The Cavern of Bad Ideas by Jani Nykanen

[raw]
made by Jani Nykanen for LD 41 (COMPO)

<em>thumb</em>itch.jpg

What is it ?

In this game you play some kind of something from some planet located somewhere. You are trapped in some unknown cavern, and your goal is collect eight blue power gems to power up the teleporter that will send you back to your home planet. You must shoot evil triangles before they kill you. For some reason, of course. And collect clocks to make sure you won't run out of time. Don't ask why.

Yes I know, the best story ever!

Genres (or kind-of-genres) combined:

  • Side-view 2D metroidvania
  • Point-n-click games
  • "Light gun" shooters

Tools

This game was written in C in 48 hours. Respect it (or don't).

Notes:

Didn't have time for audio (or proper pathfinding!)

Screenshots

ld_02.png

ld_03.png

ld_04.png

Ratings

Overall 78th 3.881⭐ 61🧑‍⚖️
Fun 126th 3.692⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 284th 3.492⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Theme 333th 3.617⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 64th 4.081⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Humor 246th 2.955⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Mood 147th 3.464⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 41🗨️

Feedback

Fleoh
22. Apr 2018 · 18:13 UTC
Have test it, good gameplay man !
battleZays
22. Apr 2018 · 19:17 UTC
just awesome
rel
22. Apr 2018 · 19:36 UTC
Nice idea, feels like a completed, cute little handcrafted game... great work man! Runs also fine on Linux (some issues with pause mode / fullscreen here).
Adam Wallberg
23. Apr 2018 · 01:39 UTC
Fantastic game! The whole implementation feels super refined and complete. I had some issues with the diggable blocks though. Since I'm slightly colorblind they looked identical to the standard blocks. Other than that, this is probably one of the best LD games I've played!
selfsame
23. Apr 2018 · 02:29 UTC
polished game! The gameplay was smooth and I enjoyed the challenging map.
Kusaihana
23. Apr 2018 · 06:37 UTC
Neat! Good job (:
tipyx
23. Apr 2018 · 08:24 UTC
One of my favorite entry (for now! :p), good job! The realization is pretty neat, and the gameplay pretty strong. Suggestion of improvement : adding a basic pathfinding for letting the player to click directly where he/she wants to go :).
Aterlamia
23. Apr 2018 · 10:28 UTC
Fun little game plenty challenging , i did miss some sound or music
JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2018 · 10:31 UTC
Completed ! Incredibly comprehensive for a 48 hour game ! Well done :)
Tutti Ankka
23. Apr 2018 · 10:37 UTC
Neat concept. Couldn't finish the game, it was hard! I like the art-style.
Damien Remars
23. Apr 2018 · 10:45 UTC
Fun!
Maybe make more obvious when we acquire a new ability.
XCVZXC
23. Apr 2018 · 10:48 UTC
I really like the graphics. Gameplay is good too, I didn't find boring trying to complete it many times
Petro Shoferystov
23. Apr 2018 · 11:19 UTC
You are a true Jedi "C" Master! Impressive, especially for an 48 hours job. And plays great!
Antti Haavikko
23. Apr 2018 · 11:41 UTC
Looks dope as heck! Are you really gonna make me boot up windows again? 🤔
Belga54
23. Apr 2018 · 13:33 UTC
This game is worth 20 minutes playing it! Well I didn't manage to get all of the gems(6/8) but I loved trying and retrying and getting the map in my head. Had fun playing it. Sorry 'cuz you didn't find the time for audio 'cuz it would be so cool with audio. Also, glad to play a C written game. It's so cool to see them nowadays.
Arthur Amorim
23. Apr 2018 · 16:24 UTC
I love the art style for this game, the concept is GREAT! and it fits the theme, i just missed some sounds. You did a really good job!
TheMadPangolin
23. Apr 2018 · 17:06 UTC
The pixel art is gorgeous, and smaller details like old-school transitions really make this game feel authentic. It's incredibly impressive to see a game like this written in C for a compo entry. Brilliant work :D
Jaime Paz Lopes
23. Apr 2018 · 18:54 UTC
amazing game. the time management make this game too hard for me, i am a really slow player and like to watch enemy movement to find a way. after some deaths i got better but couldnt go further than getting "super dig".
Q-ro
23. Apr 2018 · 22:45 UTC
Save for some minor difficulties with the controller scheme (mouse can exit the window making it hard to not get hit) or moving from room to room being a bit finicky some times i really likes this game, awesome work :D .
HKoisumi
24. Apr 2018 · 00:15 UTC
Freaking amazing! Excelent work, wanna check ours too??

