The Crystal Cavern by Matthew Cohan

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

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. Screenshot 2021-04-26 125601.png

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🗨️

Feedback

mdotedot
26. Apr 2021 · 18:44 UTC
You are the light (!) That is a good feeling. I wish I could get some powerups along the way.
SamurGuy
26. Apr 2021 · 18:45 UTC
Pretty fun to play, good sounds, nice art.
FussenKuh
26. Apr 2021 · 18:45 UTC
Nice spin on the endless runner concept. The sound effects and visuals are very satisfying. That said, I could never quite get far enough along to get to "full darkness" ...which, I think, would be quite difficult, but fun. Well done!
Falcon_Lc
26. Apr 2021 · 18:46 UTC
The graphics are really good and the game system is pretty cool I think
ristoretto
26. Apr 2021 · 18:47 UTC
The art style is pretty good. I wish there was some more twist on the basic gameplay
ehtd
26. Apr 2021 · 18:47 UTC
Cool game, the collisions could be a bit more forgiving.

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?
Vaanrile
26. Apr 2021 · 18:49 UTC
Nice game overall. The gameplay is quite simple but effective, and the graphics are really pleasing to the eye. The difficulty curve is maybe a bit too progressive for a game of this kind : it takes a bit of time for the game to get challenging, which doesn't encourage repeated playthroughs, but it is far from being a huge dealbreaker.
Overall, great job, I really enjoyed playing your game !
frogmen
27. Apr 2021 · 02:22 UTC
very nice game :) i do wish there was some music though, that would really complete it!
chiyeon
27. Apr 2021 · 19:37 UTC
Well done endless runner! There's a creepy, 'I'm-the-last-one-alive' kind of atmosphere built with the sounds, and they meshed well with the clean graphics/effects. Maybe I'm being nitpicky but I honestly felt more like I was going *towards* something rather than *down* to something, in part due to the perspective of left-right vs up-down. Nonetheless, well done overall!
ColeSlaughter
27. Apr 2021 · 21:30 UTC
High score 101!!

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:
JesterSeraph
29. Apr 2021 · 03:36 UTC
Cute little game! I would have appreciated a soundtrack personally, since even if you need to use a song from somewhere else instead of making one within the 72 hours it still does wonders for the general mood and atmosphere of the game. It's one of those aspects where you don't notice it as much when it's there, but can't stop noticing when it's missing.
Bigbadbison
05. May 2021 · 18:39 UTC
Cool little game! The art is very nicely done and the SFX/music are perfect for it. I feel like you knew your limits and were able to keep the scope down in order to add a really nice amount of polish. After around 100 it seems impossible to continue though, you have to go from top to bottom in a very short time window, maybe the colliders could be a bit more forgiving. Maybe I just suck though :P

Great work, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress in the future!

Anyone beat 106?

![Capture.PNG](///raw/ee8/93/z/42316.png)
jk5000
05. May 2021 · 19:35 UTC
The game looks great, and the sound effects is pretty good. I wish there was music and perhaps more sound effects doing the gameplay. For me was the gameplay too simple. But overall is this an okay little jam game.
leekanarchism
05. May 2021 · 21:33 UTC
I like the idea of ever-increasing darkness as a mechanic, interesting!

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!
felo07
05. May 2021 · 22:30 UTC
hey I got jumpscares with the crystal broken, idk why hahaha nice game, I liked the atmosphere, the sound and graphics, I did 60 on score! good job
zubspace
15. May 2021 · 23:25 UTC
This game is really polished! Very well done!

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:

![Crystal.png](///raw/037/22/z/42758.png)
Videt
16. May 2021 · 07:00 UTC
Nice sounds and visuals! The game itself is pretty simple tho
DesertMaw
18. May 2021 · 15:00 UTC
Nice little entry.
I liked the parallax effect. Good job