The Cavern of Bad Ideas by Jani Nykanen

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



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🗨️ |
Maybe make more obvious when we acquire a new ability.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/hype-time
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.
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)
Only 48 hours to make a game seems like it's easy for you when we see the result ! 😄
Good graphics and fun to play.
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 !
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!
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