The Crystal Cavern by Matthew Cohan
The Crystal Cavern is a game created in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare 48 game jam! The theme was 'deeper and deeper.'
It is available to play right in your browser and to download on windows!
It is an endless runner where the environment gets darker the farther you run, until you are only left with the light emitted by the player character. The aim of the game is to avoid the crystals and get as deep into the cave as possible.
Comments and feedback are appreciated!
*Some sounds used in this game were downloaded from mixkit.co and tabletopaudio.com.

| Web Player | https://blue-jay3.itch.io/the-crystal-cavern |
| Windows Download | https://blue-jay3.itch.io/the-crystal-cavern |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/the-crystal-cavern |
Ratings
| Overall | 1787th | 2.778⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1780th | 2.519⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1915th | 1.833⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1821th | 2.519⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1167th | 3.444⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1399th | 1.861⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1254th | 3.24⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 58🗳️ | 12🗨️ |
I felt colliding with the crystals felt more enjoyable than avoiding them. Maybe consider a spinoff? Colliding with the crystals give you more battery to keep the lights on?
Overall, great job, I really enjoyed playing your game !
I'll be honest, that "you got hit" sound effect genuinely makes me jump every time I hear it, haha. A very good "punishing" sound for messing up, but maybe a bit too loud? :sweat_smile:
I like the nice simple concept here though, and the difficulty curve fit really well. I'm curious how this game would change if you added more lanes to switch through? Definitely some room for expansion here in the future. :slight_smile:
Great work, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress in the future!
Anyone beat 106?

I found the controls a little unrewarding -- having just three positions made it feel less rewarding than free motion, but that could just be my opinion / preference :)
I see this is your first submission -- welcom! Hope you had fun and get involved in more game jams, they're addictive!
There are so many things to like: The title screen, the parallax background, the lighting and moody colors combined with the creepy music. The crystals look really great and I love the crunchy sound effect they make if you hit one.
The gameplay is simple, but I had fun beating my own highscores. It's hard to decipher the hit boxes of the crystals, but I guess, that's part of the game.
Well done overall! Here's my best score:

I liked the parallax effect. Good job