Nice game. The monsters are so cute I didn't want to shoot them.

This game sounds, looks, and feels amazing bro. Very well polished, I absolutely love the Art style! Keep up the good work :)

Really fun little game. The gameplay was simple, but there was enough back and forth between mining, defending, and upgrading that it was fun throughout.

Good job!

Beautiful game ! I love the Art and gameplay !

I really loved this. It was a hard but really rewarding game.

Graphics and the feel - nice!

Absolutely fantastic game. I really like the sounds and the grapihics. Even when in the end the whole shit collapsed! I'm not sure I got how to play it properly to win, but when I got it, I'll get back to you.

very good gameplay.
i am in love with this design. it became an amazing game.

Man I love this game, incredible art style with a great palette and the atmosphere you achieved with so little is great. Game mechanics are simple yet all work with each other, great game.

Ok, I played this A LOT longer than I intended too!

What a neat idea - what really sets this apart from all the other 'mine for resources' games is how well
it is connected to the second core mechanic: The defending part.

It really does work nice together, always having to decide whether to drill a bit deeper or to play safe and head back up.

Oh, and I really liked the idea that you had to purchase even the base mechanics. I dunno, it kind of opened the game up naturally.

Will there be more post-jam updates? I'll gladly come back for more!

pretty good game, had a lot of fun playing it. I wished there wree more variety of monsters because after some point the game just repeats itself. But besides that, really great game!

Great game!

Tiny nitpick: The die sound was pretty loud, compared to the other sounds/background music.

I really liked this game, both the resource-finding element and the upgrades/fights! The graphics are really beautiful, the sounds are very cool, and it's quite an addictive game. The only downside I find is that I'm playing on browser and the text in the upgrades is not really readable so I purchased things a bit randomly. But overall great experience!

Absolutely loved this game, probably the best one I've played so far. Amazing mood, good sound effects and music, the gameplay loop is really tight and well fine-tuned (although the drill upgrades were a bit merciless, but maybe I had a bad RNG spawn of resources). Managed to clear it until the end and it was a treat. 10/10 game for me

I found my favorite game so far in the jam.
Amazing atmosphere, graphics, sounds, and the gameplay is also entertaining. It's just amazing, congratulations for this great game. I got all the upgrades :)
5/5 for all.

Really enjoyed this! Having different types of resources to mine was a good way to make the players choose what to prioritize. I did feel like once I upgraded the laser to kill in a single hit the game became a little too easy. I wish there were even more upgrades, because I wanted to keep playing!

It's awesome! Both parts of the game interact very well with each other, feels like you're always short on time. It looks really good too

What an absolutely wonderful game! One of my favourites this jam for sure. The pixel art is crisp, the atmosphere is strong and unique, and it plays very smoothly. Finally, it is balanced well enough that just as it starts to get boring, it ends!

Congratulations, and thanks for making this.

Impressive game! :open_mouth:
I love the smooth progression with the upgrade feature and the amazing mood and the art direction :ok_hand:

Very good job !

My personal favourite so far! Everything is so cool I could play this for hours! Nice!

Genuinely terrifying! Choosing between upgrades it always feels like you're lacking in some area. Really nice and polished!

Really really good and refined! though easy to solve at the moment.
If you continue to work on it it could definitely sell
5/5 played to completion

very polished game,especially love the mood and the pixel art. great job!

Thank you all for your comments, i'm so happy you liked it!

@colapolka We haven't planned on any significant update (i also avoid them during the rating phase). I'd like to add a flying monster variety (which moves while shooting, hopefully making defense more interesting) that didn't make the cut though ;)

@adele-illustration Ah, thank you for the info - i changed the embed resolution, so it should be readable now. I'm not sure anyway how helpful the descriptions are :D

@jakier Ah cool, what was your strategy (especially regarding upgrades)? I'm always a bit careful to not make the jam games too hard, so you ideally have a 50/50 chance to finish it on the first run. But it might need to nerf OP strategies :D

Very good pixel art, great gameplay loop with cool setting. Awesome job! :smiley:

The graphics are the BEST!! Felt the mood was nice as well :) Great work on the gameplay, there's a lot of do.

AWESOME! Nice Idea and Gameplay... But the Sound was a little bit scratching for me :/

I got in the game for the graphics, stayed for the gameplay. I really enjoyed the combo of the mining, the resource management and the battle. I was very worried for the lack of sand on my game but I managed to complete it just fine.

Something to improve the game, maybe making some flying enemies come from the top of the screen would make more challenging without needing to change the combat mechanics.

Over the top game, congratulations.

Press anything to continue

"Left click mouse"

Press anything to continue

"Left click mouse again"

Press anything to continue

LIES!!!

@rongo-matane I prioritised laser upgrades and once I got the single hit kill my base was unscathed as long as I didn't over extend my dive

WOW, this is amazing! The graphics is awesome, mood and everything is excellent! good job :)

My favourite game ive played so far! From art to sound design to atmosphere this is a really great experience! i LOVE the upgrade system and really hope you continue on this game! What a great submission!

