Dwarf Dig Deep by Lintfordpickle

[raw]
made by Lintfordpickle for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

textureSplash.png

Background

Help your dwarfs to mine all the gold and escape the caverns at the bottom of the level.

For this Ludum Dare I again used my own engine which I build on each LD event. It uses Java and LWJGL (OpenGL / OpenAL). The inspiration for the game of course is Spelunky and PP Hammer (from the Amiga days).

jump_mechanical.gif

Instructions

There is a help screen in the game which shows the controls, but there isn't an explanation of mechanics. Your goal is to mine 200 gold on your way down to the bottom of the level where you'll find a door to exit the level. Once you have enough gold the door will open.

Here are a few set pieces to help you:

Digging & Attack

Digging and attacking both use the same button (SHIFT).

digging.gif You can dig in the direction you are facing by holding either of the shifts keys. If you press and hold SHIFT, you can then use the A, S, D keys to change the digging direction (marked by the white box).

Gold

gold.gif The goal of the game is too collect 200 gold pieces and reach the exit at the bottom of the level.

TNT

tnt.gif If you find digging to be too tiresome, you can either throw TNT (G key) or drop TNT at your feet (S + G keys). Be carefull, TNT has a wide blast radius!

Enemies

spiders.gif Spiders are a weak enemy but have a high jump range.

goblins.gif

Goblins are strong but stupid creatures. A swift few hits with your axe should suffice to kill them.

Have fun

Ratings

Overall 394th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 439th 3.342⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 708th 2.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 186th 3.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 109th 4.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 538th 2.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 646th 2.917⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

Lajbert
26. Apr 2021 · 14:20 UTC
Nice game, being able to play in fullscreen would improve the experience.
VeraShackle
26. Apr 2021 · 16:20 UTC
Really slick implementation of a solid game mechanic - entirely on theme. Nice work!
Kovi
26. Apr 2021 · 19:55 UTC
The fact that this was done with your own engine is pretty dang impressive in my opinion. It does have a few quirks as a result, like enemies hitting you through the corners of blocks and what not, but overall it seems to have worked very well.

The gameplay is definitely a lot more careful and methodical than I assumed it would be. Things like limited reach, low jumping, and dangerous fall damage mean you can't just sprint around like mad and survive it. It's actually kind of a nice change of pace versus the usual "as fast as you can go" style that platformer type games tend to have. I really like the TNT throwing mechanic which follows that same vibe, the explosion is very dangerous to you and it's hard to avoid if you aren't careful, so you can't just toss it out at random.

Given the restrictions and how punishing it can be I would probably scale the difficulty down a bit, probably by lowering the damages values quite a bit, at least on easy/normal. I still haven't actually reached the gold amount for the goal since one misstep is so often a death. That being said I do find myself getting steadily better at it every run or two as I get more used to hitting my attacks correctly and what not.

Also props for the art, the game itself has a nice art style to it, but I'm even more impressed you had time for loading and menu art during the compo. Well done!
jimmothysanchez
27. Apr 2021 · 01:44 UTC
Nice game. I'm really impressed that you made the engine. The art also fits it well. This seems like a lot of work for a compo game. Congrats on finishing.
lesinvisible
28. Apr 2021 · 12:32 UTC
Hugely impressive amount of work for the Compo game. Your own engine works nice and the game seems very solid and has a definite retro feel with it's difficulty.
Fonics
29. Apr 2021 · 02:06 UTC
Great art, the gameplay is quite difficult but leads to some fun moments. The controls are a little unusual but not terribly hard to get used to. I liked the addition of the difficulty options and a whole menu and help system, unfortunately the return to menu button didnt work for me but I can't knock you for one broken button. Excellent work for a 48 hour game, great job!
Brainloaf Studio
29. Apr 2021 · 02:32 UTC
A little difficult gameplay-wise, but clearly a lot of effort went into this with the amount of content there is, especially for the compo. Good work!
Iluvatar
30. Apr 2021 · 12:22 UTC
The game is fun enough I can imagine this to be a full time Steam game. Maybe you can colaborate on it after the Jam ends :)
I really like your artstyle and I also watched the timelapse video. Pretty cool. Very solid entry especially for a Compo!
Paulsams
30. Apr 2021 · 19:27 UTC
Dude... This is super cool. It reminded me a bit of SteamWorld Dig. But of course it annoyed me that I sometimes fell through collisions cubes, also the radius of the dynamite was slightly larger than I wanted, and it was unpleasant that it was impossible to change the direction of digging - I had to press the button, and then only change. And everything else made me extremely happy - thank you for such fun!
rawbits
01. May 2021 · 10:30 UTC
I almost had fun, but then there is the control scheme. Like G and RSHIT? What have you there - clearly not a hand.. And I would rather go with UP as jump then SPACE. The thing is, with these control mechanics it feels like a strategy game, but I so want an action one. Can't attack easily at will makes it impossible though.
I quite like the gfx!
Also I couldn't exit to menu with the button somehow.
JamesBoink
01. May 2021 · 21:00 UTC
Graphics, audio and concept were really great! I think the biggest con of the game is its difficulty. Played on easy to see how's that but i quickly realised that tnt is kinda the only option since im not able to move and attack at once and bc of that i was losing considerable ammount of hp during fights. Also enemies were able to hit me through walls which ofc isnt a good thing. All that being said its a compo game so for 48h of work? Amazing! Gj!
cavedens
03. May 2021 · 21:44 UTC
So any of the controls that had to do with A would not work properly. Sometimes I could not move that way, sometimes I would swing but it would not hit so it was super hard for me to play. I did manage to make some progress however, and overall besides that issue it seemed like a pretty good submission
DDRKirbyISQ
05. May 2021 · 08:39 UTC
This.....is a hard game, haha. The dynamite was pretty satisfying though, especially managing to toss it into a pit full of enemies.
MrPouletBZH
05. May 2021 · 17:39 UTC
The game has an impressive art direction and is very well polished! The game felt really hard even in medium tho, and I wasn't confortable with the attack bind on right shift, but nonetheless, a great job!
RNGames
07. May 2021 · 00:40 UTC
✔️ Nice pixel art.

✔️ The game was surprisingly strategic, choosing the best path to avoid enemies, making sure you don't make the hole too big with your dynamite as to take fall damage. Overall well done!

➖ The dynamite explosion radius was a bit unclear.