I haven't played the steam game, so it was fun to go into this basically blind (also my first time seeing someone else's hole digging game on ldjam, so blind there as well). The grapple was very smart, I got stuck pretty immediately without it. It may be helpful to put the controls on the itch page/here as well just so others know to swap to e and to right click to place dirt. I also made a hole digging game, but for different purposes (to store library books for ghosts), I think one thing mine kinda fails at is having a real deep purpose for digging the hole aside from it's fun, yours has the extrinsic motivation as well which helps.

This was good fun, i did manage to find my way out of the play area using the grappling hook was cool to see how the collision bounds were holding the player in!

I also haven't played "the digging game" so it was new to me.

Would have liked a full screen or resize window option but overall amazing work!

I'm so glad I stuck with it, thank you for making this! 2 questions if you don't mind me asking:

1. How did you achieve the digging effect? I dug quite a deep hole but never ran into performance issues.
2. I got to a point where I strongly believed was the end, and that there were no hidden secrets. Earlier in the game I realized you could right-click to add dirt, but it was kind of slow progress. Was it possible to climb up at that point?

As someone who has played A Game About Digging A Hole, you did a great job at recreating the core features of the game. The brief commentary on the Video Game hemisphere is pretty apt too. The thing I struggled with was a reason to keep playing this game as the money you got wasn't very much and the mining drill was too darned expensive. I also got stuck once I passed the first underground room as there was a bit of dirt that refused to be dug up. Other than that great job!

Well, that went in a direction I wasn't expecting. I stared at that glimpse of the sky for a while at the end. Thanks for painting this ruby so it would catch my eye, I'll continue to share gems with my friends when I find them :)


P.S. since I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, Q to open the store and E to cycle through your inventory

So I've never played the steam game.


Still, this game was therapeutic, and then it started to echo my own thoughts about games and media in general

I think my only complaint is that it's extremely easy to miss the tutorial book. As a result I kinda just kept digging without any upgrades for a good while

I do agree with pretty much everything you had to say, including the ( what I'm assuming was the ) last book

You have a cool way of expressing your feelings through your games. Something I wish I could do as well. Great stuff

i got to the end and as someone who mostly plays niche games, i dont know man i just like video games, if others dont care for the diamonds why should it bother me

Lovely game. Could have been the prototype of the Steam version :D

Nice game! good job!

This game is genuinely deep — in more ways than one. At first, I thought it was just a janky little project with no mouse sensitivity settings... But by the time I reached the end, I swear I felt a little more enlightened.

This is art.

You did well, bro.
You did very, very well.

First of all, wish you all the best on the tough way of game development. Sometimes, it is really hard to do what you do; a career has various moments.

But I really believe if we do something really good what resonates with a lot of people - it will be valued.

Marketing is still a thing, and you should understand what and why will be attractive to people in your game concepts, how to show your idea.

I think if you do well, you will get appropriate results.

Still, personally, I love digging into various game ideas that performed worse or better, but it is a part of professional deformation.

Despite my interest, I can not recall in my mind when game design was flawless and still the game was unsuccessful. Something is always a bit off or not in the interest of the target audience, or tedious, or over-sophisticated.
As a game design consultant, I always was able to pinpoint such stuff.
At the end of the day, the game can be just released at the wrong time and fail from marketing side or become good too late after betraying players' expectations earlier.

We just have to learn from our mistakes over and over.

I hope you will feel better soon!

Btw, your game is great, if you will share your sourcecode I think everybody will be happy here.

I would love to learn how to make such a mechanic so quickly.

I didn't know this game was based on another existing game, I had to check the comments to understand that.

Anyway, pretty crazy of a scale you managed there, really cool game, only thing that feels like it needs some improvement is the lightning and the flash light. Sometimes the shadows made no sense and it was hard to see, but I know how those things can be a pain to fine tune and implement.

The digging mechanic was really well done. I sure dug a hole.
No idea what the other game that keeps being mentioned here is, though I imagine it has something to do with digging a hole.
I liked all the notes and interesting things to find. I definitely missed a lot.
At least the cake wasn't a lie.
Seems to be some weird issue with the lighting in some of the deep rooms, and the lack of texturing around this large area makes it hard to tell if you are actually moving.

I hope that when you come back to this page, you will be happy to see that your game will be rated.

I told some of my friends about it and created a [post](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/drowning-simulator/give-a-few-rates-to-this-guy-please) to get some attention.

Keep doing good stuff, man, and don't give up! I hope more people will see your works! Good luck!

Really intriguing. I like that a game exploring themes of game discovery and hidden gems took a recommendation to discover: I didn't find this one by myself. The jam entry page and the itch page both make very little effort to invite players in, nor to let them know what to do. This does seem intentional, and an exploration of the game's themes. I needed the comments to teach me what to press, and to give me a clue that there is more to discover beyond the first chest. I enjoyed finding my own secrets in the game, including beyond what I initially thought was the intended end, though if there was much more that I missed, I don't know. Thanks for making this, and thanks to the person who posted about the game and led me to play it.

Very impressive entry. Sad I didn't noticed it earlier.