Down Under by anactualhuman

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

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Avoid obstacle after obstacle and time your jumps precisely in this platformer.

:computer: Made for Ludum Dare 48 by anactualhuman.

:writing_hand: Font used: m3x6 by Daniel Linssen.

:keyboard: Controls:

  • Dig: Press X to dig the tile below you, walk towards a tile on your left or right and press X to dig.

  • Restart: Press R.

  • Movement: Press LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys.

  • Jump: Press the UP arrow key.

:newspaper: Changelog

27th of April 2021

  • Fixed a gamebreaking crash and multiple memory related issues
  • Added a Linux build

:camera: Screenshots

screenshot4.png.png

screenshot3.png

Ratings

Overall 1417th 3.224⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1069th 3.241⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1079th 3.086⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1628th 2.931⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1267th 3.345⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1191th 2.603⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

Ghost_Wave
26. Apr 2021 · 22:07 UTC
The game feels great, the controls are tight. Still, I found the game very hard, maybe you could add a indicator showing which block is about to broken. Otherwise, the graphics are good, I'm a big fan of the retro aesthetic.
flop
26. Apr 2021 · 22:13 UTC
i am not a fan of how high the movement speed is, but otherwise its pretty good in most aspects.
iMan
27. Apr 2021 · 16:41 UTC
Really fun game, the level design is clever. Even though it's made up of static scenes with not a lot of moving elements, the gameplay "feels" fast paced. It's simple and well made.
Cakestorm
27. Apr 2021 · 18:44 UTC
It's a challenging little puzzle platformer - and I like challenging puzzle platformers! It was fun being able to sculpt the level around you, whilst trying to manage how many pickaxes I had left. It was a little unintuitive at times, since sometimes I would mine the wrong block, and when jumping out of small gaps my jumps wouldn't register, which took away from the game somewhat. The controls were a little too fast in my opinion too, and it felt like I had to do things pixel perfect at points - though that added to the challenge of it all.

The art was charming, and for only 4 colours it worked well. On large walls it was sort of hard to tell each tile apart, but I suppose that just means that the graphics tile nicely, which is good. The player animations were great too - they really added some nice visual flavour to the game. The sound effects fit nicely, but some music would've helped the game feel less empty, I think. It was a fun little game though, so nice work on this one!
zimny11
27. Apr 2021 · 21:26 UTC
It was far more difficult than I expected :) Nice game!
Archock34
27. Apr 2021 · 22:12 UTC
Nice, good concept, I like how the theme was applied and its great difficulty!
ladybenko
27. Apr 2021 · 22:28 UTC
I love the idea, but I couldn't beat the game because I had lots of difficulty to jump out of a carved section in the wall. I think I could have benefited from a bit of "coyote time". Nevertheless, the jumping feels solid, the asthetics and sfx serve the game well, and all of this results in a polished entry. Good job!
superpokeunicorn
28. Apr 2021 · 02:43 UTC
Fun little platformer, short and sweet. I like the limited number of digs, as it made stop me consider where I should use them. Having to jump out of all those 1 block holes was a bit finicky though. Overall, a pretty solid, enjoyable time.
Vitor Milioni
28. Apr 2021 · 07:20 UTC
It's a great puzzle platformer, but i think you could've leaned more towards the puzzle side, having a limited number of digs is very clever, could turn out fantastic puzzle rooms, that is my personal preference though, it felt a bit too fast, hard to control, perhaps just turning the gravity a bit down could really help this because it feels waaay to hard to time jumps with digs. That being said, i think it looks and sounds perfectly, and the level design itself is incredible as well, it's for sure a great game and i liked it a lot, incredible job!
apaphy
28. Apr 2021 · 07:26 UTC
really solid game! i think you nailed the length, it felt not too short and not too long. the mechanic was cool and original too. the controls were a bit rigid, but once i got the hang of them they were fine. nice game!
Lintfordpickle
28. Apr 2021 · 07:39 UTC
As I got used to the controls I started to enjoy the game more, they felt a little too fast sometimes. The level design was clever
mariszin
28. Apr 2021 · 07:42 UTC
Pretty interesting idea, although quite short. Nice that You wrap around, when You get to the start. The controls are a bit finicky at times.
LDJam user 237261
28. Apr 2021 · 07:43 UTC
Cool game, fun idea, I liked the difficulty.
Freezerbot
28. Apr 2021 · 07:44 UTC
Awesome game! I like the artstyle and the audio fits very well to it as well. The platforming mechanics are pretty solid, although, as several mentioned before, the mining was a little unintuitive. Great length of game. Great entry!
Shin0nome
28. Apr 2021 · 07:45 UTC
Great game but it's realy hard and the game speed is too high for me (maybe something that slow down the game for 2sec could be great for casual players). Also it's hard to see which block you're about to
destroy. But the game is fun, the graphics are great and the concept interesting. Good job !
FcValise
28. Apr 2021 · 07:48 UTC
Cool concept, great difficulty curve, the pixel-art aesthetic is simple but mastered.
Really enjoyed the puzzle / platform combo. The game is hard and unforgiving, and I like that !
Nice job :)
mmisspelling
28. Apr 2021 · 10:29 UTC
Crazy good level design, really challenging and smart. Superfun! Doesn't fit too much with the theme but that's okay, I still loved it. Also the fact it's a looped map was cool.
Bokonon
28. Apr 2021 · 15:54 UTC
The controls were very good and the game feels nice to play.

