Boring in the deep by WilhelmStein

[raw]
made by WilhelmStein for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Get into the shoes of the brave adventurer, writer, and gambler, Phileas Fogg. This time our shrewd protagonist has made another ludicrous bet; to reach the center of the earth and return to tell the tale. And all bets are off!

IntroScene.jpg Dirt.jpg Stone2.jpg lava4.jpg

Note: All audio and visual assets were made solely by us.
That includes music, sfx (...in a bathroom...with a shitty cell phone microphone...it was glorious), and of course the sprites (carpal tunnel yaay)

Be sure to reach the end. A surprise lies in the darkness...

Ratings

Overall 614th 3.689⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Fun 908th 3.351⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1335th 2.892⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 457th 3.973⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 889th 3.703⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 303th 3.851⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 194th 3.771⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1027th 3.419⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 52🗨️

Feedback

Alina Baybulatova
27. Apr 2021 · 19:18 UTC
Cool game) I have really fun)
Thank you)
And very beautiful graphic!
Good job!
Rongefilet
27. Apr 2021 · 19:41 UTC
I got very distracted by the music which to me resembles a strange mashup of Zelda's main theme and that one wedding song but the game was nice anyway, I would suggest a timer mechanic to incite the player to take risks, having a reason not to abuse the slow down button. Nice job!
Learus
27. Apr 2021 · 19:46 UTC
@rongefilet Thank you. Do you mean that the music was distracting in a bad way? Would you think it should be toned down a bit? Or was it a pleasant distraction?
EnergizedBlast
27. Apr 2021 · 19:49 UTC
Definitely got me chuckling with my friend as we sat down and gave this game a try. I love the drilling visuals and the movement, though I wish the slow down mechanic was a little more useful and allowed faster turning/horizontal speed. Super fun and love the game overall!
Rongefilet
27. Apr 2021 · 19:50 UTC
@learus Oh not distracting at all, I just kept thinking of Link at the altar (not the time one) ^^
Dazrow
27. Apr 2021 · 21:29 UTC
The visuals are great. The beggining is hands down mindblowingly cool. It really brings vibes of a quality AAA platformer.
The levels itself could use more challenge in my opinion. Various enemy types for different strategies perhaps?
Also the concept is very much alike with our game Deep Sweep aswell, which made me even more curious. Anyway, great entry! Good luck!
kr4ft3r
27. Apr 2021 · 21:39 UTC
Nice, of the games I tried so far this one gave me most adrenaline yet. Coming up with a story, characters and voiceovers is appreciated as well. But I absolutely hate you for the ice level.
leekanarchism
27. Apr 2021 · 21:45 UTC
Mon Dieu! An excellent game! Very addictive -- and I liked the triumphant piano soundtrack.

I really like how I discovered the controls on the title screen "by accident", so when I started the game I knew exactly what was going on from the get-go -- a very clever touch!

Does seem a little tricky in places, especially on my touchpad right now -- I'll be back for more later with a real mouse :)
Glaas
27. Apr 2021 · 22:00 UTC
Everything fits together so well! The story, the characters, the art, the mechanics... I will probably have the music stuck in my head for a while.
Stroe Andrew
27. Apr 2021 · 22:13 UTC
Cool little idea, hahaha! I really had fun playing it :)
Vitor Milioni
28. Apr 2021 · 18:40 UTC
It's very simple, but it's very well executed, the controls feel very sharp and responsive, the game looks and sounds very nice and the little story in the beggining is much appreciated. I'd only add a limit to how long you can slow down for, cause as of now it's very exploitable, anyway, incredible job in making this! Also i loved that little waltz at the beggining a lot c:
🎤 WilhelmStein
28. Apr 2021 · 18:45 UTC
@vitor-milioni Thanks for the kind words! Yeah we thought of adding a limit to the brakes, but then we noticed that using the brakes too much actually could hinder the player, so we left it as is.
LDJam user 184711
28. Apr 2021 · 19:23 UTC
Great intro! The game mechanic was a little bit "boring" for me. :-D
damagefilter
28. Apr 2021 · 19:59 UTC
The intro alraedy drives the whole game home, haha. The music's catchy tune helped with keeping me engaged for much much longer than I had anticipated. It's simple yet very effective.
Bobafett89
28. Apr 2021 · 20:16 UTC
it's a good simple game, but music, art and voice acting are very good, but it would be better to add checkpoints between layers of ground. Well done!
🎤 WilhelmStein
28. Apr 2021 · 20:44 UTC
@bobafett89 Hahaha I had a friend make a similar request.
Kaito
28. Apr 2021 · 20:45 UTC
The game is quite challenging and the slow motion mechanic helps a lot :) Great job!
Also, I did a very similar game for the jam and I was shocked when I saw your thumbnail haha!
Fonics
29. Apr 2021 · 02:20 UTC
Short and sweet, funny, good art and nice music. Addition of the slow mo is a really nice quality of life feature, great work!
lesinvisible
29. Apr 2021 · 17:01 UTC
What a nice game, I liked the premise, graphics and, of course, voice acting. This game feels very refreshing.
Raphiell
30. Apr 2021 · 01:24 UTC
Very funny, and good job making all the sound. The music is great! Well done!
miej
30. Apr 2021 · 09:57 UTC
really nice music! would have been cool if the bgm also slowed down when holding down lmb to reinforce the mechanic. also nice little story, could definitely see this concept expanded!
InitialPosition
30. Apr 2021 · 14:39 UTC
Really enjoyed this one. Graphics are nice, the particle effects especially. The music is fantastic - you can tell someone with serious skill wrote those pieces. Also, fantastic voice acting :smile: sounds like you had a lot of fun with the recording.

Only thing I want to complain about is that sometimes even with slowdown not being hit is incredibly hard, especially at the beginning of a new section. Maybe you could simply solve this by introducing checkpoints at every new section.
paddy-exe
30. Apr 2021 · 14:41 UTC
That is incredible! Loved your intro with the cool piano soundtrack and the voiceovers. I'm definitely gonna keep that gem :heart: :large_blue_diamond:
tomz_best
30. Apr 2021 · 23:45 UTC
Love how you introduce theme)
SilkyPantsDan
01. May 2021 · 10:59 UTC
Anything but 'boring'! :P Great game, awesome backing music, excellent VO, and _just_ difficult enough to have me saying "OK, just one more go.."

Only suggestions I have is to add a way to exit the game, and having some sort of cool down/limit on the slow down effect
Zathnic
03. May 2021 · 01:59 UTC
I like this kind of movement mechanic in a limited arc since I did something similar in an old LD years ago. It's also a nice touch how the view distance increases when you slow down.

I did die three or four times in a row at the beginning of the stone area, so maybe that turn is too sharp, though I may also have been going a bit too fast.

I really like the mood of the third area! The art and music there give it a really menacing vibe.
Poffle
11. May 2021 · 07:37 UTC
This is a nice little addictive game. Loved the piano music, especially the first stage theme, going to be stuck in my head all day! Loved the pixel art and voice overs too, great accents!
piscythe
16. May 2021 · 04:44 UTC
I really liked the voice acting and sound design here. I got a bit frustrated with the gameplay, since I didn't always feel that I had time to react to the rock formations. I lost a bunch of runs to the second section, and then nailed the third on my first try. The ending is really well done.