LudumData

Steve the Smith by Adam Martin

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

Intro​

Steve must go down into the depths of the mine to collect ores to smelt and sell. Using your pickaxe traverse the mine and collect ore. You have a magic spell to return to the surface, but it cannot bring back any of the ore you mine. To do this, you will need to charge up a ore portal spell. This will receive a charge for every 10 levels you go down.

Don't run out of durability on your pickaxe, or you will be automatically returned to the surface, and lose any ore you didn't send back.

Progression

​Progress is saved whenever you visit the shop or the mine.

Controls

Movement - WASD Jump - Space Mine - Up - E - Left/Right - F ​depends on which way you're facing - D​own - C

Shop

In your blacksmith shop, you can smelt and sell ores. Click Smelt and select the ore you'd like to turn into a bar. Rare ore require 2, while common require 5, to smelt.

Once done, click on the cave entrance button, to head into the mine

​​Mine

​In the mine navigate around and break the rocks. You have a limited durability, so keep an eye on it. After you've went down at least 10 levels, the ore portal spell charge will increase. Click the button to send ores you've collected back to the shop. If you want to head back to the shop early click the door button

mineing.png

game-ui.png

shop-ui.png

low-durability.png ​

Link https://adam4813.itch.io/steve-the-smith
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/steve-the-smith

Ratings

Overall 863th 2.458⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 862th 2.283⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 776th 2.625⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 483th 3.62⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 768th 2.52⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 547th 2.435⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 650th 2.125⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 838th 2.553⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

frutal
08. Apr 2025 · 13:06 UTC
I thought this was an okay game. It doesn't feel finished (missing something to do with the money), there's a couple bugs (jumping is weird, resizing the window closes the game, I get stuck when I break the pickaxe). But it was a good effort.
🎤 Adam Martin
08. Apr 2025 · 14:33 UTC
Yeah, the money spending was the part of the loop I missed (ran out of time). The plan was to use it to upgrade your pickaxe. Thanks for the honest feedback!

I'll look into the window resize issue, thanks for submitting the bug.
shores
08. Apr 2025 · 18:09 UTC
It's a charming little game! I felt like I should be able to jump up off of a wall, but I frustratingly so couldn't! Keep it up, thank you!
🎤 Adam Martin
08. Apr 2025 · 19:14 UTC
I'll add wall jumping to my list
pavlov36
09. Apr 2025 · 06:29 UTC
Nice and simple game! Like to play)
Tobius
11. Apr 2025 · 02:50 UTC
I really liked the game loop: go into the mine, try and find ore efficiently to mine, send ore back, leave mine, smelt, sell, repeat!

One improvement I think would make this game better is a little more "chance". Even something simple like each time you mine an ore, you have a chance to NOT use a charge of your pickaxe, or when you mine an ore there is a chance it doesn't disappear would allow for more exciting moments while playing, right away! Adding in something like the two suggestions is great too because its not super time consuming to program either, perfect for a game jam!
🎤 Adam Martin
11. Apr 2025 · 02:54 UTC
I had eyes set on more features you could buy like dynamite, pickaxe upgrades, spells that could do those sorts of effects, etc, but time is a cruel reality in a game jam. Thanks for the feedback!
Trevor Lentz
11. Apr 2025 · 05:37 UTC
The controls and feel of this are difficult to get used to. Getting caught on walls and not being able to easily get out of some spaces have been a source of frustration. I did like the variety of mechanics though.
Chuckiee
11. Apr 2025 · 09:18 UTC
I'm impressed that you got a procedural mine going :clap: Not an easy thing to do in a game jam. Others have already mentioned, but I also would like to have something to spend my money on. Then the game loop would be complete. I think higher gravity could also be good to have. Despite that I think it's a very well made game :o:
Scott R Howell
11. Apr 2025 · 10:21 UTC
A lot going on for a jam game, I have to admire the ambition. jumping against walls was a bit stiff, and it wasn't clear what the controls were from the game alone. I also experienced a soft lock on breaking my pickaxe wherein it wouldn't return me to the smelter area. Requires some polish and dev time, but good work for the jam!
🎤 Adam Martin
11. Apr 2025 · 12:56 UTC
Yeah, the soft lock is an issue, I'll fix that game breaking bug.

