i couldnt figure out what to do but i absolutely loved the intro and the aesthetic is absolutely top notch. really great

Oh to be 62 again...

Nice work. Love the art, sounds, and music. definitely conveys the mood well. Also the little animations when you pick up items are super charming. Nicely polished!

This is my favourite so far. The music is perfect for the style, and the puzzles are fun and well-implemented.

The artwork is great, the music fits with the game and the little bit of humor was a nice touch.

However, I have no idea where to find most of the items. I've spent about 20 minutes looking and only found 4 (end of maze, digging icon mirage, tumbleweed and the oasis one).

Hey, this is super well made! Running around the desert reminded a little bit of Minit, except here I'm trying to apply the shovel to everything instead of the watering can(If you don't know it I really recommend that game, it's super fun!).

Found 2 items so far and got stuck for a bit, but I find the ostrich entertaining so I'm gonna keep digging. See you in a while.

Love this!!! It was so cute. I got a few items in and wondered why there was no sound, so I restarted just to be able to get some sweet sweet audio :grin:

I'm so sad that I wasn't able to figure out what the obelisk means :( But I got everything else. Great work!!

Really nice art!

Great game! Solving puzzles is really satisfying, and the desert is the exact right size where I don't feel completely lost, but you can still find new things for a while.

I got distracted by how much I enjoyed the puzzles and forgot to say! The intro cutscene was really blurry for me? I think sprite interpolation or something was on, but it became clear and crisp once the main gameplay started.

May also be worth turning off the default game maker splash screen? Not a huge concern though. Loved it!

Fun game! It took me a short time to find the hints, and then the game became much more fun! I enjoyed the variety of puzzles to solve. I wasn't able to find the ostrich artifact (I got the ostrich to run away, but was unable to dig where it had been standing, due to having dug there before). Not sure if that was a bug, or perhaps I just didn't solve the puzzle?

Anywho: loved the art, the style, the silly humor, and it played really well overall. Good job!

really like this -- gonna keep [laying it -- also can u try to distribute without installer -- it sometimes turns people off from trying your game

great art style, music and puzzles! I had a hard time finding the hints at first, but then i saw the little description under every treasures. Good job!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm glad people have been enjoying our LD entry.

Sounds like there have been a couple bugs down to GameMaker weirdness. Texture interpolation and no audio aren't usual, apologies if you run into anything like that. I'd imagine a restart is likely to fix them.

THE DOWNLOAD HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REMOVE THE INSTALLER, IT IS NOW A STANDALONE .EXE :)

Cheers everyone, enjoy your LD!

~Skyeward

its beautiful especially the senior citizen protagonist going on. <3

Fun little game. Especially enjoyed the music and puzzles. Did find it a bit hard to figure out in the beginning. Great job!

Great pixel art! The introduction was hilarious! I found everything, but it was somehow sad that there was no ending.

The little puzzles are nice, some more difficult than others (I digged all the morse code before I understood it was actually morse code. Yeah, 62 not so wise. But seriously, morse code?? x) )

I had a lot of fun with this one, great entry!

that could be easy on steam

funny game but iam somewhat confused where to dig

The idea of the game is superb, it's simple, but really interesting to play. Also art and sounds are good too. Well done!

Nice time killer for the lunch time.

Dang this looks super cool but I'm on a mac. Let me know if you get a webGL version!

Found 4 items! :D Love the music and the art, also the "puzzles" are fun! AND, this is a small detail but, I love the way the sand shines in the middle!! :D

Fantastic. Wish I could vote already. Had same ostrich bug and could not do the runes. (sigh).

Fun narrative, simple art style, and impactful dialogue system! Nice little puzzle game! Overall a good experience.

Some critiques:

-I was confused what the goal was at first. Would have been nice to have a little more of an intro to the gameplay and goals

-I felt like some of the puzzles were a bit too difficulty. I didn't end up solving the obelisk or the characters on the ground one. I would have loved to see what kind of ending the game had though

-The digging animation could be sped up a bit imo, it felt a bit tedious at times.

-It would have been nice to turn the music off when looking for the river. I kept switching from the menu to the main game to restart the song loop so I can hear the river.

-Clue text should stay even after getting the artifact because I solved some of the puzzles without reading the clue

This was the first game that made me laugh out loud. The intro could be a hair faster, but once I got into it, the puzzles were subtle and fun.