Great graphics and mood!

Easily one of my favorite games this jam, so well made and I wish i could give you a 10/5 for mood

That menu art got me hooked right away! I really dig the minimalistic style this game has. I did die couple of times, because I always overextented my dives! After I got hang of it there wasn't much of a challenge, got to the end easily. Also liked the simple mechanics this game had. If you decide to keep working on this it would be fun if the swinging cargo would affect players trajectory.

nice game!, it would be good to check what are the current resource counter !! nevertheless awesome work!

Wow, thank you all for the positive response :) :) :)

@elendow +1 for the flying monster! It actually was finished sprite wise, i just didn't manage to put it in.

@bernard-bumblebutt see, that's all part of my great plan to have the player ready with the keyboard controls ;)

@jakier ah interesting! When i played, i never used the laser upgrades first, so i buffed and cheapened them to make more sense to me. I totally see how it can get easy if you take care of the defenses like that.

@rainbirth I'm not sure what you mean - did you notice that you can buy an upgrade that shows the current resource counters? It's one of the earliest, so it should basically be available for the vast majority of playtime.

It was really hard in first time. When I figured out the controls, the game sucked me in.

Motherload mixed with horror, I love that move speed is a resource.

Well, it's great. Upgrades seemed well balanced overall and the pressure is there. I just wish there was some kind of score to know how long we last, but besides that I loved it. Played for longer than any other game so far this jam, by far, and i'll probably come back.

Congrats !

Very beautiful, and exceptionally made. Most memorable moments were, of course bying the argon laser + turret speed, knowing that there's no threat anymore - and maxing out drill and carry upgrades. Bringing home that 12+ pack of resources was immensely satisfying - it's a pity it wasn't even necessary at that point. Kinda wish for more enemies and defences - but it's balanced well as it is.

I really liked the death animations too. Got some Heart of Darkness vibes from it =)

really nice game
the ambiance is really cool

I realy like the game, the art is awsome and the gameplay too, but i don't understand how to play in the first moments

Amazing! The nice simplicity of the gameplay made it so I was able to figure out how to play after only a few games.

Here's when I got super lucky and hit a huge resource mine when I had maximum upgrades:


That *is* just one vein of consecutive resources 😮, I actually didn't go all over the map to rig this screensnip.

I really liked the pixel graphics and color palette, as well as the minimalistic UI. The controls are pretty simple and the game is fun. The ability to buy new upgrades increases replay value. Replayed 4 times, it was fun!

This is such a great game. The setting is strange and fascinating. I love the pixel art, palette, and sound. It creates a very unique mood. It's all so retro feeling--I felt nostalgic. The dome has a cozy feel, but it's contrasted by the panic of incoming enemies. It's a nice place that I want to be in and keep safe.

I really like the mixture of gameplay. Managing your time and taking risks is simple yet fun. The upgrade system is great and coming to the surface with a haul to buy new equipment is always satisfying. Seeing terrifying creatures slamming against the glass dome, getting to the controls, and vaporizing them with the laser is oh so sweet. It all works so well together.

Really excellent work. I enjoyed it immensely!

I can't leave a long comment because I've been playing this game for so long. You should release this game - I had a blast completing it. 🎩

Very cool and addictive game. Great job!

Looks like an amazing game, but I can't play it.
In order to play it I need to make it fullscreen (otherwise it's too big for the window and I can't zoom out), but then I need to close the menu and when I click ESC it exits the fullscreen.
(I'm playing on mac + Chrome)

I really wanna play it XD

Hey @stavu yeah, using escape wasn't a good choice for this on my side. However, you should be able to see a small fullscreen button bottom right on the game.

So you could
1. close the popup
2. enter fullscreen then

Only for you i tried to make a mac export. I added it to the itch page, i hope it works but i can't verify it. Good luck :D

Liked the game! Great job!
The only thing I would have added is being able to have a smaller screen, otherwise played it and had a lot of fun :)

Wow, again, thank you all so much, we are so happy you are enjoying it!

@tezza48 i didn't know Motherload beforehand, definitely gonna check it out and steal all the good ideas :D

@beardmage @a333 The game doesn't communicate this very clearly, but did you try to dig to the bottom? The game ends afterwards, if you reach "the core".

@peace-of-cake-games impressive haul! :D

@arancutter i love that you pointed out some emotions you felt, especially since these are what we aimed for - the "home" feeling of the base, the satisfaction of really strong upgrades, the rush of getting to the top and already seeing monsters. Makes us happy devs :)

@el-lisado I'm not 100% sure what you mean. Did you play in the browser and wanted a smaller game screen? Usually you should be able to zoom out in the browser. Other than that, itch sadly needs me to set the resolution to a fixed value (has to be 1920x1080 or the small text becomes unreadable).

@rongo-matane yeah, I played in the browser and totally forgot that I could zoom out :sweat_smile:
I feel you on the "set the resolution part", usually it takes me a few tries to get the resolution I would be happy with

@rongo-matane Yeah I saw that afterwards ! Since the player can get get all upgrades before doing so though, most of the time they will probably just quit without knowing.
I sent the game to some of my students and they loved it ! One of them finished the game, while the other one's goal was to get all rewards. The second one didn't know you could finish the game and nearly stopped before that for example !

@beardmage haha, very cool :D

It is intended that you have to get the expensive last drill update, as the last 5 layers are really tough (only regarding the upgrades). I am sure i need to establish the overarching goal better - in my head this is a hollow world where you try to reach the inner part, but this is not communicated anywhere and the gameplay doesn't suggest to do it (only to find more resources, which is obsolete once you are fully upgraded).

one of my favorite entries this year, a terrific job!

@rongo-matane I played it now :) It helps that I can close the menu with P.
It's really great, really well made. Amazing graphics and color palette. Great feel to the game.
I can see this being further developed into a larger game, yet it totally stands on its own right now and super impressive for 3 days of work.

Fantastic work. Simply, fun and just generally well thought through

Another wonderful game! I had great fun!

It's really amazing how much content you managed to put into this game.

Also, congratulations on reaching 1st page of best LD48 games on itch! :D

Really beautiful artwork - love the palette!

This has been my favourite game so far! It's a lot of fun and right on theme. I specially love the simplicity of the 'break' mechanic, as well as the 'carry'. It adds so much with so little.

I would legit purchase a full release of this.

Keep it up!

Really good. Feels super polished and balanced for a jam game.

super cool game, nice grafics and good physics

I played this entirely too much. The one thing I would recommend is providing some instructions on how to play the game (unless I missed them). The first time I played, I had no idea how to access the battle laser or the upgrades. Great job on making the game addicting to play.

Wow, this game is amazing, really addicting, gameplay loop is simple but incredibly satisfying. Graphics and sound effects make for a really nice atmosphere. Definitely one of the best games I've played!

Loved it, played it all the way through on my second try. The gameplay loop and sense of progression is really compelling and the art is gorgeous. Probably my favourite that I've played so far.

Dang, I really enjoy this one. For sure this needs to be expanded. Just all around polish and the mechanics are simple but keep me engaged. The first time I heard the banging I was so confused until I brought back some resources. Just solid work all around.

Beautiful colors, graphics and animations! Very satisfying and engaging gameplay too. Well done!

I had a lot of fun. You managed to keep it interesting by adding the battle parts and the purchaseable enhancements. Also, the endgame... gave me feels. I think the sound effects could be improved, they sound too raw and loud. Overall, good job, I'd love to see this game being constantly updated and maybe published on Steam.

Really nice managing resources game! I had some issues with the game resolution on itch.io, the screen was cropping some of the interface, but I could have a nice idea of the project! Congrats for the entry! o/

Played this through until there was nothing more to buy then played it for another 20 minutes after that, really satisfying and fun. Definitely my favourite arcade style game by far - fantastic job! :smile:

just started my fourth run and before I continue playing, gotta say. wow... this is so elegant in design. so many little pieces that are executed really well. kudos

At first it felt a little overwhelming looking through the menu options of the computer, but after a short period of adjustment I realized how simple and easy the gameplay and menus were to navigate!

The pixel style you used here was extremely nice and smooth - I absolutely adore your style! The dome was gorgeous, the enemies were intriguing, well done, and absolutely my favourite kind of shadowy monster, the mines were easy to read and nice to look at, and even the main character with all of their ~12x4 pixels was charming and well fitted, largely due to the simple and appealing particle effects as you fly around and drill. I have nothing but satisfaction and kudos for the art design and and aesthetic. It holds together incredibly well! @Batiali said it well when they mentioned that it was elegant design - I absolutely agree.

I ended up losing a few waves in because I'm a sucker for pushing my luck with how far I can get between waves, but given some other comments imply that there's a defined endpoint, I'm going to take another stab at getting further!

On one hand, the title really did make me feel like you were going to be integrating some of the 'deeper and deeper in love' concepts for the theme and I was a little sad not to see any of that coming into play (granted, again, I haven't completed it, so I may be proven wrong), but on the other I can't be upset that it didn't really seem to meet up with that idea when coziness of my little dome does, in a way, feel a little bit romantic!

Ultimately, this may very well be my favourite game of all I've played! Thanks for creating such a gorgeous play experience~! ☆☆☆☆☆

Had a lot of fun, my favorite game of the jam so far ! Wish I could play it more !

This is the best Game i have seen in this LD so far. It is awesome balanced and greatly polished. At the end i just wont to play this game on multiple other planets :)
Very nice Job! Congratulations!

OS X, Chrome, web version doesn't it into the screen. On downloadable version i have issues with <- battle upgrades-> menu always visible and uprades menu is visible on the right when it should've been hidden. Maybe problem is my resolution, cause retina displays got really high resolution and this menu would have been hidden off screen on most devices

Art, idea and gameplay are awesome, i really love this survior vibe. Though I think starting carrying capacity should be increaced, I just didn't have time to go back up with resources

Loved the minimalism in both the art and the controls. I think the tech upgrades might've been better a visual tech tree so you could see past and future upgrades. The SFX felt a bit blunt in some aspects, such as the monster death sound. I think if the combat system was made more dynamic, the tech tree was expanded, and some story added throughout, this would make a great game to put on Steam! Amazing experience overall.

Very interesting game, will get back to this more later.
I really love the art style and use of colours, and the animations for the monsters are superb!

Great work!

Super pretty pixel art with a nicely chosen palette, quite a lot of depth in the game system for a jam game, a well rounded game loop, great atmosphere and satisfying ending... What more can you want? :)

I had some initial issues seeing the Upgrade UI on the HTML version but after downloading had a blast! Really enjoyed the progression system but found it to make the game a bit too easy especially with the faster drill speed only and one hit kill being so easy to get quickly. I feel like a flying enemy or a slime-like enemy that splits on hit could make combat more difficult and interesting! Great entry

Really solid core loop, everything feels pretty polished, movement feels good, upgrades feel meaningful. I died once because some of my load got stuck down in my mine as I rushed back to the ship and I couldn't use the terminal while still holding it. I guess I should have dropped it with space but in the tense moment I didn't think of it ^_^. The cycle of mining and returning for upgrades overall is really tight, creates a tense feeling but also gives plenty of information about when the next enemies are coming so that the player can feel prepared. Nice game!

An utterly entrancing game.

Great game ! Very funny and relaxing. I could spend hours on it

Nice game! Could use a little more upgrades or objectives for the amount of resources you can get, but that's on me for digging pretty much the whole map xD The audio is ok, but the laser sound is too harsh (even download to check if it was the game itself or the browser version), I get the idea but not sure that's the best option. Otherwise, really solid game, congratulations!

Amazing! would've benefited from a flying enemy later in the game to tack on some difficulty.

@avavt thank you, i felt pretty efficient this time, little waste. The systems are kept simple and the art minimal, this helped so much.

@recursor i'm always a bit careful not to explain everything in detail, but let the players figure things out on their own. Did you enter the station and then didn't know what to do, or did you not know how to enter the station?

@caiolima Yeah, sorry, the web version is problematic. I changed a setting as this keeps being an issue, so now the game will launch in fullscreen instead. The downloadables are the good ones :D

@briibot Wow, thank you so much for your writeup, and i'm really glad you had a good time :) Hehe, sorry for not delivering on the romantic part - the title ist just a play on words, we couldn't come up with anything non-generic and non-cheesy, but i see that might be misleading.

@ariorick ah, thank you so much for the info, i think i broke that when trying to make the text readable when the window is small. It should be okay again, now :)

@sdata hehe, but the fast drill will only get you to a certain point, as the tiles get increasingly difficult to mine. So on the upper levels it might be a one hit, but at the lowers you won't make progress. After getting the last one, you can easily end the game by digging deeper and deeper (but this isn't well communicated, so many players miss it). I agree on the flying monster, it was even ready graphic wise but i couldn't implement it anymore.

This game is so amazing. I am in love with the graphics and overall atmosphere. The game mechanics are simple but engaging and fun. I really love the feature that you actually need to drag the resources back to your base, instead of just picking everything up automatically. This makes it more immersive. Great job guys.

Incredibly well polished game! I loved the graphics and atmosphere. It's always amazing to me how little colours you need to make something so great looking.

Also I had a really fun moment where I needed to decide whether to bring back resources and be a bit slower or defend the base earlier. Obviously I was greedy...which led to my demise :sweat_smile:

I loved this! Had heaps of fun playing it right through to the end. You should totally take this further!

This is my favorite entry so far!

I love the colors. It's retro, though still elegant.

Very clever how the first few upgrades acts as a kind of tutorial to what the different ui elements, I'll try to remember to steal that!

The sound effects also fit really well. The screams of the dying aliens is a bit loud and piercing, but I guess maybe that's intentional? In any case; I can feel their pain!

The enemies are also incredibly cool, and I love the cover art. I wish there were more types of enemies and more content, but hey this is already incredibly polished for a game jam game.

Great job!

I positively love this game. It's obviously a bit limited in what you can do given the time limit, but the bits that you can do, the mood and atmosphere, it's all amazing. Bravo!
I also really liked the idea of unlocking basic functionality like inventory bits at a time, and the timed attacks add a real nice element to everything.

That was pretty amazing. I thought it was clever how you upgrade aspects of your UI at the beginning, which teaches the player what parts of the UI mean piecemeal instead of dumping a complicated UI on the player at once. The art and the audio make for a juicy experience that feels satisfying. The controls were simple and intuitive.

I kept thinking there might be flying enemies any minute due to the fact that the dome laser is, well, on a dome. More enemy types would have been cool, but it's a jam game and you only have so much time. And honestly there was a ton of content in there with all the different resources and their purposes. It was really an excellent experience, definitely one of my favorites from this jam.

Very nice entry!
Went through the whole tech tree and reached the bottom.
Fighting the same monsters eventually became a duty more of a challenge, since the last laser with extra speed makes a short work of all of them.
Still, you did a huge amount of work in jam time, well done!

