidvania type deal.

Like you've already said you see more enemies and environments down the line and I think those are all great stuff to have! Look forward to seeing what more work you'll do to this postjam.

Great job and great entry!

Mine Mayhem by Vectrex28 2021-04-27T04:09:25Z

Oh wonderful another NES entry! Wonderful movement and some great sprite design coupled with great gameplay. It makes me sad the wonderful visuals aren't paired with some wonderful tunes but can't have it all :D.

My only criticism for the art is it's great, but it's also a bit too cluttered and not visually distinct for some objects. I actually thought the stalactites were going to damage me and it took me a few seconds to realise the spiky ball floor tiles were spiky balls. I think you could also maybe benefit from having a general fade out for some tiles so it's easier on the eyes. But really, these are all polish/post-jam stuff, you knocked it out the park.

Overall really solid movement, the sound effects were spot on and it has that mega-european NES vibe. Really great stuff and great entry! :D

Ocelot Safari by pancelor 2021-05-05T02:32:14Z

A very neat take on survival puzzle horror (but a cute horror in the form of Ocelots!)

Any game in Pico 8 gets a thumbs up from me and this is no exception. Great use of the Pico 8 resolution and art and what a unique and novel approach to a game. No inventory system, no way of holding objects. With these restrictions you made a really fun little game.

Was confused when I first began but the more I played the more it gelled into place and got a rhythm going. It's part survival, part puzzle! The movement being so puzzle based is really neat and you're constantly thinking about how to tackle the terrain.

My only crit on the game would be a bit of background music would be nice, and sometimes I found myself perma-stuck between a grass tile, two trees, and the axe directly behind me. Unsure how you could rectify this but if possible it would make the game a smoother experience.

Overall a great job and entry and I'd love to see this get fleshed out more, or at the very least this concept of an inventoryless/pickup-a-less game mechanic!

Great job!

Tunnel Vision by Cievers 2021-04-27T00:12:11Z

Nice and simple premise with cute artwork and great music. I could really see this being a lot of fun on mobile or the nintendo switch or such with gyro/tilt controls! Great stuff!

Down, Down, Down by Gilokko 2021-04-29T23:48:25Z

Really good attempt at tackling the daunting challenge of making a video game adaptation of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground / Alice in Wonderland!

Great use of GBstudio and making something that runs on the actual hardware, that must have been a challenge!

Like others pointed out the music is a little too short in loop length and a bit too high pitched in places which made it kind of grating the longer it went on.

The mixtures of gameplay works well though and I enjoyed going from top down to side scrolling platformer. I really enjoyed you turned Alice's tears into enemies, that's very appropriate for the era!

Also nice amount of varied art for the cutscenes, getting all that done in the time frame, hats off to you!

Overall I say this a good foundation to build upon, and hope you continue to work on this after the jam/polish it more and work on the music more/hire a composer since it seems like you did everything yourself!

Great job on finishing!

Lucky Lefty Loves Leftovers by TheBookSnail 2021-04-28T23:19:24Z

Very cute little game. Love all the sprites/artwork, it has a really 90's nickelodeon/cartoon vibe which is very endearing. The sound effects from the mouse add a lot and the little background music is a good choice.

Love the smooth rotations on the rat! Game loop is a little too samey, perhaps a fun challenge could be different shaped foods which would provide different kinds of challenges. Or perhaps each level is a different food type and placement of where you have to deliver it.

Either way solid entry, good job!

The Bothnia Trench by Milestone Games 2021-04-28T00:28:35Z

Blows me away you did this in such a short amount of time. Great little point n' click adventure game, loved the humour and writing. Fantastic job!

Axel the Axolotl Saves the Day by Empty Set 2021-04-27T21:51:52Z

Short and sweet platformer? Sweet - yes, short - hmmmmm! :D That last part took me a good while! But sweet indeed, cute pixel art and solid movement. I really enjoyed the animations because of the inclusion of a "falling down" pose. That's an oft overlooked one and it's always nice when it shows up! Great stuff and hope you can get that itch page up.

If you ever flesh this out into a full fledge game I look forward to it. well done!

Aquanaut by EvilScotsman 2021-04-26T23:39:55Z

Absolutely stellar game right here. Underwater fishy boss rush? Sold! Great art, movement felt spot on, the sound effects were top tier, really enjoyed that SCHING sound when the harpoon was ready and I loved the detail of the harpoons staying in each boss getting more and more punctured, really showed how much you had been hitting it (alongside of course the health bar ;D) Great stuff! (And I love that ending, sweet and creepy :D)

Your Average Lift Experience by Katsuhira 2021-04-27T01:27:28Z

Knocked it out of the park in terms of writing and humour. Loved the simple scribble artstyle, it reminded me of the elevator doodles in Warioware games, very charming. The music really ties everything together and the comedic timing is spot on. Short and very sweet! Great job.

Deep Sea Trip by Pomo 2021-05-01T20:50:35Z

Surfer rockin' arcade shoot em (and avoid em!) up that packs a fishy punch!

What a really fun deep sea dive shooter! Love the art and really dig the music. It's fun and fast and really matches the arcadey action that is being presented.

The enemies are really well designed, nice bold colours and recognisable shapes help you quickly identify what you're going to encounter once you've learnt their patterns. Hit boxes on the enemies could perhaps be adjusted but it might be down to our missile being quite small, a smidgen bit bigger might make the game easier overall but it could make it more enjoyable/accessible too so it's a tricky balance.

Movement of the sub is a tricky one, you want something that doesn't mean you're zip zooming around able to avoid everything in sight but also not so much you feel like you're steering a barge/or big ol navy boat. I think what you have currently is great, but maybe some tweaking could be done to just give you just a smidgen more control. Again, it's a tricky balance so if it's the right sort of control you want to give the player then that's the intended play experience!

Overall a really fun rockin arcade game that has a very "one more run" feel! Would be quite the quarter muncher on an arcade (which I would love to imagine as being one of those biiiiiiig ol chunky beasts where you sit in an actual sub haha!)

Great entry and good job to your team!

Explory Story by Blue Pin Studio 2021-04-30T02:18:28Z

I guess you could this a really NOVEL concept haha! Puns aside, what an absolutely smashing concept, can't compare it to anything I've ever played.

Really fun art and music and I love the little records as the sliders, that's a really cute touch.

Like others have pointed out, sometimes being turned into a state and it being permanent like old/drunk is a bit too much, so maybe they wear off after a while? I also think perhaps there's some kind of middle ground between normal mode and casual mode. I think having one difficulty mode and no health, but instead having a timer might be a direction you could take it into, so traps would add time and the animations would add time. Because playing on normal mode I didn't really get the sense that when negative stuff happened to me, I had the abilities to avoid them through movement/lack of an attack. Conversely I think noticing damage/hurt words was very easy to understand but understanding healing words was a bit more tricky so unsure what could be done about that.

The only other crit I had is maybe a little more zoomed out to show an entire page at once? Maaaaybe? Or a few more words, but other than that your team knocked it out of the park in charm/style and idea.

Great stuff, hope you continue to work on it post-jam and look forward to seeing anything from you in the future!

Slug Adventure by TheWinrawr 2021-04-27T23:02:36Z

Really neat brain teaser with very cute 1bit pixel art! Great music and checkpoints stopped this from becoming frustrating :D. Well polished and fun, great job.

Where is Bob by ubershmekel 2021-04-28T06:18:49Z

Very silly game with a bunch of crappy puns :D!

Very solid end result that was an enjoyably groan worthy pun trip. I enjoyed the incremental or should I say excremental stages of poop making it that much of a trip to find dear Bob and get our reward of a pun.

I made it to level 15 since you said on stream the puns stopped there :D.

Great job at making a finishing product in such a short amount of time.

(And I really like the easter egg/easter elephant's face which I won't spoil for anyone here!)

Of Void by Finn_Tr 2021-04-30T03:05:13Z

Really neat and atmospheric puzzle platformer that is one of the most polished entries I've seen.

Really dug the atmosphere, the simple and effective artstyle was beautiful and calming along with the music that you chose perfectly to match.

Controls were solid and the physics were probably 90% without any hiccups, some parts of the movement like dismounting off black holes was a little wobbly/snapped a bit odd but nothing I think you couldn't iron out with more dev time. The boxes were also a little wonky sometimes, clipping through the othersides of platforms and pressing down the button but again, not a big deal.

I think if there's one crit I have it's that I would have preferred to been able to hold down and E to just, drop boxes instead of only being able to throw them. Very minor but would have been a nice addition. The other addition is because our character has no real "face" it was sometimes hard to know what direction I was looking in to pick up boxes. But again minor thing.

Overall an extremely well made game, felt very solid and had a great mood and atmosphere. Great job and entry!