My slight complaints are that it is difficult to be sure which block you are going to break (an indicator would really help) and some jumps that I think are the "correct" way to solve the puzzle(jumps that are made while in a 1 block niche) rely on coyote time as mechanic instead of just a convenience feature.

But all in all, I liked this game!
David U
28. Apr 2021 · 16:34 UTC
A solid, challenging game. Good art and a good USP.
Brusi
28. Apr 2021 · 18:24 UTC
Cute little puzzle game, I liked the digging theme and that you sometimes return to the same levels with different starting points/pickaxes.
Controls were a bit hard at times, character moved very fast and it was hard to avoid the obstacles even when I know where I wanted to dig.
Trensient
28. Apr 2021 · 23:25 UTC
a pretty fun little puzzle platformer, the limited tile breaks per level was a net mechanic.
Hugimugi7
29. Apr 2021 · 13:17 UTC
a Great mechanic that suits the theme amazingly well, very much celeste-like in terms of the levels.
Was hoping for more levels, but that's a good thing!
Jinny Kang
30. Apr 2021 · 01:03 UTC
Although it was a bit fast paced, I liked how smooth the gameplay felt. I liked the puzzle aspect to your game—that you had a limited amount of 'digs' to solve the level. I do wish it was a bit slowed down b/c at some parts or, as someone else mentioned, to have a box indicator of which block you were going to break. Congrats on making such a great game!
Asue
01. May 2021 · 13:06 UTC
I really like the art style of the game. The gameplay is hard and the player's speed is a bit too fast, but the concept is good and I think there's a lot of potential here. Good job!
Yaen
01. May 2021 · 20:35 UTC
Pleasant little platformer. I like how it goes around to the start in the end. Also the springs have a cool sound :)

Level design had a nice difficulty curve to it and sometimes I had to think to get to the right solution which was cool. Well done!
LDJam user 0
03. May 2021 · 18:25 UTC
The controls really need work; there shouldn't be any precision jumps (especially in the early levels) when the movement is so twitchy. Also, I get why you only give the player the exact number of digs in each level to pass the level, but most of the time you end up having to restart having missed the first, or even worse, the second dig, simply due to the twitchy controls. While you could rework the level design to accommodate these, it would kill any actual difficulty and puzzle to it, so instead I would rework the controls themselves. My suggestion would be to give the movement some acceleration and deceleration and to decrease the maximum movement speed, at least for a start.
asdehielo
04. May 2021 · 14:33 UTC
Nice little short game. The main mechanic was nice.

I think you could have given some more pickaxes without breaking the puzzles, just to have a little margin of error.

Enjoyable game, good job!
msipp27
10. May 2021 · 15:09 UTC
Movement is WAY too fast! you can hardly do anything!
Villanelle
11. May 2021 · 03:58 UTC
Nice game. The idea of making the digging mechanic as a puzzle platformer is clever and stands out from the ways this theme has been used. My only suggestion is, as others have said before, to change the player's speed because it's incredibly difficult to make some jumps between spikes. Another suggestion, and this is mainly personal taste actually, is to add WASD keys and Space bar to players like myself that are not used to arrow keys. Thanks for the entry, great job!