Amazing game! Graphics and sounds are beautiful and controls very good. Gameplay is fun. You should to sell this in Steam.

Great concept and it looks great too

Amazing visual style and great game loop. I liked the simplicity and intuitiveness of the control scheme, using the same keys across the several different modes the player could be in. I think the difficulty could ramp up more as the game progresses - I never felt really threatened after I unlocked the fast laser.

Love the art style and the gameplay is very addictive. Great work!

It's like a real game. Nicely done! The laser felt a bit OP, but it's a laser, so it's appropriate! :D

Atmosphere is amazing, as are the pixels. Has a very 50's sci-fi vibe about it.

The amount of polish and juice in this entry is impressive! I love the art style and themkuted palette

I timetraveled to my childhood! It gave me this vibe! What should i say? the others above me covered everything!
Awesome graphics, gameplay, amount of polish.. Excellent work guys!! Love <3

bro ur ldjam.com page is like a freakin easter egg - found ur game thru itch.io
Fantastic game mate - had lots of fun playin it
I reached the core - I love the fact that you put it in there
Real great mate :grinning:

How did you reach your scope?
Really amazing you did all this in 72h
Thanks for making that gem, love it <3 :grinning:

So I really like your game and I'm streaming Ludum Dare 48 games on saturday with my friend Teauorent on his Twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/teauorent - Saturday May 1st 4PM CET
First of all - that cool with you? This may redirect some traffic to your page for more people to try your LD48 game :smile:
If you'd like, please e-mails us anecdotes and sneak peeks of your creative process (photos, screenshots, beta/WIP asset renders, mood boards, concept Art, etc.) so we can present them alongside and illustrate your LD48 adventure to our audience :slight_smile:
Here's our e-mail to send all that good stuff to --> TeamChooChoo.GameJams@gmail.com [we will confirm receiving your e-mail(s) upon reception]
The show will be in french but I'm bilingual so you can totally submit in english, we'll take care of the rest :slight_smile:

Have a great day, I hope to hear from you soon - thanks for that great moment I spent testing your little nugget of a game, and see you in the chat on saturday I hope :heart: :smile:

This was so good! It had great pacing, art, and game mechanics. The only thing that could have been better is adding that great piano music to the main game. Its so cool how much you were able to communicate with the simple pixel art. This was great.

Very well polished game for LD! The graphics are great, but even more so the color scheme is really nice.

The game is reasonably balanced considering the time constraints. Though the death laser did make the rest of the upgrades seem bit more of a quality of life thing. The main thing I would have liked to see is more thorough instructions. Took me a while to realize I had to hold down the spacebar to collect materials. One other minor thing, it would have helped if some kind of audio played when a wave was over.

Otherwise the game is fun and has solid mechanics. Fantastic job on this!

Aw, your comments are all so great, really motivating for us!

@strangeryann sounds awesome, will send you an email and prepare some things :)

@c4scar I really would have liked to add music too, but i couldn't find anything i found fitting. I can't make anything myself, and what i looked for seemed also kind of niche - something moody low tempo in a retro style. The chiptune scene seems so heavy with upbeat action tracks.

@thecritterscove Thank you! :) I do have a question, maybe you can help me with it. I was aware that some controls might be hard to figure out, so i added a few context sensitive tutorial panels - for example, for the thing you mentioned about picking up resources. It pops up when you first "hover" resources. But it seems not to be as effective as i'd have thought. Did you see this one? If so, was the message clear, and what the button refers to? The panel goes away automatically after some time, maybe it's too early. I suspect that many players are focussed on the center with the tiles, so that they might ignore this stuff on the side. Maybe the panel also has to be animated slightly, to draw attention. Your feedback here would be very valuable to me :)
(bottom right)

Really fun game! The upgrading and progression feels really good! Monsters are kinda hard to deal with once you're much deep in the mine but there are upgrades for that I suppose. But maybe it could be nice to have a timer or something to telegraph the monsters attack

@wolderado funny that you mention it, the timer is the first upgrade you buy. The bar lowers the nearer the next wave is. If the wave arrives, there is an alarm sound and the icon flashes ;)

FINISHED! Very fun game. After some time it gets quite easy but maybe for JAM game it's good so everyone can finish it. Especially the instakill laser upgrade was an overkill upgrade in my opinion - maybe you could add more upgrade steps to it? Start from bullet type (you need to tap UP instead of just holding it), first ugprade means faster reload times, then rapid fire, faster rapid fire, then laser, powerful laser and instakill. The last one could have wider beam at it's just a weapon of DOOM in my opinion :) I also think that maybe the game could benefit from some kind of storyline, add a kitty in the base that the player can talk to after returning to base?

So cool and fun-to-play game! Everything is polished and in the right place. I like the cute graphics and the permanent sense of danger. As a suggestion, you can add some technical progression, like the ability to buy an elevator or something like that. Overall, it's a great game!