Thanks for all the feedback!!
VerttiXPertti
12. Apr 2025 · 05:48 UTC
I didn't understand the idea with the portal and pickaxe breaking leaving you in the cave. I think once your pickaxe breaks you should just teleport back with all your ores. Also why did I need 5 of the ores to smelt them. I did find the procedural generation with the mine good though and the graphics were somewhat charming even if a little rough. Decent effort
JamesGames1000
12. Apr 2025 · 08:22 UTC
A pretty good entry would have like to see some more features, but I can understand that time is a big constraint. You should definitely work on it post LD. Great job :)
Wyzal
12. Apr 2025 · 09:15 UTC
Interesting idea concept. Ingame controls feels incredibly hard (maybe cause you used mesh collider on your obstacle tiles or have some bugged cling mechanic). I also had a problem with which buttons do what in the game, perhaps a tutorial would have solved this problem. Anyways good job!
spacecadet
12. Apr 2025 · 16:47 UTC
I like the concept and the art is simple but works well the game. The controls were not really intuitive for me and soft locking the game when the pickaxe was broken didn't really motivate to continue unfortunately.
7uc4s
12. Apr 2025 · 17:41 UTC
I like the idea, but the controls were a bit difficult I find (like the character sticking too much on walls), also had to restart the game many times after breaking the axe (game did not teleport me back and was stuck)
shadow64
12. Apr 2025 · 22:37 UTC
Nice work! It's simple, but gets the job done. I also had the soft lock that was mentioned but I just restarted and was able to figure it out and keep it from happening - this stuff happens with jams. Definitely a lot to expand on here, but it's a great start and it's playable and has a solid loop to it. Like you've mentioned, the next step would be something to do with the money you get from sales.

Congrats on finishing and thanks for playing Deep Bat Rage and leaving feedback!
smilewood
13. Apr 2025 · 01:05 UTC
I love the vision that your game shows. The art is great and the overall mechanic makes a lot of sense for this theme. As several others have mentioned I found the controls to be very hard to work with. Having three different buttons for the different mining directions felt unintuitive to me, and more frustratingly the movement felt like it was fighting me the whole time. Sticking to the walls when moving into them is a cool mechanic that I have not seen in a mining game before and it is one that I think has a lot of potential for allowing mining even if you missed some ore (and I did appreciate the ability to mine up, a lot of this style of game don't allow that). I found that it did make it difficult to accurately get anywhere however, I kept trying to jump into gaps and ended up sticking just above or below them. Perhaps, as others have mentioned, a wall-jump could have helped, or even more simply changing the walls to only stick when moving down?

This is a great game jam game with a lot of potential, great job!
ditam
18. Apr 2025 · 22:12 UTC
He who smelt it...!

This is a neat little entry with a lot going for it, a nice crafting system, multiple scenes with randomly generated treasures - I think if you improved the movement inside the mines, and added an end goal to strive for, it would be rather enjoyable. As it is, as others have pointed out, trying to move and dig around is rather frustrating, I ended up just aiming for resources right below my feet, because climbing to a higher row or digging sideways was such a hassle.

The "send back resources" option didn't make much sense to me, why not just bring them along when going back to town?
🎤 Adam Martin
18. Apr 2025 · 22:35 UTC
@ditam lore-wise, we your pickaxe runs out of durability, it triggers a spell to send you back. It cannot bring back ore, you have to use the portal spell to do that instead, once it's charged by moving down enough.
Papaver
24. Apr 2025 · 18:08 UTC
Cute and original game! There is even a shop included! :clap:

The moving/jumping mechanics could use some improvements. Often I got stuck in a jump mid-air, stuck to a wall. But I could also use it for some sneaky wall-jumps :wink:
After the shop,I was surprised that my portal spell charge was suddenly negative, even if I had 4 left after the first run.

I didn't get why I had to send the ore and myself separately up to the surface. At some point I collected 150 coins, but I didn't know if I could use them for something, or wheter there was an end to the game.

But anyhow, overall, well done! :smile: