Depth Gauge by Solrun
Go dig some holes
Version 2: Fixed some audio and added a mute button. It sounded ok on my headphones, but bad on others. On some headphones, the sound can pop a lot. I fixed it a little bit, but it might still be bad.
Version 3: Fixed the UI scaling. Now it works in the windowed mode in the browser. You don't have to make it full screen.
| Link | https://solrun.itch.io/depth-gauge |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/depth-gauge |
Ratings
| Overall | 1149th | 3.381⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 707th | 3.476⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 887th | 3.238⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 374th | 4.025⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1177th | 3.429⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 1211th | 2.525⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 734th | 2.9⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1519th | 2.975⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 4🗨️ |
But don't take it negatively! I actually like that there is no crafting system. I don't have to stress myself over what resource to dig for and just D I G.
I was pleasantly surprised at how you implemented mining "inwards". Although it's a bit difficult to see in a 2D view, it added more depth (literally) and provided more options.
I do wish the sound and controls were a bit better, though. The sound of digging felt a little annoying after some time, and the sound of roping in was also jarring.
Solid experience overall. With some tweaking on the visuals and sound, I think you've got a nice time sinker made.
Sorry about the sound stuff. It sounded fine on my headphones, but then I played the game on my brother's headphones and it was so bad. I added a mute button in case it's really bad for anyone else.
(I didn't have any problems with the audio on my headset, it sounded pretty good.)
@andre-sadie I did want to make some of the deeper layers more maze-like with the indestructible rocks, but didn't get around to it. With the rope, I was trying to be clever so that I wouldn't need an anchor point at each tile, but I think the rope outsmarted me and my clever assumptions weren't so clever.
@inno Gotta go deeper and deeper.
Some extra sounds and animation would be welcome to an already great game and awesome solo entry.
The text overlaps the items on the left if you don't go full screen making it hard to read.
The layering was a nice mechanic, though I almost quit before discovering you could mine in the third dimension. It could have done with an additional prompt with the controls when you first get to a place you can do that.
The pulling back to the surface was a nice variation on the motherload mechanics. A nice satisfying alternative to getting lost.
@superpokeunicorn I agree it's a bit too cluttered. I think I just got too used to it that I kinda forgot it was there. The rope was my favourite part. I wish I could've made it so you could use the rope to rappel down deep holes; that would've been cool.
@joe40001 Ya, I should've made the messages disappear over time. The messaging system isn't as robust as I'd like so I felt keeping the last one up was safer than having it disappear before you read it.
@fargred I've been getting a bit of feedback about how it's hard to make out the layer in front of you. I'm not really sure how I could've done it differently so you can see through it easily, but can still see what's there if you want to dig some stuff towards the camera. The effect is less pronounced when you get deeper in the z direction. Then you only have 1 layer in front of you. For the first ~4 layers, you can have 2 layers in between the camera and you which looks muddier (The layers move towards the camera and the camera moves closer to the player as you dig in is why you see fewer layers deeper in). And regrettably, the first ~4 layers is where you'll be for 90% of the game. Sorry, I'm just rambling/thinking out loud. Thanks for the feedback; it lets me think about these things.
@super-hadoken I'm not an artist so I'm quite proud of how well some of the art came out. I was definitely trying to make it feel claustrophobic so it's great to see it was working.
@someone There's a speech bubble that pops up when you first are able to dig in teaching you how, but I do agree it's not super noticeable so I could have done a better job on teaching that.
The UI: I didn't realize this was such an issue. I just assumed everyone would play it in fullscreen so I just made it work for that. I've fixed it now and it was easier than I thought it would be. Wish I would have fixed that 2 weeks ago, but thanks for bringing it to my attention all the same. Maybe I'll remember how to fix this for next game.
The third axis mechanic is cool, though it took me a few runs to really understand what the guy said and realize you can use it to get past the barrier. At first I thought it was just more stuff to mine before I upgraded my axe enough to dig through the barrier.
The G thing is way way better than crawling back up manually, and the animation is funny too :)
Thanks for the game!