Down Under by TheAppleCake
Are you ready to dig ? You better be, because you are going Down Under !
This planet has been ravaged by a nuclear war and there's nothing good left on the surface ! This is why you are being sent on a mission to dig as deep as possible and bring back everything you can ! But be careful ! Your suit has a limited life support device and if you run out of energy, we will have to drag you back to the surface !
Between each run you will be able to use the gathered resources to upgrade your tools so you can reach deeper stratums, so don't rush it !
Controls :
- WASD // Arrows - Move, aim
- Space - Dig
- R - Extract and start a new run
~~Please note this game was intended to be compiled for WebGL but all my audio got corrupted when switching platforms so i chose to keep it on standalone to be in time. This is why there is no "exit" button, and you'll have to rely on your good ol' Alt+F4. I will try to find the origin of this error and will upload the WebGL version then.~~ *Update : * added a quit button for the standalone version in version 1.2
Credits
Music : Rhodesia MKII by Twin Musicom (twinmusicom.org) // (Sounds made in Bfxr)
A game by Simon Branstett, please do not redistribute
Special thanks to my friends for their support. Special shoutout to Thibaut !
Changelogs
1.2 - Postjam bug fixes/corrections
- Added a quit button in the main menu
- Added a reset button in the main menu to clear the data and start a new game
- Added a button to go back to the main menu in the shop
- Fixed a bug where the world generation would stop after 1000m under the surface
| Link | https://theapplecake.itch.io/down-under |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/down-under-1 |
Ratings
| Overall | 524th | 3.759⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 619th | 3.536⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1322th | 2.907⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 361th | 4.036⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 624th | 3.914⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1062th | 2.478⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 883th | 3.519⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 47🗨️ |
If you put some indestructible falling block, so player may think twice about digging under some rocks
You can add some Area digging, and some rocks which selfdestruct when you touch them, etc etc
The mineral loss is quite punishing. You feel like beeing punished for gathering ressources and digging deeper. Instead of this try to reward the player.
Not enough gained energy from green blocks
Too many loose of materials between each game
@keppersnapper If i had more time during the jam, obstacles and variety would have definitely been a priority to boost the gameplay. But i like these suggestions, and i'll consider them if i ever do a "full version" of this game !
@nosfer Believe it or not, but i had never heard of that game before your comment. When i explained to my friends on Discord what i was doing, one of them started "Oh it makes me think about-" and i stopped him, saying i didn't want to feel like i was coding an imitation of an already made game (even if i know this is impossible lol). Just asked him what game it was and turns out he was also thinking about this one. Guess i'll have to give it a shot haha
@icehunter-wm I actually had the code down for indestructible blocks. It was actually one of the first features i implemented but this was back when i was dabbling with the game design at the start of the project. In the end i ditched them when i decided the player couldn't go up to prevent being soft locked in a U shape of these blocks. But i like the idea of making it a risk to dig upward. I know the mineral loss feels a bit too harsh in the beginning and, again, with more time i would have balanced it a bit so it wouldn't be too frustrating in the early stages.
Thank you for this good time
Great work tho !
and you should use itch to publish games
I really enjoyed to dig deeper and deeper.
Maybe it's a little bit too long to get more items.
Overall, it's a good game !
I do think though there could be more saving of resources between rounds. That would be my recommendation
With no originality, I think is too hard for the player to lose so many resources, but in other hand, it kept me playing ;)
Good job !
About the resource loss between each run, it's kind of a consequence of the first iterations of the game design. At first i wanted to make it a tough, unforgiving roguelite (e.g. Rogue Legacy). As the game advanced, this feeling got kinda lost in favour of a more relaxed, laid-back type of game. But i heard the criticism, and when i'll push the project further (which will most likely happen due to the good feedbacks i've gotten so far), i'll reconsider my thinking about it.
And thanks again everyone !
I was very impressed by the amount of visual polish, as well as the great music. The sound effects sounded great, and the gameplay was nice. I think that this game could use a bit more variety in gameplay, but I understand that this is a jam game. Great job on this entry.
But genious game! It's addictive like Minecraft. In fact its a really cool 2d minecraft clone. It was difficult at first, but boy, when the achievement systhem kicked in, the progress felt really rewarding. I have to say, the progression systhem was genious. After a while it felt like an enchanted diamond pickaxe. And the ore spawn rate and overall difficulty was super ballanced. Its not the first game of its kind, regarding the take on the theme. But it sure is the best one I've played so far! Really solid entry. Thank you for so much FUN!!!
I liked the visuals and de simple objective of upgrading your tools to go even deeper!
I think I found a bug with the orange rocks: I had 8 but when I died, it disappears ;(
Nice job, nice game!