Climbing out of the depths

Spent way too long making sure red platforms don’t trap the player in no-win scenarios. Feeling exhausted

Moving much slower than expected. Guess it's normal for the first game ever made

Our first game jam game — and our first game ever — is finally done. Sadly, we didn’t manage to finish a lot of what we had planned. Great reason to keep learning and getting better. But overall, the experience was super fun!

You're a pixel-neon knight stuck deep underground.

You spawn. You jump. You die.

Miss a jump and the darkness wins. Every second matters.

• DANGEROUS CREATURES IN THE DARK

• PROCEDURALLY GENERATED LEVELS. EVERY RUN IS DIFFERENT

• PIXEL-NEON CAVE VIBES

Links:

Play here 👉🏻 https://flingeris.itch.io/cavescape

Rate us here 👉🏻 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cave-escape

Let’s talk a bit about the development process behind our game Cave Escape — what worked, what didn’t, and what we wanted to do but didn’t have time for. Ludum Dare is always a race against the clock, and this one was no exception.

What was supposed to happen (but didn’t)

The original idea for Cave Escape was a journey from darkness to light. The player starts deep underground, climbing higher and higher, with the hope of eventually reaching the surface.

We planned for a moment where your score would flip from negative to positive — and with that, the whole world would shift: sky-blue background, clouds, bright new palette. A visual breath of fresh air.

That never made it in. But the idea stuck — and who knows, maybe in a post-jam version?

The last remains of a sky that never came.

Skins and palettes

We experimented with a bunch of color palettes and character skins. The idea was simple: let the player choose the one that feels right for them — nothing too fancy, just a splash of personalization. Or maybe auto-change it during gameplay.

We ended up shipping with just one look, but the other designs? They’re still in the project folder, glowing softly, waiting.

Neon knights that never saw the light — but maybe one day.

Platform generation: 10 hours of debugging

One of the biggest time sinks during the jam was fixing a bug that made some platforms literally unreachable. We didn’t spot it right away, and it cost us dearly — over 10 hours of troubleshooting and tweaking generation logic just to make sure you could actually keep climbing. The fix wasn’t glamorous, but it was necessary.

Trusty notebook saved the day.

Calm spots that stayed on paper

One of the ideas we were really excited about was to add occasional rest zones during the climb — small caves that would break the tension and give the player a moment of calm. No chasing darkness, maybe a couple of boost items. Just a quick breather before the next intense section.

It's meant to be randomly inserted rooms that changed the pace of the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to implement them during the jam. It’s an idea we’d like to implement if we keep working on the game.

Сoncept mockup of what such a zone could’ve looked like.

Thanks for reading!

Cave Escape is our first project — made with a lot of love, late nights, last-minute fixes, and more color palettes than we care to admit.

It would mean a lot if you checked out the game and gave it a try. We’re really curious to hear what you think.

Play here 👉🏻 https://flingeris.itch.io/cavescape

Rate us here 👉🏻 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cave-escape

                                    Let’s see who climbs the highest

My LD57 game Cave Escape is public and getting great feedback, but it’s still not showing up in itch.io search or tags and even by direct title — even after a three days.

I made a post about it here – would really appreciate any reaction and comment to get visibility boost or advice. Link 👉 https://itch.io/t/4755746/game-is-public-played-ranked-yet-invisible-on-itchio

Thanks a ton! 💜

Just wanted to share a few words about taking part in my first ever Ludum Dare.

The atmosphere here is honestly amazing. People are actually playing and rating each other's games, leaving thoughtful feedback, and just being genuinely supportive. It's such a cool community full of creators willing to help, share tips, and lift each other up.

Long story short — I have zero regrets about joining. I’ll definitely take part again if I get the chance.

You’re all awesome. Thanks so much for the feedback and kind words — it really means a lot!

Here’s a link to my game in case you haven’t seen it yet: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/cave-escape

You know that moment when you play something and think, “Yep, this is special”? Not just gameplay, but the mood, the vibe. Here are a few gems from this jam that stuck with me — not ranked, just memorable in their own way. Each one left a mark.

Mr. Money's Phenomenally Soggy Water Removal Romp

A game with a title longer than the lake you’re draining — and that’s part of the charm. You scoop water, build pumps and slowly watch the lake disappear, one splash at a time. It’s pure chill — the kind of game where your brain goes “ahhh” and just vibes. I smiled more than once — that thimble at the start got me.

We're at the bottom

This one’s not just a game — it’s art. I won’t spoil a thing, because going in blind is exactly what makes it special. It plays with your expectations, makes you laugh, messes with your head a little. Just trust me — play it.

