LudumData

Dig 'Till You Drown! by Yeomsley

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

My entry for Ludum Dare 48.

Theme: Deeper and Deeper

The goal of the game is to get as many water crystals as possible before the mines flood. As you progress the mines get more dangerous, but more rewarding! Whack the crystals with your pickaxe to gather them. Dig through dirt to explore the mines. Use the bucket elevator to get out before you drown!

Controls:

Movement - WASD or Arrow Keys

Jump: W or Up Arrow or Z

Swing Pickaxe: Spacebar or X

Dig Down: swing pickaxe while holding S or Down Arrow

The impossible pickaxe trick: while balancing on your pickaxe below you, hit the jump button

NOTE: the HTML5 version is having performance issues that I'm currently debugging, so I have included native builds for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. (on the itch.io page) Thanks!

DigTillYouDrown1.png DigTillYouDrown2.png DigTillYouDrown3.png

Link https://github.com/MatthewFyfe/LD48
Link https://yeomsley.itch.io/ld48
Link https://yeomsley.itch.io/ld48
Link https://yeomsley.itch.io/ld48
Link https://yeomsley.itch.io/ld48
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/dig-till-you-drown

Ratings

Overall 780th 2.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 756th 2.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 567th 3⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 633th 3.262⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 817th 2.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 576th 2.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 427th 2.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 618th 2.975⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

ElSombrero
26. Apr 2021 · 03:46 UTC
The character make me laugh😂
I spent 5 minutes of my time for laughint to that😂
Good job
LMB
27. Apr 2021 · 22:50 UTC
Cute game, but quite thelassophobic!

I found the controls a bit on the hard side (especially hard to do "pick grabings"). Was also a bit too hard to my taste: too easy to drown and when I die I lose all the crystals.

But, hey!, it _is_ a game, complete, without bugs, in 48 hours! :thumbsup:
ImZary
28. Apr 2021 · 08:21 UTC
interesting game, as other people said, the controls are a bit hard, & the player movement kinda feel like he is in the moon, & i would have liked a main menu, But overall, that's pog, love the concept
🎤 Yeomsley
29. Apr 2021 · 04:25 UTC
@elsombrero Glad you enjoyed my programmer art :)

@LMB Thanks for trying out my game! I agree that the controls could use some more work. Holding down space helps a bit with the ledge grabbing.

@ImZary Thanks! I had plans to add Lady Cerulean and your growing pile of gems to the level select screen but the time got spent on other things.
TheWinrawr
29. Apr 2021 · 20:29 UTC
There's some very creative mechanics in this game, but the controls definitely feel a little finnicky. I had a lot of trouble doing the "Impossible Pickaxe Trick" as well as swimming up the water. I also would've liked your gems to be saved after death, I wasn't a fan of losing all of them after drowning. The Lady Cerulean story looks really interesting though, and I would've liked to see what happens when you beat the game.
sakura_magika
29. Apr 2021 · 21:58 UTC
I like the mechanic of spamming the dig button to climb up walls, but it took me a while to get the hang of it. What was frustrating was getting stuck under a dirt tile that I was unable to dig through when trying to climb up.

Jumping felt a little floaty, could use a bit of tuning with the speed and acceleration curves, but at least all the controls felt very responsive.

Nice work for a compo! Overall you had graphics, sound, gameplay, and even a tiny idle animation. I think the feeling of anxiety of going under the water into the "caves" to get gems was well done.
🎤 Yeomsley
30. Apr 2021 · 15:02 UTC
@thewinrawr Ah good point about the gems. I should keep in mind that during a jam it is frustrating to get a "game over" screen or lose progress. With so many games to test/play we can't put too much time into a single game.

@sakura-magika I should have put a "dig up" command like the dig down one. Don't know how I missed that, thanks for the feedback!
Tris250
01. May 2021 · 22:38 UTC
The game is pretty good, the small levels are pretty cool, the music is good, however the character does not go too well with the surroundings. It is basically a good and entertaining game, especially for a composition game.
fueelin
04. May 2021 · 07:06 UTC
Agree with the other posters. Cool idea, but the controls were pretty tricky to work with. Nice job overall!
nyxkn
05. May 2021 · 07:08 UTC
Niceee! I got to 18 gems and got the girl. The character was cute and game mechanics quite fun. Controls were a bit wonky. The hooking of the pickaxe onto ledges was a pretty fun idea though and made me chuckle when introduced.
mikouaji
05. May 2021 · 07:24 UTC
The game is fun, the levels are diverse so its not boring. The controls above the water felt weird and the underwater controls felt ok for me.
VixenMink
06. May 2021 · 04:44 UTC
Besides the goal being to make money for Lady Cerulean to notice you, I think it is an interesting way to mine a mine. Though I think for some of it I was digging up, which isn't digging deeper
icefallgames
10. May 2021 · 23:00 UTC
I think the controls could use a little work, but overall the game works pretty well. Played the WebGL version, and didn't have any performance issues!
qfeys
17. May 2021 · 20:35 UTC
The controls felt very 'floaty', and I thought that climbing with the pickaxe was hard to very hard. It was also not challenging, but frustrating. I think it could have done with stronger gravity, which would have make the game pacing a lot quicker.

The graphics were basic, but okay.

The sound design was decent. the music was just shy of being annoying. A bit longer loop could have helped.