First of all, even if this game is incomplete, this game demonstrates greatly how games can be a form of artistic expression. This game is clearly a very special and unique submission for tha game jam. I like that a lot! But I still have to give a "No recommendation" due to massive performance problems. This is a shame, as the game is otherwise something really special, I really hope the problems will be fixed and the game will continued to be worked on post-jam, it 100% has HUGE potential. I am looking forward for a post-jam version of this game. It's stuff like this why I like the game jam, even if not every submission passes the park.
Gameplay
This is unique, yet familiar. It takes on the "mining" genre with a twist. The custom mapgen definitely is a huge plus for this game. Your goal is to go deeper and deeper.
The mapgen is good, you will be able to go down relatively easy, don't have to backtrack often and frequently find large cavities. What's unique are the ores, which might come in high and low quantities. Alien plants grow on the floor and ceiling.
You collect resources while venturing down and have to evade ... aliens?
This game should actually be called "Speedrunning Down" because that's the winning strategy. :D My winning strategy is to first stockpile enough saturnium and steel on the high and safe layers, and then YOLO downwards as fast as I can, not even trying to fight the enemies. When I get hit, I briefly heal my self, then continue to speedrun downwards. I also try to avoid large caves due to the enormous amount of enemies.
Maybe it would be better if the game had some other method to prevent the player to venture down too fast.
What was confusing is the game tells you to go to a spot on your radar but I did that and found ... nothing. Strange. Probably this wasn't coded yet?
The ambience is great. It's a good mix of music that fits the game's theme perfectly. Each layer has its own mood. Unfortunately, there are (almost) no sounds but I think that's OK. The ambience is still not as good as for Secrets of the Space Parable (SSP). :-P
Graphics
Definitely the coolest graphics of the game jam. The formspec design looks very polished and cool, it's very unique. There's even a custom font. The node textures are also pretty nice, it's alien-looking, I like how the various layers become hotter and hotter. The atmosphere is very believable, you really feel like you're on an alien planet. I like the night sky is dark blue instead of pitch black, matches well with the ground. A lot of effort was put into making the game look great. This game is kind of an art form, although I still have criticisms …
First, the particles the plants emit are very small, I almost didn't notice them at all, so these particles are pretty pointless if you can't see them. Second, most organics look well made, except those plants that have a "flat color" for some reason. I don't know why some plants only have 1 color, they don't match with the theme at all. I like most layer "stone" textures, except the one right below surface (the "Defrosting" one), because you can clearly see the pattern repeat itself. The other layer textures look really cool, how the become progressively hotter and hotter.
(Pro-tip: Minetest actually allows you to let a texture span over multiple nodes.)
The game displays the purpose of your tools at the beginning ... ONCE. In a tiny font. If the message is gone, it's gone forever. So if you missed it, you have to figure out everything on your own. The inventory screen looks cool, but it didn't really understand what everything means at first, especially the abbreviations which aren't explained anywhere.
I also wish the game would display in the HUD what I've just mined. I never know whether I just got saturnium or an organic, and how much.
It took me a while to figure out how my tools actually work, even with the explanation (which I of course instantly forgot, lol).
The game compass/map is confusing to use, I never know where I'm heading.
Scaffoldings and lamps don't seem to be really useful, and I also cannot remove them. If I can't reach the plant on the ceiling, I just look for somewhere else, this is more convenient than building the (relatively expensive) scaffolding.
The intro UI is strange, you have to press Esc to proceed with the intro story. (Why not a "continue" button?)
The game ending is also aprupt. The screen suddenly turns black and I first thought it was a bug, only in later tries I noticed there was an outro text.