I finally beat the game after watching elysia and honestdan run out of time. It was quite clever, but I thought the ostrich and obelisk hints were a bit too vague- I dug a LOT of holes around each of them despite having an idea of what I should be doing. The dialogue effects are superb. Art is very cute and I like that your community was involved.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Quick note about the ostrich, the artifact is not buried where the ostrich is stood. If you aren't finding anything there, that isn't a bug. There is, however, a rare bug where the ostrich disappears from the game, so if you ever find yourself in a game where the ostrich has completely left the map, then you've bugged. A restart will fix that. I'm not quite sure the cause of the bug, but to be safe, don't access your museum menu near the ostrich, I think that may have something to do with it.

Hope you're all enjoying your LD!

~Skyeward

this was a pretty enjoyable and amusing puzzle game, nice little character animations (i like how his hat bounces, haha) clearly some love went into it with all the different locations to find. i went as far as to dig up 7 items at least

If you can generate a mac or web build it would be great! : D

Great humor and puzzles!

"You're young!You'll work it out!"
"I'm 62"
Five stars for Humour

Loved it! Great puzzles, not overly difficult, but satisfying. Didn't realize the silhouettes had hints until I was down to two, so that was helpful. (Ostrich was the most frustrating one even though I had an idea of what to do.) Art/music well executed.

Very fun. I always enjoy puzzle games. The humor at the start was fantastic. The graphics were really solid as was the music. Glad I could find everything. Thanks for sharing it with us on stream!

I learned morse code with this game 100% educational game 

This game was so awesome. Very NES vibe with taking something simple and stretching it into something you want to continue playing. Amazing job you guys!

great game!

Lots of fun! I didn't get to finish because the ostrich bugged, it seems, but I really enjoyed everything I played. Reminded me of one of those classic CD Rom games from scholastic book club. I thought the intro narrative was especially charming, and the humour landed well. Great job, thanks for the game!

I did not manage to find all the items, but I do enjoy games with puzzles and riddles. I also liked the intro a lot. I would probably wanted one or two more clues as to where to search to make it a bit easier. A very solid entrance!

Very fun game, I love these games that make you do stuff outside of the game (like translating the runes and morse code). I couldn't find all of them (I don't get the morse code one) and also I think I lost the ostrich one, because I dug the place it was standing on before I figured out the solution, so I can't dig there anymore.

Very fun, I loved that some puzzles were more challenging than others. There was a bug with the ostrich that made it hard to finish the game.

Cute game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 45 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/r6FwX_V0zMo

I am the morse king.

Thanks for hanging out last night in stream-- here's the video of your game if you wanted to see it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/493306336

Certainly the game that has held the most attention so far. The game is very good and catchy. I still lack two treasures: the ostrich and the obelisk. I will not give up! Everything about this game is very good: Simple, polished art, well-crafted music that completely immerses us in the game atmosphere and simple and satisfying gameplay.
For me, one of the best so far.

Congratulations for the work!

I think you already played ours. It is not? If not, waste some time and try it:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/soundscapes

I love how the character has a smooth movement to it ... its the most interesting part of the game for me perhaps ... the skeleton and the other scenario details makes you want to understand more about the lore

I also must say that the scenario was very beautifully made

Had an absolute blast playing this on stream. This is my current favorite entry from this iteration of Ludum Dare. Loved everything about it. I rate it 62 out of 62. Great job!

One of the best so far! You should certainly try this! Nice puzzles, with a lot of variety and a pretty solid consistent art style.

Beautiful, smart, funny. This game is simple and yet packs a lot of fun and clever puzzles. Keep making great games!

I really enjoed and was lucky to have the creator of the game in my stream. Because one or two of the riddles are pretty challenging. But none of them are really unfair or too hard.
I love the design and the look and feel of the game.
The Riddles where very cool and the placement of the artifacts where soo "intuitive" that I already found a lot of just assuming the position without any hints.
I loved the "fourth wall" requirement for some riddles.

All in one a really cool game. Maybe you can just add two or three more levels, polish it slightly more and then you will have a real cool sellable product.

Awesome mate

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/494940957?t=4h9m25s

Hope you got some valuable feedback on your game and looking forward to seeing you next LD jam if I dont catch you before then! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin