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A jam submission

Cave DiverView game page

Bossrush roguelike sidescroller with 3 levels
Submitted by Scewps โ€” 3 days, 22 hours before the deadline

Play game

Cave Diver's itch.io page

Game's Take on the Theme
Weapons spin around the player as they attack

Did your team make the majority of the art and music during the jam?
yes

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Comments

Submitted

I really like the visuals, the ambient feels nice overal, I would only say maybe add some more contrast to main character but its really cool as is, the mechanics work greatly, the tutorials help to understand well every skill and each skill is quite handy. I rate graphics, control, fun and music the most, but all is great really, also, if you have some time, please, rate my game too, thanks!!!!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback :) 

Submitted

nice and fun game, beautiful graphics. nice atmosphere and music and SFX. beautiful RPG aspects. not really related to the spin theme but fun game!!

Developer

thank you for the feedback :)

Submitted(+1)

I had so much fun with this game that I genuinely forgot it was made for a jam! It's that captivating and well made! The controls are explained through a quick interactive tutorial and are easy to get used to. Don't like the buttons you have to press? Don't worry, you can easily remap your controls! The music fits with the pixel art and is calming to listen to. The sound effects either give actions additional weight (eg the attack sounds) or create a really atmospheric ambience (eg the cave noises). The visuals have well made pixel art with smooth lighting that further improves the games atmosphere.

The only issues I have with the game are that I don't really see how the game fits with the theme, and apart from dealing a high amount of damage, the final major boss is underwhelming, with it only having one attack.

Still though, the fact that this was made using a basic C++ framework with a few libraries is nuts considering how polished the game is! This game rocks!

Developer

Thank you for your nice comment! Your criticism is justified, but I'm glad you had fun with the game :) This made my day

Submitted

Wow! A lot of things in this game :D

All the weapons didn't necessarily revolve around the player, so it didn't particularly fit the theme. Still, I had a lot of fun playing this game :D

Well done!

Developer

Thank you :)

Submitted(+1)

The gameplay doesn't really feel like spin, but that's okay! The game by itself is pretty fun to play and i like the pixel art and simple music!

Developer

Thanks :)

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful game, the art and sound effects were great, and the game in general felt really good to control! Loved all the variety in the weapons, beat the game a few times to try all of the different weapon types out

As the other comments said, I wish there was some randomness in the enemies that spawn, as it was the same every time, but I did like some of the scripted encounters, like the double boss and the spider room. Also, not sure if I'm dumb, but the crossbow didn't seem to work? The other bows worked fine, but the crossbow just didn't do anything, maybe I just wasn't using it correctly

Unfortunately though, except for the flail, the theme wasn't really implemented at all. The flail did feel really cool to use though, even beat a run only using that one!

This is incredibly impressive for only 2 weeks! Making a game with a custom engine is something I wanna do one day, and this game genuinely inspired me to want to try doing that, great job!

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you so much for the nice comment! Appreciate your feedback and I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

Good call on the crossbow, it does work but I never properly explain how to use it. You need to load it with an arrow first by using "Attack Secondary", which is the right mouse button by default. Maybe I should include a short description on how to use certain special weapons in the future. Also you're right about the theme haha, the game got further and further away from it as I kept working on it.

About making a custom engine, I hope it goes well! It can take some time to build your own tools, but there is something satisfying about knowing every puzzle piece inside out. Also being able to tailor your workflow perfectly to your own needs is very rewarding. Don't be afraid to reach out in case you ever need help :)

Submitted

Beautiful game, the art and sound effects were great, and the game in general felt really good to control! Loved all the variety in the weapons, beat the game a few times to try all of the different weapon types out

As the other comments said, I wish there was some randomness in the enemies that spawn, as it was the same every time, but I did like some of the scripted encounters, like the double boss and the spider room. Also, not sure if I'm dumb, but the crossbow didn't seem to work? The other bows worked fine, but the crossbow just didn't do anything, maybe I just wasn't using it correctly

Unfortunately though, except for the flail, the theme wasn't really implemented at all. The flail did feel really cool to use though, even beat a run only using that one!

This is incredibly impressive for only 2 weeks! Making a game with a custom engine is something I wanna do one day, and this game genuinely inspired me to want to try doing that, great job!

Submitted(+1)

Nice visuals, ui, animations, and overall presentation! Movement felt really nice and the lighting was really nice as well. I think this game would benefit from more randomness on each run. I would also have liked to see more bosses in here, but there were so many things in here that were neat. The music was really enjoyable too

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much! The randomness is a good idea, I might add that after the voting period. Also I'm really happy you liked the music, this was my first time composing something for a game :)

Submitted(+1)

The game is very nice, I don't see the boss rush aspect in it tho, but it is very good and has potential. One thing I think it's missing is the replayability factor from roguelikes, every run is the same I face the same enemy in the same order and I get the same shop items.
The art is lovely, I dig it and the controls feel great. I'd love to see this game grow after the game jam. Good job.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah you're making a good point about the replayability. Might tackle that after the jam. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Submitted(+1)

Really nice game well polished game and not something I was expecting see in this jam.

The art is simple but fits the game well, the character even wears their equipment on their sprite.

There are a lot of weapons and options, though sadly the game is not randomised. This would make for a good rogue-like.

The game is more of a arena rush than boss rush as most of the arenas are basic enemies but outside of that its a good game.


Something I'd recommend looking into is how the game would work without contact damage, at least on enemies with actual attacks, especially bosses. Slimes and the spiders it makes sense but a mage hurting you if you walk into him... In fact I found the ogre thing more scary walking into me than swinging his club.

Also I could find an option to change the key binding for spell select, there's item select but not spell select. Not being able to change spells kind of scuffed my first run which was a mage run. Second run was dual wield spears into longswords.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for the extensive feedback!

Thats a good call on the contact damage, I originally added it when I was working on the first few basic enemies but now that you mention it, it might be better turned off for some. I'm not sure if that would make the game too easy as a whole, but maybe it could also shift the focus more towards the bosses attack patterns themselves, so its worth a shot.

About the spell select button, you're right! I completely forgot to add it to the options. In case it still helps you, the default is either Mouse Wheel Up or I. For the time being you can also change it in the settings/InputBindings.config file. Will update the build when I can too.

Also dual longswords sounds pretty sick ngl, might try that myself later :)

Submitted

Fantastic atmosphere. very smooth gameplay and loved the art. bosses were kinda underwhelming tho.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing :)

Submitted(+1)

very polished! Big fan of the UI and art direction here. Was hoping to see some bigger bosses with more mechanics but overall well done, had a great time with this one

Developer

Thank you :)