Frog by cacciatc 2021-05-01T07:24:16Z

@kaminos Could you not get a NES emulator to work? There are links to ones at the top, I assure you they are easy to set up! We're hoping to work more on Frog post jam for sure, unsure if it will just load on PC alone but hopefully!

Dream Burrow by RatFace 2021-05-05T19:48:49Z

Very cute game!

The visuals were very pretty and chill. The screenwipes/effects you used made the entire thing feel so polished and sleek. The starting animation of our mouse friend jumping down into the clouds is SO SMOOTH. The audio worked perfectly with this too, so serene and atmospheric. Such a wonderful ethereal/floaty mood, truly putting us up there in the clouds :D.

Movement feels nice and responsive and the controls are straightforward and easy to understand!

Like others pointed out, it took me a while to realise the clouds were in fact not obstacles and you've said it's something that has been said before so perhaps like you suggested, have the mouse start on a cloud or slightly tweak their colours (leaning towards the former more since they do look very nice as is). I think it helped you put cheese on the clouds too which finally made me go "ahhh ok".

Overall a really solid game and entry. Great job to your team!

Beatsmash by eeperdeheap 2021-04-27T06:04:08Z

Cool concept, it's like a reverse guitar hero! It gets pretty heart bumping and intense the faster the bpm! Would love to see a version like you envisioned with a whole song, could have each song be a unique course with different obstacles. And I love the character is a note :D. Nice job!

Dante's Refrigerator by josephdevelops 2021-05-01T17:26:00Z

The late 80's/early 90's cheese in this is wonderfully off the charts. Not just in vibe and design but to segue into a pun, the cheese-cake of it all. Skimpy gals that are cartoon versions of ice cubes is just, it's just so silly and great.

Movement is pretty solid, it's a little iffy in some places and hit detection could be tweaked a bit more. I'm surprised the characters have a pushing animation when there's nothing to push/use that with but it is nice extra animation which makes the characters feel more alive. The greatest thing in the game to me is the feel of kicking, especially kicking in the air. There's something very satisfying about that and I almost think you could make an entire game around that/fleshing out the combat.

The only crit I have for the game is the lack of SFX, especially with the regards to switching character. Some kind of animation along with sound effects would have really signaled when you had switched character, at the very least some SFX would have done a really good job of that. It's minor though, and if you polished it more after the jam I think wouldn't be too much work to do. Perhaps you could even add some goofy 80s saturday morning cartoon style voices for cutscenes too, food for thought! (meatballs in this case :D)

Overall solid entry and great job.

Crust by exopunk 2021-04-28T23:43:02Z

Absolutely stunning game. I feel I could see this on the front of the steam page tomorrow! Or even today!

The art, sound and design were all tip top and it's amazing your team got this out in 3 days!

I could really see a speedrun of this be very satisfying to watch as someone with mastery over the hookshot swings and sways through the game.

If there was one criticism I have, it's that there being no visual indicator for getting a checkpoint meant I was never sure how far back I would go upon death.

Other than that an absolutely wonderful, atmospheric game, that much like the pearls you collect, is polished to a brilliant shine :D.

Marty and the Eldritch Horror by Game Endeavor 2021-04-27T03:22:53Z

Really cute concept! Love the sprite work, really nice colours and animation and I just love the moles. The movement felt really solid, loved the sense of momentum from digging into the dirt and jumping out maintaining that arc and speed. The sound effects were great too! My time was 70.74, not too shabby I think? :D Would love to see a longer game with this mechanic and characters =]. Great job!

Deep into the manor by Robean 2021-04-26T23:52:15Z

Limited time truly does bite us all in the butt and that's without outside life getting in the way. I think you should be happy you got something working and something you can get from A to B in! I liked the general mood and anything I suggest like, more puzzles/logic puzzles, more dialogue for examining items and rooms are already probably known by yourself. But a good proof of concept and if fleshed out with an emphasis on a fun narrative/story I think will be quite popular. Good job!

Swing Shroom by Quite Good 2021-04-30T02:01:07Z

The characters, graphics/art, sound and mood atmosphere you put forward in this game is just top tier stuff. Love all of that.

The movement and rope mechanic is a really fun novel concept I've only really seen in Worms/Worms Armageddon and Bionic commando so it's a really untapped mechanic. The current mechanic you have is pretty alright but I think with some more fine tuning and testing, could make for a really fun satisfying game about swinging and jumping around.

Like @pnkvrt I was also a little confused on where to go so workshopping level design/some markers would be a really beneficial thing or streamline the level design perhaps.

Overall a solid entry and great job at finishing!

Jump & Run by mortalslayer24 2021-05-04T06:50:05Z

Short and to the point platformer!

I think you have a solid groundwork for a more fleshed out platformer. Like others have pointed out there were a lot of blind jumps that was mainly down to the camera. For one of the most comprehensive articles on scrolling I would recommend this - https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ItayKeren/20150511/243083/Scroll_Back_The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Cameras_in_SideScrollers.php

Other than the camera being a bit shaky I think the movement felt really nice. Good movement speed, jump height and fall speed.

And like @meritcoding pointed out, shame there's no music or SFX. Would be nice to have those and make it feel more alive.

Overall great job on finishing a game with a start and clear end! Hope you continue to build upon this or use what you learnt for future projects =]

Falling Through Love by CinderBlock 2021-04-28T02:35:46Z

Very cute art! Love the animations on the flapping clothes and the cute potato protagonists. Love all the little particle effects too, they might seem like a small thing but I think it just adds that little level of polish. Some music and SFX would have been nice but that would have just been some extra icing on a solid cake.

Like others have said the only slight tweak is single holes due to the amount your characters bump off one another, if this was reduced a tad I think it would do so much to make it an overall more fun experience. But on the flipside, when I did get through a middle hole I was so pumped haha.

Oh and I really love the game remembers how far I got last time and shows it with a nice little dotted line, that's a real nice touch.

Great job on your first jam entry and can't wait to see what you make in the future!

Asterisk by Crychair 2021-04-28T02:56:48Z

Very charming game! The amount of polish you managed to squeeze into the game in short amount of time is so admirable. I love the voice acting in the game it adds a lot to the mood and atmosphere.

Pixel art is nice and crisp and readable. I think a full fledged game could see being a rogue like perhaps or maybe a mission based thing of making enough money/collecting a certain amount of things in the time. Either way great stuff, your team of 6 North Americans and 1 European did swell!

Dog's Descent by EnderBit 2021-04-27T01:17:01Z

Neat concept! Love the art, has a ps2 era feel to it and I love the little story of the dog losing his bone down the well. Nice and straight forward plot/reason for us to descend! I agree with other comments saying that the camera angle kind of makes it hard to judge depth, with this being more worked on I think the game would be a more enjoyable and challenging experience rather than more luck based. Great stuff otherwise!

Eat Fishies by Poetril 2021-04-27T01:00:38Z

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A nice straight forward simple game with nice ambient chill music, strong simple art and solid movement. Love the wompwompwomppppp trumpet sound upon defeat ;D. Solid stuff!

Memeco 0.02 by LeYaoTang 2021-04-30T08:08:38Z

Very VERY interesting concept, premise and presentation

I was not able to completely finish the game I believe, I do not want to say too much since the intent of the description seems to be want to be as vague and mysterious as possible so I will not too much.

I got maybe 80% the way through perhaps? 2 remaining flames? And a long path which seemed to go on forever (with very nice music)

Though you seem to want to be mysterious and very discovery paced, I would say at least the controls for the game would be warranted, it took me a while to release ENTER was my button to interact, and I apologise if me saying this here ruins it for other players, if so I will rewrite this.

But really the atmosphere and tone you have achieved here is like nothing else I've played. I do not know if you have ever played The Manhole or other Apple Macintosh 1bit games like Deja Vu but your games 1bit art is very well done and the 1:1 pixel size is perfect. You use it to great effect and it's visually striking. the-manhole_3.png

The beginning sounds were very intense and offputting but the musical track later on in the forest was very pleasant and wonderful. I do not know if there was anything at the bottom or if I could finish the fires but great entry. I would love to see more of your work in the future as this feels more on the artistic/experimental side of jamming, as opposed to the general more user friendly/marketable/consumer side. Both are valid and interesting and I love playing both!

Great entry and great job.

Deep Sleep by Link270 2021-05-02T08:33:14Z

You did a fantastic job telling a very serious story and handling of a very heavy subject matter and (trying to phrase this correctly) presented it with the best sort of visuals.

I think the art in the game, this low poly, minimalistic meets slightly abstract art not only works perfectly for the dream theme, but also if this subject matter was shown with more realistic people it would feel too real and would be a bit too much for me.

The music was great and I loved the different remixes/versions through each dream state. The movement was also great and I REALLY can't understate how nice it was for you to have dash as a toggle feature. So many have it as "hold to dash" and it's just more of a nuisance to do so.

