Depth Delver by superpokeunicorn

Delve deep into a mysterious cave in the search for treasure. But watch out, the local fauna are not too friendly! Explore a short but sweet Metroidvania map. Can you find all 50 coins?
Controls (keyboard or gamepad):
Arrow Keys / DPad - Move
X / Gamepad A - Jump
C / Gamepad X - Whip
F4 - Toggle Fullscreen
| Link | https://superpokeunicorn.itch.io/depth-delver |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depth-delver |
Ratings
| Overall | 260th | 3.763⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 125th | 3.875⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 482th | 3.175⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 438th | 3.688⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 365th | 3.825⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 280th | 3.564⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 346th | 3.038⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 465th | 3.525⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 63🗳️ | 65🗨️ |
Disregarding performance, my critical feedback for this game is regarding the controls. They're not terrible by any means, but they could stand to improve quite a bit:
- It was frustrating to not be able to switch direction in midair.
- The whip takes maybe an awkwardly amount of time to trigger, which makes midair timings difficult.
- Hitting things with the whip seems to briefly freeze the game, particularly when hitting breakable blocks. It's possible this is just another artifact of the performance issues I was having, though.
- The hitboxes for the hooks you can launch off with the whip are frustratingly small.
- The last room I made it to before I had to stop was one with two moving blocks I was supposed to hold onto. I was unable to grab the second one - I would simply clip right through it and fall back down (often on top of an arrow, to my chagrin). I'm sure I could have eventually got it to work if I'd kept at it for long enough, but it's something to look into.
Nice work on this. I think with some polish/touch-ups this could be quite a fun little Metroidvania.
@python-b5 Sorry to hear about the performance, I had no idea! The game is made in a new custom engine I'm working on, so this is a good reminder for me to focus on optimizing it. From what you describe, seems maybe spawning the gib effect when the blocks/arrows explode is causing lag? The room you ended on was basically the last room, so you didn't miss much. Thanks for playing so far in spite of those difficulties!
@infecsean Are you referring to the physics bug some others have mentioned, or is something else broken?
@infecsean Oh no, Haven't seen that one before. I'll see if I can reproduce it on another machine. No need to rate the game if it wouldn't boot up.

Cool beans! It's like a micro Metroidvania... a Microvania! I like the character designs, especially the wall traps spitting their arrows. I just wish there was more! You can pick up certain hidden coins just by standing real close to the blocks they're hiding behind, btw. :D

I played on v1.1 & didn't have any issues on my PC, although I did spot a bug where getting killed mid-whip (I think?) would allow me to stay alive on 0 hearts.
I think the layout & checkpoint placement was great & I never got frustrated or confused about where to go or what to do; whipping enemies off the screen was very satisfying too.
As it stands, the whip's attack frame does feel like it lasts just a little too long, although it feels fine when in the air - I think this might be due to the fact that you retain some ability to move left & right when whipping in the air; maybe it'd help if you had similar very-slow movement control when whipping on the ground.
The difficulty/level design was pretty good, although I think a couple of the platforming challenges were a little tight / felt like they were designed for a game with more fluid movement. The wall-jump section with the two arrow shooters either side was kinda tight, although I really liked the room itself & the way you could get to different areas from it.
I also thought the arrow shooter at the bottom of the moving platform section just served to bother you while you waited for your chance to grab the moving block.
Despite these little nitpicks, I had a good time playing this & got my 50 coins.
I love how lively and springy everything looks even with such a simple colour pallette, and the music fits right in. The game can be a bit frustrating at times but has some nice level design to fit the mechanics. It's sad that you couldn't beat it before the bug fix due to the physics bug but otherwise really great little game!
Great job!
Please tag me once it's fixed — I'd love to play and rate your game!
Really impressed that this is your own engine as well. Great work!
Hey all, thanks so much for reporting these bugs! Haven't been able to reproduce any of these locally, so would really appreciate your help if you have the time. First, run Event Viewer. If you're on windows it should already be installed:

In Event Viewer, go to Windows Logs -> Application. Now try to run my game. Then look at event viewer and see if a .NET Runtime error popped up. Should look something like this. If it does, please copy paste the log message from this box and send it to me (make sure to scroll down to get it all). Should be able to use that info to figure out what's going on.

This should work for those of you who can't launch the game at all. Not sure if it will work for those who simply can't see the sprites. Whatever the case, you can message me on Discord at SuperPokeunicorn or email me at vazquez.eli@gmail.com and we can trouble shoot it. Thank you so much for your patience!
Update: thanks to a fellow jammer sending me their error log, I was able to figure out the issue. Turns out it was caused by the system language setting. I just uploaded an update to the 1.1 build which should fix the issue. Thank you all again for reporting these bugs 🙏
So was this, altough your game was 3 times as difficult, haha.
What I really liked about your game was the simplicity, yet smoothness in your gameplay. You made a mini metroidvania which was really cool to see. I found the platforming to be rather hard sometimes, but nothing unplayable.
The pixel art was "simple" but smooth, specially in the animations.
Love how your game turned out. And props to you for finishing it!

Very cohesive experience, the graphics, music, player movement everything plays together in such a harmony. I really liked that coins/key was remembered when player respawned. The bat enemies were a fun challenge. Good job!
Really fun, I liked the wall cling mechanic towards then end and was really well polished great job!
Despite my complaints, I really like the art and the other aspects of the game's mechanics. Coins being kept on death and the checkpoints are both excellent design choices. I really like how you took the whip and turned it into a traversal tool with multiple uses. The grapple points and wall clinging are fantastic ideas and could easily turn this into a more fast-paced precision platformer with more mechanical polish.
But I was really enjoying it and got to the end, the checkpoints were well placed and it had a nice classic feel. I only got 41 coins though, clearly wasn't looking hard enough! I thought the whole game fit really well together: graphically, visually and controllery. I think the whip felt good - reminded me of spelunky where there is a similar time delay/lag for the whip - it makes it feel really satisfying when you get the timing right! Nice entry!
It's very rare that I can't think of any things to add or change in a LD entry, it feels really perfectly done!
Got the 50 coins and I already want to do it again! :smile: