LudumData

Minexile by legavroche

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

Control your merry band of miners to progress into the deepest parts of the Earth! As you progress further, you'll encounter more riches, but also more dangers...

howToPlay.png

Controls

Left Click: Select a miner

Right Click: Choose destination (Only if miner action is IDLE)

SPACE: Select an idle miner

F: Toggle time scale

W or Up: Move camera up

S or Down: Move camera down

Guide / Tips

1) Have your miners gather resources near the surface and only progress deeper when you've gained a few equipment upgrades.

2) Certain passive upgrades can be much better in the early game as they buff all miners instantly. E.g. the Cargo upgrade which will increase the amount that miners can carry, which lets them earn more in each trip.

3) If no miners exists, then food is depleted much more quickly. Make sure to have at least one miner!

Please look over the following image as it can clarify a lot of the available features.

Desc.png

Major fix 04/26/21: a small bug prevented miners from going past a certain depth, making game impossible to beat Minor fix 04/26/21: minor patch to how visuals are scaled

Link https://github.com/AODQ/ludum-dare-48
Major fix https://aodq.net/files/ld48-major-fix/ludum-dare-client.html
Minor fix https://aodq.net/files/ld48-minor-fix/ludum-dare-client.html
Entry https://aodq.net/files/ld48/ludum-dare-client.html
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/bob-the-miners

Ratings

Overall 1109th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1391th 3.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 564th 3.521⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 219th 4.146⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1464th 3.083⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 996th 3.068⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1403th 1.833⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1168th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

squirmonkey
27. Apr 2021 · 04:02 UTC
Wow, you've got like, a whole little RTS thing happening here.

I found it a little difficult to micromanage. I would have liked it if the miners would just mine, and I could focus on bigger strategic decisions like what to buy and how much food to get.

Nice idea, very impressive to build in a jam.
teenythanos
27. Apr 2021 · 04:11 UTC
This is a really interesting approach! I couldn't really get it to work but I liked that the music changed as you went lower with the camera.
ssh.randy
27. Apr 2021 · 04:14 UTC
i love the approach! the music didn't work for me at all unfortunately, but i liked being able to control a bunch of miners and take them down. the UX was confusing though, don't really understand how to direct where the miners would go, took me a while to get the hang of that, but still don't fully understand it.

the concept is solid though!
Spluppo
27. Apr 2021 · 04:18 UTC
Couldn't really keep my miners alive or get enough money to upgrade. Seems like it has a great amount of "depth" so to speak ;)
LDJam user 239493
27. Apr 2021 · 04:34 UTC
I love these little dudes. This is a very ambitious game to make in 48 hours, and you did a great job
Owen Kidd
27. Apr 2021 · 04:59 UTC
Great job! I love the concept. I had quite a few of my guys die to a slime early on though. D:
Owen Kidd
27. Apr 2021 · 05:02 UTC
Still enjoyed the game though :)
FireSlash
27. Apr 2021 · 05:45 UTC
Quite a lot to unpack here. I found a bunch of mechanics unexplained, and while I could figure some out, others ended up as showstoppers, like how to deal with enemies.

Super interesting idea though, and quite complex for a jam game. I'd strongly recommend writing a bit of a guide somewhere!
Roka Josh
12. May 2021 · 08:31 UTC
Really interesting game concept and quite well developed. I really like the rally point feature as it helped to minimise the amount of micromanaging a lot, the only thing I didn't really understand was when miners decide to upgrade their equipment as it occurred multiple times where I had the money for them to buy pickaxes or speed upgrades but they did not, so perhaps something to make the equipment upgrading mechanics more clear would be a good addition. Overall though, great job!
ditam
12. May 2021 · 11:24 UTC
A very nice game that definitely deserves more ratings!

I had a hard time figuring out all of the mechanics, but it was definitely fun to watch my operation grow. I used the rally point command a lot, because microing all the miners seemed impossible, but I found that the behaviour seems quite random, the miners were converging very loosely on the rallied tiles. Is it because only 1 miner can work a tile, so they "claim" the tiles that are closest to the rally flag?

I also couldn't understand why my money keeps disappearing when I was not hiring or buying upgrades. Do the miners have periodical wages or something?

It would be great if the fastest time option was higher than 2x, as the game gets a bit slow once you're deep enough.

Overall a very polished entry with a lot of depth, well done.
ditam
12. May 2021 · 11:27 UTC
Oh, and you might have settled on Minexile, but your URL saved the original title of Bob The Miners, which I prefer ;)
OddballDave
12. May 2021 · 13:24 UTC
The audio had an eerie sci-fi vibe to it. Not sure if that was the intention, but it really added to the mood. The visuals are nice if a little basic. The mechanics all seem sound enough and it's pretty well balanced considering it's a jam game. Looks like you all put a lot of work into this, and you've done a fine job.

good stuff :8ball:
🎤 legavroche
12. May 2021 · 21:01 UTC
@ditam Thanks for the feedback! The gold is disappearing because the miners purchase equipment once you've unlocked one of the equipment upgrades
piscythe
13. May 2021 · 14:35 UTC
I like the interlocking balance of systems, but I really wish I had tighter control over what my miners actually do. Mine kept mining the wrong rocks or getting killed or wandering off in random directions because I couldn't micro them properly.
Hacktier
14. May 2021 · 01:17 UTC
nice Game, good job!
Pete
16. May 2021 · 18:08 UTC
This is kinda cool and the idea is nice. But I don't get how they decide where to mine and what to do. It seems they loss a lot of time walking around between blocks. It seems like it was just a visual bug but after upgrading the upgrade would not should when I select a worker. Overall it's nice, but it would probably have been good if you could have better mine options, like deciding an area to mine.