Diamond Dive by LDJam user 400253
Dive for diamonds and don't get crushed by spikes! Try to gather as many diamonds as possible in the shortest amount of time.

NOTE: This game is incomplete, I stopped working on it before the time ran out for the compo.
Bug fixes: (after 48h) * Rev2: fixes a hidden diamond collection bug inflating diamond count
No Audio
Controls: * keyboard or xbox 360 compatible controller * wasd/left stick - move * j/A button - accept
Like my previous entry, this is build in a custom C like programming language for windows using OpenGL. I am reusing a lot of code for rendering and other systems from a previous project, the gameplay and presentation however was done from scratch.
I'm not doing the compo since I am not gonna share my whole codebase, since I'm using it for future commercial projects. (this includes my compiler for my custom language and my game dev framework that I build up so far)
Free Palestine!
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/diamond-dive |
Ratings
| Given | 26🗳️ | 1🗨️ |
Nice game! I own my personall record now ^_^ Good luck!
Firstly, the countdown at the top of the screen could possibly be changed to a bar that depletes with time. As it stands, before you get a grasp on how much you have left after reading the prompt, that time will have already ran out. To combat that, I had to simply disregard the timer completely, and play as if it wasn't there at all, which isn't good considering that it's supposed to aid the player, without diverting them from their task.
It might also help to put the timer closer to either the middle or the bottom of the screen. Having it all the way up only adds to the "takes your attention away from the action" aspect. Perhaps the timer's placement wouldn't be as much of an issue if the player was given more time per stage.
Lastly, having the time be randomised makes the whole thing feel unfair. But the fault lies in how vast the time difference can be, rather than the fact it's randomised in the first place.
I know it's meant to be a part of the challenge, but I don't think shortening the disparities would take away from the game's difficulty.
Hope to see your project grow, and good luck with your future commercial endeavours!
Thanks for taking the time to give so much detailed feedback!
I agree that properly visualizing the timer would add much to the game.
The timer however is not random, it gets reduced every fall and resets to the full length after a fixed set of falls. Which then also increase the block density.
Making the reset more visible would also improve it, right now all I show is a fading out text that the block density increased >.< (and this was suppose to give you a hint that the timer also reset)
Hope this helps a bit and I really appreciate the feedback!
Not gonna be easy debugging this without the address sanitizer. :P
But I don't know if you want to go through the trouble of trying :D