Dark Plunge

by lbo
co-authored: @8bitmysli, @tobb
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.54
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.28
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.69
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.98
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.71
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.65
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.50
What lies at the bottom of the abyss?

There is only one way to find out...

LET'S PLUNGE!

#### Guide for Plungers

Embody -- Angry Man -- Dan T. as he challenges the abyss. How deep can you go before the shadows takes you whole?

But watch your step! You’ll get hurt if you plunge with greed. Unstable platforms and curious imps makes the descent a deadly endeavor. The further you fall, the bigger the hurt when you crash into the ground.

Maneuver your fall through the abyss by Double Jumping and Air Dashing. Bounce off enemies to gain an additional jump or dash while airborne. You may even use these actions to break your speed, saving you from a potentially lethal leap.

Demons of the abyss infest every corner. Fortunately you come equipped with an iron mace and magic balls of fury. Get up close and personal to obliterate demons with your mace and regain some health, or keep your distance and throw a barrage of balls. If you are brave enough, consider jumping on the gremlins to stun them too.

With your trusty balls of fury and mace you can overcome the demons and the abyss! ...Probably!

Comments27

Marika5 Oct 2021, 02:28
Excellent design on the 2D graphics, although the texturing and lighting on the 3D objects left a little to be desired. Overall a very cool and atmospheric game.
Nebiros
Nebiros5 Oct 2021, 10:30
I loved the design and the music ! It all looked and sounded awesome.
But sadly I found the game a little too difficult
Still had a good time overall !
yagovictor5 Oct 2021, 12:47
2d with 3d fit very well, light and good gameplay, could only be a little clearer
Inokentii_Best5 Oct 2021, 18:44
The graphics are cool. But everything else is so so
Ashley GB5 Oct 2021, 19:22
Had some difficulty with the gameplay, but I did enjoy the visuals along with the background music :)
Moonblast
Moonblast6 Oct 2021, 02:40
I love the graphic between 2D and 3D,its amazing!
Muros6 Oct 2021, 23:08
I love the idea of the game and the stylish graphics. But it seems to me it is worth correcting the control. The person moves quickly and you do not have time to move, so as not to crash into something. It seems to me that you need to reduce the number of generated objects and increase their size.
Quite Good
Quite Good7 Oct 2021, 06:12
I'm a sucker for DOOM-like games so I was instantly a fan of this one. I appreciated the freedom of movement, especially how you can break your fall on the enemies. Clubbing and shooting at enemies was super satisfying, especially because of the lifesteal mechanic.

I enjoyed discovering more about the game and its mechanics the more that I played. Especially the music! The bass especially reminded me of the DOOM soundtrack. I also appreciated how it changed and morphed even after I was playing for some time.

Eventually I felt like landing on enemies was a bit of an exploit for going really deep, then I realized that you can just fall in the middle and then double jump when you see a center piece, which is how I got over 3000m deep. I feel like the enemies' projectiles could be bigger, I don't know if I ever got hit by one. Other people say it's too hard though, so you can't please everyone ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

I would definitely play a post-jam version with more enemies and some kind of difficulty ramp-up or even like level color variation as you go down. Loved the game, hope to see more of your work next jam!
subcreation
subcreation7 Oct 2021, 16:02
The art and sound in this game stand out and really lend a cool, dark atmosphere that I found very enjoyable, though I did sometimes have trouble finding visual references to orient myself. Like Quite Good above, I also found that the best strategy was falling down the center and jumping to break your fall, and I wasn't able to engage much with the combat and enemies.

