LudumData

Below Birdsong by levi kingma

[raw]
made by levi kingma for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

# Below Birdsong is done! 🐦

Quite close to the deadline, but the core mechanics of our first Ludum Dare game are finished!

  • Traverse a mineshaft with procedurally generated tunnels by going trough the orange doors

  • Keep track of your oxygen levels by listening to your pet canary

  • Find shacks to regenerate your oxygen

  • Avoid entities lurking within the tunnels

# Controls

  • A/D to move left/right
  • Spacebar to jump
  • Enter to enter/exit shacks
  • Jump into the orange doors to progress

# How far can you get? Find out!

Available on Windows, Mac and Linux:

Itch.io: https://levi-ivel.itch.io/belowbirdsong

Github Releases: https://github.com/The-TOL/Ludum-Dare-57/releases/tag/1.0

Made with LÖVE by Tinnit and Levi

Screenshot 2025-04-08 025531.png

Repository: https://github.com/The-TOL/Ludum-Dare-57
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/ludum-57

Ratings

Overall 869th 2.361⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 870th 2.1⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 855th 2.257⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 617th 3.357⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Humor 698th 1.813⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 784th 2.853⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 72🗨️

Feedback

JavaSaurus
08. Apr 2025 · 07:28 UTC
Interesting. It wasn't really superclear what I had to do, but I appreciate the work that went in this entry! The pixel art is really nice. The game feels pretty incomplete, but I do love the concept of listening to a canary in a mine ! Very cool take. Things I would work on? Polish... Make it more crunchy, make it more clear what the intention is. Work on the platform placement (I couldn't reach any of them). But all in all, well done and congratulations !
Leumas
08. Apr 2025 · 07:39 UTC
Oh those spiders. I got killed by them almost every time. Anyways, cool concept, nice and simple graphics and gameplay. I like the sounds as well. The platforms are bit to high most of the time and could not reach any. But overall? Nice experience.
Martta
08. Apr 2025 · 07:48 UTC
Nice game <3 Kind of frustrating, but who said this game should be easy. :D The flashlight effect is really nice that glad that you added at least the walking sound. With some polish this would become very nice game: Sounds to every interaction, little bit refined jumping and hitboxes, better support for different monitor resolutions (the text were too small on my monitor), more coherent art style etc.

Could not get very far, I always jumped when the spider came.... :D And when going inside shack, those enemies would just park themselves right outside the door... :D
basekeet
08. Apr 2025 · 07:53 UTC
I left overall rating just for the visuals, because I didn’t really understand what to do in the game. I walked left and right but just hit dead ends. If someone explains what I’m doing wrong, I’d be happy to give it another try.
LDJam user 407587
08. Apr 2025 · 08:48 UTC
Love the animations, sadly the UI was messed up for me but that is a minor inconvenience. I did find it a enjoyable game, that just needs more time. Keep it up Levi! And also Tinnit of course!
Yatsu
08. Apr 2025 · 09:52 UTC
I still haven't fully figured out the controls, but it looks good for the first game.
izzqz
08. Apr 2025 · 11:42 UTC
ITS ASCII ART!!! Damn!
Indiealesha
08. Apr 2025 · 12:01 UTC
Cool graphics, and you can tell the game was made with care – but it needs a better tutorial. Next time, add one in-game since nobody reads controls on store pages.
VokietisLt
08. Apr 2025 · 12:14 UTC
Lacks music. kinda floaty, overall was fine. Good art concept tho.
🎤 levi kingma
08. Apr 2025 · 12:31 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback so far! We do realize that a tutorial was really needed, we'll definitely keep that in mind for next time. I have updated the game's description in an attempt to give some more context for now
field-of-king
08. Apr 2025 · 13:01 UTC
The Atari vibe I love... appreciate the difficulty as well. The varying enemy types are a good touch. The vibe is good with the sound effects without music.
Follusior
08. Apr 2025 · 14:22 UTC
A cool and stylish game. I enjoyed surviving in this world, but I really missed the sounds:(
nyxkn
08. Apr 2025 · 17:13 UTC
Interesting setting, and art was nice. But gameplay was super basic and there wasn't much to do. Level design was very flat and there were no interesting features to jump around. Particularly annoying was if you travelled one way and the door spawned the opposite way, forcing you to backtrack. Enemies were really hard to see as well. Could definitely use some more interesting gameplay!
sleepyfikou
08. Apr 2025 · 19:02 UTC
Nice game, very moody. I liked the atmosphere a lot, with the parallax background showing all the rock formations in the distance. I wasn't able to reach any of the platforms, though, and it would have been nice to be able to use them to aid in dodging the enemies.
PieRo_PBeS_studio
08. Apr 2025 · 21:05 UTC
a little too mysterious for me, I would need a little more information on what to do and why... the atmosphere is very good it's cottony
NBumgardner
09. Apr 2025 · 01:49 UTC
The setting is intriguing and had me excited to brave the depths. It is a challenging game, I got to the second floor and found its doorknob covered by a platform I could not reach. Muting footsteps while in midair would be a nice touch. The 2 enemies complemented each other to build the habit of jumping over zombie miners and then accidentally jumping into spiders. Looking forward to seeing what you both create in the future.
robobarbie
09. Apr 2025 · 01:54 UTC
atmosphere is very good, and i like the parallax background detail!! love little touches like that
retonymy
09. Apr 2025 · 04:59 UTC
I think this needs further tuning/polish but it's a good start! I think one thing that could make this feel better is changing the doors behavior -- right now it's pretty easy to get locked into a warp-back-and-forth-between-doors loop. A fix might be e.g. some kind of timer to disable a door for a short period of time after you are warped to it, to prevent it from warping you right back?

there are some real nice touches here like the subtle parallax in the BG and the swing on the canary cage. and LD jam timelines are intense so having a complete functioning loop by the deadline is a reflection of good time management and something to be celebrated!
LDJam user 321333
09. Apr 2025 · 22:08 UTC
I don't have too much to add, everyone has covered a lot of the obvious positives and negatives. But I did want to say that in a short jam like this, less is more. I think this game would have been better with *either* the canary/oxygen mechanic (which is a very cool idea) *or* the monsters you have to avoid (and more ways to avoid them or a hearts system). Taking one and polishing it into a gameplay loop is better than two mechanics that feel flat.

But most first games are like this, and I can tell you both poured a lot (of time, life force, etc) into this game, so kudos on your first Ludum Dare!
Aynu
10. Apr 2025 · 06:17 UTC
Nice contender for top sellers add some more features and your on your way to best seller
Euler Moises
10. Apr 2025 · 22:20 UTC
I didn't understand. I just died. I died from spiders, from NPCs, from doors, from scares....
Velis69
11. Apr 2025 · 10:39 UTC
Nice pixel art bro! Play my game and rate it too, comrade!
Verbante
11. Apr 2025 · 10:43 UTC
Having a bird as a health bar is really creepy I love it
HardEggGames
14. Apr 2025 · 02:40 UTC
I see the vision for the game. The canary telling you you were running out of oxygen was a cool idea and I wish I could've seen it more fleshed out! Some of the mechanics and aesthetics of the game were a little bland but there is definitely room for improvement. Nice game.