Deep Mole by hutchings90

A mole's gotta dig. See how far you can go. Watch your health and food meters.
The game allows the mole to be controlled by the keyboard arrow keys and the mouse. Only the mouse works on itch. You have to click the left mouse button to get the mole to move.
I had a great time making this. I tried to give it as much personality as I could. Does it make you smile? Enjoy!
Note: It seems to take a minute for itch to load audio and image files. If you start the game as soon as the page has loaded, then there will be a delay in when the audio is played and when images appear. In hindsight, I should have loaded the audio and images before allowing the game to start.
| Link | https://hutchings90.itch.io/deep-mole |
| Link | https://github.com/hutchings90/DeepMole |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deep-mole |
Ratings
| Overall | 783th | 2.923⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 717th | 2.865⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 864th | 2.24⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 413th | 3.64⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 797th | 2.64⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 329th | 3.354⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 111th | 3.542⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 693th | 2.8⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
Nice audio! Love the 80s/90s theme. And your audio SFX and comments are a nice touch!
After completing the Standard mode, I tried the Survival mode and started hearing sound effects I had not heard during my first playthrough. I started running into literally everything, even all the bad stuff, just so that I could hear all the amazing sounds this game has to offer.
I can't think of many games that reward you for losing HP... so congrats on making an unexpected mechanic that is surprisingly fun!
Even though it's very simple, I want to give a couple suggestions:
- Having the cockroach be both food and damage based on the color is a bit confusing (I only found the gray ones are food by accident, as I was trying to avoid all of them). I think you should stick to worms for food and cockroach for obstacle.
- The survival mode increasing and decreasing speed made it very easy. I think the speed should only increase, so it becomes more challenging as you progress.
Keep it up!
I liked the sound effects and that there's different stages. I specially liked that you offered a standard mode, which is curated and great for first time, and then survival for playing as long as you want.
In the second stage, the 'cockroaches?' it was not clear that the red ones are bad and the gray (dead ones?) are good. However, this is learnt very fast after the first bites.
On the survival mode, I'd love some incremental challenge, like more speed the further you go, etc. Otherwise, it seems you can go forever without issue, and even more, when you go back to a stone level, the game feels like going too slow again.
Well done!
@albertnez
Smiles all around! Mission accomplished! I'm glad that things loaded smoothly for you.
The 'cockroaches' are actually silverfish and firebrats. If a firebrat kills you, then you'll see a report that shows the name. The silverfish wouldn't be known through typical gameplay.
Thanks for your input!
@mighty-mufflon-games Thank you!! I'm all about simple pleasures :smile:
@yellowsalamander Thanks! I had a fun time with the VA :smile:
Good game, I'm not sure if I understood correctly the survival mode, is it an infinite mode without end where you try do go the deepest you can?
Nice mole though, very cool sunglasses ^^
@sombrero-guy Thanks! :smile:
@mhanapole Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it :smile: