Wow, super fun game! Could get some balancing though because some artifacts are just too good. Would love to see this get developed more!
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CAVING's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #16 | 4.071 | 4.071 |
| Enjoyment | #31 | 4.118 | 4.118 |
| Innovation | #84 | 3.824 | 3.824 |
| Overall | #95 | 3.766 | 3.766 |
| Audio | #98 | 3.735 | 3.735 |
| Visuals | #202 | 4.024 | 4.024 |
| Theme | #751 | 2.824 | 2.824 |
Ranked from 170 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
You explore dark cave with strange monsters
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
font, shaders
How many people worked on the game?2
Comments
This is really polished and addictive. I love the fun twist on mining and cave exploration. The art, animations, and mechanics make each run engaging, though the theme could be pushed further to feel stranger and more varied.
If you get time, can you please rate our game? We've not hit the limit yet!
This game is very polished! I really enjoyed playing this, the animations really locked in the game feel!
Every aspect of the game was neat, at the start I had a hard time dealing with monsters but then after some upgrades managed to finish the game. As other mention, the only "downside" if I had to put one, is the Theme, other than that congratz on making such a cool game
UI presentation is awesome right away. The music is chill and mysterious, and the boss theme being a rearranged version of the same track is such a nice touch. All the SFX are pure ear candy; the slot machine spin, the pickaxes bouncing, and enemies hitting back. Insanely polished for a jam.
Love how it blends roguelike deck-builder vibes but with a spin on it, pun intended. The shop upgrades between rounds actually feel meaningful too. Super addictive and very well put together. A huge amount of polish.
Really fun and addicting game! I played this for wayyy to long after beating the boss haha. That bandaid artifact is totally OP! Great job!
I like gambling and mining games. So this is the perfect mix XD.
Never thought these two things would go together but you did an amazing job. I also love the artwork. Very impressive!
Great polish, fun to play, was able to beat the big spider boss!
Super fun gameplay with an impressive amount of content for a game jam entry. Well done!
Really fun, I'd enjoy a larger more fleshed out version of this, practically begging for it.
Really really well polished entry! Well done friend and congrats for finishing the jam!
I had a lot of fun with this one, thank you for the epic submission!
Suggestions:
- the fact that after dropping the blocks there are already tools set that you have to first re-roll is a bit confusing; in each round I kept thinking what I could place where only to realize right, first I have to re-roll; those were just split-second thoughts and decisions, and I got used to it over time but did lead to confusion; I don’t have any idea how to solve this though, it works exactly like a slot machine would, only the tools drop out of the machine so it’s not easy,
- the shop rows are always: artifacts, tools, consumables - they could have different colors and labels for visual distinction,
- when an artifact kills the last monster, the game doesn’t finish, I can still drop the tools, only after that last turn it finishes; but when I kill the last monster with a tool, the game finishes; I would make this behavior consistent,
- there could be some indicators when swapping the tools, visually I don’t know which I’m swapping and which I’m currently hovering (well, I do but you know what I mean, I’m not certain which it’ll select and replacement is final), it’s inaccessible,
- when you use the twist tool before you re-roll the initial machine setting, you waste it - maybe it could be disabled or you can leave as is,
- artifact values do not stack, I wish they either would or if it would be too OP, then clearly say you cannot stack them in the description OR remove them from showing up in the shop if you already have them,
- after some time the music finished (20 mins or so?) - not sure if it’s not set to loop or there’s some bug,
- I wish there was a difficulty curve here but the game was really easy to go through, even the boss, and then the difficulty remained the same but I kept growing richer; that means replayability is quite low in the current state.
What I like:
- I really enjoy the glowing red eyes in the background that are animated, adds to the atmosphere of a creepy cave,
- I love the little squashing animation that makes the sprites come alive - it’s simple, not time confusing to develop, very smart,
- the synergy between “gives 1 coin when you take damage” and “heals 3 if you finish a turn without swapping tools” is great, kept me at 30 health and got insanely rich, then the cash register does OP damage (especially against the boss),
- love the mechanic and the overall concept, you are composing several mechanics into one and that composition is not something I have seen and heard of so far, it’s very fresh for me,
- love the VFX of the screen shake when getting hit, very simple but sells the impact,
- the pixel art is simple but polished enough for this to feel like a game and not a sketch,
I enjoyed it and I would love to see it being developed more with some underground map that affects the spawn probabilities, different “biomes” and more varied enemies.
Only one point where this game falls flat is the theme. It’s just one “place” so to speak, a cave. And more than “strange” I would say it’s “creepy”. I would really drive the idea home with e.g. more mushroom-like enemies and richer, “stranger” background.
Very solid game jam entry, and developed by only 2 people, congrats!
Another addictive deck builder. There is a small issue that keeps re-enabling the crt filter on level change
Oooh Luck be a Landlord + Peglin/Peggle + Minecraft?! You are taking inspiration from all the right places. Nice work on this game, it was a ton of fun - I'm saving this for later.
I think the core game loop was quite fun. There was also a surprising amount of content too with the various weapons, consumables, and enemies. I beat the boss in just the first run (saved for relics and the occasional extra pickaxe) so I think some extra difficulty could be nice for more replayability. I would also love a little greater enemy variety (most seemed to basically shoot me for various amounts of damage. And my one concern that I was not clear on is the durability system - I didn't know if my weapons would break after use for the rest of the fight.
I hope you continue building this out - the game loop is familiar enough with a lot of the recent indie roguelikes\lites, but I think the formula here is fresh enough to be special!
What happens when you combine Die in the Dungeon and Binding of Isaac with Minecraft digging? This masterpiece. Was quite addicting, maybe you could make it into a full game with content and more polish and I'll totally play it all day. Well done!







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