Mysterious Mine by TheGamerASD

You came to explore an abandoned mine to see what happened to it. But something still lurks inside the shadows... and the mine isn't very stable anymore...
Can you flip all 7 breaker switches and get to the elevator before the mine collapses?
| Link | https://thegamerasd.itch.io/mysterious-mine |
| Link | https://thegamerasd.itch.io/mysterious-mine |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/mysterious-mine |
Ratings
| Overall | 1203th | 3.157⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1224th | 2.95⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1435th | 2.486⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1335th | 2.761⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 162th | 4.029⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 58🗳️ | 115🗨️ |
fyi loading main menu after the game over is broken, didn't have the mouse for some reason, so restarting the game if an attempt failed it is
I wish there were landmarks to help me kind of have a rough idea of where I'm going and where I've been, and maybe make the sprint bar visible somehow to the player to help me manage my sprint energy.
The mood and sound of the game really sells the mood and I definitely got into the creepy atmosphere, I love the bizarre enemy design, not what I expected to jump out from the darkness but still scary!
finding switches didn't feel like i was finding them but like i was just stumbling upon them and that kinda took away from the experience. other then that its alll good the visuals are on point. i really like the enemy
I always like entering a game jam with a personal objective of what I want to achieve (or improve on). Did you have a personal goal? :smiley:
So in my opinion, the level design was a little too large (or a little complex) for the time limit, especially without any additional aids. Some ways to change that could be:
* Breaking the puzzle off from the main room in 4 separate paths, that way it's easier to mentally "check off" an area (maybe you did that, and I couldn't tell because I kept losing track of which direction I started facing)
* Maybe giving the player a way to mark where they've been, like a spray paint can or something. You could even limit the amount of paint, for challenge!
Anyway, those are just some ideas that came to mind. Overall, the mood was well done!
Something to think about for the future: maybe you could think of a way to integrate the timer more into the game, like it's the timer on the elevator returning to the surface, so you need to make it back. Some screen shakes when the timer ticked down and the sound played would have sold the effect!
By the way, if you sit on the main menu enough, the ambience track stops. Maybe not playing on a loop?
I usually don't go for horror games so my lack of experience didn't help me here. Once the head found me I was kind of worried in that if I slowed down it will get me but also comforted I knew where it was so it won't jump out at me... and while I was thinking that it caught me. I did get 6 of the switches at least.
Overall nice job !
The atmosphere is there: it's creepy, claustrophobic and unsettling which is exactly why I would play this kind of game. The low-fi textures also definitely add to it.
I wish there was some variety in the environments though, break that visual routine more to keep the player's interest.
Navigation wasn't too much of a problem for me as it seemed like I would always find my way back to the elevator, no matter where I would be heading. I'm not sure if it was intentional but if it was, that's great.
It's subjective, but for me, the floating buddha head wasn't very scary unfortunately which detracts from the horror element.
Last, it would be nice if there was more gameplay than just activating switches, although Slenderman was also just about picking notes up, it makes me want more.
Overall, still a good attempt at the genre.
"Oh S^&%#$*!" - Me, losing each time after that, after head came around the corner :)
Either I am easy to spook, or the game is spooky itself - anyway, nice entry, 5/5 Mood :)
The actual gameplay was secondary and that is fine.
I would have loved to see what happens after finding all 7 switches.
This game definitely spooked me more than I expected it to...Maybe someday I'll come back to finally beat this!!