Coal Lector by Avhatar

[raw]
made by Avhatar for Ludum Dare 58 (COMPO)

Coal Lector — the one who reads the coals. To them, the blackness of the world is laid bare, and they, in turn, are laid bare to its blackness. You were cast into the pit, to read what the fire has left behind. Perhaps you are innocent; perhaps they have mistaken you for another. Now all that remains is to keep the cold from claiming you. Seek the coals, and the truth that smolders within them — for it alone may yet bring you warmth.

https://youtu.be/AVC8zz24fwk

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Ratings

Overall 103th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 143th 3.08⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 128th 3.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 28th 4.063⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 25th 4.2⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 60th 3.545⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 75th 3.182⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 23th 4.063⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

egor.ae_game
Oct 06th · 00:47 UTC
@avhatar I like how the camera is positioned, the character style, and the animation!
pres2300
Oct 06th · 01:41 UTC
Great job with the SFX, art style, lighting, and animation! I really enjoyed it. The one thing I wish I could do is rotate the camera around (if there's a way to do this it either didn't work or I couldn't figure it out). Otherwise, it's tricky to pick up things on the ground that fall behind other things. Nice work!
StaticRose
Oct 06th · 08:49 UTC
Interesting premisse, the coal is very talkative. Like the pixel-3D artstyle a lot.
bereg
Oct 06th · 14:14 UTC
An interesting take on the "digger" genre. Fun graphics and sound. The coal definitely thinks a bit too highly of itself.
Xahon
Oct 06th · 20:05 UTC
Graphics is a wow
bad_fetus
Oct 07th · 02:29 UTC
Funny play on words and a nice initial surprise that it was still about collecting even though I first thought you side-stepped the theme with the name. This looks very cool, a unique artstyle and well handled lighting. I wish the items that dropped were highlighted when not visible but cool little game beyond that. Good work!
Kenneth Gibson
Oct 07th · 18:26 UTC
good game, art style with sfx looks kinda eerie, 5/5 on mood
word-play is on point
Hexela
Oct 07th · 19:14 UTC
I love this vibe so much! Great job!
Artalasky
Oct 07th · 23:11 UTC
I like the way this game looks.
LDJam user 280624
Oct 09th · 12:13 UTC
Great title and interpretation of the theme! The graphics are utterly charming; I'd love to play a full game in this style
🎤 Avhatar
Oct 09th · 12:15 UTC
@artalasky, @hexela, @kenneth-gibson, @xahon, @bereg, @pres2300,@egor-ae-game, @torte478 thanks. The main issue with this render pipeline is that it doesn’t build for WebGL =( But you can get pixel art without pixel creep kinda easy.
Yvanor
Oct 09th · 13:08 UTC
![heat.png](///raw/292/z/6f142.png)
**I hate being cold ! :laughing:**

*It's ok I just got a bug, where picking coal wasn't making it disppearing, so I was just able infinite grab it. There is also some clipping with the heat zone with the camera once it's too big (around 10 coals I would say ?)*

Aside from these small (and funny) bugs, wow great game !
I think it has great potential, I would absolutely see this as a small horror game where digging deeper into the world would uncover some dark secrets, with this ambiance and art style, I'm sure that it would be a great experience.

Great work !
Eugenik
Oct 09th · 20:09 UTC
Amazing original concept!.
island-jam-2-group-3
Oct 09th · 20:13 UTC
I loved the atmosphere / mood on this one! Congrats!
Akuta Zehy
Oct 10th · 08:42 UTC
The coal lector must be desperate when he saw the fact that there's no extrication but a certain death.

![QQ20251010-163211.png](///raw/771/66/z/6f29f.png)

There's a clever sidestep to theme interpretation, but this coal mining simulator has the mood about depression of real work.

I like the visuals, good work!
🎤 Avhatar
Oct 10th · 10:12 UTC
@akuta-zehy Did I get it right — you actually dug yourself a tunnel and reached the edge of the map? I honestly didn’t expect anyone to do that, so I put quite a lot of blocks there, thinking no one would ever dig that far =)
nexyisan
Oct 10th · 19:40 UTC
It's a good game, but it's a shame you can't open it in your browser, you have to download it.
🎤 Avhatar
Oct 10th · 19:54 UTC
@nexyisan agreed, but this render pipeline doesn’t allow building for WebGL =(
marks
Oct 13th · 12:29 UTC
Was blown away by the visuals of the game, amazing work on the polish and mood! An interesting take on the theme as well. Was expecting to be able to sell coal at the start but I guess people above are *really* invested in rocks. Overall, great job on this entry, really enjoyed the experience!
Geckoo1337
Oct 14th · 14:46 UTC
Classical using of the theme, but the level design and the mechanics work well. The main aesthetic is clever - something which reminds us of the old PS1. I really enjoyed gathering/collecting items in the game. Sounds are great - exactly what I would like to hear in a game with these graphics. Well done. Thank you for your review for my own project. I wish you the best ++
Rolly
Oct 17th · 18:51 UTC
Nice! I especially like the visuals and the visual style that you got there! There could have some improvements to the lights, to avoid seeing it leave the 2D layer of the universe of the game. Other than that I think it was perfect!

The gameplay is simple, and at the same time you want to go a bit further to find more different stuff, so it keeps being entertaining!

On the downside, I think you could have avoided to use the word "Fuck" too often. It felt like it was an easy way to show the frustration of the character and set a negative mood, but instead it pulled me out of the atmosphere you were building, and it felt misplaced in comparison to the "cute" visuals of the game. I think I would have prefered the message had it been delivered in a more humourous or subtle way.

Overall, good game!
vvartism
Oct 22nd · 20:46 UTC
Simple but satisfying mechanics, shows "how much you don't need too much". Also dig the visual choices made, although having coal fall out of sight making you dig around it to pick up was unpleasant at times. But this camera and sounds of digging, man It threw me back some twenty five years back, playing Dungeon Keeper, low-key brought tear to my eye, thank you.
MARP
Oct 24th · 01:42 UTC
Nice game. I played until a point I found an infinite piece of coal. The game is good but I would have wanted clearer objectives. I did not know if I had to achieve a quota. The graphics are simple but good however some block were hiding other pieces of coal dropped.
![Screenshot_2025-10-23_22-36-28.png](///raw/45f/56/z/6f920.png)
By the way, the talking coals XD were funny. The was a point however that I just stopped reading