Cave Escape by Flinge
How far can you climb before the darkness devours you?
You’re a pixel-neon knight stuck deep underground.
You spawn. You jump. You die.
Miss a jump and the darkness wins. Every second matters.
- DANGEROUS CREATURES IN THE DARK
- PROCEDURALLY GENERATED LEVELS. EVERY RUN IS DIFFERENT
- PIXEL-NEON CAVE VIBES
Controls:
- A-D or <-> — Move
- Space — Start game
- R or Right Ctrl — Restart
- P or Tab - Pause: Volume /Post Processing settings
- Ecs - Close game if paused
Important info: You can kill enemies by jumping on them from above — except for the skeleton on the platform, that one can’t be killed.
Leaderboard:
| Rank | LD Name | Score | |------|---------------|-------| | 1 | @nuin| -354 699| | 2 | @ryrumeli| -453 138| | 3 | @ruruie| -455 681| | 4 | @sztobar| -458 280| | 5 | @510| -473 167| | 6| @icks| -473 990| | 7| @hexstart| -476 159| | 8 | @shadyshade| -476 870| | 9 | @superpokeunicorn| -477 034| | 10 | @jona-scheidig| -478 824|
Share your best score in the comments — screenshot or just the number. Let’s see who’s the strongest jumper.And remember: the darkness forgives nothing.
Devs personal best depth: ~~–457 920.~~ ~~-409 769~~ ~~-365 256~~ -343 407
Changelog: - Fixed screen shake causing camera flick to start screen - Fixed purple slow platforms causing permanent game slow effect - Fixed issue where game speed was calculated incorrectly on game start - Fixed mushrooms wasn't correctly giving you invincibility during jump boost - Fixed volume of some sounds that was too loud. Now your ears should be fine (mostly) - Fixel spike platform could break jumps if you jump on spikes while shield is active
| Link | https://flingeris.itch.io/cavescape |
| Link | https://flingeris.itch.io/cavescape |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cave-escape |
Ratings
| Overall | 160th | 3.907⭐ | 126🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 49th | 4.129⭐ | 126🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 700th | 2.816⭐ | 127🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 381th | 3.788⭐ | 127🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 188th | 4.16⭐ | 127🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 307th | 3.144⭐ | 96🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 229th | 3.903⭐ | 126🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 84🗳️ | 136🗨️ |
I was especially impressed by the start screen, the explosion is super epic :)
Excellently polished tower climb game, great jam entry!
Otherwise, I very much enjoyed the graphics, I like the tune, and I do like the overall idea. Game's got a lot of good juice too between the screenshaking, shaders, and text effects. Overall, very nicely done
This was our first jam project — actually, our first game ever. Seeing it resonate like this honestly warms our hearts.
Thanks again. Drop your highscore in the comments so we can all compare!
We actually wanted to add a global leaderboard, but sadly didn’t have time during the jam. Adding it now would break the rules, so… maybe next time
Its fun and well done, and I love the music !
We probably should’ve added some kind of warning sound or screen cue before you actually run into them.
Very juicy, cool. I like it.
Now I do wonder, if there's anything at 0.
Does it just continue to +1?
Anyways, the movement is really clean and there's alot of work to make it feel as polished and fair as possible.
Also, the 8-bit tune is a banger, love it!
The crazy part is that this game feels more professional than the actual doodle jump. Everything from gamefeel to art is super polished and there's a serious amount of progression mechanics and level design variety. The soundtrack is a banger too.
You could take this as it is, slap on tilt controls and put it on the android play store. I'd download it =)
Yeah, originally the depth started around -50,000 and was supposed to transition into positive numbers after reaching 0. The plan was to shift the game to a surface area with a bright daytime palette — kind of a payoff moment. The art for that part is actually done, but we ran out of time technically. Honestly, if we had just 30 more minutes, it probably would've made it in.
In the end, we decided to extend the depth much further down instead. I might update the game post-jam to include it, since it wasn’t possible within the jam’s time constraints — and uploading a separate version with that feature would’ve felt a bit unfair.
I really like how many different platforms are there. The music doesn't get boring and both enemies and powerups are fun addition to the jumping expierience
Your art is beautiful! And your music is WOW. It makes me want to dance. I'm pretty bad at this kind of game, so I didn't get very far.
Is there an end or not?
Congratulations!
Thought it’d be a fun little surprise for anyone curious enough to try moving right away
The post: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cave-escape/development-process-cave-escape-from-darkness-to-light-that-never-came
Of course, we *could* put up a page with an updated version now — but we don’t really want to be unfair about it.
Even if we’re transparent, it would still affect the ratings, and I’m pretty sure it would push the score higher.
Feels more honest to wait until after the jam wraps up
I had to stop myself from doing "one last try" again and again, the difficulty scales really well and the overall game is fun and satisfying, I got 3 boots in a row at some point and my brain was on fireworks lol. The music is really nice and the graphics are simple but clear which is very important for a game like this.
All in all, this is a solid game, pure addiction. My only complain is that it doesn't have an online leaderboard.
BTW, my best was -477034
Also it gets trippy as soon as the music starts to shift. Last long enough and get ready for the surprise!
https://ibb.co/tMd38QSS
-453138 with proof image. Fun game!
[Sans titre.png](///raw/cac/36/z/6bfc4.png)
Yup. I'll rate this as "vaguely in the park" and call it that.
I'm not sure I'm getting the point of the orange/red platforms, are they just there to try to screw you by making you forget you can't use them? In that case, that's cruel :smile:!
What surprises me is how many people say they don’t like the red platforms — that really caught me off guard, since similar ones were in Doodle and no one seemed to mind back then.
The music is upbeat and doesn't get annoying (!) even though I heard the beginning of this track too many times... It works great for the atmosphere!
IMO - I don't think any additional buttons besides the spacebar were needed here (I'm talking about R for reload). And I wish the breakable platforms gave something when destroyed. Right now they just provide a "coolness" factor when you manage to fly through them and land on a platform. But they could definitely be something that players might decide to risk going for.
The feedback is super helpful, and that idea with the breakable platforms is actually great — we’ll definitely give it some serious thought.
Great job!
You're totally right that procedural generation + precision mechanics is a risky combo — and yeah, sometimes luck plays a bigger role than intended. I’ll definitely be thinking about how to reduce that friction if I keep working on the project. Didn't have much time to balance it perfectly. Appreciate you taking the time to point it out!
I especially love the visuals - Everything is super readable, super clean, and super vibe-y