Also didn't get any bugs on my end and was able to complete it all on my own!

And finally loved the ending scene, I love it when credits play over gameplay/you still have control to wander around. It's just a nice thing to have.

Overall your team did great and you delivered a game not only with a powerful and hopeful message, but links to help people and all of this in 72 hours.

Great entry and great job.

(And final quick note, love your teams logo!)

A Dungeon by PxlDev 2021-04-25T23:53:32Z

Woo I found the treasure! I agree with @bloham that it was longer than I expected! You really kept adding new mechanics to keep it fresh. I really enjoyed those vertical smashers (they made me think of Super Mario World :D)

Movement was nice and responsive but felt a little confined. I think some things out of frame meant it was hard to know what was coming up so if the camera was a little less zoomed in and showed more of the environment that could make it a smoother experience. Very happy there were checkpoints, and you knew where to place them!

Great entry =]

Run, Glim, Run! by Neshtyak 2021-04-27T00:54:18Z

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Cute game! I really dig the artstyle and the music, it has a lot of charm and the music and art have a great mood. I really enjoyed the quick storyboard/comic at the beginning setting up the story. The jumping felt a little underpowered and I felt like I could never jump up to a good amount of platforms, with some minor tweaking though this would make the game even better =]. I think the one tap/button design of this could work well on a mobile/tablet device too! Great stuff and great job.

Depths of the Deep by Panacea 2021-04-26T00:17:57Z

Gopro....Go...Pro. It does make you think! :D. Nice and short, good job tackling the theme.

When you said vertical metroidvania I thought there might be more item-solving going on. Like @almgru said, I was almost expecting to use the pink maker to draw on the portrait haha. Finding a key in a lower level to open the top door to find someone hungry for the deep fried oreo could have been neat.

Overall nice short game with some pleasant music =]

Spiral by Seamonsterart 2021-04-27T01:36:14Z

Really solid movement and the artstyle was superb. The main character almost reminded me of Snufkin from The Moomins! The movement felt great and the art for characters/items/radio was top notch, the environment felt the weakest area but still did the job! Would love to see a full game of this with a fleshed out story/focus on exploration. Great stuff!

Edward Driller Hands by SyndaKai 2021-05-03T08:59:17Z

Really cute take on a Mr Driller style game!

Love the art and the music and general polish you've added to this. And really love the pun on edward scissor hands :D.

Like some people pointed out I think it might just be a bit too easy to drill mostly straight down and not suffer any major loss outside points. There's potentially a number of things you could implement to spice the game loop up, like @cassio-eduardo said that Mr Driller has air capsules to keep you mindful/focused on something else. I think you could perhaps introduce a health bar for the drill and have it so drilling through iron blocks/metal blocks reduced the condition of your drill and you can pick up repair kits to fix it? Or perhaps using it on any block reduces the condition but metal blocks even more? You could even perhaps make it so the player could only drill through hard blocks when their drill condition is above a certain threshold like 75% and up or such.

Just general concepts though that aren't exactly better but just different!

Overall great entry and will be humming that theme tune for most of the day :D.

Palette's Bottomless Backpack by CeltiCo 2021-04-28T02:43:11Z

I literally can't get over the amount of assets in this game, it's off the charts! Serious props to your artist because wow! They knocked it out of the park, but not only them because the rest of the team brought their A game.

Absolutely charming game, I said the visuals were great but the music and sound effects and control were all perfect. Great stuff and your team did amazing!

HELL deep is your love? by Villanelle 2021-04-30T08:32:49Z

First off, I absolutely adore the pun. Hell deep is your love/how deep is your love, top notch.

I also adore the visuals, and the music. They work in tandem together and are great. Love the bopping little animation our character does to the music and the colour palette you chose for the game. Great stuff.

Also great use of the theme, that auto scrolling, always going down (for most of it) was always daunting and stressful but in an important way.

The only problem I had with the game is with the movement and level design. For what the levels were asking of me, my character just felt a bit too big and not very tight enough to maneuver out of the way of the obstacles. I think whilst most obstacles were well placed, some times it just didn't really feel right. On one of the levels at the very end, there was no indication I needed to go between two walls, because there was a huge gap to the left as well, and I also fell out of the game on the right I think, but this was quite minor.

I had to quit on the, I think?, last level with the flying bat that shoot webby slow sticky stuff. The rope mechanics and also ladder mechanics did not feel as tight as the general movement. When I stood on ladders the fact I fell through instantly also didn't feel good. I think perhaps if you stand on a ladder you should just stand and then press down to climb down.

