Optimal Path by nate_wec

[raw]
made by nate_wec for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

Your a Space Miner with your party of Mining Robots. Explore 3 worlds and figure out the optimal path in this platforming game, but beware as these caves can be quite unstable, so watch your step! Screenshot1.PNG WASD for movement

Hold W for a hover

Press Left Mouse Button to shoot

Hold Right Mouse Button to Mine (Once unlocked)

Collect green gems with your mining bots, then collect them on the way back up.

Collect pink gem after planning your path, escape the cave before drowning in the lava.

Select new levels using the arrows next to the planets. (On the right side of the screenshot)

Ratings

Given 7🗳️ 2🗨️

Feedback

hotaloca
04. Oct 2021 · 19:27 UTC
Wow you tried to a do with this game. I tried the first map but unf I got stuck and could not move much further. I like the idea though of shooting out blocks to get moving. Quite a lot of graphics which is great, but i found them a bit to inconsistent. Anyhow congratulations for making the game!
Milestone Games
09. Oct 2021 · 16:07 UTC
This looks really interesting, unfortunately I’m not on Windows so I can’t play it
Denatus
14. Oct 2021 · 21:01 UTC
Kind of hard to get into. Only saw the same level over and over. Did I do something wrong?
🎤 nate_wec
15. Oct 2021 · 01:00 UTC
@denatus I should have written this down somewhere, you can change levels on the main screen (The screenshot of the game I have) using the cyan and red arrow buttons at the right of the screen. There are only 3 planets in this version.
pauljohnprogramming
17. Oct 2021 · 01:04 UTC
The concept is cool. Scouting out things on your way down, essentially taking note of the level's puzzle, so that you can optimally path back up to the surface is a neat idea. One thing you should absolutely do however, is reorder the planets so that the ice planet is the first. Not only is it much simpler and harder to screw up, but the first level is not possible to progress in unless you have the mining upgrade from completing a different level first. That probably explains some of the other comments. Also, I guessed that 'R' was to restart the level, but that's something everyone should know. That said, is there a way to get more robots? I have a hard time imagining that I can get 15 crystals in one trip to the surface without additional bots. In any case, good job and the concept of planning while descending to solve it while ascending does have a lot of promise.
🎤 nate_wec
17. Oct 2021 · 01:38 UTC
@pauljohnprogramming Thank you so much for your insightful comment! You CAN beat the rock planet without the drill, however I realize now that I may have made it a bit too difficult to figure out (You can destroy a rock, then go to the cliff to hover over the slightly shorter pile) You can get a total of 5 mining bots using the crystals you get from ALL of the levels (There are 5 crystals per level), so in order to get the final jetpack upgrade you need to perfect every level.
Jimbly
18. Oct 2021 · 16:48 UTC
I ran into a bug where I earned the upgrades for additional miners, but they did not seem to show up, until I *accidentally* pressed escape, exited the program, game back in, and suddenly I had 5 miners as I expected!

Managed to get the optimal path on at least the first world =).

Really neat game, I enjoyed the progress and going back and getting all of the ore after unlocking a few upgrades. Even the first run through a planet was really difficult a few times, took me a *long* time to survive the second world, mostly due to my fighting with the jumping controls (once I learned to press `S` at the right times, it got easier). A little sound or more cohesive graphics would have helped the feel a lot, I think, but the gameplay was quite fun =).