Caverns by Gossian

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

Try and navigate the hand-painted environments towards the glowing area to move deeper into this strange world.

My first platformer, so feedback is very welcome!

Use W and D or arrow keys to move left and right, and Space to jump.

It's also possible to restart or skip levels from the Esc menu. (Mashing the Space bar will work wonders)


Art & Code: Lu Gossian
Music & Sound: Francesco Sicurella



Update: - Fixed issue with Start Menu - Made the main character less heavy - Adjusted the hidden platforms to make the levels more navigatable - NEW LEVELS!!

Capture2s.PNG
Capture3s.PNG

Ratings

Overall 1691th 2.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1749th 2.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 665th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1604th 2.976⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 607th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 330th 3.81⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1155th 2.367⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 841th 3.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Adam Jewell
28. Apr 2021 · 11:46 UTC
Really nice music and visuals, like playing a piece of art to engage with it deeper.

The platforming was very interesting actually, since you had to use your imagination a bit to see what might be a platform and what's background. Not in a frustrating way, in a stimulating way.
Camden Obertop
28. Apr 2021 · 17:26 UTC
Cool game! I found myself unable to find the correct path some of the time, but mashing my spacebar and jumping semi-infinitely really helped me get through the levels.
picross
28. Apr 2021 · 18:02 UTC
Interesting game but it took me a while to figure out what platforms I was or wasn't supposed to be jumping on. Nice visuals and music! Good work
LDJam user 240168
04. May 2021 · 21:23 UTC
Interesting concept. Are the background images hand-painted or generative? I'd say it would be better to have more clues for the player about the level's shape. I ended up just blindly jumping everywhere until I somehow got to the target. Anyways, nice job!

Btw, I was playing the Linux version - buttons in main menu sometimes don't react when you click, apart from that everything works fine.
Conduit
04. May 2021 · 21:31 UTC
Love the artwork and music (the jazzy post modern vibes were an excellent touch) but the character was wayyyy too heavy to be making precise jumps like that. Fantastic art piece, didn't quite hit the mark for me as a video game.
Rhythmic Revival
05. May 2021 · 19:02 UTC
Very nice game! The art was very mysterious and fun, and the music paired with it well. Having to mash the spacebar with such a heavy, fast-falling character was a bit annoying to deal with, but very worth it.

I loved the jazzy, dark song, it paired with the music well. If you make a post-jam version, I would suggest something to vary the song like adding a layer every level (drums, shakers, etc.). The levels are probably too short to write a new song every time but anything varying it is nice!

Good job overall!
foonghi
05. May 2021 · 19:21 UTC
The artwork is cool, and I really like the idea behind it!
unfortunately, I got stuck at one point at level 2 and couldn't move anywhere. :(
It was a bit try and error on some points, but it was fun! And it was also a nice idea to allow changing levels
LDJam user 246128
05. May 2021 · 20:17 UTC
Nice art and really relaxing music.

Managed to get myself stuck several times for unknown reasons. Sometimes vigorous spacebar smashing along with moving helped, sometimes not.
Jack B Music
09. May 2021 · 17:33 UTC
I liked the visuals and the music, it gave the game a very nice vibe. Trying to find the path was an interesting challenge which I enjoyed at times. I did get softlocked in one of the levels, maybe a reset button to bring the player to the beginning of the level would be nice. Overall, very well done!
F1Krazy
09. May 2021 · 19:33 UTC
This is beautiful to look at, and the music is really relaxing. The platforming is mostly a case of frantically running and jumping around and hoping you land on something that takes you closer to the goal. It's never really clear where you can and can't move to - while you get the gist of it, it's still not always intuitive when you suddenly hit a wall or fall off a ledge.

What @lisyarus said about the Linux version is also true of the Windows version: I must have clicked the Start button at least a dozen times before it actually registered. Not sure what the problem would be there but it's worth looking at.
Aifryz101
09. May 2021 · 19:37 UTC
The game looks stunning, the music is also very nice and fits well. While the idea of not really visible platforms is interesting, I would not say that it made the game a good platformer. It's a good mix of platforms and logic game though. Maybe if the platforms were more closely following contours of gorgeous background, it would be more interesting to play.
Ramperkash
09. May 2021 · 20:19 UTC
I think the issue with the start button is probably that the title is clickable, and overlaps with it or something, as only about the lower half of the start button can be interacted with. On to the game itself:

I think there could be something here, but the execution is a bit off. If it were more easy to figure out where you would be able to walk or not, and if the levels slowly zoom in on the bits you reach (to go deeper) I would have thought it was pretty good!
Brandon Hare
12. May 2021 · 09:04 UTC
It's pretty difficult to play, but the concept here is so creative and abstract I'm definitely going to fondly remember this one!
I appreciated having a "next level" button so I could see the whole game, I wish more games had that option.
dmtroy
13. May 2021 · 07:37 UTC
Nice atmosphere but unfortunately I struggled too much to work out were the edges were.
kuro
13. May 2021 · 16:04 UTC
Backgrounds are pretty, main char is cute, even if static. Music is pleasant, the mood is very nice.

The gameplay... I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy much. I ended up mashing the spacebar with the arrow keys, and quit out of frustration in the end.

It's definitely an interesting idea tho.

Nice job .)