Deep Dark by OkayLobster

made by OkayLobster for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Welcome!

Brave the deep! Find treasure! Bring a friend!

But whatever you do....

Don't let your torch go out!

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to see how far you can get in the cave. Getting deeper into the cave and collecting gems will increase your score.

This game has local co-op! You and a friend can play together by using the keyboard. Just press the buttons for the characters and they will jump to life! But beware! If your characters get too far away from each other then it's lights out for you and your friend!

Prefer playing solo? Thats fine! Just press the buttons for one character and jump on in!

As you go further into the cave your torch will begin to go out. If your torch goes fully out that that's it for you! You can refuel your torch by walking over braziers that can be found in the cave.

Controls

Player 1

W = Jump

A = Move Left

S = Slide Down (When on walls)

D = Move Right

Player 2

Up Arrow = Jump

Left Arrow = Move Left

Down Arrow = Slide Down (When on walls)

Right Arrow = Move Right

Tips

-You can grab and slide on the walls to slow down your descent

-Try to stay on the same screen when playing with a friend

-Whatever you do don't run into the monster when you first see it

Bug Fixes/Changes

28/04/2021

-Fixed the braziers so they can be seen more clearly when the screen is getting dark and they spawn more often

-Decreased the max darkness so you can still see the player and level when the torch is almost going out

-Added a tips area in the description to explain some of the gameplay features that were left out before

-Decreased the fall speed of the character based on feedback saying he was to difficult too control at that speed

Credits

OkayLobster - Art and Gamedesign

Swerlin - Codewizard and Audio

Final thoughts

This has been my first ever jam of any kind and it was a blast! (It was also extremely tiring and I need sleep, but you know..)

Big thanks to Swerlin for helping me with this, I literally could not have made it otherwise.

And thanks to you for playing the game, I hope you had fun!

Link	https://okaylobster.itch.io/deep-dark
Link	https://okaylobster.itch.io/deep-dark
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deep-dark

Ratings

Overall	867^th	3.542⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Fun	644^th	3.514⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1160^th	3.042⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Theme	401^th	4.014⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	717^th	3.833⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Audio	345^th	3.788⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Humor	575^th	3.107⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Mood	957^th	3.471⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Given		29🗳️	46🗨️

Feedback

Revilo

28. Apr 2021 · 05:35 UTC

Cute game, love the sound effects and the humour of the screens when you die. (example when I ran into the big monster :p)

🎤 OkayLobster

28. Apr 2021 · 08:29 UTC

Thanks for playing! It was a blast to make, I tried your game and it was fun.

KepperSnapper

28. Apr 2021 · 08:36 UTC

Really adorable little game! I like the concept and the clean pixel art execution! :D Great work!

🎤 OkayLobster

28. Apr 2021 · 08:38 UTC

Thanks for the feedback! We tried to keep the art clean and simple.

Caloudon

28. Apr 2021 · 08:44 UTC

I enjoyed the background music for this game.

🎤 OkayLobster

28. Apr 2021 · 08:45 UTC

Swerlin will be happy to hear that!

Iluvatar

28. Apr 2021 · 08:51 UTC

I am such a noob! Haha This game was so much fun. I really couldn't stop playing. The premise is very simple, but it is really fun to play. And IT IS HARD AS HELL! At least for a noob like me. Love the graphics and smooth controls. The falling speed was maybe too much for me but that adds the challenge.

![Capture.PNG](///raw/2bf/z/4124d.png)

mlho7

28. Apr 2021 · 08:54 UTC

Really nice game, simple and efficient, music is cool, great job.

Jamie Slowgrove

28. Apr 2021 · 08:55 UTC

Nice game! Really liked the graphics, the sound worked well and I thought the mechanic where the torch would slowly run out was a really interesting idea. Good job! :grin:

jujuformatic

28. Apr 2021 · 09:10 UTC

Fun game, realy hard to play, the concept of two players is funny but, I think the game would be better as a platformer because we can't realy see far under the player and often, we die because of this

betovf

28. Apr 2021 · 09:39 UTC

Nice graphics and sound! I like the humour but it is quite hard to play solo :sweat_smile:

MetalFox Dioxymore

28. Apr 2021 · 10:12 UTC

A good concept, but I couldn't go far because there was no way to know where the braziers spawn or to climb up, so I often just pass them without being able to light them ^^'. I think that tweaking a bit the falling speed should do the trick =).

I loved the music and the graphics, and the controls were simple but efficient. Good job !

BoClow

29. Apr 2021 · 06:58 UTC

Cool idea. Played solo and it felt super fast. I liked the tentacles above forcing you to go down faster, but you still had some time to grab the walls.

xiyou

29. Apr 2021 · 09:41 UTC

Very smooth pixel game, however the speed of the fall is so fast that it is difficult for me to light braziers

Shone

29. Apr 2021 · 09:59 UTC

Fantastic game. very polished and addictive

Sanemsky

29. Apr 2021 · 10:46 UTC

It was a fun game, a bit hard for me,maybe bacause I was playing solo. But it was a great challange. Love the art. Good job.

techsec

29. Apr 2021 · 23:00 UTC

Fun game played 2 player. It was a bit confusing as it was never specified that the main object was to gather torches. Perhaps if you gave warning of torch locations that would make the game more interesting as you would have time to plan.

🎤 OkayLobster

30. Apr 2021 · 04:08 UTC

@xiyou Thank you for pointing that out, I have adjusted the falling speed to make for a better experince.

@techsec Thats a great idea! I don't think it would be right to add such a feature while the Ludum Dare rating is still going on, but after the testing period I would like to continue working on the game and refining it.

Kazz96

30. Apr 2021 · 10:33 UTC

Really cool game, love the 16 bit sound effect and music.
Furthermore 2 players game are pretty rare for a jam, well done !
Great work :)

Caladrius

30. Apr 2021 · 12:06 UTC

I really love the inventive mechanism you came up with for selecting single-player or co-op, caught me off guard. I am AWFUL at this game, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

Learus

30. Apr 2021 · 12:12 UTC

Amazing submission! The graphics are clean and consistent, and the music is a banger! The game is challenging enough to keep playing and humorous. Well done!

LDJam user 236545

01. May 2021 · 15:34 UTC

Oooh, I had fun with this one!

I liked the torch checkpoints to keep the flame alive - it added an extra element of challenge beyond just "fall as fast as you can."

The speed was just a little fast for me. It was tough to dodge the obstacles as I was falling.

It would have been incredibly fun to try co-op as well! I tried co-op by myself and it... didn't work out so well haha.

Great work!

Cal

01. May 2021 · 20:02 UTC

Great graphics and really innovative concept here. This is the first 2 player game I've seen for LD! I'd recommend including some sort of tether to the players or split screen. I played with my gf and found it hard for us to both stay on screen.

🎤 OkayLobster

02. May 2021 · 06:08 UTC

@andrewkennedy Thank you for playing the game and I am glad you had fun! Playing coop by yourself is very difficult, we didn't get to fully balance the multiplayer unfortanetly.

@cal Yeah the multiplayer was the least fleshed out part of the game, we simply didn't have time to make it as good as we wanted. But thank you for the feedback.

Magnanix

02. May 2021 · 06:27 UTC

Of course the first thing I did was run into them, its only logical XD! Loved the graphic style, my only gripe would be that I kept getting stuck on the side of platforms - unable to jump back up. I died due to being stuck under a bat and ground into a wall too XD oof. Nice work on the game!

Junebug

02. May 2021 · 19:29 UTC

Good job with this one! I loved how juicy the sound effects were for lighting braziers and losing were. It's also neat how both the player's health and the kind of "timer" mechanic of the descending tentacles tie into the torch and relighting braziers. Only weird thing was wall jumping. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be able to do it, I was able to a couple of times, but it was pretty inconsistent to pull off.

🎤 OkayLobster

03. May 2021 · 00:48 UTC

@junebug Yeah the wall jumping wasn't properly implemented, the original idea was that you could only wall jump a couple of time before sliding down (like Celeste) but we were unable to get it working properly. You can kinda wall jump forever if you you jump away from the wall and move your character back but it is janky.

When you jump on the wall the character is supposed to jump off the wall but we couldn't get it working in time.

ETdoFresh

06. May 2021 · 16:07 UTC

Score: 1570. What a cool game to start off my day! I got much better when I realized I didn't have to play with both players! :P! Thanks for the game!

Joni Brooks

10. May 2021 · 22:34 UTC

everything about this game is amazing! the sound design and how deceptively easy the game feels is a huge plus for addictability! i love how it feels when i reach a brazier and get the whoosh sound and the flare of light paired with the sudden retreat of the darkness. my only two critiques is that there were times when i would get pinned to the bat's side and that the tentacles on the side of the screen at the start are disconnected when playing full screen. other than that, 5 star game!

Heimy Spiel

15. May 2021 · 04:54 UTC

The mood was so awesome!
The sound was original as hell.
There isn't much guidance on it but for an arcade game Id totally play this on my phone!