Lift Your Spirits
About
Deliver barrels of drinks down to the deepest levels of the mine, using a handy elevator. At each rest stop you'll upgrade your elevator and choose new drinks to pick up to deliver further down the mine shaft.
Watch out for the other denizens of the mine though - they're thirsty too! A rolling barrel would sort them out...
Controls
Mouse - left-click to move, attack, or kick things
The game starts with a brief tutorial, but you can also view the tutorial by clicking here.
Tips/Explanations (if you're stuck)
- Move into barrels to kick them- Move into enemies to attack them
- Explosive barrels knock back everything around them and destroy the floor
- Goo barrels leave goo behind (predictably)
- Slimes also leave goo behind when they die
- Mushrooms leave their caps which act like barrels, but are much sturdier
- Goo causes anything moving into it to move for 1 more tile. This can cause a variety of accidents...
- If you stand under a shadow, nothing will spawn there.
- Choosing the 'repair' bonus also removes all goo
- Extending the elevator can give you more barrels...
- It's not always desirable to repair the elevator...
More
The Dwarves built a mine in the mountains. But they dug... actually they dug very appropriately deep. The whole thing was very sustainable. Then the operation got bought by a trade guild who demanded higher productivity, and things got messy. It's now your job to make sure everyone gets their favourite drinks, by delivering barrels from rest stop to rest stop down the huge mine shaft.
This is a short, sweet game inspired by the cargo elevator sequence in Metal Gear Solid. I decided to switch the theme around a bit as fantasy tends to be a little easier for people to latch onto visually, guns make design complicated, and it's easier to make something cute.
The game's systems overlap in a way I'm quite happy with - with more time I'd add different barrel types, more obstacles, more enemies, and more items (one thing I was sad to cut was flaming torches and dark sections, where you could throw torches to ignite oil or the elevator itself). But I think what's here isn't too bad for the time spent.
I've not entered Ludum Dare in six years! It was great to get back into it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much faster I work now, although definitely out of practice. I really hope you enjoy the game!
Comments14
@retrospecter - That's very kind! The difficult varies a lot based on the randomness of the drops. I think if I were to rework it, that'd be the first thing I tried to rebalance.
@kevinworkman - Thanks you! I also felt the same thing actually while testing, sometimes I'd just keep playing the game out. Always a good sign :)
@maximiliancroissant - Maxi! Thank you for all these kind words. I wanted there to be a tension between kicking and not kicking - do you need to do it to survive? Or should you save them? I didn't really have time to make it a proper strategic decision though so you can kind of play it any way you feel is right. Thanks for checking it out :)
@yizhao-jin Thanks for playing! Sorry it was a bit too tough, it's always hard to balance during a game jam!
It reminded me a lot of Hoplite (for android/ios) Well done!
The one thing that kept catching me off guard was the delivery levels. There is a countdown but it would have been nice to have a bit more of a visual indication that a delivery floor is approaching. As it was, the delivery bonus screen always seemed like more of a surprise than an accomplishment.