The Dark Cave by Tom Stephenson
A Small Atmospheric Platformer
In a location with such little light, the creatures within The Dark Cave have evolved to use sound as a means to navigate their environment and find prey.
You play as a creature with eyes from outside the caves. Use sound to attract light sources and make dangerous creatures think you're somewhere else.


GAMEPLAY QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK
Your feedback has been amazing and so useful. Thank you, I really appreciate all the kind words and criticism! A few questions have come a few times so I figured it would be easier to answer them directly here.
Is the Glowing Bug Creature supposed to stop following me at the water?
The flying glowy bug creature was mainly designed to help introduce the concept of creatures blindly following sound and wasn’t intended to follow the player beyond the water. In hindsight I probably should have added a scripted scenario where it leaves!
Is the Spider movement procedural?
The spider movement is procedural! I’m proud of what I made in the time given, but the movement does still require a lot of work! I had a few issues when trying to prevent the spider from climbing up ledge so it sometimes still gets to places it shouldn’t.
What are the rocks for?
You can throw to create sound and distract enemy creatures from your position. The only time this is really useful is when you're stood on the ledge and need to jump over the spider creature. It's a mechanic I wish I had time to explore more with extra puzzles - I think it has a lot of potential.
CONTROLS
Control | Keyboard and Mouse | Controller ------------ | ------------- | ------------- Move Left | A or Left Arrow Key | Left stick left Move Right | D or Right Arrow Key | Left stick right Jump | Space | A Throw Object | E | X Pause | Escape | Start Button
Let’s Bring The Community To Twitter - We should all follow each other!
I’m Tom, and you can find me on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/DeveloperTom1
Created in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 46.
| Youtube | https://tomstephensondeveloper.itch.io/the-dark-cave |
| Youtube | https://tomstephensondeveloper.itch.io/the-dark-cave |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/the-quiet-caves |
Ratings
| Overall | 889th | 3.629⭐ | 309🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1145th | 3.357⭐ | 307🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1194th | 3.303⭐ | 306🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 2267th | 2.951⭐ | 309🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 864th | 3.871⭐ | 311🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 83th | 4.257⭐ | 309🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 68🗨️ |
(nvm i commented this on the wrong game)
Did i see procedural animation on the spider?
THAT IS SOO COOL
I only found out that throwing objects was an option after my first time through, so I went back and tried it and I could see some really fun puzzles involving the throwing and luring of enemies, but as of now it seems to be purely optional.
There were a few instances where I wasn't sure if the game behaved as intended, but they were pretty consistent across both playthroughs. Is it , for example, intended that the fyling glowing companion we find at the start leaves us right before the water section? I tried to get them across, but couldn't seem to manage it.
I couldn't get the light to follow me over the water, not sure if that's intentional.
Well done.
Looking really promising, hope you move this project forward.
Apologies for the late reply to most of you, I've had a few issues loading the comments section (and other parts of the website)
@ssntf @super-hadoken @radow
The flying glowy bug creature was mainly designed to help introduce the concept of creatures blindly following sound and wasn't intended to follow the player beyond the water. In hindsight I probably should have added a scripted scenario where it leaves!
@enderr42 @raeya
The spider movement is procedural! I'm proud of what I made in the time given, but the movement does require a lot of work! I had a few issues when trying to prevent the spider from climbing up ledge so it sometimes still gets to places it shouldn't. Apologies @3lstmsinatrenchcoat for the unlucky bug find!
A lot of comments have mentioned sound which I certainly agree needs some balancing / work!
Thanks again for all the feedback, it's definitely made me want to do some more work on the game!
We actually use the same graphics and atmosphere style :D
But a total different take on theme and mechanics.
So unsurprisingly... I really like the graphics and the dark mood.
The spider is really impressive, well done!
Overall it's a really good game. This style is awesome and the animations are really nice. I like this ambient background, the sound design is good, only this clicking sound is too loud I think.
Thanks for amazing experience, you should totally make more of it!)
