Into The Depths

by smeljey

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.66

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.28

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.32

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.02

Venture deep into the underworld! Build your mining settlement, gather resources and descend lower and lower. Riches of the depths await!

It's recommended to play in full screen mode

UPD 26.04: There is an updated post-jam version available on itch.io

How to play?

You have 3 random tiles at the bottom of the screen.
Hover your mouse on them to see what they do.
Place tiles in the world around your castle.
Pay attention to resources at the top of the screen.
Each turn settlers eat food. When the food runs out, the game ends.
Gather enough gold to progress to the next level.

Controls

- WASD - move camera
- Q / E or Middle Mouse - rotate camera
- LMB - interact with the world
- RMB - cancel current action
- Esc / P - Pause

Theme

It all comes down to "exploring the depths". The game is taking place in the underworld, where the player is expanding their settlement. Once the player reaches the floor goal, they proceed to the lower levels of the underworld (there are 3 of them with different layouts and mood).

Credits

The game was made during LudumDare 57.

Assets used in this game:

- KayKit Medieval Hexagon Pack
- KayKit Resource Bits
- Kenney's Survival Kit
- Kenney's Fantasy UI Borders
- Shikashi's Fantasy Icons Pack v2
- SFX from ZapSplat
- Ambient sounds by Joel Fazhari
- Music by DeusLower

Tags: #3d, #city builder, #hex based, #low-poly, #resource-management, #roguelike, #turn-based, #turn-based strategy

Genres: strategy

Tools: Unity

Comments18

Yuri Antonov8 Apr 2025, 05:38

In the beginning, I didnt really understand how to play, so I had to read the descriptions. And everything fell into place. Good job!

ThorPalsson8 Apr 2025, 07:13

Very cool game, atmosphere is great and the game play is tight! Great job in creating this in such a short time!

breadstick8 Apr 2025, 07:18

A fun little building puzzle! It does take time to figure out what you're supposed to be doing, but once it finally clicked, it's an interesting logistics puzzle. A nice amount of content!

Agraffs8 Apr 2025, 07:59

Nice game, the concept is nice and the game is really entertaining. The game is a bit tough which makes it even more satisfying when you start to understand it's mechanics. The graphics are cool and the whole thing is well built. Honestly a perfect Jam project. GG !

ssiannas8 Apr 2025, 08:40

Fun game. I like the atmosphere with the low lighting and the chill medieval music. It's got simple mechanics but a lot of gameplay depth. It looks very polished and has a good learning curve too.

I couldn't find a lot of relation to the theme besides the description, though.

Awesome submission!

SmelJeyauthor8 Apr 2025, 08:56

@ssiannas I'm glad that you liked it!

I agree that relation to the theme is quite vague. My interpretation is that the game is taking place in the underworld, so when you expand the settlement and dig walls, you explore the "depths" in a way. Also, once you finish the floor, you proceed to the deeper level of the cave (there are 3 of them with different layouts)

Thanks for the feedback!

ljg8 Apr 2025, 18:50

Fun game! I felt like if you got no houses you were kinda doomed, which meant that I made large well fields in hopes of getting houses. The art style was fun, and when you got things going it was really rewarding.

APG8 Apr 2025, 21:18

Very cool. I wish I could see how much food it costs to place a tile, but otherwise I like how tight it is and how you can destroy your own buildings.

Ruslana8 Apr 2025, 22:09

This game has a nice concept. I love UI art and 3d assets.

robobarbie9 Apr 2025, 01:32

addicting and easy to get lost in strategy LOL -- goodbye time where did you go!!! really enjoyed the 3d assets here and the satisfying feeling/sfx of placing down those tiles. nice stuff

SmelJeyauthor9 Apr 2025, 05:44

@apg Thanks!

About the food, it's not clearly indicated in UI unfortunately. There is a resource with helm icon that represents population of your settlement. This is basically how much food would be consumed each time you place a new tile

Placeholders9 Apr 2025, 09:31

Great game got me hooked! i love the movments and the overall controlls and indications. the game-design of what works with what, and the balancing were very imprassive for a jam game! loved it congrats

HelloImBenjamin10 Apr 2025, 07:29

It felt super rewarding once your strategy started to pay off. Loved the relaxing yet strategic vibe—great job!

Locke810 Apr 2025, 13:26

Very interesting strategy game, i wish there was some way to tell how much food placing a tile cost.

Wuppos12 Apr 2025, 18:54

Really impressive how you made a strategy game like this in a weekend! I really enjoyed playing. It took me a couple plays to really understand how the game worked, but once I did it was a lot of fun to try and plan for what tiles might come next. One thing which I never really understood, however, is when a turn is over? Is it after every couple of tiles you place? Now I was a bit surprised everytime the people had to eat (which sometimes made me lose unexpectedly).

This was a fun submission! Well done :D

SmelJeyauthor12 Apr 2025, 19:09

@wuppos Thanks a lot for playing!

The turn ends every time you place a tile. You can destroy tiles as many times as you want per turn, but it always ends when you place a tile.

I didn't thought during the jam about how confusing it could be :) I should've indicated it somehow more properly, but that's what we have right now :D

Nanamaki15 Apr 2025, 07:16

ahhhh I love this!! Really addictive engaging gameplay for me. The numeric was designed so well and the resourses are so balancedly important that I have to have to adjust strategy depending on the resource around and new tiles's function. I will definitely willing to play some further updates or some endless mode stuff.

PaDo19 Apr 2025, 22:23

City-building game for jam. It's very powerful!

Other games by @smeljey

★3.50

★2.92

★2.91