Below Earth by klianc09
You are a miner/explorer/pyrotechnist/bomb throwing maniac who is exploring an underground cave and exploring/slaughtering the lifeforms it's inhabitating.
----- Controls -----
Arrowkeys to move
A/S/X/Y/Z to blow shit up
Gamepad support made it 1 MB larger... so yeah, it has gamepad support!
------ Update News ------
Post-Como Version Updated:
-Mainly balancing updates decreasing the difficulty to make it more playable for people that didn't spent 72 hours making it.
-You can now actually Pause the game
-Prettier tilemap rendering
Original Version Updates:
-Fixed bug that crashed the game when you finished the last level
-Changed Java JRE target to 1.7
-Added a logger writing to a file, for easier error reporting next time.
-----Behind the scenes-----
Although this is a jam entry, you can view the source code on bitbucket if you are interested.
Created using IntelliJ IDEA and LibGDX
Sounds created with bfxr
Pixelart created with aseprite
----- Controls -----
Arrowkeys to move
A/S/X/Y/Z to blow shit up
Gamepad support made it 1 MB larger... so yeah, it has gamepad support!
------ Update News ------
Post-Como Version Updated:
-Mainly balancing updates decreasing the difficulty to make it more playable for people that didn't spent 72 hours making it.
-You can now actually Pause the game
-Prettier tilemap rendering
Original Version Updates:
-Fixed bug that crashed the game when you finished the last level
-Changed Java JRE target to 1.7
-Added a logger writing to a file, for easier error reporting next time.
-----Behind the scenes-----
Although this is a jam entry, you can view the source code on bitbucket if you are interested.
Created using IntelliJ IDEA and LibGDX
Sounds created with bfxr
Pixelart created with aseprite
Ratings
| Coolness | 91% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.39 | 252 |
| Audio(Jam) | 2.68 | 509 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.38 | 157 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.21 | 440 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.74 | 308 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.17 | 299 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.00 | 398 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.38 | 260 |
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html
The game was fun, and I thought the graphics and particle effects were nice. I made it to level 19.
I had a few gripes, though:
- The player movement felt really sluggish, especially combined with the bomb throwing mechanic -- I felt like there was barely enough room to maneuver, much less to get the run-up required to lob a bomb at enemies.
- I felt like the spitting mole things should only take one hit to kill. They're hard enough to dodge as it is.
- When you restart the level, you start with the amount of health you had when you got to that level. That kind of sucks when you only have 1 health left and the level is nearly impossible to beat without taking damage.
Overall, I liked it! Good work. :)
@TheLastBanana: I'm glad you like it. And I totally agree with you, tweaking the numbers is really hard during ludum dare when you can't find a playtester in the middle of the night.
The Post-Compo Version has been updated addressing all of your issues in some way and generally making the game easier.
Anyway, it was good, and I liked the enemies (damn sharks. I thought I was safe on the land...). Great job!
It seems like I always make my games too hard, which is kind of a pity. The "spawning besides enemies" issue is my fault, for not paying attention when generating some levels.
And I don't know why I thought restarting with the same health when dying was a good idea. I fixed it in the post-compo version.
@GreatBigJerk: I assumed it would run on OSX because libGDX supports it, but I have no Mac myself so it could take a while until I manage to fix it.
I'm hoping to get a HTML5 build of it done though.
For instance, the tentacles can slap bombs, even ones held by the little blue guys, and the little blue guys can get killed by the moles(?).
I do think the moles are not a very good enemy type, since there's no way to defend against their shots and they aren't the easiest to hit with bombs, nor the easiest to avoid with the floaty movement. That room filled with many moles is especially hell, since it'll drop your health down, and it'll stay that way for the rest of the game (unless you can get every medkit along the way without getting hurt).
The game is fun and I like the difference between using bombs vs using TNT. I have to agree that the moles and the sharks were a little annoying as enemies, but I liked that there were a variety of enemy types.
Personally, I prefer designed levels over random levels. That's just a preference, but I think it would've led to more interesting interactions with the enemy types. Since it was random, I think it their role less interesting.
Overall I liked the game, but especially since it was a jam entry, I'm wondering why no soundtrack?
Thanks for sharing this and congrats. And thank you again for playing and commenting on my game! :)
@admung: Yes, this interactions between enemies weren't intended but I think that's what makes it most fun.
@shadow64: At first I planned to only generate levels, but then I gave in and made a quick level reader that parses a text file for the tutorial level and used it in other levels afterwards too. In hindsight I also realized that somehow the hand-made levels were more fun than the (poorly) generated ones.
As with the music part: I really think that music is important. It makes or brakes a game. And I'm always too scared to add music that doesn't fit or is annoying. And currently I'm not confident enough with audio tools to make some music myself.