Will and Testament by johanhelsing

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

A game about digging and inheritance.

will<em>screenshot</em>02.png

I didn't make the bird sounds or the fonts, but all other assets were created by me during the jam.

I had a lot of fun animating and voicing this guy and trying to figure out how to render dirt. I hope it's somewhat fun to play as well!

Move with arrows, left mouse to dig.

Ratings

Overall 929th 3.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1499th 2.925⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 524th 3.553⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 374th 4.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 919th 3.675⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 808th 3.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 496th 3.225⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 513th 3.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

natpat
27. Apr 2021 · 19:41 UTC
What a sweet little experience! The digging was really well done, with the earth feeling very realistic and actually quite tactile to dig. I liked the simple art and soundscape. Even if there's not much of a game, it's a pretty impressive experience. Once small thing is that on the last level I got a bit stuck as I dug straight down and then couldn't get back out or dig up, or restart the level, and my earth wouldn't be flung high enough to get out the hole. Still, great job overall!
petrroll
27. Apr 2021 · 19:44 UTC
Love the adorable atmosphere! The sounds, the minimalistic graphics, the overall feeling :)

Much like ^^ I also got stuck a few times due to tunneling under still existing dirt and not being able to fling the earth away (always got stuck on "dirt ceiling").
Cyborg Studio
27. Apr 2021 · 19:46 UTC
Short, sweet, and cute! Love the dirt simulation. :)
Tino
27. Apr 2021 · 19:47 UTC
Mood is a success, the graphics and sound arts blend.
Really impressed by the dirt feeling, different from actual dirt only in a good way, artistically and gameplay wise.


![Capture.PNG](///raw/0d6/43/z/40e94.png)
Adam K
27. Apr 2021 · 19:50 UTC
The dirt physics and destruction is really nice. It felt very satisfying.
I think it was on level 4 I got stuck though because I went straight down and I would just throw the dirt back on myself because the walls were too high, so it was really tough to progress further than that because I couldn't destroy the walls on my sides.
Kaito
27. Apr 2021 · 19:50 UTC
Very cool game, cute and relaxing even though I got stuck a few times when digging under "hard" dirt. I really enjoyed the experience :)
🎤 johanhelsing
27. Apr 2021 · 20:01 UTC
Thanks everyone! Yeah, I totally should have put in a retry level button!
TheMoonrise
27. Apr 2021 · 20:17 UTC
This is a quirky and fun little game definetely worth a play. After playing the 1000th down the well game this is a fresh take on the theme. Also the dirt simulation works quite well and is statisfying to watch and play with. Well done!
remusnomos
27. Apr 2021 · 20:18 UTC
That's what I imagine by digging dirt. Combined with nice sounds, minimalistic visuals and a funny but clever story is a very good mix. Liked it! Thank you, Sir!
Lev
27. Apr 2021 · 20:25 UTC
Digging physics is really impressive! Can you maybe give a short explaination of how it was made? ;)
The game also looks and sounds good
🎤 johanhelsing
27. Apr 2021 · 20:46 UTC
@lev Thanks. Short version is that the dirt blobs are simply cubes in Unity's physics engine. I do some hacks to freeze them in case they are moving very slowly, to forcefully stop unstable shivering piles of dirt, and to save performance and also turn previously dug up dirt into new "walls" of dirt.

```c#
private void FixedUpdate()
{
drowsing += Time.fixedDeltaTime;
var sqrVelocity = rb.velocity.sqrMagnitude;
if (sqrVelocity < SleepSpeed * SleepSpeed)
{
if (drowsing > 1)
{
rb.Sleep();
rb.constraints = RigidbodyConstraints2D.FreezeAll;
}
}
else
{
drowsing = 0;
}
}
```

I then simply "wake" them up by removing the constraints in an area when the shovel is thrust forward.

I actually think the rendering does most of the heavy lifting here. As they merge together when they are close, they look less like separate objects and maintain the illusion of being "packed" dirt. But that's a different story entirely :)

Might put all this in a post-mortem at some point :)
cvetk0
27. Apr 2021 · 20:47 UTC
I loved this. I mean, the simulation of the dirt is great, and graphics look so smooth. But the best thing is the family tradition. No matter how you feel about your grandchildren, always leave a nice "cheerful" note for them and make sure treasure is dug so deep that they really have to break a sweat :smile:. The only thing I found a bit annoying was the fact that you cant really control digging direction in terms of straight or up perhaps. If you don't dig even enough you find yourself in situation where you have to get the dirt out of a tunnel, which is pretty hard... but hey, that is what a no good grand child deserves. I wonder how it would go if the last one actually did have children!?

Great game, keep up the good work!
Lev
27. Apr 2021 · 21:05 UTC
@johanhelsing ah, thanks!
That's really cool that you could do this with just cubes, I thougth it was some shader magic :D
Remn
27. Apr 2021 · 21:12 UTC
Its very cool mechanics! But I have found some bugs.![Без имени.png](///raw/92a/b3/z/40f0e.png)
DS Nahogara
27. Apr 2021 · 22:23 UTC
It was a pleasant experience, i love the aesthetic and also how the dirt reacts, the sound is sweet and detailed.
I noticed that if you dig long enough like 5 meters, the dirt starts lagging, in the future it would be cool to optimize the rigid bodies in chunks or something like that hehe.

Fantastic craft! :heart:
Okamit
27. Apr 2021 · 22:33 UTC
A cute experience, the digging mechanic and dirt physics felt really good.

Good work!
nardandas
18. May 2021 · 06:39 UTC
The digging looked and felt great! I also liked the fun little blurbs at the beginning of each level. It was just a bit slow and boring, nothing surprising in the level besides the goal. With a little more content this could be a nice relaxing little game!