Cave Hunter by GeoBlackrU

[raw]
made by GeoBlackrU for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Game Title: Cave Hunter


Game Description:

Descend. Survive. Conquer.

In Cave Hunter, you take on the role of a daring prospector, descending into a monster-infested abyss on a rickety elevator platform. Your mission? Mine valuable minerals, arm yourself with powerful weapons, and fortify your platform against relentless attacks—all while racing toward a final showdown with a terrifying boss lurking at the bottom.

The deeper you go, the deadlier the caves become. Monsters will swarm you, damage your platform, and test your reflexes. If your platform falls, it’s game over.

Controls:

  • Movement: WASD
  • Pick Up Items: E
  • Drop Items: Q
  • Shoot: Left Mouse Click
  • Aim: Mouse Movement
  • Interact/Repair: E
  • Pause: ESC

Will you reach the bottom… or become another victim of the depths?

(If you have problems starting the game here, check the link below)

Ratings

Overall 813th 2.833⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 727th 2.875⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 704th 2.804⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 609th 3.37⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 600th 2.341⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 741th 2.979⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Loka
08. Apr 2025 · 00:12 UTC
Although I didn't make it to the final boss because I lost my self in the tunnels, the game experience still makes me feel adventurous and mythic. It would be better if the bullet size could be bigger. I lost track of the bullets very often and thought I didn't shoot at all.
Tero Pulkkinen
08. Apr 2025 · 08:10 UTC
The embed didn't work for me, stuck at unity logo.
Ali Yagmur
09. Apr 2025 · 08:08 UTC
I really liked this overall. Felt like a real game that I can find stuff and do stuff rather than janky game jam game. Liked it. Good job. Only problem for me is the bullets dont really feel like bullets and I cannot see them most of the time.
Jack Turpitt
09. Apr 2025 · 08:14 UTC
I really like the gameplay loop! Its intuitive to pickup and sucked me in straight away. The floaty jump mechanics made it fun to explore the caves, and the way that enemies can be spawned in huge groups made for a really exciting experience. Love the music too, atmospheric and intense! Great entry, thanks for making it!
kolaz koleso
09. Apr 2025 · 08:16 UTC
The game looks great, but the theme is too banal.
poboy
09. Apr 2025 · 08:26 UTC
That was cool! The tradeoff between upgrading vs. healing the platform is nice and I enjoyed testing out the new weapons. The timer and the general mood felt very Risk-Of-Rain-like, and evocative even for being simple.

I do think a few more hours of polish could really put this over the top -- hitscan bullets, muzzle flash, enemies recoiling from getting hit, etc. See the 30 tips from this [super famous talk](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1t0jlc/vlambeers_jan_willem_nijman_the_art_of_screenshake/) for what I mean.
ChrisBeck
09. Apr 2025 · 08:31 UTC
Really good game, I really enjoyed it. The movement felt really nice and fluid, I also really liked the graphics on the character. Music was solid and it had a good difficulty curve. Only issue I found was when the boss arrived, he got stuck under the platform and the turrets rinsed him!
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LDJam user 261489
09. Apr 2025 · 16:43 UTC
@poboy Thank you for your review and tips :)
ScoobySnacks
10. Apr 2025 · 08:41 UTC
I love that you can find a new weapon. The game need more game feel, like powerful feedback, bigger, faster bullets.
AgrMayank
11. Apr 2025 · 20:34 UTC
I didn't get the concept completely, and there were some parts where I couldn't go back from without dying. Plus, I can move faster than the bullets if I shoot them while running!! Is that a hidden feature xD?
Broco
12. Apr 2025 · 04:09 UTC
It feels a bit slow. Player movement, jumps, and even shots go in slow motion.
Also I feel the brown background with the brown platform are quite confusing.

I went deep to the left, getting every gem on the path, but then I had to return, with nothing of interest on the path. Maybe it would have been better if instead of waves of enemies every 90 seconds, there were some wild enemies on the map.
For some reason when I was returning back to the platform the player started moving slower and I couldn't reach a jump I needed to make to return, so I just lost, got back to the platform, but couldn't activate it, and it got destroyed by monsters 😅

I don't wanna sound too harsh, I know how time constrains affect our games! So keep at it! 😉
noagard
12. Apr 2025 · 15:24 UTC
The atmosphere and exploration were really fun! I did lose track of bullets a lot - maybe some visual feedback or bigger projectiles would help. Still, great work overall, the game feels full of potential!
CaptainDreamcast
13. Apr 2025 · 19:51 UTC
My skills are legendary, I won! Was a close call, my platform health got really low as I prioritized more damage with turret upgrades. Super intense and super fun gameplay!

The art looks great as well, the pixel art is really beautiful, and the colors really help set that spelunking mood! Very well done game, great job!
Eugenik
14. Apr 2025 · 03:52 UTC
Holy crap this is GREAT!.
Fernando Tonon de Rossi
16. Apr 2025 · 13:43 UTC
Nice, the music makes it feel more intense!
Patatje
17. Apr 2025 · 15:58 UTC
Cool game! love the main gameplay loop of finding tunnels to get money and new weapons! i'm pretty greedy though so i spent too much time in the caves, letting the elevator unguarded for way to long :P. i do feel like the player could move a bit faster... i also wish there was a autoreload. great work on the overall game!
VJ031206
21. Apr 2025 · 07:59 UTC
The game looks great, but the mechanics are a bit off for me. The character is sliding even when I am not touching the keys and repeatedly clicking space was causing him to double-triple jump idk if that was intended or not. Overall, a fun game. Liked the timer things it puts some pressure.
Local Minimum
21. Apr 2025 · 12:28 UTC
I must say I'm a bit confused, I tried to play the web version of the game and it gave me 90s of standing on the platform with no enemies, nothing to pick up, or do beside shooting the gun in the air. I got various prompts to press E for things, but it didn't seem to do anything. Then after the 90s I got some enemies, but I still could not perform any of the interactions except for the reloading of the gun. There were things in the blocks but they seemed totally accessible.

I almost completely died in the first wave of enemies, it was a bit confusing with my own projectiles from the platform and theirs, perhaps they could have used distinct color pallets or such. It probably also wasn't helped that my keyboard isn't normal and space is nowhere near WASD so I needed two hands on the keyboard for all the actions.

I think binding wise, since mouse did all the gun stuff it would have been nice with reload on the mouse as well.

And it would have been nice to be able to force the platform down when you were just waiting.

It looks like there's a lot of cool stuff in here though, so I'm probably just missing something essential.
metaksonio
22. Apr 2025 · 15:42 UTC
I didn't really get what i was supposed to do or how to interact with the platform. But I liked the artwork and music!
Shasaur
25. Apr 2025 · 14:04 UTC
The game loop was actually really nice! The idea of having to make a decision of when exactly to stop searching the caves to return back was great :) I managed to defeat the boss in the end but I think by accident, he might have got stuck on top of the platform and I railed the shotgun into him xD Maybe making the foreground lighter could have made a bit easier to distinguish what is what, and a little arrow always showing where the base is would have been perfect to not get lost :)

Also not sure if you've seen this, but I totally LOVE this video on 'juicing up' shooting and these kinds of platforms, you might enjoy it too (if you haven't seen it already): https://youtu.be/AJdEqssNZ-U?si=0oYmV2yk6P7bn4qY&t=498