The Hidden Unknown by CubeX
There's a cube down in the hidden unknown, and you want to check it out. Unfortunately, there's something called a bunch of rocks in the way. :frowning2:
To get through these rocks, you have a trusty terrain deformer at your side. Just click with it and it'll start removing terrain. However, this terrain deformer takes power. Fortunately, you have a generator you can unpack and place it wherever you want, and it'll wirelessly start giving power to you.
Unfortunately, that wireless power will only reach a certain range away from the generator, so you can't go very far away from the generator without losing power. Fortunately, the generator supplies infinite wires that you can place within the range of the generator to extend the signal.
However, you can only carry five wires at a time, so you can't just go trigger happy with the wires - you have to keep coming back to the generator for more.
Are you ready to go deeper and deeper in the caves? Play this game and enjoy.
Ratings
| Overall | 762th | 2.971⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 826th | 2.544⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 405th | 3.294⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 254th | 3.882⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 716th | 2.882⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 554th | 2.891⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 415th | 3.309⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 43🗳️ | 54🗨️ |
@nocymer Thanks for the compliments! Yeah, I wanted to add an intro to the game but I unfortunately didn't have time :(
- the minimal visual aesthetic
- the overall mood established by the ambient audio and lighting
What I didn't like:
- no apparent objective besides searching for the elusive cube
- no WASD controls, only arrow keys
- no indication as to the range of the wires, nor what they were connected to
- the lack of ability to remove wires I placed by accident
While it's pretty apparent I wasn't a fan of this game, you seem to be pretty new to game dev, and this is your first LD entry. Honestly, I'm impressed you managed to complete something in time for compo! Keep improving, I'm sure you'll do better next time!
As other people said I was quite confused about the controls, a little tutorial would have helped.
good job!
@arbe Thanks for the compliments! Although this isn't my first ludum dare (I'm just on a new account for a few reasons) I am still learning and it's good to know what you didn't like so I could improve on it later. :smiley: It helps a lot!
@axeltherabbit Actually, this isn't my first ludum dare, I'm just on a new account for a few reasons but thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the controls weren't great but they were what I could think of in my limited time frame.
The information on the screen was big and clear, which I liked a lot. There was not more information than there needed to be. What I did not like so much is the feedback to the player. Sometimes I put down a wire and it apparently did not give me power. Then another time I put one a lot further away, which did work for some reason. I still am not entirely sure what the rules are. Does it need line of sight?
I think a wire or even a simple line connecting the poles could clarify that a lot.
Then, I also think it would have been nice to find things along the way. Some treasure to find and make the search exciting ^_^ Perhaps you could have found more generators, which would be an amazing find, since you would not have to go all the way up again.
As a final point of feedback, I think the choice of buttons was a bit odd. I was not sure what an easy position was for my hands. Usually I kept my left hand on the arrow keys and my right on the mouse, but when I needed to place a wire I had to lift up my hand and bring it all the way to the E key (so much work, I know :P).
I hope you dont take the feedback too harshly and that it is somehow useful! I thought the visuals were amazing, but that the gameplay needed a bit of work. Thanks a lot for making this :D
@wuppos Thanks for the feedback! I'm not taking the feedback harshly at all, in fact, I like the feedback! My biggest issue for my games has always been controls, and it's nice to know what works and what doesn't. About you being able to find treasures/generators/etc, I would have added things like that in if I had time, but I unfortunately didn't :( The wire mechanics also weren't great, and I wanted to add a line between two connected wires, but I couldn't figure it out before my time ran out. Again, thanks for the feedback!
(oh and terrain deforming was really nice, I'm a bit of a programming noob so I wouldn't even know how to go about implementing that kind of mechanic :o)
Without explanations I was a little lost in the game, I randomly clicked anywhere and kept going back to the bouncy thing at the beginning and then I figured it out :) (more visual indicators could also help a lot).
One last thing, destructible terrain is always something I really like to play with, so good job :grin:
Also just realised this was a compo entry so an extra well done!