But great job overall, you mad a solid game that with some more work and polish I can easily see being a great challenging platformer for any hell bound masochist out there, especially with those tunes! Great job to you and your team!

Subterra by P7153 2021-04-27T21:28:51Z

A nice little puzzle game with a pretty unique puzzle system. I agree with @jk5000 in that the movement was just a bit too high making some jumps and platforming tricky but not in a fun challenge way, more in a wrestling with the speed kind of way. I can see this being fleshed out more with different kind of gems/obstacles. Great job!

Delve Deeper by the__baldur 2021-05-02T05:55:43Z

Nice fun little game that was a jolly pleasure!

Pixel animations were solid and I loved the extra polish applied to the collectables, the shine/shimmer effect on the ale tankards/mugs were really nice.

I agree with other comments about the sounds and music and they're probably the only weak thing about the game!

A potential thing to develop further was additional enemies, at least one kind of enemy in the game that had a projectile attack would have been nice to see as I never took damage from any enemies since my mighty dwarven slash had quite the range (it even might be longer than it looks).

I also agree with others that it'd be nice if the gold had some use for a special ending, I think I got 119 gold so I think I missed one? But even just a "great job you got 100 out of 100 gold!" or something would have really been a nice way to finish.

Either way really great entry and the amount of content and polish you crammed into 48 hours is awesome!

Great entry and good job!

Mega Miner by RafaelF 2021-04-27T21:01:07Z

Good job on finishing and submitting something, you get that rest! The movement feels really good and responsive, artwork was readable and I liked the little hurt/donk animation the miner gets when you bump into the side of the walls. A title screen and some music/sfx would have been nice but time is always short. Well done!

Introspection by Zuwu 2021-04-27T21:13:41Z

Pretty neat concept! I like the lo-fi pixel art but agree with @gentlemelon01 in that the first levels colours were a bit hard on the eyes. I liked dashing a lot, had good momentum.

Shooting felt really underpowered and if the fire rate or damage was increased I think it would be a much more fun experience. A hold down to fire would also greatly improve the experience as a way of RSI/repetitive strain injury. I got to the final boss but due to the low damage from shooting just didn't have enough time to whittle it down.

Overall pretty decent, good job on finishing!

Rabbit Rappel by MatterLinx 2021-04-29T05:26:09Z

Super solid game with a very strong and interesting core of bunny hopping (hah because the players a rabbit ;D) and rappelling.

Like others (and even yourselves) have pointed out this is a game that has most areas absolutely down, it just needs some fine tuning. The level design could teach the player the movement/mechanics gradually with specific scenarios and checkpoints would really have been nice to have in this upload.

I love the Celeste and worms armageddon influences and I think you're very much on your way to releasing this on steam and finding an audience. The fact you got something this meaty out for a jam, top marks.

Great job on the game and great job to you as a team.

Infinite Descent by BluishGreenPro 2021-04-29T01:21:03Z

Extremely solid and well polish 1-bit platformer.

Clever level design mixed with ramping up the difficulty and new mechanics and obstacles, and Mark Sparling music blaring in the background? Absolutely terrific. And a wonderful reuse of assets too to make the game feel that much more meatier!

Like others have pointed out the literally only one crit I can offer is the wall jumping doesn't feel perfect. You can get used to it but like you yourself have noted, in a full release/fix you'd let people select to have opposite control for walljumping as an option.

Just a great polished entry, well done!

Infinite Descent by BluishGreenPro 2021-05-05T05:44:57Z

Wow yeah @bluishgreenpro seems like @korfi really gave you the most thorough answer one could ask for haha.

I think Korfi's point 3 might be the trouble I had.

It's a nice boon that there isn't much to tweak/fix until this game is hopefully going to get a price tag/steam page or show up on a console estore! :D

Infinite Descent by BluishGreenPro 2021-05-05T19:23:32Z

@bluishgreenpro I hear that. Unless you have a certain hook it can be hard to get traction, even with Frog we're still riding a lot of the tropes, pixel art, platformer, retro, NES. Even it running on a NES is a double edged sword because it's a talking point but the fact it's something that needs an emulator is a major turn off for a lot of people (even fellow Ludum Dare Jammers)

Then you factor in if you DO have a unique hook, it might just end up being labelled a "gimmick". So it's almost like a damned if you do, damned if you don't.

In spite of all that, you've made an extremely polished platformer that feels extremely good to control. I think, and hope, it'll find its audience even if niche and I definitely think speedrunners will really enjoy it.

