LudumData

Dwarf Deep by aevek

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

Word has reached the Deep Down Dwarves of large amounts of gold deep beneath the waves. They put their best artisans on the task and they built you a boat (their first ever!) and sent you out to sample and see just how rich this veins are.

Explore and dig deep beneath the waves to find resources to upgrade your gear.

Screenshot_637549693511541360.png

For this special LD number (I think this is my 12th?) I decided to go back to running it in 48 solo for the pure form after working with a large team for the last few jams. It was a lot of fun but so many times more stressful, I remember why I started recruiting friends. I think my skills have all come along a long way since I last went solo.

Tools:

  • Engine - Unity
  • Art - Pyxel Edit
  • SFX- Foley w/ Audacity
  • Music - https://tones.wolfram.com/

How to Play:

Go to the forge on the boat to upgrade your gear. Doing so will take resources that you can either find floating in the ocean or deep underground.

Controls:

WASD - Move/Jump/Swim

LMB - Dig

Screenshot<em>637549695377691774.png Screenshot</em>637549693547531360.png

Updates

Bugfix patch 2! 4/28/21

Fixed the weird visual glitch on level tearing that was occasionally annoying on windows but made other platforms unplayable, so now have been able to post other platform builds!

Bugfix patch 1! 4/27/21

  • One of the upgrades (air jets) would just put the player in a death loop. I have temporarily removed it.
  • 'Fell out of the world' height was incorrectly only about halfway down the world, I have updated it to properly let you reach the bottom.
  • Prevented caves from spawning as the bottom layer of the world so no more pits into the void
GitHub source https://github.com/jacobmcleman/LD48_DeepDwarf/releases
via Itch https://aevek.itch.io/dwarf-deep
via Itch https://aevek.itch.io/dwarf-deep
via Itch https://aevek.itch.io/dwarf-deep
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/dwarf-deep

Ratings

Overall 462th 3.446⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 614th 3.069⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 439th 3.232⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 104th 4.125⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 237th 3.776⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 289th 3.429⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 419th 2.542⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 201th 3.672⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

Chironyx
26. Apr 2021 · 03:34 UTC
Love this!! The graphics are great, it really feels like those games with modular upgradeable ships, and the gameplay itself is great too
The swim speed makes it way too hard to progress though, I'd have to spend about 15-30 seconds for each item seeing I only manage to get one or two for every trip, I'd probably increase it dramtically, or at least make the early game feel less slow (so either faster swimming or cheaper upgrades)
BlackOpsBen
26. Apr 2021 · 03:35 UTC
This is incredibly fun! Well done! You've created what feels like a large game because the gameplay loop is so tight!
maxr00
26. Apr 2021 · 03:38 UTC
Nice job :) though I feel like I move a bit too slow to make my way back up or to a bubble before dying, I may be missing something
SpaceGuinea Productions
26. Apr 2021 · 03:42 UTC
Fun game! My only problem is that its too slow, you move slowly and it takes a long time to get anywhere. Aside from that I liked it!
LJFMX
26. Apr 2021 · 04:01 UTC
Like everyone has been mentioning the only thing is that the controls are a bit slow. However the air pocket implementation is super neat! Great submission :)
Tim77
26. Apr 2021 · 04:33 UTC
Amazing effort for a short jam. Well done! Loved the stylistic pixel look. The music was atmospheric and suited the game well. I found it a little confusing at first at the store, but once I was in the water and swimming / drilling I was happy. I think the difficulty curve was too steep. I wanted to swim around and explore and collect stuff, but I was constantly forced to find bubbles, taking me away from what the game seemed to need me to do to progress.
Wheffle
26. Apr 2021 · 16:02 UTC
I love the graphics, they are clean, crisp, and detailed. Good ambient music and spot-on sound effects. I have a soft spot for digging games... they are just fun. The air system is a bit brutal though, it was a grind to get the air tank upgrade and that didn't seem to improve it much. That's just a matter of game balance/tweaking though. I enjoyed it, good entry!
Hruhf
27. Apr 2021 · 10:53 UTC
As already mentioned, it's pretty difficult to progress at the start. Slow movement with fast draining air and the relatively sparse air pockets felt very difficult. If there was just one of those three I feel it could be a lot better, even slow movement and fast air drain could work if there were enough air pockets to sustain us underwater, or something like air columns so you're not forced to swim all the way back up.
Like the guy above, I grinded out the air tanks but I didn't notice much of an improvement and then proceeded to die.

