Cave companion by Josh Bothun

Game description
Having fallen into a hole and gotten lost in a cave, you meet an unlikely companion. Work together to try to escape the cave!
Controls: Move with WASD, hold an item with E, number keys to issue commands.
Developer notes
While I was initially working towards an ending based on the theme, time got away from me as often does with LD! Thus I've opted out of the theme category for judging, thanks for your understanding and thank you for playing!
| Windows (Recommended) | https://minornine.com/games/ld50/CaveCompanion-win64.zip |
| Link | https://minornine.com/games/ld50/ld50-src.zip |
| Web (Worse Colors) | https://joshbothun.itch.io/cave-companion |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/cave-companion |
Ratings
| Overall | 75th | 3.905⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 259th | 3.455⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 248th | 3.432⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 124th | 3.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 67th | 3.857⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 14th | 4.25⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 24🗨️ |
I love my golem bff.
The puzzles themselves were a bit simplistic but it was neat just running around
I named the Golem Gary.
The atmosphere was lovely and I enjoyed the "work with your friend" approach.
As we talked about, I loved the attempt at having the golem perform complex actions, I only wished they were better communicated to the player especially when happening off-screen. It occurs to me that a solution I've seen in other games (like Sims) is to have something like a thought-bubble with a symbol that would indicate what the golem is up to, and it might be ok to have something like that on screen-edge to imply that even when they're out of view you can tell what they're doing.
the puzzle aspect of it got me thinking a bit. The light effects make me remember of those atmospheric games where you character is very small in the middle, there is one specific I cant remember the name tho.
The audio and mood are there
But the controls and mechanics feel quite rigid
It was still nice, congrats :)

Thank you for sharing your game on my Twitch stream (MsMiaChar). Please check out my feedback at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1447734991?t=02h03m25s