LudumData

DEEP FROST by Kalbshack

[raw]
made by Kalbshack for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

title_screenshott.JPG

You wake up because you are freezing cold. "Where am I?" Looking around and find yourself standing in a seeming endless Snow and Ice Tundra... A note in your left hand says "Find the Nine Anomalous Artifacts to Escape" The Handwriting looks like yours..but you don't remember writing it...

In your Right hand you have what seems to be a high-tech Metal or Mineral Detector. "okay...so the Artifacts are probably made out of some sort of high grade Mineral...I have to find them to get away from here"

artifact_promo-export.gif

GOAL In DEEP FROST your Goal is to find 9 Anomalous Artifact in vastness of a Snow Tundra with the help of your Mineral Detector.

WITH WHAT AND WHY? An old Soviet Expedition Vehicle is your only Shelter. Equipped with some professional Mineral Analyzers & Scientific Lab with Equipment & Tools to upgrade your Detector to fine tune it on finding the Artifacts efficiently. Your only Enemy is the Cold and an upcoming devastating Blizzard in 5 Days. You have to Act fast & not die freezing to death. Return to your Shelter to warm up, rest and tool on your Detector. To not get Lost in this white cold desert, you can place flags to orientate yourself and find back before your freeze to death.

tent_dome.png

UPGRADING YOUR DETECTOR With Finding Minerals, ranging from Copper (C), Gold (G) and Platinum (P) and 3 different Sizes, you can upgrade and fine tune your Detector to be more efficient. upgrade your detection range, mute the mineral types you don't want to detect and even a nifty mineral size indicator can help you in succeeding your task and Escape this Cold Hell.

shelter_screenshott.JPG

TUTORIAL:

Movement with W,A,S,D on your Keyboard

Check your HUD (Detector Display) on the Bottom Left. If you find a Signal follow it until it blinks in full signal -> Press "F" to start locating it precisely to dig it out.

Diggin Minigame: Keep the Crosshair within the Blue "ice" circle to retrieve the Mineral.

Player<em>base</em>64x64<em>v2</em>walking.gif

Press "R" to place a Flag for Orientation or Marking certain Areas to your liking.

Get Minerals to upgrade your detector and Find all 9 artifacts before the Blizzard arrives!

If you freeze to death, you loose only your Minerals found, not your artifacts, but it ends your day immediately!

Player<em>base</em>64x64<em>v2</em>Death.gif

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/deep-frost

Ratings

Overall 71th 4.05⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Fun 83th 3.923⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 115th 3.769⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 96th 4.179⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 103th 4.346⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 130th 3.85⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Humor 480th 2.77⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 60th 4.231⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 49🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

squashi
Oct 07th · 01:32 UTC
well done! looks good, sounds good, and plays well! it's a bit rough around the edges though, like way to home, gameplay being too unvarying.
FlyByBrucia
Oct 07th · 09:06 UTC
had fun trying to get the purple pieces and kinda lost myself into the game. Sick art love it
alexcl
Oct 07th · 09:42 UTC
That's very well done, beautiful artwork, I actually quite enjoyed playing it!
DmitriyCI
Oct 07th · 09:43 UTC
A game with a good concept, and with very good graphics. The game also has good sounds.
Lyshaka
Oct 07th · 10:19 UTC
It's a really well made game I did enjoy it, but it's a bit sad that you have a limited number of run, the map is big and it's hard to find every artefact with that limited time, also I'm not sure how much time left I have, it would be nice to have some kind of indicator. Other than that I really liked the mechanic of digging where you have to keep your cursor in a certain area, that's a really cool one :)
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 07th · 10:47 UTC
@lyshaka Thanks for the feedback, you at least have some indicator in terms of the screen starting to freeze, but thanks for playing.
Ulziton
Oct 07th · 19:35 UTC
beatiful visual and gameplay
mackain
Oct 07th · 19:41 UTC
my favorite game so far this jam :) wish there was a fullscreen button because those graphics look great!
Hydratini
Oct 07th · 19:42 UTC
I got very immersed in the game, great idea and very well executed.
Pierre-Marie
Oct 07th · 20:27 UTC
Nice game! I don't know if it's normal but, first day of my second game, I can't buy any upgrades :/

I need to rerun it to finish it :D
danicoredj
Oct 07th · 20:39 UTC
very beautiful artwork
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 07th · 21:33 UTC
@mackain Thanks for the praise, actually there is, in the main menu settings or if you hit ESC ingame :smile:
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 07th · 21:34 UTC
@pierre-marie Sorry to hear that, did you play the web version? And did you had enough resources?
Pierre-Marie
Oct 07th · 21:52 UTC
@kalbshack Yes, the version on this page.

