Rock Collector by smilewood

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

Starting a rock museum was a great idea! People will pay you to look at those rocks! collect them all and build a collection to build a fortune, always looking for a way to collect more.

train.png

This ended up being a clicker game, collect rocks by hand to start out before moving on to hire people to do it for you. There are several tiers of upgrades for the methods of collection (although I did not thoroughly play-test the higher levels for fair scaling). Once the city stops being as lucrative for getting rocks move on to extracting them directly, setting up mines and sending trainloads back to your museum.

Made following the compo rules except for the time limit - I was busy Saturday so decided to take the extra day.

Tools Used

  • Unity
  • Aesprite

My Thoughts

This was another jam where it took a couple false starts to get an idea that I liked, between that and being busy Saturday this game did not end up as polished as I would have liked. There is a lot of art missing/using default sprites, I thought of two stages of gameplay beyond the mines, and there is no sign of music or sound effects. Despite that, I am relatively happy with how this one turned out, I don't think any of the mechanics that did make it into the game are completely broken and I think that the price scaling through the city part feels reasonable. As always seems to be the case I wish I could have taken the time to play through the whole thing a couple more times to tune things, but that is the way of the game jam. Relative to my past game jam entries I would rate this one middle of the pack, incomplete but not broken is better than looking good but unplayable (looking at you Belt Co)

Ratings

Overall 643th 3.125⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 579th 3.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 631th 2.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 372th 3.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 611th 3.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 488th 2.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 691th 2.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 33🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

naru
Oct 06th · 23:37 UTC
Simple yet fun!
Kotolazer
Oct 06th · 23:47 UTC
I unlocked a few upgrades and most of the stone mining areas. I really missed having some kind of feedback, even just sound effects. The progression in the game feels very slow, and I ended up dropping it after buying the second helper because they’re useless — they move way too slowly.

Also, at the beginning, it says that we should look for expansion opportunities, but in reality, we just click on new buttons once we’ve saved enough money. In the description, I saw a beautiful train, but unfortunately, there was nothing related to it in the game.

Overall, the game feels boring, but I liked how well-designed the location is — it’s nice to look around. Thanks for your effort! Our team also released a game about collecting stones — feel free to check it out if you’re interested
Tommeh
Oct 07th · 09:10 UTC
I like incremental games a lot so I'm surprised that I had to scroll this down to find one. Very fun game! Thank you for the game!
skale
Oct 08th · 09:22 UTC
A straightforward take on the theme. The game is simple yet surprisingly addictive — it almost felt like aim practice for me! Also I like this kind of progression in games. Adding some sound effects and music would really enhance the experience. But hey, it's still fun to play!
FrozenDude
Oct 09th · 22:15 UTC
I had a lot of fun playing the game. Especially the collector drones upgrade felt really nice because the collectors finally felt more efficient than just clicking the rocks. The only issue i encountered was that the mine diddn t seem to give me any rocks. When the train reached the end of the track nothing happened. (Maybe i just don't understand the mechanic though)
🎤 smilewood
Oct 10th · 00:50 UTC
@frozendude Hmm.. yeah it looks like I messed up a number and the trains only give 10 rocks per trip at the base level. That is quite a bit short of the intent given how long it takes to cycle. Whoops.

@kotolazer Yeah, the base level collectors feel quite slow to me as well in retrospect. I found myself trying to collect one of the locations so they would just stay in another. Sorry you didn't make it to the train section, the trains are used once you unlock the mines, but you would likely have found them disappointing since, as skale noticed, they didn't end up as powerful as I intended.
Theothervc
Oct 10th · 03:17 UTC
Another Progression Game, I Love These Types! It's a Bit Scuffed But Nothing A Bit of Fine-Tuning Can't Fix!
Nomelu
Oct 10th · 23:11 UTC
I played up until about a million dollars and then stopped, progression felt too slow at that point. I liked the collectors but I wish they went for the closest rock and not a random one, and I wish they "claimed" the rock they were headed towards so the other collectors wouldnt also try to head there. I also couldnt figure out what mining actually did, even when the train finished it's route my number of rocks didnt seem to go up or anything, and the mining tab seemed to pause when i wasn't watching it. It also would be nice to have some sound effects, even something small. I did get sucked into it though, I enjoy games like this and it was fairly fun!
Elfb0y
Oct 17th · 00:17 UTC
This was a fun little idle game concept. I liked the idea of starting small by clicking rocks yourself and then expanding to workers, mines, and trains — it really captured the Collector theme well. The progression felt rewarding early on, and I enjoyed seeing the upgrades stack over time. The visuals were simple but clear, and I could easily see this being expanded into a full incremental game with some tuning. Adding sound effects and faster pacing would make it even more satisfying, but it’s already a solid foundation. Great work, especially given the time crunch.
daniel
Oct 19th · 03:26 UTC
Very true to the theme, I just wish it didn't pause when backgrounded so I could just let my collectors do their thing :) Felt a bit slow to progress and build up the upgrades, but that's in the context of the LDJam review gaunlet of getting through multiple games.
LDJam user 243193
Oct 20th · 14:36 UTC
Nice clicked game! Took some time to get your first collector but it's worth it.
YibiRabbit007
Oct 20th · 15:33 UTC
I am competing with a professional collector, and because my mouse moves faster, it's quite funny to watch him flounder around helplessly LOL.
Diralf
Oct 20th · 16:26 UTC
Good idle game, I got hooked. At the beginning you have to put in some solid work, but with upgrades the process starts to run on its own, so you can relax and watch. The graphics are simple but have their own charm. Overall, a pretty good game!
5H08
Oct 22nd · 04:28 UTC
Cool management game. Though I don’t think my mines do anything. Do they offer special buffs instead of adding to my rock/money count?