GOLD DUST

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.85

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.67

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.92

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.42

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.69

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.79

Game has known issue with hi-dpi monitors.

After getting clobbered in a saloon brawl, Claim-Jumpin' Charlie woke up a a paradise of GOLD. Throw moneybags in the glowing purple portal, then jump in when you're done! Collect 10,000 gold (worth 10 million dollars) to win!

WASD to move, Space to Jump.
Left click throws moneybag.
Right click drops moneybag.
E picks up moneybags.

Moneybags with 100 gold moving fast enough can kill monsters.
If the moneybag is too full you become encumbered.
Throw moneybags in the portal.

My first time participating in Ludum Dare!

Comments22

DeadCode6 Oct 2025, 20:33

I really like how you incorporated falling sand simulation into your game! Very creative!

Paroxysmal6 Oct 2025, 20:38

Love the concept! I did a similar design..hah. The character controller is pretty rough. Good entry though.

ckane1446 Oct 2025, 20:56

I agree that the way the player picks up the gold dust is the best part! It's very satisfying walking through a big stack of gold. It was tough up front to know that I had to throw the gold bags into the hole to save it. Great entry!

stardusterauthor6 Oct 2025, 21:29

Yeah, I went overboard on the difficulty, too easy to make a platformer difficult! Not enough time to make it balanced. I like NES Mario style character control, but here it's pretty evil with all the nasty jumps.

Baluj6 Oct 2025, 22:03

I enjoyed it, although the character controls seemed quite rough to me.

Tony Li7 Oct 2025, 01:04

I really like the falling sand! The main character is neat, too. I agree with other players that it's a fun challenge deciding whether to risk going a little further or to go back and deliver the gold. I think maybe having 3 "hit points"/hearts would make the game a little more forgiving

TemmyT8 Oct 2025, 09:35

Though the game is quite difficult, I think it fits the NES/Atari aesthetic

Tkap8 Oct 2025, 11:23

This might be the hardest platformer ever made

zoeek8 Oct 2025, 23:16

10/10 got lacerated by a cactoid.
Both directions seem like death traps but was a fun play :)

MysticGames9 Oct 2025, 07:05

Good game really hard but its fun. I do like how the character gets heavier with the more gold you have.

Eugenik9 Oct 2025, 13:34

Cool! Good job!.

LDJam user 2828709 Oct 2025, 14:35

The game is excellent. Not too easy and not too hard. The mechanics are good and the gold physics are excellent. Well done.

Beebster Games9 Oct 2025, 14:35

The game is excellent. Not too easy and not too hard. The mechanics are good and the gold physics are excellent. Well done.

JonasOlsson9 Oct 2025, 18:44

Nice game! Having to resist greed to not be encumbered is a fun game mechanic. Good work!

tardis2snej9 Oct 2025, 20:14

You mentioned the issue with some monitors, but I didn't understand what you mean until I read the comments and realised that I don't see the sand haha After that moved to another laptop and that was fine.

Sand physics is super satysfying!
I found the controls to be quite hard to get used do, I keep sliding and it's hard to do precise jumps, so I didn't manage to get far.
But still, nice game, great ideas, well done!

ehtd10 Oct 2025, 00:53

Weird game, but interesting mechanics

stefaink11 Oct 2025, 20:54

In love with game idea

jelch14 Oct 2025, 04:59

Great idea and the gold pile was really cool! I found the controls and physics to be frustrating.

Dis0rder16 Oct 2025, 17:13

It's janky in all aspects and really hard to operate but still charming in its own way. I liked the different death-messages depending on how you expired, and it had a certain _old-school feel to it._

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The second horde of cactoids couldn't be killed with the money-bag which was annoying, and the other route led to a dead-end, so I quit before making through.

Some of the ideas here could certainly be expanded further. 💰 🌵

Cheers!

SergS Workshop19 Oct 2025, 14:13

Unfortunately, the dust isn’t visible, and the character controller feels a bit floaty, with a lack of sound effects. On the bright side, I love the death screen messages and the core idea of using the target resource as a weapon - that’s a clever touch. Solid submission overall!

stardusterauthor19 Oct 2025, 18:15

@sergs-workshop

Sorry about the dust not being visible! That's a bug with hi-dpi monitors where I mixed up physical resolution with logical resolution. The dust shader uses gl_FragCoord which is physical resolution but it's passed logical resolution.

deadjolly22 Oct 2025, 01:30

Vacuuming up the gold is pretty fun! My absolute favorite part of your game is the cowboy's face. Makes me laugh. The actual platforming was pretty unforgiving. Maybe I just struggled to get good at the game but it did feel difficult. Took me a minute to realize I had to throw the bags, but that is a fun risk/reward mechanic.

Nice entry for a first jam!