LudumData

Impatient Archaeologist by Hellfang

[raw]
made by Hellfang for LD19 (COMPO)
Alternate name: DINO-MIGHT

A very unpolished game, unfortunately. But due to sleeping badly last night, I have to submit the game in its current state. Still, the basic gameplay ideas are there and it's quite fun to mess around with.

Play an impatient archaeologist and use dynamite to uncover bones! Discover a new kind of dinosaur, long hidden underground and blow it up to uncover more bones! Bones!
Move with WASD, mouse click to throw dynamite, distance between the player sprite and the mouse cursor determines the force of the throw. You have 3 lives to lose by blowing yourself up or being attacked by dinosaurs.

At the moment the counter that shows the depth isn't working properly, so you can only see that once you die. Kind of a bummer, but my sleep deprived brain can't figure it out. Might take a look tomorrow, the code for it is all in, just not working quite right.

Web http://hellfang.co.uk/archaeologist/
Source http://hellfang.co.uk/files/Impatient%20Archaeologist.rar
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-19/?action=preview&uid=1074

Ratings

Coolness 1% 181
Overall 3.29 61
Audio 1.18 188
Community 3.24 71
Fun 3.42 44
Graphics 3.68 31
Humor 3.00 37
Innovation 3.23 67
Theme 3.52 56

Feedback

KoryWazHere
20. Dec 2010 路 01:21 UTC
The "web" link seems to be taking me to the wrong place. Some game called "Crustation Cannon"...?

Looks like a lovely game, let me know when the links fixed, I'd love to try it =)
Ryan
20. Dec 2010 路 08:26 UTC
That was surprisingly fun. The only problem is the lack of a challenge, as you can just spam dynamite to dig a deep hole, fall down to a lower ledge, then spam dynamite again. Perhaps limiting the rate you can throw dynamite at would make people try to use more strategy when planning their route.
馃帳 Hellfang
20. Dec 2010 路 11:21 UTC
Hi Kory, no idea why you're getting the wrong game, link seems fine to me. But here it is again http://hellfang.co.uk/archaeologist/
TheGrieve
20. Dec 2010 路 17:14 UTC
Loved it, spammy dynamite ruined it a bit tho. Fall damage would fix that tho
zdanielz
21. Dec 2010 路 08:08 UTC
Nice! gameplay was a bit repetitive, but nicely done!
Feedback given for your actions in the game would help - what happens when we collect bones? meet dinosaurs? something?
refrag
21. Dec 2010 路 22:27 UTC
I love it! Tons of fun! Blowing stuff up and digging never gets old.
Next time: Audio!
stevejohnson
22. Dec 2010 路 05:39 UTC
Wonderful concept, and it looks great! I of course echo the criticisms of the other commenters (dynamite spam, audio), but definitely finish this.
Starspell
22. Dec 2010 路 17:22 UTC
Echo audio comments. It's a little too easy as well. However I found it to be very fun and the destructible levels were cool. The game could benefit from pickups to change your weaponry and different dinosaurs to avoid but it is a really solid game. Nice one!
Zemmi
24. Dec 2010 路 22:59 UTC
A simple, clever and fun game, I enjoyed it. I think one thing that could add a lot to this game is a little variety to the enemies, like perhaps one that moves vertically or takes more hits to kill.

All-in-all an excellent Ludum Dare Entry, I had fun.
Jerm
27. Dec 2010 路 23:40 UTC
Good game! Would have been better if there was more variety and/or levels.
recursor
30. Dec 2010 路 15:03 UTC
I got down to 330.2 meters before I blew myself up. Surprisingly fun. Add some sound, weapons, more dinosaurs, smooth out the sometimes glitchy collision, and this could be really fun. Nice work.
Endurion
31. Dec 2010 路 08:18 UTC
How funny. If using IE you get the crustacian cannon game. The same link is going to your game with FF. That is very uncool dumbfuckery.

The game itself is a neat little thing. The mechanic is nice but the game is not really challenging. Dying usually happens due to misplaces dynamite. A bit more variety would help this a long way.
馃帳 Hellfang
03. Jan 2011 路 16:28 UTC
Ah, you are right Endurion. The game should work fine in IE now, that's what you get when you upload the game at stupid o'clock and copy the page source from a different game.
ThatSnail
09. Jan 2011 路 16:38 UTC
The way real archaeology should be done. Simple concept but surprisingly fun, got 109 bones and 410.6 meters down before owning myself.

What's really pretty fun is moving your cursor to a point on the screen, and then mashing left-click there, seeing how far down you can get. I've gotten 48.6 meters.
Tom 7
09. Jan 2011 路 17:18 UTC
Nice! Excellent graphics and it's easy to pick up and play. I think the game is pretty easy, but at the same time, that encourages me to be impatient, and then I make mistakes. Dynamite drops unnaturally (arcs at first but then falls straight down), probably because dx is an integer.

Hi-score: 18370