@rongo-matane
I replayed it to check and that instruction does not show on my screen. I played in Firefox on a 2560x1440px screen. Not in fullscreen, but there was nothing to indicate I wasn't seeing the whole game. Maybe the browser is cutting off just the tail bottom of the game?
I would suggest including this instruction in the pause screen, as that's where I looked multiple times to see if I was missing something.

@thecritterscove oh man, i'm starting to go crazy with the web version. Somehow the calculation of the right position for the panels got broken on the web version, when i changed a setting to make the text more readable in the web version. Back to start, it shows properly again now (downloadables were always fine). Starting to think i should avoid the web version :D Thank you so much for gettng back to me on the issue! Good suggestion too! :)

Best game I've played so far! The simple graphics and color palette create a really nice mood that fits the theme well, and the gameplay and especially the balancing is awesome, knowing it was done in such a short time. Congrats. You'll end up in the top10 for sure.

died the first time and dug my way through in my second run. :) i really liked the color scheme and graphics in general. it was very fun!

What an incredible game. I think I played it at least 20minutes, which is the longest I spent on any game jam! It's really really good: the pixel art looks delightful, the colors look amazing, the simple animations work very well, and the game loop is super well balanced! Amazing job here!

Absolutely nailed down the mechanics, and it looks really nice too

Not sure that I can add any comments that everyone else hasn't already said. This is a really well done game. One I think I'll come back to play again. Only thing I'd like is a save feature so I can stop in the middle, but mood, sound, and stress levels are fantastic.

I honestly think this is the best game I've reviewed so far. Everything else has been summarized in comments before. Respect!

Loved everything except for the sfx :c too loud... BUT man, no words really goodjob. beautiful work!

This entry is my favorite LD48 game so far! I totally enjoyed your gameplay mechanics and found everything nicely balanced with good learning & progression curves. The atmosphere is excellent too! Very good job :)

First game I actually completed! It had a perfect scope and everything felt super intuitive! I'd definitely play a longer version, maybe add some enemy variety and special stuff in the ground? Only nitpick would be that the audio seems to scratch a little? Could be on my end tho

Honnestly amazing game especially for a game jam. Good job, kind of wish I had come up with this idea XD

Excellent work!
The only complaint I have is that purchasing upgrades is very jarring. Every time I purchased something, items would shift in size and location. This made it hard to track what actually happened. Otherwise, AMAZING!

Wow, such a great game. It has everything, awesome graphics, great music with a great atmosphere and very fun gameplay.

I had so much fun playing, definitely one of the best games I played so far.

Good job, you are very talented guys.

This is the best jam game I played so far, it's fun and engaging, and the art is superb. If I had to say something to improve would be upgrades balance, it's kinda obvious what the best strategy is (improve the laser asap) and once you reach the best laser upgrade then the rest is kinda easy. But nevertheless, I had a blast playing it and I did get to the end. Congratulations for such a great game!

this is wicked!

Just finished it, such an awesome experience, i loved everything about it, the gameplay, the idea, the pixel art, the sfx, the serene music at the end! Great job to everyone involved, really glad i played this entry.

It reminded me of motherloads a bit, a game I have found memories of. Nice graphics and mood. My only complain is about a lack of feedback, I was underground and my base got obliterated without me knowing. That happened even before i could upgrade anything.

Love the aesthetic. Great job simplifying the controls down to arrows and a single button. I found the game on Itch so I didn't see the note about the ending. Usually games like this go on for way too long but I wanted to keep playing even after I had unlocked everything. Fantastic!

This is awesome! It's really compelling - I want to know more about the story/world! Really strong entry :D

amazing job! it's a complete and fun game, probably my favorite so far.

You took a binary game and made it analog with that weight-based item lugging and compass... really well done. And the upgrade tree is not as overwhelming as a thought it would be. Biggest suggestion (that you've prob. already considered) is a filter for the RNG to give folks a better chance. My game 2 saw **one** resource in the first 7x7 blocks under the base... oof! :D

My favorite so far, its hard to believe you managed to make this in just 72 hours, it was super fun. Excellent audio, graphics, and game-play.

Wow, this game is the personal favourite that I've played in this jam so far! Very polished, good and consistent artstyle, fitting sounds addictive gameplay. Everything is nice and simple and well described so it's easy to know what to do.

I can't think of any critique about this :sweat_smile:

This could also be expanded soo much. I would gladly even pay for more of this in different planets, with different aliens, resources and tehcnologies, maybe even cooperative missions ppl manning different stations like in Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime :)

Your comments are awesome, thank you so much! Looks like we got to expand on this :D

@nitero audio scratchyness is in the browser version. Not sure where it comes from, downloadables are fine. I've heard this in other godot games too.

@ladybenko The laser balancing is soo interesting to me, thank you for your input. I believe the last laser upgrade does not change the game much, as the previous is more than enough to go through every night. But it feels so strong to the player, that it feels like easy mode.

@tbaudon There is a audio and visual alarm once a wave of monsters is coming. It is only available with the first upgrade. I tried to make it so that this upgrade is bought within the first minute, as it's the only one available. Do you know if you had this one? I'm thinking about if the audio alarm should play again from time to time, if you are underground.