Heavy Anhinga

Getting Over It, but you’re a duck. This momentum-based platformer is cute, challenging, and unexpectedly intense. The physics feel great once you get the hang of it, but oh boy, you will fall — and you will keep trying. It’s got charm, it’s got snacks, and it might break your fingers a little (in a good way). Simple controls, zero mercy, full personality. Honk honk.

Cheese is the Reason

A point-and-click adventure soaked in style, charm, and really good cheese-based humor. You’ve got rats, noir vibes, full voice acting (!!), and visuals that feel like a lost PS1 gem. It honestly blows my mind how low this game in term of rate count — it deserves way more attention. Don’t miss this little rat masterpiece.

DUCKDEPF

Endless fall. One duck. You’re just diving deeper and deeper, dodging debris and trying not to panic. It’s weirdly addictive — I blinked and half an hour was gone. The controls feel good, the music keeps you going, and the bonk on death? Weirdly satisfying. Clean, tight, and way more fun than it has any right to be.

If you made it this far — thanks for reading!

And while you're here, feel free to check out my game too.

Would be cool to hear what you think.

What hidden gems did you find this jam? Would be cool to share it witch other down below 👇

It took some time, but the project is finally uploaded. This is our second LD, and this time we’ve created something we’re really proud of. We gave it our all and pushed ourselves to the limit. Wishing everyone good ratings and sweet dreams!

Links:

Play here 👉🏻 https://flingeris.itch.io/collect-or-dice

Rate us here 👉🏻 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/collect-or-dice

Let’s talk a bit about the development process behind our game Collect or DIcE

One of the first versions

Let's start from one of the first verision. This is how the game looked in the first hours:

At the beginning, we took inspiration from popular dice and cards deck building games. The concept started with a classic side-view battle layout — simple, functional, familiar.

But at some point, we realized we wanted to stand out. That’s when we made the big decision — to completely change the camera view.

The new perspective

Here’s how the game looked right after that change:

Instead of a flat side view, we switched to a behind-the-shoulder camera, where the player’s character appears smaller and positioned lower in the frame, facing off against larger enemies. This change added a sense of scale and danger — almost like in Dark Souls, where the player faces towering foes from a grounded point of view. From the first glance, it already felt more dynamic and eye-catching.

However, this new view came with a set of new problems — mainly UI design. With this angle it became tricky to place icons and interface elements without covering important parts of the battlefield or breaking the visual balance.

First HUD attempt

Our first HUD mockup looked like this. And, well… it didn’t quite work. The icons were confusing — for example, the shield icon looked like mana, and damage icons were easily mistaken for health.

Where we are now

Even in the final game, the UI isn’t perfect — we’ll be honest about that. There’s still room for improvement. But overall, it does its job and complements the rest of the game’s visual design nicely. And most importantly — we’re proud of what we’ve achieved.The new perspective, atmosphere, and overall look finally feel like our vision — something unique.

Thanks for reading!

We’d love to hear what you think about our project.

You can check out and rate our game here 👉🏻 Collect or DIcE

The Collector’s hiding something. Even the cat can sense it. Let's play our game and find out -> Collect or DIcE

Thank you all for taking part - it was awesome. Another LD is behid.

For this jam, we tried to interpret the theme in an unusual and creative way, and we put a lot of heart into making this game.

If you had a chance to play it, we would really appreciate your feedback and rating.👉🏻 GRAVEBELL

Even though this wasn’t our first Ludum Dare, this one ended up being especially tough for us.

First Attempt

Most of the struggle came from our first interpretation of the theme. At first, we decided to make a game about a lighthouse keeper who had to tell false signals from real ones, in a sort of Papers, Please style. As many of you probably noticed, that kind of interpretation became surprisingly popular during this jam. At some point, it almost felt like there was a hidden sub-theme built around it.

So we spent the whole first day going in that direction. We already had a rough gameplay screen and some mechanics working. But the more we looked at it, the less we liked it. The idea itself was fine on paper, but the result felt too ordinary, and most importantly, we just didn’t want to play it ourselves.

So we made a pretty painful decision: we threw away everything we had made on day one and started over from scratch.

Second Attempt

We went back to brainstorming and tried to find a version of the theme that felt less obvious and more exciting to us. That’s how GraveBell was born — a game where the signal is the toll of ritual bells, calling the dead to rise and defend the graveyard.

In the end, we’re really happy with how this Ludum Dare turned out, and even more happy that we chose to trust that feeling and start over instead of forcing an idea we didn’t believe in.

If this sounds interesting, we would really appreciate your feedback and rating. 👉🏻 GRAVEBELL