, maybe a small introductionary video or a few keypoints would have been nice.. But none the least, a well nice game. Well done ;)
Finished it and gotta say the final corridor let my years bleeding xD Other than that, impressive.
Despite that, I see a lot of potential in this game and really love it!
One minor issue I have encountered is that you can end up with the monster standing on your respawn point with only option to restart the game.
Awesome, hope to see more of it! Cheers!
very nice! :D
If you make a game like this, polish it up and stuff I'll buy it dude!
On the second run I've switch pace and it was working a bit better, it's too bad that there is only one monster! Also at the end the sound of ball object on gournd breaking is maybe a bit too much ;)
A nice entry! It should be improved and made into a real game!
Know for the mood: I get way to much emotionally invested for the 5 min of the game I'm still filling it in my chest will I writing this so you did a very good job !
If there's a specific puzzle you had in mind with that, perhaps it'd come across better by resetting the spider too when you respawn?
Good job on the spider procedural movement, btw. I have tried that problem myself in the past and I'm really impressed you took that on in a game jam.
Love the gloomy limbo style. Great job!
Nice Limbo style game. You did capture the mood!
Very cool, and coherent feeling. I would like to see more puzzles, more careful movement, more in general! As a critique, it felt like the player is supposed to pay attention to the noise they make, but both staying on the ground and jumping made noise. The spider wasn't too smart. I liked the feeling and the concept. I don't think that it fit the theme especially well.
A minor complaint would be that the splat sounds got a little repetitive.
Great game and great experience!
This was seriously frightening. My heart was racing while evading the spider. Nicely done!
That said, because of the Limbo influence on aesthetic, you may want to consider imagining alternative villains to avoid the easy comparison OR tweaking aesthetic more to further distinguish the two projects; I think the contrasting game mechanic is a very good start to that end.
...not that Limbo OWNS the rights to giant b&w spider stories.
...nor was it the first.
The map is very expansive for the short time we had. It felt like a real exciting journey.
I like that the game starts with us plummeting into the depths of this cave. That sets a great tone!
I also wish I knew when I was running low/out of objects to throw.
There should be some instruction to start the game, not just below the screen, I think.
Alternating splats or having varying degrees of splats depending on velocity could be a good solution.
And regarding a wider range of spider sound palettes, etc, feel free to contact me for music & sound fx in the future if interested.
The procedural animation of the spider is obviously amazing, especially in such a short time, and while some extra polish and variety on sound would be nice, this is a great proof of concept.
The splatting went too intense near the end of the game, but the concept is great, I would definitely play the full version.
Thanks for the game!
But the game has real potential. Great respect for the Spider work. Good job!
I checked your tutorial it was very nice
I think it would be better to not to hear too many sounds there though, since constant clacking just breaks the mood for me. Maye, a bit less of those clacky things in groups that you step into all the time?
And then, all the underground creatures that dwell around would hear you well and you'd need to stay still to pretend you are not there, perhaps?
Nicely done!
Not sure if it was meant to be like this, but I managed to reach the end just by running.
Overall feel of the game is good as well, but I love the spider best.
that being said, I'm not sure I understand what the game is about.
Shame it was so short, but we can get the idea... So, I basically jumped over the spider and ran for it. Would have been nice to have a few more places that I could have paused and maybe required me to throw things in order to distract teh spider and get to the next 'safe' area. There's so much potential with this though. Hope you do something with it.
Would love to play more of it with puzzles and story!
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Ao que entendi você é um cara super resistente à queda, mas extremamente frágil ao toque de espinhos e criaturas das trevas (hahahahah, achei isso divertido e engraçado, não é uma crítica).
A mecânica é muito interessante, personagem de jogador (PdJ) com controles de plataforma e efeito colateral de movimentação na geração de som que permite outras entidades reagirem ao ambiente e ao movimento do PdJ.
Infelizmente a luz parou de me seguir e me seguia apenas por conta do som, então eu tive que avançar sem muita iluminação.
