Diamonds and mud by Gildar76

[raw]
made by Gildar76 for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

diamondsandmud.png ​Diamonds and mud is my LD48 entry. Dig through the mud and find as many diamonds as possible. Make sure to have a way to get out of the mine since you'll need to empty your inventory and resupply food. Controls ​You move and dig with WASD, jump with space.

UPDATE: THe jumping issue is fixed in a new upload (1.1).

​Known issues

  • ​Controls and physics are not working the way I want. You can do things you shouldn't be able to do :)
  • Audio is limited.
  • If your inventory is full, you can't dig while standing on a diamond. (Fixed in 1.1)
  • Health is displayed but there's no way to take damage right now.
  • Jumping only works about 50% of the time in build (Fixed in 1.1)
  • Long loading time due to procedural generation. The game will start eventually.

​Tools used

​- Unity - BFXR - Affinity Photo - Affinity designer - Blender

  • Substance painter

Ratings

Given 13🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

GentleMelon01
27. Apr 2021 · 20:06 UTC
the game crashes upon attempting to click play.
Momo_Hunter
27. Apr 2021 · 20:48 UTC
The game worked for me, needed a lot of time to load, but then worked. As for the gameplay, I think it was ok, but the jumping worked only sometimes and you need to head to the top way too often. Additionally some tool upgrades to be able to dig faster would be nice.
LDJam user 245161
28. Apr 2021 · 02:09 UTC
Cute! I like the realtime shading effects. I'll second the "jump works only sometimes" though. Unity physics are a real pain.
🎤 Gildar76
02. May 2021 · 14:39 UTC
@ultimatewalrus And @momo-hunter. Thanks for the comments. I fixed the Jumping issue the other day. It was a thing that showed up only in build because of a timing thing.

I'm aware that the loading time is a bit to long. I should at least have showed something while the game was loading. I ran out of time. Will add a comment about it in the description.

Thanks for the comments and reviews
aes
15. May 2021 · 18:58 UTC
liked it! reminded me of that old game motherlode a bit. took me a while to load too; just wait for it a minute or two if you're having issues
🎤 Gildar76
16. May 2021 · 16:54 UTC
Thanks @aes. Never played that game, but I recognize the name from somewhere.
LDJam user 249000
16. May 2021 · 19:19 UTC
Haha, it also reminded me a bit of MotherLoad. This is a cool mining game, well done!
kaytrill
16. May 2021 · 19:42 UTC
The idea is definitely fun, but needs more polish. I like the idea of creating your own path and then try to get back to the surface. However I don't like that my only incentive back to the surface is my carrying capacity. I wish the game was smaller in level design and more variety in that way.

I think smaller levels with a more puzzle oriented design would fit the game better. It would allow the player to take more creative approaches. And severely helps with the lag when creating the level. Furthermore food as a time limited resource is not a bad thing and wish to see this expended upon. Perhaps trade the gems/gold in for currency. And buy with that more food. This would allow the player to create more strategic tunnels with future planning in mind. Instead of focusing on just the short goal.

Furthermore with currency in play. You can add things like torches to light up underground. Certain upgrades. Or even explosives for more dedicated clearing measures. And maybe even ladders/elevators in later stages.

If you would do all of this you will give the player short term goals of grabbing as much gems, long term goals of creating a nice path and planning ahead, and decent rewards when backtracking. Maybe find a way to make backtracking less of a pain in these situations.
🎤 Gildar76
17. May 2021 · 17:31 UTC
@kaytrill Thanks a lot for the review. I like all of these ideas.
DoctaDragon
17. May 2021 · 18:12 UTC
Very simple game, there isn't much to do right now since the concept lacks complexity. But with enough polish it could probably evolve into a fun gameplay loop of going into the mine, grabbing diamonds and then trading them for some type of equipment to speed up the process of mining.
JoaoG
17. May 2021 · 19:52 UTC
The game is simple, but it is cool. I like the idea of ​​having to be able to come back and the food being the limiter.

I think one of the simplest ways to direct the game would be to set goals to be met, a minimum amount to be collected, you could also specify the type of diamond and maybe put some bombs on the way. Either way, the game can be expanded in many different ways. Good job!
aurel
18. May 2021 · 06:05 UTC
This has a lot of ways this can be expanded - I think using light would be an interesting mechanic, something like torches or lantern oil or something to add an additional depleting mechanic. If only food disappears, it would be nice to add other "things" going on at the same time.

A few suggestions:
1. A loading screen would be great for the procedural generation
2. The mining sound is rather painful to my ears when using headphones. I had to turn off the audio as I was in actual pain from the mining sfx.
NoNumbersGames
18. May 2021 · 18:57 UTC
Good core mechanic, nice shiny gems effect. Generation seems to be working well - though by the time it takes to generate I feel like it is a really big map... Wanted to reach the bottom, but felt like I was being punished for digging deeper because character seems to get stuck on walls a lot when climbing back up - using stairs is not the smoothest experience. Still it was interesting to play for a bit.