Obsidian Deep by Joseph Tan

[raw]
made by Joseph Tan for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Made for the Ludum Dare Game Jam 57

Controls: A / D – Move and aim left/right S – Aim downward F - Bomb Spacebar – Dig

A mining-themed roguelike deck-building adventure. You are an archaeologist, and you’ve just received thrilling news — dinosaur fossils have been discovered beneath this very site! According to research, the dinosaur has six key parts, but due to various factors, they might be buried at different depths. We’ll need to dig deep to uncover them all! To recover them all, you’ll need to dig — deep and strategically. As you go deeper, the geological structure around you will shift — new terrains, tougher layers, and hidden surprises await. Keep an eye out for mysterious minerals. They may seem ordinary... but could prove surprisingly useful when the time comes.

As you descend, you’ll grow into a stronger miner. Discover powerful upgrades. Enchant yourself!

Ratings

Overall 515th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 452th 3.368⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 709th 2.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 395th 3.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 537th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 247th 3.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 682th 1.971⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 696th 3.105⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 10🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

based.on.life
08. Apr 2025 · 01:33 UTC
Really nice, simple game. Satisfying controls and straightforward game loop. Loved the music
Kamizenki
08. Apr 2025 · 01:36 UTC
Cool game, but i cant dig the top of the block. Music is very good too, good job.
Hikiyoshi
08. Apr 2025 · 01:39 UTC
Really nice game. I love the music. Good job.
Ricesteam
08. Apr 2025 · 02:14 UTC
Well done guys! I love the jazz music. Very calming when I was digging. Cute graphics. Smooth controls. I wished the beginning didn't feel like a grind.
Doomky
08. Apr 2025 · 09:14 UTC
Hey Great Game! :smile:

It's a simple yet very addictive game loop, you dig then get better!
MEGA Marlon
08. Apr 2025 · 09:20 UTC
Took me a second to figure out how to dig above and below my character but once I did it was real good. I really like the stamina meter it adds that nice bit of tension for wanting to get to that next gold block.
marudziik
08. Apr 2025 · 09:37 UTC
Very addictive, spent way too much time playing! :sweat_smile: I liked the overall game loop, though it is a little bit on the grindy side. Fun upgrade system, but it wasn't clear for me when the red update shop is going to appear, and because it resets with every loop, I'd prefer for it to show earlier.
Music is very nice! Good job!
Kseon
08. Apr 2025 · 10:54 UTC
I've been working in the mine for three days, aaaa
without a salary aaaa
thanks for the game:)
basekeet
08. Apr 2025 · 13:18 UTC
Ah… I came to this game after the dev commented under mine saying our games are similar — and they really are! I’d love to add some of the mechanics from your game into mine (I had them in mind, but knew I wouldn’t have time to implement them).

Either way, your game plays great — I ended up spending quite a bit of time in it!
🎤 Joseph Tan
09. Apr 2025 · 03:03 UTC
Hi, one of the creators of the game here, thanks for playing our game!
We are so thrilled that our game have received so much love for the past day and we are glad to hear that the gameplay loop, the controls, or even the music feels good to you all - it means a lot to us!

We also appreciate all the constructive feedback given by all of you, it has been really helpful , we will continue to update the game according to the feedbacks we have received, and hope that it will be more entertaining than it is right now.

- @kamizenki I think digging the top block is possible by pressing the spacebar after pressing W
- @ricesteam I'm glad you liked the jazzy music (I made them while being really sleep deprived lol), the grindy beginnings is really a problem we have been trying to solve, but... we have only finished fixing all the bugs 9 minutes before the LDJAM deadline, so we don't have much time to balance our game thoroughly
- @marudziik Ooops, we didn't really make it clear that these underground shops show up on every 100 levels
- @basekeet Thanks for checking out our game! We have been wanting to implement the different combinations for our bottom upgrades, but we have ran out of time doing most of the other parts of the game. Playing your game has given us many inspirations on how we can improve our game mechanics, and also the different combinations. All the best!
D0vid
09. Apr 2025 · 11:40 UTC
Nice & simple! I loved the music, both in game and in the menu :D

Well done!
Eugenik
14. Apr 2025 · 06:32 UTC
nice Game.
hatmajaster
19. Apr 2025 · 07:37 UTC
Hello fellow exatly the same game maker! Well almost

Looks sounds and plays nice. I like the idea for more of a puzzler approach where you can only dig down and can' t jump. And I especially liked that you can dig 3 blocks in a sequence - combines to a surprising strategic planning.

There is one issue with the game - its far too long for a jam game :/ I think i played for 40 minutes to reach level 1000, and then realized that it probably never ends at which point I stopped. One of the upgrade should probably be to start at a certain level - 200, 500, 1000 for example - though not sure if this is what you were going for. If there's an end it probably doesn't make sense.

Really polished, fleshed out concept. The only issue i had is that when you spam space to dig down you can reach a shop, and then cancel it without buying anything:/ Or perhaps there should a button to simply restart? Though it was mild annoyence
🎤 Joseph Tan
19. Apr 2025 · 10:33 UTC
@hatmajaster Heya, I just played your game and, it really is very similar!!

We are painfully aware of our game's issue, initially we wanted to implement physical shops down in the mine, but when we got the main mechanics down, we realized that we only have around 9 hours left, with no UI (yes, including the shop and the UI you see underground), no music, no sound effects, no playable game loop. So at that point we're like, yup, let's ditch the ending (and balancing) and make the game playable haha.

Those shops appear every 100 levels and the upgrades are selected in random, when you say restart, do you mean by restarting the game, or do you mean refreshing the different upgrades?

Thanks for your kind words and advices, really appreciate it!
caimez
19. Apr 2025 · 11:15 UTC
Cool game ! Really liked the game loop,
I was not sure at first at what to do with the red ore but I really liked the augements in the red shop.
I wish we could have more than 3 since it takes ages to lvl up stamina.
Great music and adictive game loop !
OadT
19. Apr 2025 · 11:24 UTC
Nice relaxing game! For me the progession speed was a bit too slow (like expecially the first vision update seems too expensive and it took quite a while until I saw the first diamonds) but in general the game loop works pretty good! Sometimes I accidentely skipped shops because they were a bit unexpected, but I liked most of the updates. It is a bit sad that you loose all updates from the shop after a run. Maybe it would be nice if the player could keep one item. Cool entry!
hatmajaster
19. Apr 2025 · 11:38 UTC
@joseph-tan by restarting i mean just restarting the run/session, go back to the surface - I press the button, my stamina goes to 0 and i go back to the begging, buy upgrade and dig again. But the only true issue was that you can easily skip the shop - the digging and skipping shouldn't be the same button (or maybe it should pause for a second, or just have nothing selected). Restarting would be just a way to ditch the broken run without going to the end which later in game can take a lot of time.

Yeah, I am well aware that I am pointing out the obvious lack of time ;) I have left few ideas myself for my game too as everyone ;) But when i provide the feedback i have to be honest;)
BarnabeWild
19. Apr 2025 · 18:47 UTC
had fun, I do not know how to open the redstone shop for upgrades, is it automatic?. Nice execution!
🎤 Joseph Tan
21. Apr 2025 · 03:05 UTC
@hatmajaster Thanks for letting us know! Don't worry, we really love honest and straightforward feedbacks. As for the skipping shop issue, we didn't have it during development, we will look into it and fix it.

Now that you mention it, putting something to restart the run really does sound like a good idea. The whole game probably feels very stagnant and slow for now.