"Jammy" Bolt Digs a Hole by kroltan

[raw]
made by kroltan for Ludum Dare 57 (COMPO)

You're Jeremias "Jammy" Bolt, a lonely robot stuck atop an inactive volcano. You have a laser gun and not much else.

Find all the green gems, but you can't dig upwards! If you run out of fuel, you can't dig anymore, so keep an eye on your battery!

Controls displayed on screen at all times.

Known issue: If the player or gems don't show up, press R a couple times until they do. Something with the web setup is making this inconsistent.

Made in Bevy, using bevyecsldtk for level design and Avian for physics, with no template code.

Sprites made in Krita.

Ratings

Overall 165th 3.395⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 200th 3.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 227th 2.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 94th 3.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 201th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 270th 2.667⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

JavaSaurus
07. Apr 2025 · 11:17 UTC
Cute game! I wonder, are the levels made procedurally? Because I believe I have accidently got my silly brain stuck because I couldn't dig up. Maybe I had missed alternate solutions. Either way, I like this entry! Thank you
OadT
07. Apr 2025 · 11:18 UTC
Managed to get all but one because of the fuel (two times)! The amount of fuel felt too optimized to me given that you have to play the game pretty blindly. But not being able to dig up has some interesting implications.
🎤 kroltan
07. Apr 2025 · 14:01 UTC
Thanks for playing, @oadt @javasaurus!

Yes, the fuel situation is pretty tight, I only manage to finish myself with about half an unit left. But there is a single handmade level, so it means bar any bugs it should always be barely completable!

I'll try to put a post-compo version up that is a bit more lenient, but I was having issues with Itch embeds so no promises. Since it's _technically_ completabe it wouldn't be in the spirit of the compo to update here :smile:
JavaSaurus
07. Apr 2025 · 14:28 UTC
@kroltan I agree :) But at the same time... I don't think anyone would say you fixing that is adding new game-features or something ;)
pigeon_dp
08. Apr 2025 · 16:20 UTC
Great Game! At first I thought you made an infinite digging game, but i was pleasantly surprised. Loved the level design <3
DeadCode
08. Apr 2025 · 16:20 UTC
Love the nice art style of the game! Have to say it's quite a tough one but I really like the idea and concept of the puzzle solving aspect of trying to plan ahead
gold.daniel
08. Apr 2025 · 16:23 UTC
Cute programmer style art. Gameplay is pretty simple, dig, try not to run out of fuel and get all the things. Wish there was a bit of audio, at least background music. I could not beat it, you almost have to path to the fuel instead of the gems.


Cool that this was made in Rust! Would not be my first choice for a game jam haha, love to see less popular technologies getting explored. Great work!
nojoule
08. Apr 2025 · 16:55 UTC
Drilling indestructible walls consuming energy is a bit annoying and accidentally drilling wrong tiles with such tight energy budget can be improved, but otherwise a fun little puzzle game. Maybe having bonus goals for perfecting the puzzle, but still give the player the reward of completing with minor mistakes would be good. But planning out the route is definitely fun!
Harmadillo
08. Apr 2025 · 20:39 UTC
Great game. Fun and a little frustrating. Only managed to collect 10 gems.
Fireye
18. Apr 2025 · 20:58 UTC
Not digging up was a fun choice which made the game a bit more though provoking, though the fuel mechanic left you prone to soft locks. If you want this to be a game that makes the player think I think giving more precise information, such as exactly how many blocks the remaining fuel can break, rather than just an arbitrary number would be a good decision
jk5000
18. Apr 2025 · 22:05 UTC
A super simple and pretty well made game. The visuals is good, but some music would also have been great. I overall liked it. Well done.
Mamboman
18. Apr 2025 · 22:08 UTC
fun game. I find it a little annoying, that one needs to click so often to dig.
🎤 kroltan
18. Apr 2025 · 23:12 UTC
Thank you all for the feedback! I agree that it's unbalanced. If it makes it less miffing, there's no win celebration, so you're not missing anything if you haven't reached all gems.

@gold-daniel @jk5000 In the last couple hours of the jam, I had to pick between particles or sound, but ended up going with particles. In the end it turns out the library I used didn't work on Web, only desktop, so I ended up with no particles *and* no sound lol.

@nojoule I agree, but didn't have time to fix this bug unfortunately.

@fireye I agree, initially it was supposed to be 1:1 but when fudging with the numbers to make it possible I ended up breaking that, my bad. Really could have fudged the numbers in a different way to keep the 1 unit per block scale, no excuse. As for more information, I would have liked to let the player move the camera up and down independently so they could inspect the map before digging, but only came up with that idea a couple days after submission.

@mamboman you shouldn't be needing to press the dig key individually, just hold it down.
superpokeunicorn
19. Apr 2025 · 01:12 UTC
Neat! Liked the puzzle-y take on a mining game. Planning out the optimal route was fun, and it took me a few tries to finally beat it. Would definitely help to have some audio and more animation, but I enjoyed the gameplay regardless. Nice work!
Joel Davis
19. Apr 2025 · 18:05 UTC
This is cool! At first it felt impossible because I didn't realize I could jump, but once that clicked it made more sense. Cool to see more games using bevy (and ldtk). Fun game, and a charming robot character. Nice job!
someone
19. Apr 2025 · 18:24 UTC
Dangit! So close.
![Screenshot_20250419_1.png](///raw/361/z/6c558.png)
I got there on the next try.
Interesting puzzle game disguised as a platformer. Requires restarting a lot as you can't really plan ahead if you don't know where the objectives are.
I found I was often wasting power unintentionally drilling the block next to me. I think it may be better to require holding left or right to drill horizontally to match drilling downwards.
niterich
24. Apr 2025 · 18:04 UTC
Very interesting game! I love the twist that you can't dig up - it really made me consider and plan my route ahead. My only suggestion would be to add some sound and visual flair, but reading the past comments it looks like there were some implementation issues at the last minute so I understand why they're not there.