Cavern Breakout

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.35
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.40
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.30
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.24
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.85
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.57
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.21
Cavern Breakout is a 2D platformer, where you play as a miner who got lost in a cave full of monsters.
The only way he can get out is by mining stone to get materials and building platforms to get across gaps.
But be careful, because the more materials you carry, the more aggressive the monsters will be!

Made with GameMaker_ Studio 12_3_2017 11_24_38 PM.png

How to play:
The goal is to get to the door on the other side.
First, you need to collect materials by mining stone.
To build one block you need 5 materials, so be careful where you put it!
Skeletons throw bones around in random directions. Their fire rate depends on how many materials you have.
Ghosts chase you through the entire level, even through blocks! The more materials you have, the faster they are.

Controls:
Move - WASD
Break block - Left Mouse Button
Build block - Right Mouse Button

All feedback is appreciated!

screenshot
Tags: #2d, #mining
Genres: platformer

Comments14

dusho4 Dec 2017, 08:42
Great game. That one shot with a bone is pretty cruel :)
Building block underneath you while jumping helped me a lot..
Besm
Besm4 Dec 2017, 08:48
Expected it to be a simple game but the breaking and placing mechanic made for really interesting levels. I really enjoyed it. The only obvious thing that could be improved the background image that didn't really match the foreground.
kbjwes77
kbjwes775 Dec 2017, 10:07
Those ghosts were hard to navigate around, lots of strategy for such a simple idea. Cool game, would like to see more of this!
jandourek
jandourekauthor6 Dec 2017, 20:31
Hey everyone! Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!
Josef212968 Dec 2017, 22:23
Nice game!! It's pretty funny how crazy it gets when if you collect too many blocks xDD
cosarara
cosarara14 Dec 2017, 22:31
It has a bug where you can place a bug under you and end up inside it. Even so, it is so good! The level design is very well done, I liked it a lot.
If I were to change something, I'd add a per-level score showing the extra blocks you brought with you (yes, I'm greedy), or the time it took to beat it.
Dumivid
Dumivid15 Dec 2017, 10:48
Quite original use of theme with nice execution. I liked the game but i think control should be smoother. Overall good job.
SaraMartins16 Dec 2017, 08:18
Thi was an interesting game, however the controls were not working well. The break block didn't always work, even standing right next to it. Sometimes I spent time clicking on it, then click elsewhere then click again on where I wanted for it work. For what I read on the description it doesn't tell me that it should be like that.

But the game was still enjoyable and a good take on the theme, I like the core mechanic too. The art was also really nice. Liked specially when the skeletons threw bones at me, as it reminded me of a game called Monster Bash. The sound effects fit with the game, I just missed a bakground tune :) Good work :)
jandourek
jandourekauthor16 Dec 2017, 12:37
Thanks for the feedback everyone!

@saramartins It's weird that the block breaking doesn't work sometimes... That must be some kind of strange bug. It doesn't happen to me for some reason. Could you specify when exactly does it happen? I know that there is a strange bug where you would sometimes get stuck in a block after placing it, but the breaking mechanic worked fine for me.
Linky439
Linky43916 Dec 2017, 19:23
Nice game! The twist on the simple idea works rather well, even if it is pretty hard to avoid ghost even when they're not moving. I guess I'd rather have a faster character, that could jump farther than this. Otherwise, great idea, the graphics are fine (the audio could have been a bit better though ^^), and I like it. Congrats!
profan
profan17 Dec 2017, 19:42
This is probably the first game I've seen this LD where you literally deconstruct the level around you as you try to make your way across it, I quite like the take on the theme too! .. because initially, I was wondering "so how does this factor into the theme actually?".. that was until I accumulated about 25 blocks in the very first level and the skeleton turned into some kind of bone-machinegun after which point it was very apparent... :D

Did have some minor bugs though, sometimes the skeletons would stop throwing bones at all (as well as getting stuck in midair when placing a block and also moving through the air at the same time).

Overall, an interesting game, and it is brave to take on making a level-based game for LD as well, given the time it takes to just make the levels.. especially for a game like this :D

Good job!
SaraMartins20 Dec 2017, 00:10
@jandourek I can't really specify... just sometimes clicking breaks the block sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I can even break a far away block and can't break one next to me. Sorry for not being able to tell you more :(
pebkac
pebkac20 Dec 2017, 18:05
Nice concept, though the controls felt a little stiff. Also, dying at the first hit also came across to me as kinda harsh, but the size of the levels compensated for that.
Shess
Shess24 Dec 2017, 14:27
Pretty interesting take on the theme and greed study :D I had to effectively drop all of my hogging habits and make one block at a time so the enemies were manageable.

That said, I personally found skeleton's random pattern attack much more difficult to cope with than if he'd always aim straight at me. Maybe that's because the piercing effect his attacks have, so I never ever felt safe if any skeletons were on the level.

Oh, and sometimes my character got stuck between the blocks after a jump or if I placed a block too close to him. That's not a big problem per se, and I can always restart the level quickly, but I think it could be fixed with a couple of collision improvements :)

Other games by @jandourek

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord