Drill In The Dark by Battlerager
Dive into deep, dark caverns in your trusty drillbot!
Defeat enemies without getting hit to rack up a combo, and drill precious ores to make your combo count for more! 5 short, hand-crafted levels.
Sometimes, you have to trust your instincts and turn off your spotlights to give your battery a chance to recover. If you find an oil vein, you can of course just drill it to just recharge your battery and regain some health, instead. If you get stuck on a rock, you'll get squished by the merciless autoscroll.
There are terrifying, unknowable dangers hiding in the deep.
When one of them finds you and draws near, your best option is to lay low and hide.
Content Warning: Some flashing lights, flickering sprites. If you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy, proceed with caution. (There's certainly more extreme examples in video games, but you never know.)
Controls: - Arrow keys - Move - Ctrl - Hold to charge dash attack, aim with arrows, release to dash - Alt - Attack - Spacebar - Toggle Spotlights - F4 - Toggle Fullscreen - F5 - Toggle Music
Repeatedly press Ctrl or Alt when drilling something that doesn't give in immediately to push through!
Credits - Created by Battlerager - Extra sprites by Zach Lazarus - Uses Lighting System 2D by Jobo - Sounds created with sfxr or public domain on freesound. - Created using Game Maker 2.3 - Submission for Ludum Dare 48.
Note: Game just starts right away, and ends after the final level. Quit with Alt + F4. There is no pause button.
| Jam Build | https://battlerager.itch.io/drill-in-the-dark |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/drill-in-the-dark |
Ratings
| Given | 3🗳️ | 5🗨️ |
The drill mechanic was a bit confusing at first but mainly because I'm a dummy and cannot read.
The music and the atmosphere went together really well!
Nice lighting effects!
@tigerj your "first few plays"? Did you play this game multiple times? Wow, thanks! :smile:
I sadly didn't have the time to add in gamepad support. My guess is that the slingshot mechanic feels a bit better and more intuitive while using an analogue stick.
@dom-de-re & @just-dante Thanks! I agree, it's a bit confusing. Would have loved to show some onscreen text in level 1 maybe.
@Lelan Hey, I'm glad you liked that! I basically made as much content variety as I managed in the time, then decided to introduce them one at a time, starting with the simple ones. I think having some sort of arc like that is important.
@digitaldude555 Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the levels are roughly 3 minutes each. I got stuck having to make them that long to fit exactly what I wanted the player to see at a time on screen. Messing with scroll speed and enemy speeds might have fixed it, with more time to tweak.
> Repeatedly press Ctrl or Alt when drilling something that doesn’t give in immediately to push through!
which led to some frustrating deaths but I got to the end eventually. Super atmospheric with the art and the lighting system. Loved the music and the sound overall was great!