Deep Dreams by PoshDan
Follow the development of HYPERDIG, the game that has evolved out of this jam game:
Discord: https://discord.gg/TmvDwxQwAY
Devlogs: https://youtube.com/@PoshDanGames
In a world where the dirt-diggers reign supreme, join the hard-working folks who earn their keep through sweat and grit. Step up and help your company triumph over its arch-nemesis, HyperDig, in a game of mining mayhem.
Swing that pickaxe with gusto and get your hands on some precious minerals. Keep at it until HyperDig is buried alive. Remember, you're a Big Trench employee, and your sole mission is to dig, dig, dig.
Deep Dreams is the ultimate digging game. Sure, you might have been skeptical about joining Big Trench at first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So slip on that miner's uniform, head underground, and let the journey begin. Deep Dreams chronicles the tale of a determined soul who delves deep to reach new heights. Give it a go!
Note
- The text will sometimes disappear in web build
- We ran out of time, but wanted to do more, with a shop, drama, voice acting, and even competing drill machines controlled by AI.
- There are no sound settings, this should be patched later.
Get to know the team:
https://youtube.com/@PoshDanGames
https://rickysummer.com/
| Link | https://takkatakka.itch.io/deep-dreams |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/deep-dreams |
Ratings
| Overall | 695th | 3.439⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 557th | 3.463⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1015th | 2.663⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1067th | 2.688⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 724th | 3.341⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 250th | 3.718⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 556th | 3.549⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
One question though ... Why do I go boom when the fuel goes low ?XD
Is there a bug that youre exploding sometimes for no reason?
The responsiveness of the controls is a bit tricky.
I am not sure this is the best way nor the right place to promote it.
Getting inspired by Motherload is completely fine, but you should try to mix it up a bit, both for yourself and your players enjoyment.
@rolferm Motherload? 😉
@esther128 I'm not aware of a bug like that. The player can explode for 3 reasons and the reason will be shown on screen. It's either 1. out of fuel, 2. took too much fall damage, 3. ran out of time (the timer is in lower left corner). I realise two of these aren't logical, it's just how we dealt with fail conditions.
@animaster I think it may have been the timer, it's not a very well indicated lose condition. You've got 5 minutes to reach $5000 or you lose.
@gerardufoin Yeah that's fair criticism, I know this isn't innovative on its own merit. We didn't want it to be so basic, but I couldn't work on the game on sunday so we had to cut a lot of the meat that would've set it apart. I used this jam as an opportunity to raise awareness of my commercial game (which I'm committed to make very unique and a worthy spiritual successor), plus I wanted to gauge interest in digger games to assess my risks. I hope that's not too business-ey thinking for the mood of Ludum Dare. I just want to make games for a living and I'm trying different things to gain confidence and player interest. Thank you for your honesty.
@frib Yeah the controls are physics-based and digging has a buffer for input. I wanted to finetune the controls more, couldn't afford the time investment though.
@limichou We didn't have a win condition until the last hour or so 😅 Mismanaged my time. I forgot to state the goal clearly. It's to reach $5000 within 5 minutes.
The graphics are very reminicent of the original, the gameplay feels very nice. I would say that the game lack insentives, but the shop would have fullfiled that role. So overall, very nice entry :)
I wish you all the luck in making a proper successor to the original Motherload!
What I would recommend if you want to promote the game in those kind of game jam is to keep the core of the game so you can work on it, but give it a spin so it fits the theme of the jam. Two birds with one stone! And a game with a restricted gameplay which is finished and polished will always be better received ;) You can then take back the core and keep working on it for your project.
All the best in your endeavors and godspeed!
My interpretation of the theme was more about the narrow tunnels the player has to go through. But to be honest I was determined on making this type of game regardless of the theme, it just happened to sort-of be applicable, so we didn't opt out.
@gerardufoin Thank you very much!
Overall a very enjoyable game, you did well ^^
At first I couldn't figure out why would I get suddenly destroyed in the middle of the process, took me some time to figure it out.
I really like the idea of digging and getting resources, but because of constant need to not explode I basically learned that I better *to not* explore, instead dig somewhere relatively near. Maybe if flying wouldn't took the fuel..?
Also it might be my bad on having a relatively bad pc, but controls felt somewhat chunky. It's almost as if I couldn't control the machine fully - it would dig more than I need, walk more than I need or fly into outer space, making me wait for it to return (the last thing was actually somewhat funny :D)
Other than that I may be just a really wrong (more casual and story-based typ eof player) audience, so take my comment with a huuuge bit of salt!!
Overall really liked the idea, setting and mood (audio really helped to set all of that, too!), so big thanks for your entry! I really wish you best! <3
Although the current content is limited and there are no upgrade options, the only goal is to continuously repeat the mining cycle. However, I believe this is due to the lack of time, and when it is released in its complete version, it will definitely become a super fun game.
One small suggestion, perhaps could make the collision range of the block a little looser. Currently, it's difficult to fly out when there is only one block width for the passage.
Overall, I really enjoy it. Mining is quite interesting!