Cool digging and "launching" mechanics. The slow walking speed encourages digging at all times. Very difficult to get used to the controls.

@kovakomes Thanks for taking the time to play, review, and give feedback! I'm glad the limitations encouraged the type of gameplay we were hoping to focus on, though we definitely wish we'd had more time to design levels to introduce players to it better since I myself struggle with some of those jumps haha

Hey, the idea was great, game is quite fun to play, mole looks like christmas tree when it digs but its very cute.

Cool idea, I could see it being really fun once it gets fleshed out a bit more. Coins don't seem to do anything?

I would like it if there was something special about not being in drilling mode, so there's a bit of a choice to be made in which mode you want to be in. Right now, you can't really move outside of it so you just always want to go drill.

It would be nice if you could toggle to drilling mode in the air, or something to make movement a bit more fluid. It seems a little clunky when you stop after each time you exit the ground (the area with all the vertical single block segments was not fun because of this.

The concept of the game was amazing. I liked the drilling mechanics although I couldn't figure out how to really start the drilling. Sometimes it stopped immediatly and sometimes I couldn't stop drilling down. But still, great game, cute artwork ;)

Cool game. Really like the mechanics however it feels a bit clunky to activate. More playtesting would have helped this. Really imaginative and innovative though and if fully polished I could see myself playing this!

Very interesting mechanics!
The game in itself was rather hard, and I gave up soon because collecting score pellets was not motivating enough for me.

Very cool idea! Definitely feel like some kind of sand-shark. Moving around and collecting is fun on its own, but I could definitely see some kind of sharky "chomp" as an extra layer in the future to make the upward leaps more satisfying.

The controls are a *little* slippery, but that seems fine for this dynamic. I think the route of my issue was not really knowing how much momentum I'd have coming out of the dig and rotating mid-air. Maybe a forward dash or something when whipping out of the ground would work well. Or maybe it's just tuning!

All in all very fun, very cool idea for the core mechanic! I love the little coins jostling around. Great touch.

@locustjin Hmmm, perhaps we should lean into it and set it up for a winter holiday release? ;)

@bigbadbison There were other mechanics that didn't make it in, but we hadn't thought of making them exclusive to being used when you aren't digging, but it is certainly something I will be thinking of now!

@fribolin Yeah, fine tuning the colliders to crush all those bugs is tough, but I'm glad parts of what made the core mechanic so exciting for us to make got across!

**Thank you everyone for the feedback and ratings!**
**Its my first jam so they're super appreciated!**

@fredripper2077 We've definitely learned a some lessons about how to organize our workflow better so we can make more time for QA. Thanks for mentioning you feel its worth turning into a full game, like many others it is certainly something we will be considering moving forward, and feedback like this helps!

@thejonu Sorry to hear that, but glad the core mechanic interested you regardless, its clearly what got us excited about making this game haha

@chillen Love the "sand-shark" analogy, would probably make for a fun enemy type too! The idea of adding a move the player could use mid-air as a way of giving them more control is one I have been giving though to, we love movement in games and the idea of a dash or a "chomp" are really interesting solutions!

**Thank you again for taking the time to play, all feedback is deeply appreciated!** **The game had to stop there for now, but our learning from its design and development continues!**

Great game! I love the way it encourages the digging mechanic, although I couldn't really get good at it, and sometimes it didn't seem to work. I also liked the way coins float around when you move, it's a nice touch!

Very cool digging deeper and deeper. It gets real hard but I enjoyed spamming the digging button

I spend waaay to long on the first puzzle that teaches you use the ground momentum to jump. (I felt like that guy that could clear the tutorial in cup head)

I found the secret restart path, which I think was a mistake on my part because then I could just not try and get the rest of the coins, but the effort alone lost me everything I'd made up to that point.
I can see that the game is a bit rough in some areas, and as the developers you probably know every little thing you'd like to change better than anyone. but I think the core concept is really solid and I love playing with the idea of digg based momentum.
The only thing I'd liked to see more of are some interesting platform puzzles centred around the movement.

I don't know if you are gonna develop this any further, but to put it a bit blunt, I play mario for tight platforming, not to collect coins. and I could really see a unique movement mechanic like this be used to create some amazing platforming action.

Fantastic job, for me this is what LD is all about trying crazy stuff and learning along the way.

This game seems really cool, but I was having a lot of trouble getting the drilling to start when I pressed space. I ended up mashing it and sometimes it would trigger after the 7th or 8th press. I think maybe I'm missing something, but if it's supposed to trigger when you press space then this is a bug that you could totally fix even if the dev time is up. The rules say your aloud and your game is pretty awesome so I would if you have time. I'd love to play more but I'm having a lot of trouble digging.

