Ludum Dare #48compo
Manic Miner
Manic Miner is a game about digging down into procedurally generated mines as quickly as possible, while making sure not to run out of air. There's no going back up, so you might as well go deeper.
X: Change color palette
P/Enter: Open menu
Changelog
- [2020/05/02] Fixed the high score system. Previously it was always setting your last score as the new high score, but now it checks against the old high score before doing that.
- [2020/04/26] Fixed an issue where air might not spawn for a long time. Now if air hasn't spawned in a while it force spawns one.
Gameplay
Move the player right, left, and down to try to get as deep as you can before running out of air. Collect air bubbles as you descend to gain precious extra seconds to help you beat your previous high scores. You can't go back up, so grab air while you can. Rounds are fast-paced, and difficulty increases the deeper you go. I intentionally kept the block types to a minimum so the player could focus on collecting air and moving quickly.Controls
Move: Left, right, and down arrow keysX: Change color palette
P/Enter: Open menu
Changelog
- [2020/05/02] Fixed the high score system. Previously it was always setting your last score as the new high score, but now it checks against the old high score before doing that.
- [2020/04/26] Fixed an issue where air might not spawn for a long time. Now if air hasn't spawned in a while it force spawns one.
Comments106
Highscore is 260 btw :D
Very simple and easy to understand but challenging. At first I was going straight forward to see if it was possible, but then air got very rare, I don't know how I could go deeper :) (maybe I should train typing faster!)
Anyway, nice mini game, I would have been please to find some power ups!
The suggestion to "make sure not miss any air" seems wrong, though, since really it makes more sense to skip air that looks inconvenient to get, especially when the bar is already mostly full.
Nice clean entry. It was fun balancing the frantic digging with the moving back and forth as the air got more scarce and the rocks increased. I ended up at a depth of 353 because I missed the one air pocket and never saw another one.
I made it to 313 btw
I think the game could benefit from gems; something that boosts your score, but you'd have to think about how to get to them with air. That combined with smarter generation of air bubbles would make for a more engaging experience.
The game feel is really nice. Keep up the good work!
The sound is crunchy and the highscore a nice touch. Thanks for this game.
Overall a really nice little game to pick up!
gets more challenging as it goes along as oxygen gets less and less frequent
only issue is you can just hit down really fast and get quite a high score
No bugs at all, just air bubbles :D
I wonder, do you use up air faster when you're digging? I thought that that was the case (and it would make total sense!) but I might have just imagined it.
I could spend hours playing your game :smile:
Great art, music and game overall! Congrats!
Minor feedback, I wonder if Highscore could be updated whenever your current depth is greater than your highscore, since its your new Highscore
Really effective and most importantly fun entry that made the theme work perfectly. Graphics were simple and made it easy to understand what to do, and the sounds also worked super well and were satisfying without blowing my ear-drums out which was super nice. I managed to get around 300 on my second try, but it's 3:20 am in Finland right now so I don't think my flat would appreciate if I smash my keyboard any more lol. But anyways super nice working and polished, I'll definetely come back to rack some attempts and get to 500 :laughing:
One of my favourite things about this game is that you gave players the option to choose their colours at the start! It's such a small and simple thing, but I'm such a sucker for any kind of games that allow and encourage player customization - it really makes me smile to see in a game!
This also allowed for the option to spam the button while you were mining, which I naturally took. Who doesn't love mining in a rave? ☆☆☆☆☆
Art is simple and clear, audio feedback is great, rules and controls are very intuitive.
At first, I thought that just mashing down would work, but as you get deeper the scarcity of oxygen bubbles forces you to move left and right, that's great!
Thanks for the game 💕
Also my hand hurts too much after my first try to do another one haha
It was a fun little project, and I had a blast playing it, but it's not something I'm drawn to play again. Some kind of shakeup in the gameplay would really put it over the edge. But for a compo, this is something to be extremely proud of. The art and sound were both clever uses of minimal aesthetics.
I like the one-bit style.
I like the graphics a lot (I played this game because of the thumbnail), and the palette swapping is a nice touch. The mechanics are nice and simple (maybe a bit too simple? I played one run and then was done) and overall this is neat, tiny, well-executed game. nice job! high score: 419
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1007659333?t=01h26m45s
It was actually my first attempt at using pico-8 and I liked the two a lot. The limitations really helped me get this thing done in time.
Very cool little game, might see it as carrying ecological message as well, "the real treasure is the fresh air".
Nevertheless really great overall!
We even both agreed on the Pico8 and "grasp for air" concepts for the win!
Well done!
Great job!
Overall
I'll start with overall, since the parts of the whole work so well together. I consider your game to be a specimen of Pareto principle at work. I sometimes forget how much can one achieve with minimal resources. I'm in awe. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a perfect game or anything, but I do consider it a work of art. I have to actively force myself not to give it a too high of a rating because of it's simplicity, but the simplicity is really the thing that amazes me the most about your game.
Fun
I do not like the fact that the character works 'on key down' and not 'on key pressed'. My hand hurts from playing. Other than that, it's simple, yet fun. I think the game works as it is. I wouldn't add any additional powerups or whatevers. It's simple, and it's effective as hell - a great game-jam game.
Innovation
It's a pretty generic fun little game with a tiny little twist. Not much to say here.
Theme
You used the theme which is nice, but since digging deeper was my first idea right out of the bat, I see this as a very simple usage of the theme.
Graphics
I totally adore that you achieved what you did with 3 colors and 3 6x6 sprites. It is a bit mind blowing to me, and I'm holding myself from giving you 5 stars for graphics. I went with 4 because I think higher craft should be rewarded more (like painting and stuff). But I'm not saying that I think this is easy to pull off.
Audio
You have four very basic sounds in your game, and they work so damn well with your aesthetics. To me, your game is very confusing rating-wise, and audio is the hardest part to rate.
Mood
You've got that 2-bit feeling really well, and what I kept myself from giving you in other categories because of simplicity, I'm giving you here. 5*
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@dizztalgamedev
Discord: kuro#4651