Talvez eu perdi alguma coisa no caminho (passei por lugares escuros) por conta de não estar com a luz até o fim.
Aprender a jogar foi bem simples, fazer o personagem já cair fazendo barulho e (assim) mostrar a mecânica, foi algo muito bem aplicado.
O fluxo de jogo desafia um pouco por conta do estágio, mas se torna fácil (só sair correndo loucamente no final).
A aranha não ressurgir no ponto inicial dela após você morrer para ela foi algo que me deixou pensativo. Será que foi planejado para ser assim? Fiquei pensando que se for, então não teria como passar de primeira o jogo (não sei, vou jogar mais uma vez para fazer alguns testes).
PS: Gostei bastante da água também (o efeito de boiar das toras de madeira).
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa:
O estilo visual fez muita referência a jogos como LIMBO, incluindo a aranha e outras escolhas.
O personagem (ao meu ver), fora do tempo de Ludum Dare, mereceria uma nova aparência, mesmo que não mude tanto. Para tempo de game jam está bom (ao meu ver).
O áudio tem pontos positivos e negativos, creio que seja um barulho que estresse, caso se repita sempre (o som que faz quando pisa em algo). Talvez mexer um pouco nesse som possa deixar ele mais confortável (seja abafando ou criando diversas variações, para não ficar repetitivo).
A narrativa é simples, parece ser: você caiu em um buraco, saia vivo daí e corra por sua vida.
Creio que poderia ser melhorada em caso de continuidade do projeto por parte da produção.
3 - Cultura:
O jogo conversa com outros jogos do mesmo gênero e faz bem muitas coisas que já estão consagradas (ao meu ver).
Poderia ser polido e incrementado, distanciando de suas referências de base, ganhando características mais próprias/únicas.
4 - Monetização:
Com o jogo polido e estendido, creio que seria uma boa vender em stores como Steam.
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
As I understand it, you are a super resistant guy to fall, but extremely fragile to the touch of thorns and dark creatures (hahahahah, I found this fun and funny, it is not a criticism).
The mechanics are very interesting, player character (PC) with platform controls and side effect of movement in the generation of sound that allows other entities to react to the environment and movement of the PC.
Unfortunately the light stopped following me and followed me just because of the sound, so I had to move on without much lighting.
Maybe I missed something on the way (I passed dark places) due to not being with the light until the end.
Learning to play was very simple, making the character fall down making noise and (thus) showing the mechanics, it was very well applied.
The game flow is a little challenging due to the stage, but it becomes easy (only run wildly at the end).
The spider not resurfacing at the starting point after you died for her was something that made me thoughtful. Was it planned to be this way? I was thinking that if it is, then there would be no way to pass the game first (I don't know, I will play again to do some tests).
PS: I really liked the water too (the floating effect of the wooden logs).
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
The visual style made a lot of reference to games like LIMBO, including the spider and other choices.
The character (in my view), outside of Ludum Dare's time, would deserve a new appearance, even if it doesn't change that much. For game jam time it's fine (in my view).
The audio has positive and negative points, I believe it is a noise that stresses, if it is repeated all the time (the sound you make when you step on something). Maybe tweaking this sound a little can make it more comfortable (either drowning out or creating several variations, so it doesn't get repetitive).
The narrative is simple, it seems to be: you fell into a hole, get out of there alive and run for your life.
I believe it could be improved if the project continues with the production.
3 - Culture:
The game talks to other games of the same genre and does a lot of things that are already established (in my view).
It could be polished and increased, moving away from its base references, gaining unique characteristics.
4 - Monetization:
With the game polished and extended, I think it would be a good sell in stores like Steam.
Wanted to play more of it, but more content would have meant less polish, so I think you made the right call to keep it short.
The reason why I'm here. Really caught my eye. the game has it's unique vibe. Reminds me a limbo ofc ;)
* * *
** Mood **
I like games with good mood and also trying to create game with good vibe, so I really like it. I'm also inviting you to rate my game :)
Good entry