Doug: A Miner Drilling Incident by aaants

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

A small, one button/tap gravity-based platformer game made for a young audience. There's potential in the mechanics but I haven't designed enough content to realise it, unfortunately.

Doug is the sequel or spiritual successor to an old LD game that is now lost in the great Flash Player fire of 2020. All the assets were re-made from scratch in the 48 hours to meet the rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMoZ1ai2en0

Screenshot (13).png

Ratings

Overall 229th 3.735⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 94th 3.941⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 166th 3.75⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 642th 3.235⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 181th 3.897⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 415th 3.309⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Given 67🗳️ 43🗨️

Feedback

James Gillespie
26. Apr 2021 · 10:58 UTC
Really solid one-touch platformer. Level variety was good and the art is excellent.
henriquecanella
26. Apr 2021 · 12:09 UTC
Pretty good, really liked the transitions you made, and the level design was pretty solid. Well done =D
IanTheBee
26. Apr 2021 · 14:13 UTC
Really solid, with nice graphics and great level design. There's a slight offset with each tiles, which is uncomfortable, but overall the art looks nice. Great job on this game.
John Harper
26. Apr 2021 · 14:20 UTC
Really great. I liked your tiles -- the art style was fun and colorful. You had some great detail touches: the screen zoom and circle wipe between levels, the animation on the drill/door, the character animation on death. The sounds were minimal but fit well with your game. The mechanic was nice as well. I think you did a great job.
sweer
26. Apr 2021 · 14:21 UTC
I really loved this game, its super polished, and gave me the vibes of some old coolmath game.
dhim
26. Apr 2021 · 14:33 UTC
Nice, I love the graphics. Nice to have a video
superpokeunicorn
26. Apr 2021 · 14:40 UTC
Really simple but enjoyable concept. I like how the gravity switching mechanic was introduced; I thought I was just going to fall, so I was caught off guard by my character suddenly walking on the wall. That was a great moment! I also really like the opening title sequence, very snazzy. I will say that the lack of control could sometimes be frustrating, especially when the character turned around when I didn't want him to, or if the gravity changed in an unexpected way. Overall, a fun little game. Nice work!
Sir. Syko
26. Apr 2021 · 16:38 UTC
Pretty neat game! :smile: The puzzles could be a bit more interesting and I failed to understand how to tell when the gravity would shift but I managed to finish the game either way :joy: Even if it is a one-tap game it's a pretty good one! :smile: I tried to make one for this jam and failed miserably hahaha

Congratz on a great game! :smile:
Tom Robson
27. Apr 2021 · 09:23 UTC
Really nice game! The gravity switches are a fun mechanic, and the level design is nicely worked around it. Though I would maybe switch the last two levels around, as there was a bit of a weird difficulty spike there.

The presentation was awesome, too! The transitions, the character animations, the little gems in the tileset - it really feel super polished.

Solid entry, good job!
HPA97
27. Apr 2021 · 19:14 UTC
I love the intro and smooth transitions. You're able to make a lot of interesting gameplay with simple mechanics and with one input, brilliant!
m11
28. Apr 2021 · 16:39 UTC
Lovely animations and transitions!
TheMightyTrout
28. Apr 2021 · 18:25 UTC
really nice game. the graphichs were really cute and reminded me of some old games i used to pplay when i was younger. the game had an interesting feel to it with the wall walking which i really enjoyed although sometimes the felt weird switching between floor and roof. over all i really enjoyed it though
Roidz
28. Apr 2021 · 18:49 UTC
So far this is my favorite entry.
Cute graphics, matching sounds. Interesting puzzle elements.
Overall a great entry that i enjoyed playing a lot!
Nikl
29. Apr 2021 · 07:23 UTC
Fun game with nice art, transition scenes and effects. If I could add one thing it would be some background music, but it's already great as is. Good job!
freamdev
29. Apr 2021 · 10:41 UTC
The gravity swap mechanic suprised the heck out of me. Very well done and fun platformer, hope the little guy got all the riches after the end! :slight_smile:
EdouardLaPoire
29. Apr 2021 · 10:49 UTC
i liked it. it is cool
deadmanjw
29. Apr 2021 · 12:31 UTC
This is a really nice game, I know you made the controls simple but some of the levels where pretty tricky. Nice game.
kristof
29. Apr 2021 · 15:56 UTC
Very innovative ideas. The one click controls and gravity switching. Well done. I liked how you slowly introduced the game mechanics. You found a good difficulty curve. I almost wished there were more levels :) The only minor complaint I may have is that it was sometimes difficult to predict when the level would pull me in a different direction. Maybe some visual indication of the gravity direction would have been nice. Good work!
CrazyKittens 892 YT
29. Apr 2021 · 16:34 UTC
Great idea! The game is super fun and I really enjoyed it! Maybe you could have added a level counter or something at the top of the screen, but I loved it!
Keep working on this!
Busy Games
29. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
Great game, well polished and mechanics were easy to learn. Could make a great mobile game with just tapping the screen.
NicMagnier
01. May 2021 · 14:09 UTC
Really nice and charming entry. Everything is really well polished.

My only small complaints would be that it is sometimes a bit unclear when the gravity will change.
Papaver
01. May 2021 · 21:27 UTC
Cool one-button game! It runs really smooth. I was very suprised that the gravity suddenly changed! In later levels I would have liked some indicator for where it would change exactly. In level 4 (?) I was confused for a bit, till I found the double jump mechanic. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Some of the jumps and double jumps were very tight, and it was a bit tedious to redo the whole level every time, but I guess that's kind of unavoidable in this kind of game.

The player character is very cute. Well done!
PBG
02. May 2021 · 02:34 UTC
I dont think you are giving this game enough credit! I really enjoyed it - would make a great mobile game! I thought the gravity mechanics are really well done.
someone
03. May 2021 · 17:49 UTC
Nice game. Well presented.
I got to the end but still feel a bit confused about some of the mechanics. It felt like sometimes gravity would switch and sometimes not and I never figured the the actual rule behind that.
Kurama_Youko
03. May 2021 · 17:57 UTC
Loved the graphics and the simplicity of controls, but the mechanics become counterintuitive sometimes (gravity changes). Could use some music as well.
Jonrei
03. May 2021 · 18:02 UTC
Very nice audio and visuals. A very unique way of doing movement as well. Good job!
Flaterectomy
03. May 2021 · 18:04 UTC
Super simple but well-working mechanics. I agree with others that the "gravity flip" could have used some some refinement, but I get it--refinement is difficult in a gamejam.

The art is clear but there is some Repetitive Tile Syndrome when looking at the big picture. Smart move by adding those little touches with the gem stones and tufts of grass though.

Nice work!
Poorwill
03. May 2021 · 18:05 UTC
This game has great tutorialization through gameplay. Every new level keeps expanding with various different rules of the world and it does so with no text at all. I'm very impressed.
🎤 aaants
03. May 2021 · 18:21 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback 😊
Ismael Rodriguez
05. May 2021 · 22:01 UTC
This is really good! Short and sweet! I like the gravity shifting/walk running mechanic. I just wish there was some kind of visual hint that it was going to happen. There was at least one time it cost me like 5 extra seconds to walk back, hit a wall, then return to where I needed to jump to because I though the gravity *might* shift.
Other than that, the levels are designed well to help teach each of the mechanics and abilities. Good job!
CJGladback
18. May 2021 · 01:25 UTC
Thank you for letting me play this on stream (forever ago)! [Here's that clip](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1023715851?t=2h58m35s) in case you ever want to rewatch it.