@zuwu hehe, thank you! I think it's much about doing everything as stupid and simple as possible. For example, it might be tempting to do procedural generation for the tiles. But this would easily take me 6 hours or a full day, and most likely turn out worse than something hand made. So i made it simple and created the map by hand, which took 15 minutes. The upgrades too are mostly (but not all!) stat changes, done in a minute. And the minimal graphics also helped a ton (makes animations also really easy). I also had to cut a few things, like a second monster type (flying) or in-level music. The monster really would have been important, the combat is a bit simplistic otherwise as it can't escalate more.

@ted I didn't consider that yet, and the reason behind this is very interesting to me: there is no RNG :D
There are 3 maps in the game. You start with a random one and see the next one on the next run (if you died). Map 3 is a bit more difficult i'd say. I love that no one found out so far, smoke and mirrors :D
There is a bit of RNG in the resource drops, but i keep a count ingame and move the drop rate up and down if it was too low or high.

Simply a great game. :v:

Difficult, but delicious! I left it safe here to get to the center later.
The art and animations are fantastic. I missed playing "Out of this world".
Excellent mood. I was desperate trying to kill the dome-destroying monsters.

Congratulations for the game!

Extremely fun! :) I love that you can choose upgrades paths, first time playing is very interesting because we can't see the branches of upgrade tree.

Hello! Your game was played on stream ( https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos ) on 5/03 (Day 2 of LDJAM streams).

You can find the timestamp of when your game was played here: https://tinyurl.com/LDJAM48-ursa

My favourite entry in this jam ! I finished the game and wished there was more :)

Fantastic game. I'd love a "zen" mode without the monsters, they kept getting in the way of my mining time :grin:

cool game! Like the arts and the actions on there. Simple and fun, really impress that this can be done in 72 hours.

This game is awesome. Great job!

Great game, the upgrades all feel very valuable (especially like the idea of having to buy your HUD) and everything just clicks together very nicely. Also: "The game is paused in the upgrade screen, take your time to read." I can't overstate how great it is to see this. Keeps the focus on the fun parts and not add some sort of artificial stress to the game.

Really fun game. Having to find a balance in mining and defending and deciding which upgrades are worth it at a certain point made me spent quite some time in this game.

I did get to a point where I could mine a bit down and had to go back to defending without finding resources for a few rounds in a row, which made it a bit tedious. But besides that I really enjoyed playing it.

Wow, this game is incredible! One of my favourites from this jam so far!

It's amazing how much content did you managed to put in this. I loved the art style and the implementation. The monsters are great.

As some feedback, I struggled a few seconds trying to understand where do you get upgrades/defend the dome. Maybe some text indicator for the first use could be nice. Also, after dying one time, the second run was darker (like if some light value was not reset properly).

Once again, congrats!

Awesome game. Can't wait for more projects from you guys.

Spot-on Genre-Fusion between (Miner + Defense)!
Scrumptious pixel-Art! I like the set of animations of the Hostile Aliens..
The upgrade system takes the cake on that tactic feel..
I went so far in the playthrough (after the 6th attempt, beaten the Game; Looking forward for more!) to try to eliminate all the blocks.. and I noticed the 'Core-tiles were at center rather than at the edges, I wasn't prepared to end too soon of having an OP-run that I tried to mine all the blocks! ✨

Suggestions:

1. If instead of the thin tether lines, it would somehow be in place of a series of pixel-art tether cables (or a Shader to pixelate those tether-cables and the dome-turret for that extra 'edge' (no-pun intended); It's quite the charm to want to see it more in the purist pixel-art form.
2. Co-operative Same-screen/split-screen Multiplayer?
3. Collectibles that unlock Palette Swaps..
4. A different mode where the dirt-tiles collapse under conditions (eg. Boulder-dash or Mr.Driller)

Looking forward to see further expansion! ✨

One of the best ones I played so far! For some reason I think when pressing "Q" to interact with the computer it wouldn't let me sometimes, I think if I pressed it fast it worked. I think if you added some good music and a more in depth tutorial that would be great, but I understand why it wasn't included in this jam given constraints.

This has absolutely been my favorite game so far, just the sort of gameplay loop I get sucked into. Had some audio issues (crackling, lag) when playing the HTML5 version, I'll have to try to Windows version which I'm sure will fix that.

Joined your Discord and really excited to see where this goes! Fantastic job!

Brilliant game! Had such a great time playing it! Fantastic Job!

I love this game! I had so much fun with it, the desperate scramble to fetch resources before the monsters arrive, and the graphics are absolutely gorgeous! I really liked the limited palette as well, brilliantly set the mood. First class entry!

Nice palette! I always love myself a game with incremental upgrades, haha

Wow! This is easily the best game of the Jam. At least from 30-ish games I have played so far. It is the only one I played to completion and enjoyed the hell out of it every second up to the outro. Graphics are just wonderful and the gameplay is simple yet engaging.

Just brilliant. Great job.

It's amazing how such a well-developed game turned out in the time of the jam. Very exciting!

Such incredible work for just 72 hours! I enjoyed this so much I went back to finish it after having it freeze on me during the first playthrough. Every aspect of this game is so polished!

Played all the way to the end. Of all the games I've played this Jam, this feels like the most complete. Honestly can't think of a single issue, it was fun and polished from start to finish, and the difficulty felt well balanced. Wonderful work!

I wasn't prepared for such a polished game. It is amazing. Art! Gameplay! Balance! Everything is of the highest quality. My only gripe was with the controls, upgrade/battle, and accidental upgrades. However, it was just a minor thing. My god, the graphics you made for your entry! Absolutely mind blowing.

The game idea is really full fledged out and effective for a game jam especially, I enjoyed coming back up to defend my base from getting attacked, one of my earliest upgrades was the argon cannon which let me relax a bit for the rest of the game in terms of getting attacked (as long as I made in time). I love the picking up objects mechanic that slows you down, it reminds me a lot of the idea of doing a single trip from your car back home when grocery shopping. <3 Fantastic work for such a short time. Congrats

Очень красиво, атмосферно и цельно. Цветовая гамма подобрана великолепно. Ничего не выбивается из стиля и не режет глаз. Прекрасный пример хорошо и с любовью выполненного пиксель-арта. Одна из лучших игр на LD48, ставлю 5/5. Надеюсь, вы продолжите работу над ней, и выпустите полноценную большую игру. Спасибо за эмоции, парни!

Extremely good! One of the best entry I tried so far! Graphic and gameplay are amazing! It would be cool if you continue the game, maybe with some flying monsters or boss! The one-shot killing upgrade was maybe too strong, after taking that, the game was too easy I just can't lose! Anyway, wonderful, amazing job!

Super cool game! I love everything about it :)

So good. Wonderfully polished game!

Great mix of mechanics. The defending aspects helped break up the resource collecting well. Well done!

The atmosphere created by the pixel graphics is so impressive.

One of my favorite games on this jam:) Fantastic art style and animations! Very cool sounds:) I like the monsters design, but I feel like I would fight some more different ones too :) I was waiting for the big ones or flying ones to come! It made me little bit sad, when I bought all the upgrades. It would be nice to have more. More is more!:) I had a lot of fun playing it! You should definitely consider to develop this game more and release it! Congratulations!! Amazing work!

I love that pieces of the UI are upgrades.
Very polished; very nice.

It is awesome! Too easy at the end of game but it is definitely one of my favorite entries.

Amazing game! Atmospheric graphics, great sound. Nicely balanced upgrades. It's nice to switch between digging and defending. I only saw walking monsters, it would be nicer to have flying ones so that shooting involves more skill and strategy.

Amazing entry. Looks nice, sounds nice, gameplay loop is great. I think it's great that you decided to keep working on it. I guess currently the least impactful part of it is combat, which I'm sure you already have future plans for as well. Good luck!

This is a fantastic entry. The graphics are well done, the gameplay is fun, and I enjoyed having to swap back and forth between mining and defense.

I like the gameplay and how the game fits the theme. The few sounds of the game and it's art, fitted with dark and mysterious atmosphere. Congratulations to the developers.

Cool game! I wish there was more monster progression, and that the game started a bit faster (by the time i was picking up dozens of that delicious loot, i already hit the endgame with no further upgrades in sight); I didn't manage to find a way to get the end-screen posted here in the comments, i got all the upgrades and got to bedrock while being able to haul lots of resources, but no ending was in sight (then the game froze). Other than that, i loved the game, good job!

Whoops.... guess I did something wrong. 😅😖 Bug report!

I gave myself the mission to eliminate every single block in the map since I had all of the upgrades and consequently was way too powerful (my dome had basically unlimited health, hehe). As I was going out for the last mining job before reaching the end somehow I accidently hit Space as I was leaving the dome and the upgrades/combat computer turned on. Tried closing out of it, then I spammed some random buttons, then my dumb brain finally had the sense to realize the game had frozen and crashed by noting the clouds stopped moving.


If this helps, it's the latest Chrome on Windows 10.

(Also, I see that you did lots of gameplay logs in the console.... good idea. Logging stuff is the best way to troubleshoot possible issues 😀)

Just opened up Steam and saw that Dome Keeper launched last month! It's been so awesome to see the way this project has developed from here - I've been excited to watch its progress!

It's great getting to watch the way a dare game can unfold into a fully fledged game, and I'm excited this game could be one to do so! Wonderful work with your development - I look forward to playing the completed game on Steam and seeing how much it's grown!

Hi! Congratulations again for making this a full game on Steam. We talked today at Gamescom. Thanks again for the plushie. Looking forward to playing Dome Keeper when we get back home.

All the best!

PS: I just found an old comment I wrote to your entry Membrum back in the day!

@cerno-b haha yes, i remember you! Without reading your comment here i checked out membrum, just because i knew your nickname. I also played a game of yours before, A perfectly lovely Expedition :D

It was cool to meet, best of luck to you!