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/hype-time
CosmicCrystalGames
24. Apr 2018 · 04:34 UTC
This was fantastic! Just needs audio :D
Jon_Nova
24. Apr 2018 · 05:00 UTC
Realy cool
LandoSystems
24. Apr 2018 · 07:09 UTC
Great game, really loved it. The art style is just perfect and the gameplay is solid too. Audio would really put it over the top. Excellent work!
Nanda
24. Apr 2018 · 13:30 UTC
After a lot of tries, I finally finished it with 1 second left. Absolutely amazing. Kinda sad that there's no audio, but I'm actually glad there was no pathfinding. That made the movement a lot more challenging and interesting. Deserved 5/5 everywhere :P
GameDevMumin
24. Apr 2018 · 15:09 UTC
Nice art style! Similar to one of Shovel Knight :D I felt confused in dark level, first thought "why there is nothing", hah :D Great job!
Swarrly
24. Apr 2018 · 17:04 UTC
Lots of fun. i really like the art style.
joqlepecheur
24. Apr 2018 · 18:01 UTC
That was definitely worth playing (and replay :) )

Fits the theme very well, the visuals are nice with a well chosen palette.
It's a shame there is no sound, but the game was made in C that's an impressive performance that quite makes up for it in my opinion.

Difficulty is high, I wouldn't mind slower and smaller ennemies and more time given.
It was interesting however to see that time limitation encourages taking risks in a metroidvania where we usually take time to analyze surroundings.


I hope you give it one or two days work after the jam to add audio feedback and an easy mode and I will gladly tell my friends about the game and try to finish it for good.
Strato
24. Apr 2018 · 21:54 UTC
Very cool game, my main complaint was that the boundary space was a bit too narrow - more than once I would click out of the window by accident. Art was nothing too special but it worked well and was pleasant enough to look at. I also felt that some powerups were placed a bit too close to spikes, made it feel like cheap damage... but maybe that's just me being bad.
visumecadroide
25. Apr 2018 · 09:07 UTC
Really nice. It's interesting to have time as health.
Some improvements :
- when hero pick a power, you should pause the game to let player some time to understand what he picked up. When i picked my first power i didn't had time to understand what it was.
- i didn't understood the hero was able to destroy green walls when colliding unitl an enemy pushed me into one so it have to be clarified.
- use color rules that talks to the player : hero is green like some walls so i was thinking i could break them but no, it's possible onluy with a power. But the power is represented by a red rhombus instead of a green one like the walls it could destroy. And every power are represented by same red rhombus which adds confusion. Use colors that will help to understand relationship between elements and their use in the game
- highlight timer when it has only 10 seconds left
- font made me read "D IG" instead of "DIG"
- pause the game when player is out of of the game in window mode ( i miss clicked a lot of time and lost a lot of time)
- add recovery time when hero is hurt

I ragequit because some enemies was at rooms entry and that made me lose in awful ways :angry:

I would like to see a polish version of the game ;)

[My game](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/engine-in-shadow)
Reality Blind
25. Apr 2018 · 11:21 UTC
Awesome, that Metroid feel is what kept me playing and trying over !

Only 48 hours to make a game seems like it's easy for you when we see the result ! 😄
kr4ft3r
25. Apr 2018 · 13:33 UTC
Always refreshing to see a LD entry made in C. Really did enjoy it for a while. Graphics and delivery is so cool I wish I wasn't as confused most of the time. I never did learn what shooting bullets is for.
Kubenexion
25. Apr 2018 · 17:49 UTC
Really nice job, especially for a compo!
Good graphics and fun to play.
Mowztouch
27. Apr 2018 · 10:55 UTC
Very cool entry ! i made it to the teleporter. The end is awesome :)
Nice gameplay, very old school, good progression curve. First time you don't understand, second time you get the basics, third time you understand the goal, and so on.
Very good. Graphics are nice, story is the best ever as you mentionned :)
5 stars, i liked it, well done !
Samurai Ducks
30. Apr 2018 · 17:09 UTC
Great submission. Feels really polished :) Keep it up!
niterich
02. May 2018 · 15:33 UTC
It's a fun game to play and it has some nice visuals to compliment it. As others have said, the lack of music was kind of disappointing. The only thing I could suggest is adding an Easy Mode that gives you more time to explore.
le_american
02. May 2018 · 17:11 UTC
cool game! i really like the way you gotta move and the collecting time bit
randomphantom
03. May 2018 · 17:58 UTC
Wow, a metroidvania for compo. That is quite an amazing feat, and its cool that its in C - now for some code to study! Great job, although I would have preferred the game without a time limit, managed to make it to the end with quite a bit of trial and error gaming which isn't very fun. Also the powers could be better communicated although they were simple enough to understand once you tried it out.
Rombus
06. May 2018 · 15:23 UTC
The game is impressive, you have a minimap, the sliding animation, the graphics and gameplay, wow. If you've done the music it would have been awesome.

Also, the graphic you've put on top of this page is the kind of art I really really like.
I'd love to make a game with those graphics, something messed up, grotesque and gore...

I'm following you to see more of your work :D

Congrats on the entry!
Mr ChocolateSalmon
10. May 2018 · 03:48 UTC
It's a nice clean game. I really like how enemies make you lose time instead of life, which keeps the game simple and interesting. Bit confused at the start of the game, but it's good none-the-less :slight_smile:
cristiano.m.garcia
13. May 2018 · 13:08 UTC
Perfect design level and beautiful art. Congratulations for the game.

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape