Ludum Dare #48compo

Deeper And Deeper

by hypp

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.36

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.88

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.07

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.23

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.26

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.41

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.00

About

This is a game for the fantasy console PICO8.

It is a Wolfenstein 3D raycaster combined
with a recursive backtracking maze generator.

It is more of a programming exercise than an actual game.

Intro text from the game

Deeper and Deeper

a game for Ludum Dare 48

by Mathias Olsson

EXPLORE THE LABYRINTHS OF

THE HUMAN MIND

GO DEEPER AND DEEPER

MAKE FREUD PROUD AGAIN

controls:

forward with ⬆️

backward with ⬇️

turn left with ⬅️

turn right with ➡️

toggle map with ❎

nothing with 🅾️

press ❎ to start

By the way

No real 3d here!

This is a slow Wolfenstein 3d

style raycaster

combined with a recursive

backtracking maze generator

Tools: PICO-8

Comments26

jobe25 Apr 2021, 19:07

Very nice presentation and nice retro 3d maze! It quickly gets pretty hard to not get lost!

Sockerslyna26 Apr 2021, 11:54

Easy to get into and get stuck playing. Great music and presentation, extra bonus for the starry night sky. Please beware for motion sickness.

HPA9726 Apr 2021, 16:51

Interesting graphics style, I enjoyed the music. A bit easy having the map available all the time, maybe only allow limited use instead? Overall great job!

Famicon8026 Apr 2021, 16:58

really good aesthetic, and interesting idea

morphine26 Apr 2021, 18:01

Once you start to think in 2d + 3d = 5d this game becomes super easy! Haha - After the third maze I just stayed in 2d perspective the whole time and moved that way. you just have to try and keep a rough idea of what way you are facing in 3d in mind!

Great job submitting this - I am surprised that pico8 didn't explode but it seemed to hold up well. Thank you!

jimmothysanchez27 Apr 2021, 01:36

Congrats on getting that done in PICO8. I'm sure it was no easy feat. The game was good, and I really liked the opening montage.

cassowary27 Apr 2021, 07:40

Wow, this is super cool. Love this kind of wolfenstein renderer, and it's quite impressive that you got it working on pico8!

Bastienre427 Apr 2021, 18:52

Well done!
I love the music!
I hope freud is proud of me :p

CharlieGray27 Apr 2021, 20:28

Wow, 3D graphics on PICO 8? I have never seen that before.
Looks great and plays well.

A nice little maze solving game.

axeltherabbit29 Apr 2021, 11:43

Did you manage to write the rendering during the jam? :0
Best game I ever seen for pico

davekingcool29 Apr 2021, 12:15

pretty damn impressive

kromeboy29 Apr 2021, 14:16

Simple game, but congratulations are in order for programming it on PICO8!

hyppauthor29 Apr 2021, 17:42

@axeltherabbit Yes, I wrote the rendering on the Saturday.

cogcomp29 Apr 2021, 19:16

Lovely presentation and really catchy music! I'm going to be humming that all evening :smile: Well done!

Amaroq29 Apr 2021, 19:45

Nice colorful graphics and I loved the music, good job!

Tim7729 Apr 2021, 20:37

I discovered you could remain in the map screen and play that way. Much easier! Cool programming project to do something like this. Well done! Minimal style perfect for this style of simple "technology demonstration" game. I wonder could future versions capture your rotation on the map? Would be easier to remain oriented when flicking between map and "3D" mode then. Well done!

fullmetal_automaton29 Apr 2021, 20:41

Well done! I stayed in 3D the whole time, but for all the mazes I did, following one wall worked. So maybe future versions could include islands to break that strategy. But, overall very impressive, especially with the extra challenge of working in PICO8.

VainCil29 Apr 2021, 20:47

Weirdly addictive! Great job on the "3D" as apparently it’s quite a feat in itself :) I really love the music too! And I realize having a nice interface (pause, mute, controls…) makes a real difference in the overall feel.

mathemagician30 Apr 2021, 15:47

Are you some kind of wizard? I remain a sucker for Pico-8 jam games, and this one's especially impressive. I'd have loved to see slightly more interaction, or more of a reason to not just stay in the 2d view, but wowie am I ever a fan of the title screen even

LDJam user 2365451 May 2021, 17:24

A maze game! I just finished one a couple weeks ago as a side project while working through the *Mazes for Programmers* book. Never thought I'd get excited seeing the words "recursive backtracer" in a LD game description.

It would have been fun to add a bit of challenge, like a timer or some limit to the number of times that you could pull up the map.

Also loved seeing a PICO8 game! Good job!

vilcans4 May 2021, 20:22

Cool with Wolfenstein rendering and maze generation. Are all the walls textured (in single colors), or is the exit a special case? To make this more into a game, I'd like some additional challenge (boring ideas: limited time and/or limited number of times you can open the map). It would be easier to navigate if you could slide along the walls instead of getting stuck when you run into them.

Funny music of course!

hyppauthor5 May 2021, 18:17

@vilcans the exit is a special case. There is an api tline() that can draw a textured line that I didn't have time to test which probably would have been fast enough to texture all walls.

loyance8 May 2021, 01:09

From the description I can see that a lot has went into making this work - great job. I was sure Pico was going to break after some time, but I guess I did not get far enough. But I have to agree that there is not much to it than just walking in a random maze - the tech is cool though.

blobo12 May 2021, 21:23

I have never seen a 3D PICO-8 game before. I am unbelievably impressed (and almost intimidated)

I played to a maze size of 40 something, and decided I had seen enough. Really cool game.

NoNumbersGames14 May 2021, 18:49

That's a very cool project, I wouldn't have the slightest clue where to start creating something like that.

Regarding the game experience, first I was trying to finish the level with as little glances at the map as I could, but then made a mistake by just going left all the time, was more fun trying to remember and follow the map. But it was still surprisingly engaging.

Kram18 May 2021, 08:09

This game is a-MAZE-ing.

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