
Ludum Dare #19compo
Impatient Archaeologist
Alternate name: DINO-MIGHT
A very unpolished game, unfortunately. But due to sleeping badly last night, I have to submit the game in its current state. Still, the basic gameplay ideas are there and it's quite fun to mess around with.
Play an impatient archaeologist and use dynamite to uncover bones! Discover a new kind of dinosaur, long hidden underground and blow it up to uncover more bones! Bones!
Move with WASD, mouse click to throw dynamite, distance between the player sprite and the mouse cursor determines the force of the throw. You have 3 lives to lose by blowing yourself up or being attacked by dinosaurs.
At the moment the counter that shows the depth isn't working properly, so you can only see that once you die. Kind of a bummer, but my sleep deprived brain can't figure it out. Might take a look tomorrow, the code for it is all in, just not working quite right.
A very unpolished game, unfortunately. But due to sleeping badly last night, I have to submit the game in its current state. Still, the basic gameplay ideas are there and it's quite fun to mess around with.
Play an impatient archaeologist and use dynamite to uncover bones! Discover a new kind of dinosaur, long hidden underground and blow it up to uncover more bones! Bones!
Move with WASD, mouse click to throw dynamite, distance between the player sprite and the mouse cursor determines the force of the throw. You have 3 lives to lose by blowing yourself up or being attacked by dinosaurs.
At the moment the counter that shows the depth isn't working properly, so you can only see that once you die. Kind of a bummer, but my sleep deprived brain can't figure it out. Might take a look tomorrow, the code for it is all in, just not working quite right.
Comments15

Ryan20 Dec 2010, 08:31
That was surprisingly fun. The only problem is the lack of a challenge, as you can just spam dynamite to dig a deep hole, fall down to a lower ledge, then spam dynamite again. Perhaps limiting the rate you can throw dynamite at would make people try to use more strategy when planning their route.

Hellfang20 Dec 2010, 11:26
Hi Kory, no idea why you're getting the wrong game, link seems fine to me. But here it is again http://hellfang.co.uk/archaeologist/

TheGrieve20 Dec 2010, 17:19
Loved it, spammy dynamite ruined it a bit tho. Fall damage would fix that tho

zdanielz21 Dec 2010, 08:13
Nice! gameplay was a bit repetitive, but nicely done!
Feedback given for your actions in the game would help - what happens when we collect bones? meet dinosaurs? something?
Feedback given for your actions in the game would help - what happens when we collect bones? meet dinosaurs? something?

refrag21 Dec 2010, 22:32
I love it! Tons of fun! Blowing stuff up and digging never gets old.
Next time: Audio!
Next time: Audio!

stevejohnson22 Dec 2010, 05:44
Wonderful concept, and it looks great! I of course echo the criticisms of the other commenters (dynamite spam, audio), but definitely finish this.

Starspell22 Dec 2010, 17:27
Echo audio comments. It's a little too easy as well. However I found it to be very fun and the destructible levels were cool. The game could benefit from pickups to change your weaponry and different dinosaurs to avoid but it is a really solid game. Nice one!

Zemmi24 Dec 2010, 23:04
A simple, clever and fun game, I enjoyed it. I think one thing that could add a lot to this game is a little variety to the enemies, like perhaps one that moves vertically or takes more hits to kill.
All-in-all an excellent Ludum Dare Entry, I had fun.
All-in-all an excellent Ludum Dare Entry, I had fun.
Jerm27 Dec 2010, 23:45
Good game! Would have been better if there was more variety and/or levels.

recursor30 Dec 2010, 15:08
I got down to 330.2 meters before I blew myself up. Surprisingly fun. Add some sound, weapons, more dinosaurs, smooth out the sometimes glitchy collision, and this could be really fun. Nice work.

Endurion31 Dec 2010, 08:23
How funny. If using IE you get the crustacian cannon game. The same link is going to your game with FF. That is very uncool dumbfuckery.
The game itself is a neat little thing. The mechanic is nice but the game is not really challenging. Dying usually happens due to misplaces dynamite. A bit more variety would help this a long way.
The game itself is a neat little thing. The mechanic is nice but the game is not really challenging. Dying usually happens due to misplaces dynamite. A bit more variety would help this a long way.

Hellfang3 Jan 2011, 16:33
Ah, you are right Endurion. The game should work fine in IE now, that's what you get when you upload the game at stupid o'clock and copy the page source from a different game.

ThatSnail9 Jan 2011, 16:43
The way real archaeology should be done. Simple concept but surprisingly fun, got 109 bones and 410.6 meters down before owning myself.
What's really pretty fun is moving your cursor to a point on the screen, and then mashing left-click there, seeing how far down you can get. I've gotten 48.6 meters.
What's really pretty fun is moving your cursor to a point on the screen, and then mashing left-click there, seeing how far down you can get. I've gotten 48.6 meters.

Tom 79 Jan 2011, 17:23
Nice! Excellent graphics and it's easy to pick up and play. I think the game is pretty easy, but at the same time, that encourages me to be impatient, and then I make mistakes. Dynamite drops unnaturally (arcs at first but then falls straight down), probably because dx is an integer.
Hi-score: 18370
Hi-score: 18370




Looks like a lovely game, let me know when the links fixed, I'd love to try it =)