LudumData

Fathom by Tristam MacDonald

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

Take a retro-fueled trip in a rocket ship down an abandoned mine shaft. Try not to crash! How far down can you go?

preview.png

Gameplay is something like asteroids/lunar lander in a procedurally-generated mine shaft. WASD or cursor keys to control the rocket (no touch input on mobile, sorry!) You have 5 health, temporary invulnerability whenever you take damage, and a depth counter for score.

Written in Rust and compiled to WASM. Everything is rendered in plain-old WebGL2. Apart from the font file, everything you see is drawn in code (and even the font is rasterised directly on the GPU).

Link https://github.com/swiftcoder/fathom
Link https://swiftcoder.github.io/fathom/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/fathom

Ratings

Overall 213th 3.238⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 166th 3.214⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 261th 2.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 152th 3.548⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 113th 3.643⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 247th 1.658⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 245th 2.905⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

BadPinkChicken
07. Apr 2025 · 09:39 UTC
Simple but efficient! Not really getting the depth vibe tho
Placeholders
07. Apr 2025 · 10:09 UTC
very cute, with a bit more feel and level design it can be a really nice little game!
great job and good luck!
jk5000
07. Apr 2025 · 10:09 UTC
I like the simple visuels. The gameplay is pretty fun. It could perhaps have used a bit more gameplay, but it's okay for a compo game. Overall a fine little jam game. Well done.
LDJam user 371996
07. Apr 2025 · 10:13 UTC
The nostalgic scene is impressive, and I love that.

I found that I can gain high scores if I fall as slowly as possible and try my best to keep balance.
meskaline
07. Apr 2025 · 10:44 UTC
Nice take on the asteroids game. The graphics and mood are great and would have been even better with some chill sound, would have played for hours if it had a nice moody music. Nice entry overall, looks good.
1000 high score. yey. But got into a bug one run when the score froze at 3 m after a collision.
Follusior
07. Apr 2025 · 14:24 UTC
Nice graphics and efficient controls. Matching the theme. There are not enough sounds, or there are none
SYPIAC
07. Apr 2025 · 14:39 UTC
I accidentally flew up for a couple minutes instead of down :p. Looks good though. Got blown up by a very narrow corridor, don't think I could've possibly fit in it. Oh well.
ImmortalFox
07. Apr 2025 · 16:22 UTC
A bit complex game for me, but visuals are good! Well played.. Oops. Well developed! :)
leparlon
07. Apr 2025 · 16:56 UTC
I liked it! I usually enjoy this type of control, but the ship turns a bit too slowly for my taste, so after a while the game started to feel a bit repetitive. Still, it’s a solid base with good potential. Also, put me in the group of people who flew up for a while before realizing I had to go down — it was actually my daughter who pointed it out. I probably wouldn’t have figured it out on my own :laughing:
argensis
07. Apr 2025 · 17:18 UTC
I liked the scan line and retro vector art aesthetic!

I think since the gameplay and graphics are very simple, some 8-bit style sfx would have gone a long way too.
ShadyShade
07. Apr 2025 · 19:14 UTC
Very nice little challenging game!
Something around 4000 was my high score :eyes:
Rustywolf
07. Apr 2025 · 19:36 UTC
Started going up and wondered why the meters wasnt increasing :face_palm: Some of the geometry doesnt seem to line up, but its a really solid game regardless
OnnGD
07. Apr 2025 · 19:48 UTC
addictive, good job
LanaLux
08. Apr 2025 · 01:44 UTC
that was fun! cool perspective effect on it as well.