Manhole Mailman by Robonaut121
The surface world is no more. Scarred years ago by the Great [insert disaster I didn't have time to think of the lore about], humans now live underground. You, in a drastic financial situation, have decided to accept work with the Surface Postal Service, a ruthless business that pay extremely well, but rarely have employees come back alive from their job. You must supply the manholes on the surface with the packages that the people below request, fail to do so and your company will terminate you for being a dissatisfactory employee.
WASD to move
Space to jump
LMB to shoot packages
E to change between food and water packages



| Link | https://robonaut121.itch.io/manhole-mailman |
| Link | https://robonaut121.itch.io/manhole-mailman |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/manhole-mailman |
Ratings
| Overall | 656th | 3.521⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 715th | 3.292⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 731th | 3.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 601th | 3.917⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 377th | 4⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 582th | 3.159⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 16🗳️ | 11🗨️ |
Firstly, I don't like jumping with space bar, especially not in combination with WASD. At the start, it felt like there wasn't any time to aim with the mouse, so I thought it should have been a button on the keyboard as well. Later, I just ditched the steering with WASD, and just focused on SPACE, E and LMB. That worked better. It actually got a little addictive, trying to get further and further! I got till 257.
I would have liked (two different) sounds when changing packages.
I like the graphics and the color scheme. Well done!
Also, what would you propose I use instead of space for jumping with WASD? (I couldn't exactly use arrow keys because of the aforementioned mouse taking up the right hand.) Space is used in most games - mostly first person shooters but also some platformers that use mouse too (eg. Terraria, despite it not strictly being a platformer genre-wise). The last time I remember W / up arrow being bound to jump was in some Scratch platformers, and clicking feels kinda wrong unless there are no other buttons (eg. Geometry Dash, despite me using spacebar for that game unlike most players). I think once or twice I considered binding jump to J while using WASD, which sounds cursed, but I guess it kinda makes sense when you think that it's the same hands used for them buttons on a gamepad. In this game, though, my right hand was taken up, effectively leaving spacebar as my only option in my mind. (Also, I'm quite comfortable with it, having gone out my way to rebind some game's keys with arrow keys to WASD / Space since the arrow keys on my laptop's keyboard are squished together in an uncomfortable way.)
Sorry for the essay of a response to a three-day-old comment, but I'm curious what you would have done with my game's controls :'-)
Things I liked:
- Pixel graphics, and sound effects (although if you re-use sound effects from previous jams, I don't think you should submit your game to be rated on Audio, in the spirit of the 72 hour time limit and fairness)
- Intense moments where I need to switch quickly between packages, aim, and also not crash.
- Simple mechanics that are easy to pick up.
Things that could be better:
- The packages feel a little buggy sometimes with their behavior traveling through past walls. Are they even supposed to do that?
- Getting 'snagged' on a wall. It feels really bad to get caught on a wall and die. Sometimes I just get stuck and can't break loose. Since the screen is so narrow, there's not a lot of wiggle room.
Games like this would benefit a lot from having a leaderboard!

I liked the concept and execution of the game in the end though~ Good job!
I know, finding nice/logical key bindings is quite a struggle!
Actually I don't play that many games, so I am not so used to WASD with my left hand. :angel:
But since I have the arrow keys in my head, I would like W to be jumping, so that the keys for moving around are close to each other on the keyboard (this is of course personal taste).
One problem for me was that the E for changing package type is pressed with the same finger as the D for going right. Perhaps that could be RMB? Then all the package dealing is with the right hand. (And that gives more freedom for options for moving around with the other hand, and you could give the player the option to move with the arrow keys.)
What about not aiming at all, but you just have to be close enough to a manhole to deliver a package, and that the package will "autopilot" to the manhole? But maybe that is too boring. :wink:
[I know those squashed arrow keys on a laptop, they are horrible! :frowning: I do like the arrow keys on my USB keyboard, they are nicely aligned was well. (While the W in WASD is a bit too much too the left).]
@francis I probably shouldn't have opted into audio since only a singular sound effect was made within the jam period :-/ also I have no idea what caused those bugs so sorry (probably Unity's Physics being janky as usual...)
As it is at the moment, the game is a little hard to pick up (ended up reading the description out of the game after a while and that helped) and quite unforgiving, as you die the moment you make a wrong delivery. I feel like a health system where you get at least 3 chances would allow for some mistakes and also provide more room for new players to improve.
A more prominent icon to show which item you are currently holding would be nice, because as it is the player needs to focus a lot on the path ahead and can easily lose track of what item he is holding.
Overall good job!