The Bottom Dweller by alphapolygon

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

Rogue-like endless descent game. Collect perks to help get to the deepest depths of the earth.

https://youtu.be/hENOvp__-hA

Ratings

Overall 1358th 3.262⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1153th 3.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1561th 2.714⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1014th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1301th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 729th 2.905⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1579th 2.881⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 52🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

Roboolet
26. Apr 2021 · 19:18 UTC
The game succeeds in feeling like an average mobile game, so it caught me off guard when i noticed all the innuendo. Nevertheless, game is pretty fun. The artstyle is pretty inconsistent, but i assume most of these are from asset packs. The core concept is fine though, nice take on the theme.

The upgrades are a bit standard, but you still get a +1 for including things like achievements (and saving/loading, which was a surprise)
Thoastbot
26. Apr 2021 · 20:05 UTC
I like it quite a lot. It feels totaly like a typical mobile game, something for the few minutes u have to waste waiting for something, great - i´m sure i´ll keep it quite a will on-off active :smiley:
Antti Niemi
27. Apr 2021 · 09:58 UTC
@roboolet All the graphics are original and hand drawn, no asset packs :)
Salepate
27. Apr 2021 · 11:11 UTC
So funny to see a vertical runner. Great fit for the theme and props to you for giving the rope an organic look!
MB2308
27. Apr 2021 · 15:51 UTC
Love it, I'm a big fan of Rock Hard ;)
grena
28. Apr 2021 · 01:56 UTC
This is the kind of thing I'd like to have on my smartphone for sure!
The game seems to have a lot of perks and stats to unlock, so I want to try more!

- Every stat is pretty self explanatory but I had trouble understanding the hang time? I mean, I didn't see the effect of it
- The hitbox of crystals are very approximative and therefore can be frustrating sometimes
- I liked the alternative path when you can jump very far from the cliff

Nice jam game, pleasant visually!
TobyMurray
28. Apr 2021 · 02:20 UTC
Fun game! Pretty challenging, I think the hitboxes on the crystals are a bit big, I died a few times when I wasn't touching anything. I feel like the upgrades are pretty expensive too, hard to get that many coins quickly on a short playthrough. Good level of polish and great art!
Antti Niemi
28. Apr 2021 · 07:19 UTC
I guess the hitboxes on the crystals are quite ok, but the jumper has it set too big. Should probably make it a tad more forgiving 🤔
Gao Ming
28. Apr 2021 · 10:18 UTC
wonderful game and worth to play.Very fun.!
Antti Haavikko
28. Apr 2021 · 17:30 UTC
Well of course I have to give the game of my namesake a try!

I guess this is good enough for me

![Screenshot 2021-04-28 at 20.01.16.png](///raw/1e4/3/z/414c5.png)

So yeah, the visuals were really pixelated and because of that the achievement texts were an eye strain to even try to read. In the end these were the only ones I was missing, whatever they are...

![Screenshot 2021-04-28 at 20.26.09.png](///raw/1e4/3/z/414ee.png)

A quite classic endless runner even. The achievements and the upgrades give it a nice amount of replay incentive but the small amount of different level sections makes the game get old kinda quick. Majority of the sections were pretty much trap setups for the early game and even after getting some upgrades, some other sections became traps. So pretty much the whole game progress is gated behind the double jump upgrade which can be unluckily missed for quite some time due to random choices and not affording it when it happens to appear. After getting the double jump, all the other upgrades felt meaningless.

And the double jump brings me to my biggest issue with the game. And that is actually probably the only reason one couldn't go on forever. That is the wonky (double) jump mechanic. It doesn't kill the existing momentum so it can be either a huge height boost if hitting the key twice quickly or just a slight speed decrease when falling from great heights. And this same behaviour also happens when just falling from a ledge without hitting jump. So if you hit the jump a fraction of a second too early before touching the ground, you will most likely just faceplant yourself towards some conveniently placed spikes.

The game would need some kind of actual difficulty curve. I think the classic and the easiest way would be to do a speed increase the further you got. And I guess it should also increase the reward the further you got.

And seems like it's already been mentioned but a classic jam game issue of too big hitboxes. Makes it super unfair and hard to estimate things.

The spikes also hurled the player in this uncontrollable and unpredictable arcs which really diminished the value of the armor upgrades. More often than not after the first hit it hurled me straight to another set of spikes. I mean, I got to this height by just ramming the spikes with no jumping at all.

![Screenshot 2021-04-28 at 19.30.47.png](///raw/1e4/3/z/414eb.png)

The visuals were pretty nice with a pleasant to look at color palette. Music was ok and got the job done but it was very quiet compared to that blaring coin sound which (being the almost only sound effect) got old fast! A slight variation for that sound would have been welcome addition. A random 10% pitch variation in either direction is my goto. And of course having more sound effects besides just the jump/hurt/coin and better volume balance would have made them feel less repetitive.

Another thing I really kinda was annoyed about was the double menu thing between tries. That was an unnecessary step and should have been merged to one only.

Nice rope physics by the way! :sweat_smile:

But yeah, good job! :thumbsup:
Villanelle
28. Apr 2021 · 17:37 UTC
The game gives you the feels of typical mobile game and has a funny take on the theme.The only thing I would complain is that I think my experience would be better if I played it on my smartphone... I found it a little strange to just click the LMB for the character to jump, wish there was the possibility to play using the keyboard for the web version. Nevertheless, good job!
Antti Niemi
28. Apr 2021 · 18:37 UTC
@villanelle Good idea. We'll definitely add that next time :)
Antti Niemi
28. Apr 2021 · 18:44 UTC
@antti-haavikko Thanks for the feedback. Very good points there. I had some trouble with the webGL version scaling, so I guess the pixelated texts are part of that, but I found a better webGL template later, maybe I should try that one out. As for the coin sound, I was thinking of adding some random pitch, but it sounded kind of weird at times, I'll try that next time. Thanks for the feedback, we'll ace the next game keeping this stuff in mind :D
Mighty Mufflon Games
03. May 2021 · 08:13 UTC
This game makes a lot of fun. It is quite addictive. xD The music keeps me motivated. :)
nsadie
07. May 2021 · 19:54 UTC
That was quite fun and well done. The guy was such a bro bro!
MrCubix
16. May 2021 · 21:33 UTC
I think it's to the point and enough original. I like it. Good job:)