For some of my projects, they don't turn out as successful as I'd hope but you do learn a lot on the way and if this is something you can do with some prep for a jam, I'm sure you'll use this experience and the skills you've honed further in the future for even bigger projects =].

Captain Corn's Escape by 54T4NmI5T 2021-04-28T17:26:44Z

Really cute little platformer! Love the little corn kernel main character and the backgrounds were (and I mean this as a compliment) disgusting :D. Like they really set the atmosphere and the grossness of being swallowed alive. Adding onto this, the music does the same, love it goes all wonky and distorted the further you go!

The movement was nearly spot on! I slipped off some platforms twice and I was wondering if this was due to the game still registering my directional input/didn't update soon enough. The collisions for certain things seemed a little iffy too but nothing too major! With some tweaking it would easily feel smoother.

I love the leaving a dead body when you die as a mechanic as it actually helped in a few spots! I wonder in a full fledged release you'd want to lean into that and intentionally design sections to make the character die over and over to create a heap of kernels to progress (or maybe that's a bit too grim haha!)

Overall well done on your first ludum game! Great job and look forward to any future stuff you do =]

The Descent for Knowledge by Stewmega 2021-04-27T03:43:29Z

Hey @stewmega it's me from lectvs's twitch chat! Great entry, loved seeing it on twitch I played it myself. Love the setting and enemies and that sweet spin jump like metroid. Like some others said, checkpoints would have been nice but it does make it a challenge getting a little further each time. I'd maybe say the sword could be the first powerup to make it a bit easier but maybe that'd be too easy? Either way great entry and look forward to seeing any future stuff you do :D.

funny slug game by programming_sock 2021-05-01T17:52:19Z

As a fellow GB artist myself, very happy to see a handful of GB studio entries this jam!

Wonderful use of the Gameboy palette, very cute sprites and setting. I always love seeing games with non-human characters, especially ones that are more unusual creatures like sea slugs!

As someone who has only dabbled with GB studio I know that any comment about the movement is something that can probably only be tweaked with a headache haha so I'm unsure if I can even suggest tweaking the movement. But if possible, messing with the jump speed and movement would help for a much smoother experience.

As I said, love the sprites and art and the only crit I have is I was initially quite afraid of the spiked balls as I thought they were dangerous. I think if you had them as floating way above where the character can go, that would aid in them being seen as more atmospheric and less a dangerous object.

As @pixelbug pointed out, I was initially thinking the game would have kept track of the shells I collected and then at the end I would have either been required to have so many, and then go back and collect more, or I would have gotten a normal ending/bad ending if I didn't have enough and then a special ending/normal good ending if I had collected them all.

Other than that a really cute little game boy game entry, great job.

This is DEEPER by TERA_BITE 2021-04-26T23:10:40Z

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Well executed simple premise with solid 1-bit artwork! Movement feels nice and responsive, I never felt like it was the games fault when I would smack into an obstacle and it has that almost tetris effect where I can imagine if I played this for a while and walked away, I'd be seeing a knight falling down everywhere/the world scrolling down. Great job at utilising the theme and I can see this being a fun mobile game with gyro control for extra difficulty. Wonderful job! (and I love the humour filled beginning of the game, being kicked down, it's a small touch but it adds so much!)

Bathyscaphe by ipodtouch0218 2021-04-28T05:32:18Z

Wonderfully atmospheric deep sea exploration game! The audio design/sound effects are spot on. The random strange noises adds a spooky lonely/unknown vibe to it that works so well. I also love the little puttering sound of the engine.

Movement was really solid and weighty and the DONK into the sides was very well felt! Since it's procedurally generated that means a lot of replayability! A few criticisms I have are are more subjective so take them with a grain of salt :D.

My first is that diving at the start, and resurfacing was a pretty smooth experience. The problem later on came from going really far down, like 300m, 400m, 500m and kind of grimacing at the idea of doing the entire trip back up. The easiest solution would be to sell an item that can let you instantly resurface/automatically go back to land but I think this is pretty cheap and not in spirit to the game. Instead, I wonder if you could sell a navigation tool that could route the shortest path/a direct flowing line to the surface with arrows, which would mean the player would still need to navigate their own way back to the surface but would cut out a lot of dead ends.

My second is perhaps the mouse is a little underutilised, since the only action is aiming the light. A potential small inclusion would be for a small hook or robotic hand could pop out which would mean you could use it to collect treasure? You'd still be prone to bumping into stuff even with the hand but could make for a more involved experience than just bumping into it.

My last crit is I think maybe deeper down there could be enemies? Something additional to avoid and keep you on your toes or even just stationary ones that might shoot projectiles or swipe if you get too close.

But as I said these aren't "improvements" in a vertical sense, but more like a horizontal sense :D.

Either way great game and good job on finishing! =]

Memare by jogo 2021-04-27T03:34:11Z

Hats off to the choice of sound effects/underwater and breathing sounds, genuinely unsettling and really set the mood. The mood and atmosphere are just so strong! I agree with @whynot in that I didn't really understand the use of the hookshot, I think it might kill enemies after a while? Besides that, I actually think you nailed the movement and the speed of the hookshot, and the satisfying sound effect of it clunking. I also like that you can reel it back, I feel like you could expand on this as a hook/reel in treasure or debris and have it more exploration based (but that might not be what you had in mind/want to explore).

From the description it shows you've learnt a lot from this game jam so I would say this game is a success! Well done =]

Mole Hole by Swoof 2021-04-26T22:16:17Z

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Really cute game! Has a really nice retro arcade game feel to it, I can see it sitting right next to a pacman cabinet, begging you to do a little better each time!

Fits the theme really well, and more moles as main characters is wonderful to see. Nice music and sound effects and feels like a really nice complete package.

Well done!

Deepr Diver by Vitor Figueredo 2021-04-26T00:25:57Z

dive.png My oh my is that one absolutely addictive game you've made. Wonderfully simple and easy to understand, hard to master. Took me a try or two to really get into the groove of the movement but it's really solid.

Love the early 2bit Gameboy style graphics, also kind of reminiscent of the Game & Watch series which is always a treat. Great use of the theme since you're always moving downward and diving and it's really just a super well executed idea! I did say I wouldn't post a comment until I got to 50m but ah, it's just a little out of reach ...or is it? :D

Beepo's Shop by itsBoats 2021-05-01T07:20:13Z

What an absolute banger of an entry. You really utilised the theme of the dare to what I think is one of the most on point entries!

Love the minimalistic artstyle, very clean, very readable and very charming. The movement feels snappy, responsive and I always knew how my little drill friend would move. The HUD was very nice and simple and told me exactly what I needed to know, along with the shops UI, to the point!

Really fun loop of digging deeper, getting more money and then making your way speedily up to the surface. I think if there's one thing that you do so well that I've seen other games struggle with, it's the movement back to a shop. A lot of games will use the same movement type for all forms of travel, so it's nice that the fact our little drill throttles it on straight lines, means it works SO well for upward travel, and then when it digs, its block by block. So top marks for that.

With only a bit more polishing and it possibly being expanded upon I could really see this on the Nintendo Switch or Steam!

Really really solid entry and great job on making such a polished and fun game :D.

Ella by Digo 2021-04-27T01:11:10Z

Super chill and spot on addictive cookie-clicker/clicker game. Music is super chill and really sets a wonderful mood, perfect to have on in the background whilst Ella keeps on diggin' :D. What is it with us humans loving to see numbers increase haha! So moreish! Great job to you all.

Crystal Mites by Dan Fornace 2021-04-27T05:18:59Z

That's one boppin tune right there! Super cute all around, love the bounce mechanic, reminds me of the Game boy game chalvo 55! Solid pixel art all around. Love the sound effects too, they're perfectly pitched for each subsequent bounce. My only gripe is the difficulty is a bit much that would be circumvented with some checkpoints or just easing up on the spikes a lil' :D. Great game, and great music!

Gecko Dive by bqq 2021-05-04T20:22:24Z

What a sleek and polished puzzle pusher!

Really solid art work and direction, the choice of a Gecko is top notch and cute and the low poly artstyle is pulled off so well.

Movement feels great, like others said moving backwards feels a little wonky at first but once you learn how it moves it's very smooth! I love the introduction of more mechanics the further you go to, and the level design/ramping difficulty is really well balanced

The real main thing that was so polished and memorable is that gecko screen wipe/transition. Brilliant idea, very cute and charming and memorable. Bravo!

The only crit I would maybe have is an undo button to go back a step/steps the more you hold. It's not integral as the levels are quite short and there's not much to redo, but it would minimise the amount of times a player would have to redo a certain set of actions and perhaps by extension less frustration.

Overall really great entry and with not much more polishing it would easily be ready for steam/consoles.

Great job!