LudumData

The Deep Caverns by GullynGames

[raw]
made by GullynGames for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

cover.png A tower defence/mining game, where the goal is to protect your base against enemies. The deeper in the caverns you go, the better the resources will be. The map is completely procedurally generated, so if you get an unfavourable map, you can reload to get another.

This can be a long game, and it can last anywhere from 5-30+ minutes.

I highly suggest playing this on Chrome/Chromium instead of Firefox, as it is much, much faster

Music generated by aiva.ai

Tips:

  • after the enemies spawn, it will take a while before they reach your base, so be patient
  • if the black circle is annoying, press N to turn it off. This may increase lag
  • the game's pathfinding graph will take a while to generate (between 2-30s)
  • after a while, mining manually might get tough. You can create a mining bot, which won't do anything at first. Place a mining flag on an ore to get it to mine.
  • mining bots are better for short distances, and the later ores are better mined manually
  • you might be able to fight the first couple waves off by yourself, but you'll soon need turrets

Controls:

  • WASD to move
  • N to turn off black circle (may decrease performance)
  • X to remove block
  • hold down click on ore to mine (must be near ore)
  • click to shoot
  • space to pause game
Link https://github.com/gullyn/ld48
Link https://gullyn.github.io/ld48/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/the-deep-caverns

Ratings

Overall 1308th 3.286⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1153th 3.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1065th 3.095⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1642th 2.905⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1572th 2.905⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1193th 3.286⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

Cryptomnesic
27. Apr 2021 · 02:02 UTC
"You do not have enough resources."
🎤 GullynGames
27. Apr 2021 · 02:05 UTC
@cryptomnesic you have to mine the resources first
SmelJey
27. Apr 2021 · 04:01 UTC
Awesome tower defence-like game. It was not clear for me from the start how to mine and what to do, but still great game, was fun to play
ty_
27. Apr 2021 · 10:16 UTC
interesting game! i agree with the others that there could be more response to user input - it's quite difficult to see what was actually happening until the enemy died or the entire ore was mined. still a pretty cool game! the art is cute and the audio is nice too :D
🎤 GullynGames
27. Apr 2021 · 12:55 UTC
@smeljey @ty thanks for your feedback! User input was one of the things I was going to improve next, but I decided the main content was more important.
Haematite
27. Apr 2021 · 15:47 UTC
I like this game, think it's got a lot of potential. It took me a long while to figure out I had to stand on the resource to mine it, expected shooting it to do something - just needs some sort of visual feedback I think. Overall really liked it though!
BangKerpow
27. Apr 2021 · 16:58 UTC
I spent way too long playing it :). A minimap would have been nice.
🎤 GullynGames
27. Apr 2021 · 18:11 UTC
@bangkerpow I felt that a minimap wouldn't have suited the game, because a lot of the game is exploring for yourself. Thanks for playing it!
Dazrow
28. Apr 2021 · 19:29 UTC
Very cool concept tbh. The idea is solid, could really work on a more budget version of the game - cheers!
What could use a bit more polish is sounds I guess. I'd really love to get some time of response when I start mining. Also some tutorial in the game (right at the beggining) could really help out too. As for visuals - clean and simple, I like that. I personally preferred to play with N pressed to see more of the map, maybe increase the radius of the standart vignette?
Cheers anyway, great work!
Martin183
28. Apr 2021 · 19:33 UTC
A bit difficult to understand, but it is a promising game!
IcarusDev
28. Apr 2021 · 19:42 UTC
The idea is really nice, the lack of feedback for your inputs or for when your base is being attacked hurts a bit, especially when you need to explore so much without knowing how your base is doing. Overall a nice job, I hope you expand on it, there is potential.
Seeko Studios
28. Apr 2021 · 19:43 UTC
Loved the game, really cool concept!
pedrorocha
28. Apr 2021 · 19:46 UTC
Nice concept, well done !
🎤 GullynGames
28. Apr 2021 · 19:53 UTC
@dazrow @martin183 @icarusdev @seeko-studios @pedrorocha Thanks so much for your input! I didn't have much time to polish the game, as I was focused on adding the main content almost until the last minute.
ccglp
28. Apr 2021 · 19:58 UTC
As the others said, the first impression is that the game is unresponsive to player input because of having to mine resources or things like not being able to deselect the turret you have chosen with the right button. But this has a lot of potential and once I got used to it I had a great time playing. Very good job :)
Szatku
28. Apr 2021 · 20:09 UTC
Hmm... The game is interesting. I found little inspiration from Battle City (defending base). Using things is difficult - menu is not readable. Music is to loud, and i don't find audio control. Maybe some feedback about how is your base, or any helpers to defend it, when you explore map, but overall nice game!
Almax
28. Apr 2021 · 20:56 UTC
Fun game, but suffers from communications issues
* No combat damage feedback
* Base health should be on screen at all times, or you need an alert when it's under attack since it's a lose condition.
* Some kind of feedback while directly mining would help both mechanic discovery and satisfaction/feedback. I found sitting still and mining to be pretty boring.

All that said, I really liked the atmosphere, and would be interested in playing more if you take it further :)
windfall890
29. Apr 2021 · 02:37 UTC
Im pretty much in agreement with above, this is a really impressive TD/mining game, with balanced and interesting systems, but it suffers from UI/UX problems.

The levels feel organic and large, the resource spawn system is great, and I really like the low color, squares and circles aesthetic, reminds me of great old Web tower defense games!

I think with some feedback for player actions, controls in game (I cant stress enough how important this is in a jam, just throw a panel with the controls in!) and some cleaner tooltips this would be extremely fun to play.

I can tell you poured time into the spawner and upgrade/towers system, and it is a really awesome cave generator. Nice work!
lilkrit
13. May 2021 · 21:11 UTC
Surprisingly good!
The graphics are simplistic, but they do their job. Music fits the mood.
And... it was just fun to play!
🎤 GullynGames
13. May 2021 · 22:58 UTC
@ccglp @szatku @almax @windfall890 @lilkrit thanks for your feedback!
someone
14. May 2021 · 01:24 UTC
That was great. It took a few tries to figure out what was happening.
I like the minimal aesthetic, and great work on the level generation.

Mining could definitely use some visual feedback.
I didn't actually realise the grey square you start at was a base that needed defending on my first few attempts and was confused as to why I was suddenly losing. I suggest it be more visually a structure, and perhaps a persistent health value on screen.
The other issue I had was I kept trying to shoot when I had a tool selected. Something like right-click to deselect would have been nice to quickly get back into combat mode.
It would also have been useful to have a value somewhere of how many mining drones I have.

It got fairly easy once I figured out the enemies don't path around walls, so I could just impede their progress with just a few blocks and surround the place with turrets.
Ended up having to stop at level 34 just because I switched tabs to write this, then game was just frozen when I switched back.