Runner Ore by ThatANoNoWord

made by ThatANoNoWord for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

You play as an underpaid mining worker, whose job is to travel down the dark abandoned mines in order to extract some ore. Not simply any ore, though. The ore you obtained are from cute walking boulders called OreBoys that you have to smack with your pickaxe.

You move around with WASD or the arrow keys. Press left shift to run, but be careful to not run out of stamina. Left click on the screen in order to throw your pickaxe in that direction. Throw your pickaxe at the OreBoys.

The OreBoys start out by sleeping. When you approach a sleeping OreBoy, they will wake up and run away. Running towards an OreBoy will allow them to wake up earlier, so be careful. If you stay far away from OreBoys for a while, they will return to sleep. Try not to get lost in the cave from chasing around OreBoys.

Hitting an OreBoy allows you to collect a single piece of Ore. If you destroy an OreBoy, you will get an extra piece of Ore. Collect 25 Ores and return to the stairs in order to finish the game. Try to do this as fast as possible!

Sadly, there is absolutely no audio in the game at the moment.

Link	https://thatanonoword.itch.io/runner-ore
Link	https://thatanonoword.itch.io/runner-ore
Link	https://thatanonoword.itch.io/runner-ore
Link	https://thatanonoword.itch.io/runner-ore
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/runner-ore

Ratings

Overall	1488^th	3.173⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1430^th	2.981⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1126^th	3.058⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1382^th	3.25⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1355^th	3.231⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Humor	622^th	3.043⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1135^th	3.327⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Given		23🗳️	29🗨️

Feedback

timeloopedpowergamer

27. Apr 2021 · 00:28 UTC

Got a great feeling of huge mine. Good use of light. Had a lot of trouble with the oreboys running so fast, but it was still fun to chase them.

AbigailCorfman

27. Apr 2021 · 00:30 UTC

We had a very hard time hitting any of the little ore monsters. It might have been more engaging if we could throw the pick while moving? Or perhaps we missed something?

Raeino

27. Apr 2021 · 00:36 UTC

I liked the fact that I could direct the picaxe attack. It was fun to chase those weird creatures, but after running out of stamina I kept losing sight of them, which was quite frustrating in the long run.

Mad Sensei

27. Apr 2021 · 00:45 UTC

Congrats on the game! Loved the calm mining experience! Ended up catching way more then 25 ores! :smiley:

🎤 ThatANoNoWord

27. Apr 2021 · 01:06 UTC

Remember that the ore monsters will wake up quickly if you run at them. If they sleep and you only walk without sprinting, you can get very close up, in which you can hit them with your pickaxe. Thank you for the feedback!

HyperCubeGames

27. Apr 2021 · 02:20 UTC

Great idea and game, the one main thing I would improve is that the player feels really slow.

DorianSnowball

27. Apr 2021 · 15:12 UTC

Really liked the concept and the execution of it. Art was well done and fitting the game.
If I could improve one thing in the game, I would add music / sound effects.
Overall: Fun little game, but with room for improvements

windfall890

28. Apr 2021 · 05:09 UTC

A fun twist on a shooter.

First off nice work running a solo jam entry!
I like the use of light around the player and the cues when ore boys wake up and run.

It definitely feels mysterious and wide open around you in the mine.

Echoing everyone above, yes missing out on sound really was a bummer, its so hard to get all the smaller systems working in such a short jam.

This could have used maybe one or two other interactions to be more fun, its a shame it feels like there is not a lot to explore past finding ore boys.

Oh, Also nice work on the hosting page, the matching black works so well with the light, and you really put some care into your instructions and look and feel of the itch page and it shows!

TentacleMax

28. Apr 2021 · 05:11 UTC

nice game!

Nikolaj

28. Apr 2021 · 05:11 UTC

the little guy i was chasing was cute.. i didn't really want to hurt him, but i liked the experience of him running off into the dark repeatedly.. that was cool.

LDJam user 151616

28. Apr 2021 · 05:21 UTC

The game is so so cute, the art is amazing and I loved the idea and the game. Congrats!

🎤 ThatANoNoWord

28. Apr 2021 · 05:41 UTC

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

Tanner Shelton

28. Apr 2021 · 07:28 UTC

Good job on this one. It was fun chasing around the ore boys and getting their ores. I think any additional mechanics being added would help it feel fun for longer as well, or justify a second playthrough. But I enjoyed it regardless.

Link270

28. Apr 2021 · 07:56 UTC

Had lots of fun here. The ore boys were a cool twist on the lining idea. There is a lot of potential here and I could see it getting improved a lot and becoming more engaging. Add a few new mechanics, maybe some upgrades and new weapons and enemies? Ie get a jackhammer at some point or something. Haha good job!!

KepperSnapper

28. Apr 2021 · 08:49 UTC

Really nice little game, I liked having to chase those dang ores around, it was very cute :) Well done!

campostella

28. Apr 2021 · 09:17 UTC

It's funny when I was trying to pick the ores on the ground and literally throwing the pickaxe away. The Oreboys are hard to reach when they are escaping, If I could throw my pickaxe farther away while sprinting maybe I would have a better reach to the OreBois. Nicely done anyway!

JUSTCAMH

28. Apr 2021 · 16:23 UTC

Hey matey, thanks for submitting your game to the stream! I hope my feedback is helpful, I really enjoyed the game! Here's the twitch vod if you wanna rewatch:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1003703630

1minatur

29. Apr 2021 · 20:34 UTC

This was pretty fun to play. I loved chasing the ores around. A little more features would go a long way if you decide to do a post-jam version!

LDJam user 236545

01. May 2021 · 04:26 UTC

I made it *just* under 5 minutes.

![Capture.JPG](///raw/10c/93/z/41de6.jpg)

Fun game of tag, but I think the sprint could have been a tad bit faster. Once the Ore Boys were out of reach, the sprint didn't really help to catch up to them. In fact, I had an easier time walking around so that they fell asleep faster.

Good job finishing your first LD game!

PurpledArtFrog

03. May 2021 · 13:08 UTC

Thank you for your entry - I hope you had great fun making it :smile:

This was a nice little twist ... might actually make a really fun game with a little more time put into it - very nice job :thumbsup_tone1:

I hope you'll drop by mine and give it a spin :wink:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:

Gorethumb

04. May 2021 · 04:56 UTC

great job on the lighting in this game i liked the oreboys mostly because it is so fun to say lol, some added features like sneaking would be great to get the jump on them

GullynGames

13. May 2021 · 19:28 UTC

Pretty fun game! I especially like the lighting of the game. It would be nice if there was some progression for the player, like a faster hitting speed or running speed. Good job!

NoNumbersGames

15. May 2021 · 17:34 UTC

Interesting idea, game was fun enough to grind to victory. Bit too difficult to see though. Especially to at least have an idea of where the ores ran off (this would have reduced the time blindly walking around). I know it is part of the atmosphere, but maybe at least a directional light towards where you are facing would have helped.

It seemed like I was just walking in circles most of the time. And walking felt a bit too slow. Actually surprised I managed to find the exit.

Sometimes ores seemingly run away before I can even see them. Which results in more walking.

Throw distance seems very short, which results in more walking.

Stamina expires just a bit too fast - feels a bit too restrictive. Yay more walking.

Maybe all of these would have been alright if walking was just a little bit faster. Or maybe even the walk speed would have been fine if there was music and footstep sounds to better invoke a slow exploration of the mine. But alas, time is limited, I know the feeling of ending up with a game without audio.