But I cleared the cache and was able to finish the game without any problems!
Jin9310
Oct 08th · 15:09 UTC
THis is really cool, there are few downsides, but I understand it is very hard to cover everything during the jam. I was trying to freeze and it actually takes quite long :) I havent finished collection of all, just hit that blizzard. But overall I really enjoyed this one, as it instantly reminded me my favourite The Thing and I think that you really do a great job on the atmosphere of the station somewhere on very icy and isolated place. Great job!
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 08th · 20:10 UTC
@jin9310 Thanks for the kind words. Like you said, time is limited and sadly enough we didn't manage to testplay it enough to tweak the settings. But yeah that's the beauty and curse of those jams. You create a game in 3 days, but only have time 3 days as well.
Patatje
Oct 08th · 20:59 UTC
Amazing game! great tutorial, lovely pixelart and setting. And the gameplay kept me engaged all the way. well done! :)
DeepD2eam
Oct 08th · 21:03 UTC
THATS A SICK ART, really love the style, and gameplay is fun too, very good job!
pepnou
Oct 08th · 21:29 UTC
Awesome game! i did not expect the ending. The art was great.
I would have like to be told sooner that there was a flag to help you find the base, especially at the start of the first day. More ambient sound might have set a bit more the mood.
Overall great game, good job :thumbsup:
Dannyk1994
Oct 08th · 21:49 UTC
Great game. Enjoyed the atomosphere and the sound. Potential for a great game in the future! Would love to see more of this
skiddings
Oct 08th · 22:03 UTC
Great art and a fun game, with even a mini game instead it. Music and sound are great too.
I'm running into a bug though at the of the first day, I don't know how to leave the store/go back to the game!
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 08th · 22:13 UTC
@skiddings It's been told in the tutorial screen that you can enter/leave the store with "e", but your right we could have made it more prominent or even place a button.
NiceKot
Oct 09th · 01:27 UTC
Wow, easy 5*. Great idea, cool style, crisp animations, even the sounds are very ok! Kudos to how you implemented tutorial. Very nice!
LDJam user 246128
Oct 09th · 01:28 UTC
Amazing game! And amazingly implemented tutorial. Very atmospheric, very cozy, incredible work!

Kinda wish I could remove flags where I no longer needed them to avoid confusion.
Eugenik
Oct 09th · 01:46 UTC
Really cool artworks and great humor! Love it!.
swaiky
Oct 09th · 02:59 UTC
Totally my thing—pixel art is my fave!
Accardo
Oct 09th · 05:15 UTC
Great art style and concept, and the mini game is very well implemented, being able to remove existing flags and have flags with different colors would be helpful though.
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 09th · 07:34 UTC
@t90 @accardo Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Those ideas where considered but as you probably know yourself, you have to cut out some stuff to finish in time. We barely managed to get some complete testruns in :see_no_evil:
cartmouse
Oct 09th · 13:12 UTC
Art and music are fantastic! I had a great time with the gameplay too, really got me hooking into the search, upgrade, search more loop! Only comment is that you can walk off the edge of the map, other than that I had a great time :D
Kupnu4
Oct 09th · 14:19 UTC
absolutely wonderful game! It tries to help the player in so many ways! I was too slow to understand it so I failed. 5 artifacts found though! And it was a lot of fun. Great mechanics, pacing, graphics and audio. Love it!
Eric.Shaun
Oct 09th · 16:44 UTC
Thanks everyone so far for the nice feedback, we appreciate it extremly!
And kudos for @kalbshack for the fantastic tutorial, couldnt agree more, he really did an awesome job with that one :grin:

Regarding Lack of Flag removal and limited time to get it done and Map border being "crossable"
Yeah it really was tough the last 6-8hours to focus on what really needs to be done and sadyl those all fell off the 2-do list.
We definitely learned again for the next gamejam where and specifically WHEN to shift focus or have all features implemented to start polishing :sweat_smile:
Like Kalbshack already stated, we barely got enough testing time in :see_no_evil:
Faust_Mi
Oct 10th · 01:37 UTC
Great hidden object mechanics and flash cards for returning to base! The on-screen effect is awesome!