That said I love the way the little coins go in that bag. It reminds me of kingdom two crowns but you even expanded on the concept by having physics applied to them while they are in the bag. That's a delightful touch. The core game play is also really cool.

Nice work!

the art is super cute! I kept losing my seeds :( but I thought the mechanics were super cool

This is a really fun spin on the theme! I certainly had issues with the controls, but I still wanted to keep playing which is awesome. And the whole art/music style is super cool! Awesome game for two people to have done in a weekend.

I think there's a lot of fun potential for designing levels for speed runs around the "launch out of the ground mechanic." Cool submission!

Really, really cool mechanic. When I got to the bottom (I think it was the bottom...), I went all the way to the right, and dug into the rock! Then I dug up as fast as I could, hit the very top layer, and all my coins flew out of the jar!
I thought it was really neat how they moved and jostled around.

@simex Thank you so much for this feedback! You're 100% right that the core mechanic was the driving force behind it, and that other people see the potential in it despite its rough state fills me with joy. If we keep working on it the tight platforming you describe is exactly what we would aspire to! So thank you again for taking the time, I welcome the blunt insight! We're here to learn and improve after all!

Great controls! Just managed to dig my way out of the map in the bottom right. The drilling mechanic felt a little odd to chain moves together (ie drill down, launch out, try to drill into another block). That kind of interrupted the flow. 

@evil-villain-games We actually didn't realize we could do any more work on it! I'll definitely let ChrisAP who did all of the development know, we went completely hands off as soon as the timer ended in fear we might break some rule haha. And I made the same comparison to Kingdom when I first saw the bag in action! So glad you took the time to play it and enjoyed!

@risk4bisk Absolutely! I think it would make a big difference for your rating, even though I ignored the bug for my rating and I'd personally really love to play it more with that quick input fix added. Here is a reference to that line of the rules. I'd say you are aloud to fix it if you like.

"Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log). You probably wont get a 2nd chance with some players, but at least it wont be a problem for future players."

@tessahardin A nuanced metaphor for greed? Just fun physics systems that entertained us? You decide!

@teenythanos Thank you! Its really encouraging to see how engaging so many people are finding it despite the issues we couldn't iron out in time!

@jordan-ottesen You caught us! ChrisAP is a speedrunner, its really cool you picked up on those influences!

@dwink Yes! You found the secret path (shhhhh) and also experienced the consequences haha, I'm glad you seem to have taken it in good jest, its a difficult game.

**Thank you again to everyone for taking the time to play, rate, and give us feedback it means a lot to me!**

@evil-villain-games Thanks! We will be looking into what we think is reasonable to adjust after checking in with my partner. Really appreciate you taking the time, I'm a complete first timer in the jam scene and it has been awesome to run into people like yourself and so many others in the community so willing to help!

@candlebird You found the secret! Don't get me wrong, the game has bugs but that feature was actually intentional haha, you'll notice that if you follow the abnormal tiling it'll get you back to the start!

@risk4bisk This is my first Jam as well. Seems like a great community! :) glad I could help!

adorable and innovative <3

I love it lol. The physics-based seeds flying out of the pot is hilarious. The music is too

I really like the idea of what you've got going here. The idea of have more options 'in' the ground than 'on' it is fun and likely has a wide breadth of gameplay possibilities.

I found getting into digging mode really hard/inconsistent. On both controller and keyboard I found myself having to mash the button between 1 and 10 times before I'd start drilling. This sadly took away from the experience.

I did enjoy the incentive to be careful with your movement as the coins can fall out of your pot if you play too crazy. Overall a cool game with a lot of potential. Also... I see some Monty Mole inspiration in that character! Moles and shades just have a certain kind of coolness about them.

Suggestion to make the movement flow a bit better - if I'm moving over a certain speed and I hit some dirt, just turn me into drill mode.

@wheybags That's a really good suggestion, auto drill when hitting dirt in air. Thank you!

Fun game! Reminds me a little of my own submission (shameless plug, I know). At first I was a little annoyed that the penguin(?) walked so slow but then I found the digging button and then it made sense. The game control was actually really satisfying once you got the hang of it and could jump from block to block. Great execution and an overall nice game.