Everything else tho is pretty good. Everything underwater is obvious at a glance, the ship looks amazing, and the music fits perfectly.
eldogg
27. Apr 2021 · 10:56 UTC
Real nice ambience with music and the art is crisp and clear. Others have said the air mechanic makes it tough, which I agree with, either more bubbles, slower decrease or faster movement would fix this, but that's a small change as the rest of the game is fun. I liked that dying wasn't game over. Good job.

Update: I just realised you can create your own air pockets via drilling rocks. I think just a simple hint in the game would help for that as the players may not know you had implemented that logic (I always assume the worst case with these things). But it opens up with creating a little base as you progress. CooL!
Kevin S
27. Apr 2021 · 12:17 UTC
What an amazing game with deep gameplay and cool mechanics. It's impressive that you did this in 48 hours.

The controls could be improved imho. My biggest pet peeves were when I am pressing the move horizontal key and I'm in mid air I get stuck to the wall so I have to release that key and press it again. Also climbing the ladder back up to your ship should be easier. I'm being picky here.

Keep up the good work!
Esosek
27. Apr 2021 · 18:56 UTC
The controls definitely needs improvement, the game is too hard but I think the air concept and upgrades are very fun! The visuals are also really polished.
CrocodileTuesday
27. Apr 2021 · 22:08 UTC
Nice game! I really like the art and atmosphere. The air pocket mechanic is cool, but I only found it after reading the comments. great work overall!
bentglasstube
28. Apr 2021 · 06:59 UTC
The graphics and music were exquisite. As others have mentioned, I feel like the air mechanic was brutally difficult and made it hard to really progress much. The idea seems really great if you can iron out some of the kinks.
Jimbly
29. Apr 2021 · 16:41 UTC
Visuals and sounds are quite nice! I found the player movement very buggy, I sometimes could not get out of the water onto my ship, would start climbing the later and then slowly sink back down, like it was stuck blending falling/jumping with climbing or something. I couldn't find enough resources to buy almost anything - could see some spawning in the water and dropping down to the bottom, but the bottom was deep enough that I could not get down to the bottom and pick something up and get back up before running out of air, so in areas without air bubbles I'd just die, and then leave everything I'd ever picked up in an area I couldn't get back to :(. It seemed drilling wasn't even an option at the beginning, if I dove down, drilled one block, and swam back up, I'd usually be taking damage. Some way to save progress, like dropping off the ore I'd found so far, would have been nice and given me a path towards possibly progressing.

I saw a comment here about making air pockets, and tried again, definitely got farther, and got a tier of each upgrade, but I couldn't notice any difference after the upgrade (I guess, too small to be easily noticed), and still had difficulty staying alive long enough to get to the bottom and into an air pocket :(. Was much more enjoyable when I could make a safe place underwater, though!
tanis
01. May 2021 · 16:55 UTC
Music and graphics are definitely nice, but the player controls are a bit awkward and I feel like the pace can be a little slow at times. This could be improved. But you managed to squeeze in quite a pack of features in such small time. It would be nice to be able to save progress.
rawbits
02. May 2021 · 22:39 UTC
It's a nice concept but I found it unplayable. Hard to climb back to the ship, takes too much time to get to the ship even. The oxygen isn't quite enough at first to get to the ocean floor.
Lorwon
05. May 2021 · 08:02 UTC
The concept is really great ! But i think that the game is too slow it would be perfect if the game was a little bit faster. I enjoyed play your game BTW good job :)
BDenis
05. May 2021 · 08:17 UTC
Love starting ship it's look so cool. I love idea that you can jump on water surface, but it too week. I would love jump on ship from water surface. It's would be cool to icrease player's stats in begining (speed, air) and add some piranha on deeper levels.
Mololo
06. May 2021 · 15:01 UTC
Awesome concept, I really like the game, it has good graphics and interesting mechanics. A bit slow to move but really fun to play.

Great game, good job.
Hexa3
09. May 2021 · 09:49 UTC
I liked the idea and the graphic style, also the nice sound. I find the only drawback is movement, needs a bi of improvement.