Cave Golf by RoofloorWall

[raw]
made by RoofloorWall for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

Explore a deep cave not as an adventurer, but as a golf ball.

Be careful with lava, fall into the void for next level.

Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 7.49.50 PM.png Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 7.45.05 PM.png

Ratings

Overall 470th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 279th 3.595⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 319th 3.452⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 387th 3.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 245th 3.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 437th 2.5⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 464th 3.222⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

the neon shark
26. Apr 2021 · 03:01 UTC
This is fun, but it's very hard to intuit the shooting angle (would be nice to have an arc preview or shadows). Also, when the mouse leaves the game area, the ball automatically fires -- this makes it quite difficult to get the desired power on the edge of the screen.
rhoff95
26. Apr 2021 · 04:34 UTC
Excellent game. Great concept and really nice looking. Small change to golf idea, but along with visuals it works very well. Interested to see how more/less fun it would be with an arc showing where it would land.
Jeffez
26. Apr 2021 · 07:36 UTC
The concept is great, and, to be honest, I loved it.
Unfortunately, the difficulty to see where you ball is when it's behind some block is quite a problem for me.
The difficulty is something quite okay, but I think you need more information for the player. Maybe, like @rhoff95 and @the-neon-shark said, an arc is something quite interresting.
But, if you think this will kill the challenge of the game, maybe separate the thrust and the angle calculation. (I mean by that, the first line you draw is the angle, and the second one is the thrust)
This way, it will be more easy to understand what you are doing. You can also change the color of the line to represent to thrust, and so one.
But this game was really great, and I liked to play it.
LDJam user 235915
26. Apr 2021 · 07:39 UTC
I agree with the previous commenters, a fun but hard game.
Threeli
26. Apr 2021 · 20:36 UTC
I really like the central idea, and without adding anything new to the conversation I do agree with some of the other comments. I would love to see the idea of obstacle avoidance as you fall down levels further developed. The only real annoyance is when, as @jeffez says, the ball falls behind a block.
Makeavoy
27. Apr 2021 · 05:59 UTC
Okay this is pretty dang slick. I love the minimal feel, it suits compo perfectly because you can focus on just the mechanics. And the mechanics are spot on! The collisions are perfect with the isometric cubes (are they represented 3dimensionally to calculate, or just a strict height map?). The striking mechanic feels natural with a good bounce, and I like how you can start and stop anywhere, not just next to the ball. This is important on a mobile game for fingers obviously. I confirmed it does work fine on mobile too! Just some screen cutoff from forced portrait mode. I think the only advice I'd give is the hole should be distinguished from the surrounding void in some way, otherwise you'd think it all counts.

I didn't get far because I'm awful at golf games, but it's one of the better golf games i've played :P
🎤 RoofloorWall
27. Apr 2021 · 12:30 UTC
@makeavoy Thank you! The game uses a height map to see if a block should be considered a wall or floor, the rest are just 2d collisions. I actually didn't intent it to work on mobile, thanks for letting me know!
tjm
27. Apr 2021 · 15:55 UTC
The aesthetic here is simple, but works very well! I enjoyed the gameplay, but it was quite frustrating; the power curve never seemed to change in the way I expected, and it was hard to predict how far the ball would roll; at slow speeds the friction felt surprisingly high, at high speeds surprisingly low. Still, I had a lot of fun with it so good job!
nicksmaddog
08. May 2021 · 19:39 UTC
This is a pretty cool take on the theme. It's very difficult, and sometimes tough to tell where the ball will go. The levels were designed really well, and I really enjoyed it!
DDRKirbyISQ
08. May 2021 · 20:05 UTC
Simple and fun! The main mechanic is fine, but I do think some quality of life improvements would make it even more enjoyable. A larger screen area (or I guess perhaps I should have zoomed in my browser?) would help make the shot measurement a little less precise. And then some sort of visual ruler or color change guide for the line that is drawn would help make it easier to "remember" the proper shot power. Right now it's just a plain white line, but it would help a lot to have reference points, for example a 50% mark, so for a specific tricky shot you know "oh, I need to use a little more than 50% power". Right now you can estimate it by eye, but it's a bit tricky to remember.

Nice job!
Dan McAlister
08. May 2021 · 20:07 UTC
I dig the art and environments, but ran into frustration with shooting the ball near the edges of the screen. At least in my browser (chrome), the shot meter automatically released when my mouse left the game's frame, even if I wanted to pull it further than that. This made me feel I didn't have full control when hitting the ball from certain positions. That said, I think you've got a strong central concept. Good work!
jkoftekian
08. May 2021 · 20:32 UTC
Once I made it through one rotation of the maps, I actually feel like I finally got the hang of it. I struggled to beat the level with the thin path on the perimeter to go around, but eventually the mechanics started getting easier. I had a few instances where the ball would go behind walls (like the level with the thin perimeter path) which caused the ball to go in strange directions. Also, I agree it was difficult to gauged the power of my strikes. i feel like at times if i was even a hair off from the previous strike, the strength of it was dramatically different. maybe it was just my poor consistency though lol. overall, it was fun and i think it was a great idea for the theme (especially with the looped maps).
m-trigo
08. May 2021 · 20:52 UTC
Great job. I loved the isometric perspective.
Hadi Jiwani
09. May 2021 · 06:05 UTC
great game only thing could be improved is the shooting is not very predictable it could be improved i think, but great game
TheGamerASD
09. May 2021 · 07:55 UTC
Nice work, I like the graphics and the mechanics.
Harmadillo
09. May 2021 · 08:18 UTC
Challenging but fun game. I'm glad it wasn't keeping track of shots taken. The power of the shot was difficult to predict the distance and when the ball would get lifted.