Absolutely adorable art! The idea was super cool and I really enjoyed finding the secret passage back to the top haha, although I have to say I felt like a pretty inadequate mole D:

This game's mechanic reminds me of The Sun and Moon, but with more control over where you are underground. Can't a mole learn to keep the bag closed? :joy: The drilling felt quite janky. It feels like there's little to no air momentum, particularly when you move horizontally (eg. when falling off the edge of a cliff, you just stop midair). I'm guessing this is to force players to use the blocks to drill their way through (which is a cool puzzle) - the drilling mechanic itself was quite inconsistent for me and I never quite knew how far or where I was going to end up, which was only an issue when I really wanted to explore particular places.

I love the little visuals of the coins jangling around as you're moving. It was a great way to present your progress visually than with just numbers. Plus it was very satisfying seeing the bag fill up. :money_mouth:

Really ambitious mechanics and it turned out very well! I found it really hard, though. Someone else suggested being able to toggle digging in mid air and I think that would make this a bit easier and more fun. Really cool entry!

Spin to win! Very cool game, love the little moleboy!

I think this game is so ambitious, i got a lot of fun during playing it, hope you will keep on working on it man!

Congratulations on the game, I feel that something in the project was missing, maybe because I didn’t have time to execute it, the game experience ended up being compromised and losing because of that, you have a charismatic character, a mechanic, but a link is needed to make it the player's desire to continue, I thank you for the opportunity to have known your work, a big hug to everyone, and I await your evaluations regarding my game.

Really neat graphics. I like the character. Music is capable as well. Digging mechanic is nice. However, it is quite hard to understand how to start digging. For me it seems random or glitched. Maybe it would be better idea to have the key pressed and then you start digging on contact? Other than that really solid entry. Good job! :D

I have to mirror a lot of the other comments here: the drill was seemingly random to activate, or at least very delayed. I also wish there was some utility to being the mole as opposed to always just wanting to be the drill. Having said all that, I really like the fundamental mechanics you've etched out here. Something about the inventory system just makes me want to muck about in this world more and more. This is a brilliant start, I hope you'll keep working on it!

I like the concept! It seems like a game where the "normal" movement is punishingly slow, to encourage you to master the fast-paced and fun part of the game: the digging. Sorta like the sonic games.

I unfortunately didn't make it to mastery tho; I think I might have stuck with it longer if the mechanics were a bit more intuitive (maybe being able to enter drill-mode at any time?) or if the physics were more responsive somehow (being able to change speed mid-air would be especially nice), or if the music was more catchy. But nice work, and thank you for sharing! I liked the secret path :)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1007659333?t=00h57m50s

The game is fun, the mechanics of the game with the moles, it reminds me of a game, but I can't remember which one.

I also find it very interesting that the bag moves when our character moves, and makes us lose our money if we move too much.

In short, a game that we can recommend without problem.

My main suggestion would be to allow the player to remain in drill mode when popping out of the ground, holding down the button so you can drill into other patches of soil. I've got some more feedback on my playthrough here; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1018321279?t=00h16m30s

Some cool ideas here. I especially like the points being affected by physics and having to avoid dropping them. It feels like a novel mechanic that could really be interesting if you pushed it further. Congrats on the entry!

Very cool game! Reminds me of this entry: "6 Feet Under" - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/6-feet-under

I actually prefer your full range of movement in drill mode. It just feels more natural and intuitive. It would be nice to have *some* air control. The physic and momentum can feel a little uncontrollable.

Good game, with a lot of potential! Good job!

PS. I caught your stream of my game! Thanks so much, I love that stuff! :heart:

@ismael-rodriguez I've gotten the 6 feet under comparison a lot! 6 feet under is my personal favorite entry for LD 48 and the devs are so cool. I loved your game! I've been dealing with some tethering mechanics on a different game and I've been having a rough time with those physics.

This is a game I would play regularly if there were more levels. Which is saying a lot for me personally. I had a lot of fun and the music was super enjoyable and gave me a very nostalgic feeling (maybe I'm thinking back to ToonTown and that kind of music). If the controls were a little more polished this game would be next level! I also loved the rigidbody physics the coins had in your coin bag as you collected them.

Great graphics as well and thanks again for playing Saving Greg on stream, it made my day! :)

Drill Bros forever YAY

I think the idea of the game is pretty fun but I had a problem with the controls. It didn't feel intuitive to control the mole and I was very annoyed that I couldn't just hold space if I wanted to keep digging. Every time I came out of the sand and wanted to enter again , the mole first really had to land and I was mashing the Space button. I don't know if it's a button down versus button held thing but imo this really holds the game back. The coinbag mechanic was really cute but I only noticed it because you mentioned it on stream. I think it's a nice idea but then there should be more focus put on it with some jangling coin sounds for example. Overall a good entry but the controls kept me from really having fun.