Journey To The Center Of The World by paulhocker
Are you ready for you Journey to the other side of the World?
Guide your high tech drilling machine through the Earth's core and beyond to the other side of the World. The drill is equipped with a high power mineral inverter that can turn minerals you find along the way into temperature and hull protection. Find pockets of oil to give your Drill a little added boost, but lookout for lava fields and large boulders that will stop you in your tracks.
Build up your Hull and keep you Temperature low as you make your way to the center of the Earth where things really start to get hot.
If you are skilled enough to make it all the way to the other side of the world, you can put you name on the hall of fame wall.
There are more instructions in the game by pressing the Help button when you start it.
Controls are simple, use the left or right arrow key on your keyboard.
Can't finish, don't worry, we have not finished it either, but we know someone will do it.
Version History
v0.0.3 - made hit boxes slightly bigger for minerals and smaller for obstacles - fixed some of the text in the help screen
v.0.0.2 - added ui text to show hull and temp guages - keep ui visible when game is over - high score entry fixed (in case someone makes it)
v0.0.1 - first release
Ratings
| Overall | 1320th | 3.28⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 836th | 3.4⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1732th | 2.5⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 228th | 4.14⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1322th | 3.28⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 1032th | 3.01⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1177th | 2.333⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1525th | 2.958⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 64🗳️ | 81🗨️ |
I liked the art for the crystals. And I appreciate your dedication to the theme in letting us go all the way through the planet. I made it just past the center of the planet, which I consider a win.
Nice work!
I would have liked it if the gauges would warn me when they're about to deplete though. As it stands right now, I was both surprised and confused when I saw my first game over screen, because I wasn't even aware how close I was to failing.
Other than that though, this is a fun, solid experience. I can see it playing well on phones, too!
Other than that, I feel the UI could be a bit more clear, It took me a while to understand which powerups were good or bad and what each bar meant
I appreciate the effort you put in the art and the progress bar, it was a really nice touch.
The oil is a little confusing at first, I wasn't sure if I wanted that much speed (but probably you need it for a chance to get to the bottom). The dials could use some kind of icon to indicate their purpose (e.g. temperature).
Oil also tends to be hidden behind other things, and gets picked up involuntarily.
Didn't really understand what the different pickups were doing for me, but it was very clear what should be picked up versus what should be avoided. Definitely caught on to the progress meter for depth, but not really the other two progress bars. Maybe a small icon over each one could have helped clear it up?
All things considered it's a fun game that's well implemented and could be the base for a simple mobile game if you wanted to expand on it. Made it just past the halfway mark on my first playthrough. Really nice job! :D
maybe the game take too much time to become hard? for a couple of minutes I thought it was not possible to loose.
congrats for your entry!
Some remarks:
1. Boost is pretty sharp. Expectation: speed increases smoothly after boost.
2. Drilling machine slightly differs in style. Expectation: thicker lines used in the drilling machine sprite.
Good job!
The other outstanding point for this game is definitely that the theme is absolutely nailed in my opinion. :)
2 minor things that cause difficulty are:
- Rocks are actually small enough to be completely obscured by a bonus icon, ran into a rock that was hidden that way at least once. Ideally rocks and bonuses shouldn't be able to spawn on top of each other.
- Lava barriers are difficult to see when you reach red-background center part of the World.
This is a well put together game, engaging gameplay, great idea and design, simple but nice sounds and visuals, all that while fitting nicely into the theme of the Game Jam.
Thank you for sharing your game! :)
My only problem with it is that it took me a while before i understood what kept killing me. I thought the boulders were things i needed to pick up xD
There were a couple things that I think could improve the experience:
- Make sure that you don't spawn obstacles inside of powerups. More than once I hit a rock or a lava field that was mostly obscured behind an icon.
- It was mean to have the center of the earth the same color as the lava. Maybe that was a design choice to make it so hard to see, but I was a little frustrated by it.
- I don't think there were enough tungsten. I died from heat with completely full hull.
- Maybe don't tie the speed to the oil and just speed up over time so it gets harder? Hitting a rock or lava was extremely punishing because you lose all your speed and have to build it back up again. Playing at the very low speed wasn't nearly as interesting as playing at high speeds.
The game was pretty good overall. I didn't realize the oil spills were a speed boost until several minutes in. It looked like a hole in the ground, so I was trying to avoid it. A bit more visual clarity on that would have been nice.
Good work!
- The punishment for hitting a stone is too great! I don't know if it's just me, but this abrupt change in speed makes me a little dizzy. Perhaps if the penalty were 30% of the actual speed could solve this problem.
- Eventually, I hit a stone that was covered by a power-up, and it's a little frustrating - you think you are rocking, but then ... it's rock. haha.
Despite these two things, I really enjoyed this game - the art is great, excellent musical choice and could have a big 'replay factor' for me, if you deal with this speed penalty. Great work!
Cute graphics and nice smooth powerups. I wasn't clear which objects did what and maybe a nice upgrade mechanic could have been good to add but over all good job!