The depth fog effect was very well implemented and seemed to reveal things at the right distance, and the hand sprites and animations were really excellent. Excellent entry!
LDJam user 2707837 Oct 2021, 17:35
Really nice game, it reminded me of Downwell :) The ominous music fits very well with the game, and I loved the animation of the mace (those trails are super cool) and of the ranged attack. Having to choose where you want to land and using your dash, jumps and attacks really makes you think and is a great way to keep the game fun.
real_flamingicecubegames
real_flamingicecubegames7 Oct 2021, 21:56
My depth was 2210. I really liked this although, I wish you could get additional score by killing enemies as there is really no point in killing them. Overall, one of the most polished games here so far. The visuals were fantastic.
Nico Villanueva7 Oct 2021, 22:02
The art is amazing, and the droning sound fits great. Really cool work
Almagor7 Oct 2021, 22:04
Nice game, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the music. The gameplay was entertaining but I feel that maybe the game could be more interesting if there were more consequences for different kinds of actions like a dash or a jump. Overall this is a really nice entry, good work!
ryjcio
ryjcio7 Oct 2021, 22:13
Huh, it became so fun when I discover, than I can bounce on the enemies by killing them with a club!

I would work a little on visuals of the level. It's often very dark and I couldn't see where to go.

Overall I think this is very cool entry and would like to see where it would go with little more time.
Kwiper
Kwiper8 Oct 2021, 01:02
The graphics of this game stood out the most to me even before I booted up this game, and they didn't disappoint. The ambience and music go together really well to create this brooding atmosphere, the combat is responsive, and the movement is fluid. Incredibly well done on the presentation and polish.

In terms of gameplay, though, I didn't feel like there was much incentive for me to try to hit enemies that often. My strategy was just to jump for a long time, and then use the double jump to break the fall, which ends up being a bit broken. Perhaps in the future if killing enemies gave you some kind of other bonus besides healing, or there was some reward for killing as many enemies as you can while falling. Maybe if the enemies get more aggressive as you get deeper, so you're forced to engage with them more. These are just a few things that I think would improve the replayability of your game drastically, to incentivize people to master the game. Overall, great work!
Raphiell9 Oct 2021, 15:51
Great animations and a good idea. To me it doesn't seem to really fit the theme though.

The fact that enemies took more than one hit meant I just didn't bother killing them, it would also be interesting if they would give you some health back, as an incentive to actually fight them. Also the sensitivity was quite high.

I still had fun with this game though, it's well done!
tobb
tobb9 Oct 2021, 16:10
@raphiell
Hi!

There is a lifesteal mechanic for melee attacks, and the sensitivity is adjustable in the settings ( accessable through the main menu or the pause menu) if you wish to play again :)
Raphiell9 Oct 2021, 16:45
@tobb Ah! I should have checked the settings :) I'll give it another go.
Raphiell9 Oct 2021, 16:49
@tobb Much better! Thanks for letting me know!
Sli9 Oct 2021, 21:21
Wow very nice and engaging. I liked it a lot. After a while I just started freefalling I found it amusing :smile:
AtomFox0213
AtomFox021310 Oct 2021, 20:32
Pretty good game when I figured it out, but on my 1366x768 screen part of the game was off the edge, making it impossible to see my health or go back to menu from the settings screen. Here's what it looked like: https://imgur.com/a/vLp88Xo

Also, the mouse sensitivity resets every time I die and the volume sliders reset but the actual volume stays the same.
RookRules
RookRules11 Oct 2021, 23:05
​1290! les goo (there's only one way to find out
pfs
pfs17 Oct 2021, 14:53
there wasnt much replayability, maybe if you had a global leaderboard it would be more motivating to replay
however, I loved the graphics, hitting animation and the audio.
it is a very nice short ldjam game :) great job !
MattWoelk
MattWoelk17 Oct 2021, 15:04
The joystick sensitivity made this difficult to enjoy. It was tough to figure out what was happening at the beginning because everything was just grey.
The downwell inspiration is great, and the menu art especially was very nice.
Basset Romain17 Oct 2021, 18:34
Nice game. Would be great to have the enemies more red to see them better.
randomerz
randomerz17 Oct 2021, 23:28
The graphics and audio were really well produced for this game. I loved the weapon animations and the build up as you fall for a really long time was a really nice touch. I think that for this type of game, a double jump and a dash might be redundant -- it may be better to just have one and limit the player some more and have a more cohesive loop

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