Absolutely amazing! took me a while to figure out what the goal was, but once I figured out how to move the character between layers, I was having a blast! Five stars!

I'm a little lost here. There aren't any instructions in game for how to play or what the objective is.

Holy shit. This one was amazing. The whole puzzle of figuring out the game was great, and the two mazes were very well designed to work together. Layered music was lovely. Anything I can say about this is nitpicking, like how the colissions were a bit janky sometimes, or how the first two layers don't really explain the mechanics underneath.
But, completely minor. I loved this game. I would really like to see more of this.

@clintor24 -- Howdy! I meant to add some better tutorializing to the beginning of the game but ran out of time. If you place your character on the light gray circle and then dig down, you should see something new:


Hello! I really liked this. Without recognizing your name, I was immediately reminded of your submission in LD56.

This is very good. It is very smart, but still playful. The minimalism is excellent. The music that becomes layered as you dig is great.

It took me a second to figure out what the character was (had carved in that area first so couldn't initially move), but once I figured that out I really liked the experience.

To start: I loved the visuals implementation and the wispy-ness there, and I think the dynamic music fit that super well. Puzzle mechanics were well-suited for the sort of short game this is, doesn't overstay it's welcome. Just overall super clean. Made me think of tilt mazes mixed with sandboxes, minus the tilting. That's weird, in a good way!

This is brilliant! I lOVE this game

Wow what an amazing concept!! Had a ton of fun solving this, really clever. The audio was lovely too, I couldn't tell if the music was reacting to what I was doing or not, it felt like it was but I didn't end up confirming one way or the other, either way it was lovely. The only issue I had was at one point I dug all the way back up to the surface and had to restart, so from then on out I was always a little scared I would do that on accident. Really great work, excellent idea and excellent execution of it

Really, really neat mechanic, very creative. Loved the minimalistic art and audioscape, and how the music tracks faded into each other as you carved. Only thing I found a little frustrating was that I kept making progress, then accidentally uncarving back to the top layer and having to start over. Not sure how to address that, but it did get a little tedious after awhile. Maybe a skill issue! Eventually made it to the end though and had a great time, nice work!

@gargantuan-janitor -- Thank you so much!! Collisions are a bit wonky, kind of an artifact of using pixel data as collision data, which makes it hard to implement wall-slides. I have ideas for more layers (each layer runs its own set of code), so I might make an expanded version at some point.

@hubol -- Thanks for playing! I hadn't thought about it, but cool to know both games share an identity like that.

@jovialknoll -- I've seen other people with the same issue (carving their character in before trying to move). I can think of a few ways to fix, easiest being to add some movable space on the "gray" layer under where the player spawns. Glad you liked it!

@bubblewandgames -- Thank you!! Yep, the music adds a new instrument each layer you descend. In order -- concertina, recorder, spoons, spamjo, and ???.

@polymathld -- I needed to block the player from ascending to the top layer and descending to any point in the maze, and that was the easiest solution that fit the gatekeeping system. But it certainly had some downsides. Glad you enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun to put together!

One of the best COMPO entries! Although the main levels are a little short, The idea is really amazing and neat! love it (oﾟ▽ﾟ)o

5/5 for sure

Very nice and minimal style! Really liked the colors and music you choose. I was also a bit lost at first until I reached the third level, but afterwards was a fun game. The way the carving works looks very cool

Took me a bit to get used to it, but cool idea! Thanks for the game!

What a unique game and a great idea. It's pretty fun. I like the different styles for the different layers. The might represent different layers of the past. They're also useful if colorblindness is an issue.

After carving/uncarving a lot, there are some shards of different layers left. It sometimes makes it difficult to carve what I want without messing up my path. Not really an issue, but it can be frustrating.

It's different and it's fun. Well done.

This is the most interesting mechanic I've encountered in this LD. Brilliant execution of the theme! I'll be rooting for you.

Wow, i needed to read your first comment to know how to play but after this, i loved this puzzle game ! Graphics and musics are good. And you mechanic is really cool and unique ! Nice work !

Hehe, what a fun puzzle! I made it to the end as well, it's super fun when you have that "ohhh, of course I have to go like that" breakthrough moment.

Music was super stylish, the way it adapted to the layers present. The terrain tool was super fun to use as well, it really brought back the feeling of using the topology tool in one of the old zoo tycoon or rollercoaster tycoon games, great job implementing that! Super cool take on the theme, great game!

Wow! I love the minimalist presentation in the art and music, it fit together so well. The puzzle design was just fantastic, it was an amazing moment figuring out how the mechanics worked. Very innovative, and probably the best interpretation of the theme I've seen. I loved the game, great work!

REALLY cool mechanic with carefully tailored level design, deserving a 5/5.

Took me a few minutes to figure out how the game worked exactly, but once I did it was a lot of fun. Loved the music, it made me feel like a painter or something lol

That was fun, clever mechanic! Do you plan on adding new levels? I'd love to have an itch link if so!

This is super cool! I was convinced I'll never get to the end, but i did it!
Here is my let's play: https://youtu.be/0MgDeBBBk9I

@molpe -- Wow, thank you so much for playing! It's awesome getting to see people play through it in real time. The dig tool is definitely a little slow, although there is a balance there, since it has to be slow enough that you don't overshoot. I'm glad you enjoyed the game!