Thanks for the game experience! Great job!
gonutz
Oct 10th · 07:08 UTC
Wow, the graphics on this one are strong! This is some really good pixel art! I did not manage to beat the game yet. Do the arrows point to the direction of the next arrow?
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 10th · 08:54 UTC
@gonutz Thanks for the comment. The arrows point to the next artifact. Doesn't have to be the nearest one, but it's pointing into the direction of one, where you would get the hint for the next one...... as long as you don't freeze :smile:
Eric.Shaun
Oct 10th · 17:56 UTC
@gonutz Thanks for the flowers for the pixel art :blush:
Appreciate the comment <3
zelew
Oct 11th · 10:53 UTC
great animations!
Linky439
Oct 11th · 15:29 UTC
Great game! I lost myself in the wilderness a few times, managed to get back home sometimes, and froze some other times ^^
I manage to collect 6 artifact, not too bad. Deep Frost is quite impressive for a jam game, congratulations! The art is great (lovely freezing effect) and the game just works very well.
WilloXs
Oct 12th · 17:14 UTC
Really nice idea for an upgrade system. Would be nice if there would even be a bit more to buy (like boots for faster movement, jacket for slower freezing etc.). Right now i have unlocked everything after the second trip already and then i'm only searching for the artifacts alone, which is a bit less fun than upgrading stuff.
X2SHADOW
Oct 13th · 13:58 UTC
I really liked it, did 3 tries, froze in two of them without finding the last artifact :( Nice pixel art, interesting and simple mechanics, great game!
Pandaray
Oct 13th · 20:12 UTC
I had so much fun! Loved the guy he reminded me of the We were here series and that one I really loved. Good job!
Roroto Sic
Oct 13th · 21:44 UTC
me before on my last day left , preparing to leave in search of the last purple fragment. which I didn't find.
there's an ice statue of me now.
great game ! unusual staging idea ! :)
![Capture d’écran 2025-10-13 233627.png](///raw/d93/94/z/6f5e1.png)
🎤 Kalbshack
Oct 14th · 08:33 UTC
@pandaray Happy you liked it. Yes the series is phenomenal. Still have one open to finish.

@roroto-sic but since you found the other artifacts you should at least had a hint in which direction the last one was. Still, glad you liked it.
deadjolly
Oct 16th · 04:14 UTC
Really dig the noisy pixel art aesthetic. The sound effects for finding minerals and the purple fragments were satisfying. Felt like the purple ore was too hard to find? Maybe that's just me being bad at the game. Explore and dig mechanics are always fun though! Solid character animations, the rangefinder felt fleshed out! Overall atmosphere truly felt cold. Frosty!
Mibi88
Oct 20th · 14:17 UTC
Nice idea! It was very fun to play, the sound effects were good. The graphics were also nice and fit the concept very well.

A very nice game overall!
JuanRod707
Oct 22nd · 13:31 UTC
Great entry! I loved how you organically included the dig minigame. Had a lot of fun playing this one :)
evil23
Oct 22nd · 17:37 UTC
Great game! The gameloop is fun, I played for 20+ minutes. After buying all the upgrades though, there's no point really to continue. Graphics are good the audio is also fitting. The freezing part was also well done!
mushlord
Oct 23rd · 15:08 UTC
Great work with the graphics, this pixel art is just mind-blowing. I really enjoyed walking through the Arctic and collecting things. Thanks for the great work!
ophiene
Oct 23rd · 19:25 UTC
Amazing work! It’s super interesting and has a vert unique way to paraphrase the theme, good job! And welcome to give our game a try! :)
Elmos Minion
Oct 23rd · 19:26 UTC
The pixel art is awesome, would love to see future development. (maybe you could have some kind of mystery that unravels over time as the player gains upgrades)
VPro
Oct 24th · 06:46 UTC
Hey! I'm really glad you commented on my game otherwise I wouldn't have played your entry and I find it just awesome. You nailed the art, the interface and the overall mood. Having built a digging mini game is a cool idea, it gives more rhythm to each run. I also liked how you didn't hold the player's hand to find the alien(?) pieces, I had to guess that it wasn't made of any of the 3 metals. I wish the runs weren't limited in number, or that maybe you could buy some more with your resources. I really enjoyed it overall, and I think it's a solid basis to keep on building upon, great work!