Like in most game jam entries, I was greeted with a few console warnings. Also, using the spray gun triggers an error message (not a crash). I found no other bugs. The biggest problem for me is performance; I had serious performance problems. This is the only game of this game jam with performance problems for me. The mobs are lagging so much, they keep killing me without me being able to even see the projectiles. Also, placing a lamp takes ages until it actually appears. Everything in this game reacts slowly. This unfortunately ruins the game. I still managed to win the game legit somehow. I am aware of the system specs in the README, but I think this high demand is kind of unjustified given the low-res (but great!) graphics., probably the game's performance can still be improved without losing features. If the game had really high-end graphics or something like that, I might have been more tolerant of performance problems.
Story
The story is simple yet it makes sense. It's special enough that I actually still remember it after a few days.
Mapgen
The whole map is so surreal. It reminds me a lot of spooky SCP stories you find on the Internet. Onc I got the map item, I saw how simple the map actually is, but the eff
What was confusing is the game tells you to go to a spot on your radar but I did that and found ... nothing. Strange. Probably this wasn't coded yet?
This definitely is implemented ("beacons"). How many of these (and of which kinds) you manage to obtain determines your ending. Note that the dot on your radar gets larger the closer you get to the beacon on the vertical axis. Perhaps you were at the wrong depth? (It is possible that there are issues with beacon spawning code though; in my tests I have always been able to dig at least one beacon though).
This game should actually be called "Speedrunning Down" because that's the winning strategy. :D
Heh, not quite. You should have gotten the "bad" ending if you just went down immediately; that is, "you find the same fate as the astronauts before you". Speedrunning Down is an "ending" strategy, but not a "winning" one :D
Minetest actually allows you to let a texture span over multiple nodes
We considered world-aligned textures but preferred mapgen randomization of textures.
Also, using the spray gun triggers an error message (not a crash).
Yep, added that last minute and the Minetest player name vs. player ref inconsistency got me :)
Fixed post-submission.
[Performance Problems]
I have fixed mob overpopulation post-submission. Optimizing the mapgen further is hard. I think it is already asymptotically optimal (or close to it), and I haven't been able to go much further on the constant factors using the LuaJIT profiler. In hindsight implementing the custom mapgen probably wasn't the best idea as it took an immense development effort and largely wrecks performance, even after optimization.
Overall rating
First of all, even if this game is incomplete, this game demonstrates greatly how games can be a form of artistic expression. This game is clearly a very special and unique submission for tha game jam. I like that a lot! But I still have to give a "No recommendation" due to massive performance problems. This is a shame, as the game is otherwise something really special, I really hope the problems will be fixed and the game will continued to be worked on post-jam, it 100% has HUGE potential. I am looking forward for a post-jam version of this game. It's stuff like this why I like the game jam, even if not every submission passes the park.
Gameplay
This is unique, yet familiar. It takes on the "mining" genre with a twist. The custom mapgen definitely is a huge plus for this game. Your goal is to go deeper and deeper. The mapgen is good, you will be able to go down relatively easy, don't have to backtrack often and frequently find large cavities. What's unique are the ores, which might come in high and low quantities. Alien plants grow on the floor and ceiling.
You collect resources while venturing down and have to evade ... aliens?
This game should actually be called "Speedrunning Down" because that's the winning strategy. :D My winning strategy is to first stockpile enough saturnium and steel on the high and safe layers, and then YOLO downwards as fast as I can, not even trying to fight the enemies. When I get hit, I briefly heal my self, then continue to speedrun downwards. I also try to avoid large caves due to the enormous amount of enemies. Maybe it would be better if the game had some other method to prevent the player to venture down too fast.
What was confusing is the game tells you to go to a spot on your radar but I did that and found ... nothing. Strange. Probably this wasn't coded yet?
(the full review continues in the comments)
Music / sound
The ambience is great. It's a good mix of music that fits the game's theme perfectly. Each layer has its own mood. Unfortunately, there are (almost) no sounds but I think that's OK. The ambience is still not as good as for Secrets of the Space Parable (SSP). :-P
Graphics
Definitely the coolest graphics of the game jam. The formspec design looks very polished and cool, it's very unique. There's even a custom font. The node textures are also pretty nice, it's alien-looking, I like how the various layers become hotter and hotter. The atmosphere is very believable, you really feel like you're on an alien planet. I like the night sky is dark blue instead of pitch black, matches well with the ground. A lot of effort was put into making the game look great. This game is kind of an art form, although I still have criticisms …
First, the particles the plants emit are very small, I almost didn't notice them at all, so these particles are pretty pointless if you can't see them. Second, most organics look well made, except those plants that have a "flat color" for some reason. I don't know why some plants only have 1 color, they don't match with the theme at all. I like most layer "stone" textures, except the one right below surface (the "Defrosting" one), because you can clearly see the pattern repeat itself. The other layer textures look really cool, how the become progressively hotter and hotter. (Pro-tip: Minetest actually allows you to let a texture span over multiple nodes.)
(review continues in next comment)
Controls/UX/UI
The game displays the purpose of your tools at the beginning ... ONCE. In a tiny font. If the message is gone, it's gone forever. So if you missed it, you have to figure out everything on your own. The inventory screen looks cool, but it didn't really understand what everything means at first, especially the abbreviations which aren't explained anywhere. I also wish the game would display in the HUD what I've just mined. I never know whether I just got saturnium or an organic, and how much. It took me a while to figure out how my tools actually work, even with the explanation (which I of course instantly forgot, lol). The game compass/map is confusing to use, I never know where I'm heading. Scaffoldings and lamps don't seem to be really useful, and I also cannot remove them. If I can't reach the plant on the ceiling, I just look for somewhere else, this is more convenient than building the (relatively expensive) scaffolding. The intro UI is strange, you have to press Esc to proceed with the intro story. (Why not a "continue" button?)
The game ending is also aprupt. The screen suddenly turns black and I first thought it was a bug, only in later tries I noticed there was an outro text.
(review continues in next comment)
Stability / Performance
Like in most game jam entries, I was greeted with a few console warnings. Also, using the spray gun triggers an error message (not a crash). I found no other bugs. The biggest problem for me is performance; I had serious performance problems. This is the only game of this game jam with performance problems for me. The mobs are lagging so much, they keep killing me without me being able to even see the projectiles. Also, placing a lamp takes ages until it actually appears. Everything in this game reacts slowly. This unfortunately ruins the game. I still managed to win the game legit somehow. I am aware of the system specs in the README, but I think this high demand is kind of unjustified given the low-res (but great!) graphics., probably the game's performance can still be improved without losing features. If the game had really high-end graphics or something like that, I might have been more tolerant of performance problems.
Story
The story is simple yet it makes sense. It's special enough that I actually still remember it after a few days.
Mapgen
The whole map is so surreal. It reminds me a lot of spooky SCP stories you find on the Internet. Onc I got the map item, I saw how simple the map actually is, but the eff
This definitely is implemented ("beacons"). How many of these (and of which kinds) you manage to obtain determines your ending. Note that the dot on your radar gets larger the closer you get to the beacon on the vertical axis. Perhaps you were at the wrong depth? (It is possible that there are issues with beacon spawning code though; in my tests I have always been able to dig at least one beacon though).
Heh, not quite. You should have gotten the "bad" ending if you just went down immediately; that is, "you find the same fate as the astronauts before you". Speedrunning Down is an "ending" strategy, but not a "winning" one :D
We considered world-aligned textures but preferred mapgen randomization of textures.
Yep, added that last minute and the Minetest player name vs. player ref inconsistency got me :)
Fixed post-submission.
I have fixed mob overpopulation post-submission. Optimizing the mapgen further is hard. I think it is already asymptotically optimal (or close to it), and I haven't been able to go much further on the constant factors using the LuaJIT profiler. In hindsight implementing the custom mapgen probably wasn't the best idea as it took an immense development effort and largely wrecks performance, even after optimization.