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[Hempuli‽]

Oh boy! I'm so excited to finish this!

Fellows, I present you EXCAVATORRR, the game that looks like Atari 2600 game.

You play as a lonely excavator, who seeks for riches from the depths of the underground world. Of course there're loads of enemies and obstacles to be passed, but who knows what lies down there, just waiting to be found?

I created Excavatorrr to participate the Ludum Dare 15 game creation competition in August 2009. This wasn't my first entry, in fact there was another fully finished game as my entrant, called "CaveFrog", but it was silly and bad in my opinion. The competition version of Excavatorrr was created in 9-11 hours, and as you can guess, it had some weird things and bugs, and the overall gameplay was confusing. Overall the biggest cons that drove people away (and made me not win!) were the confusing controls, lack of information and the fact the game'd require some learning in order to be mastered.

However, I enjoyed the game myself a lot, so I decided to create this new, better version out of it. I tried to fix most of the things people didn't like about it, though with such a complex game the controls were still left rather confusing. Also due to the way I coded the game I couldn't add a real tutorial, just a silly "Controls" help text. One of the great updates is the online scoreboard; but there're also many new items, new enemies and even some random encounters. Woo.

= HOW TO PLAY =

RIGHT / LEFT ARROW = Move

UP / DOWN ARROW = Look up/down, and use ladders.

S = Jump. Your jump is about 3 tiles high.

D = Attack/Use things you have in your hands. Usually just throw them.

D + DOWN = Pick up/Put down. THIS IS IMPORTANT! You really need those items, y'know!

D + UP = Throw upwards/2nd ability

UP = Enter shop. Very useful!


You get money by collecting money and bringing jewels to the shop. Also golden idols are welcomed to the shop, they're worth of muchos pesetas! Try to continue deeper, but keep in mind your jump height, and always ensure you can get back! It's a good idea to carry a Ladder Kit with you all the time. Look out for falling blocks, and also look if you can see tiles that have different texture than the others, they may hold secrets! Remember also the falling damage.

Be ready to try several times, for the system is roguelikely unforgiving and the controls are so confusing that you need to take your time learning them.

= ITEMS IN THE SHOP =

LADDER KIT - Most useful item in the whole game! Press D while holding to make a ladder downwards appear in front of you. Ensure that there's enough space in front of you for the ladder to continue. Hold UP and press D to make the ladder appear from where you stand, and upwards! Each ladder kit has 3 ladders.

BOMB - Throw it to explode some enemies and blocks out of the way. Doesn't have a very good range and explodes quickly, but is otherwise very usable.

DYNAMITE - Same as bomb, but you can't throw it, just set to explode and drop. Explodes with a great range. Due to the non-throwable-ness, it's clever to try to stand near a cliff or be in ladders while setting it on.

SPRINGBOARD - Throwable around, it makes enemies, items and you bounce around like crazy. Look out though - the bounce height is so big you might hurt yourself!

UMBRELLA - Slows your falling so that you don't hurt yourself. Throwable.

DRILL - You can use the drill to dig straight downwards or upwards, using D and D + UP! Useful, but remember to look out so that you can return back!

ELECTRIC STUNNER - Now this one actually kills enemies. It does great damage, and can be aimed diagonally upwards with UP + D. The electric charge can sometimes even hurt enemies through a wall!
(Awesome straight copy from the ReadMe!)

There's also this Online Highscore board! It's meant to be watched in-game, but if you really want, you can check the obviously gorgeous webpage here: http://www.hempuli.com/score/displayscores.php

= SCREENSHOTS =




Download link: www.hempuli.com/Excavatorrr.zip
The in-game music was composed by Noby, this awesome guy. Praise is endless!

I hope you enjoy! 

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to see a bit about the gameplay (though in the Ludum dare version, I'll upload a new video later), check

[FARTRON]

Is this spelunky?

[moi]

I have the feeling this is a great game but the controls are a bit too complex.
Also, why do I fall when I reach the top of ladders?

[Radix]

Now you can finish Mathora!

[Xion]

I enjoy this very much. too sleepy to say more, just wanted to let you know that though.

[Hempuli‽]

I have the feeling this is a great game but the controls are a bit too complex.
Also, why do I fall when I reach the top of ladders?

Because you're supposed to jump before you reach it! :D
Oh well, the way the ladders work is a really simple one, just keep holding UP or DOWN to not fall. And yes, I'm quite sure the controls will become the greatest turn-away in the game.

Though though, now when I think about it, is the problem with the controls overall or with the use of the ladder kit or some other item?

[sergiocornaga]

This game's great. I've been playing it since that first LD version (I'm pretty sure you made at least two for that) and I'm glad you made the improvements which I thought would help the game so much. Being able to jump two tiles is the biggest one. Thank you so much for that.

That said, I'm a little disappointed I can't sell stuff like the grail.

[Hempuli‽]

Well, it's partly because I didn't even think of that, and partly because they're somewhat randomly placed: Someone could get huge advantages if he just happened to get them in easy places. One of them is sellable, though. I'm quite sure you'll know which one when you find it.

[William Broom]

This game is really awesome. I love the way it first appears to be a typical gung-ho action game, but you actually have to be obsessively careful if you want to get a good score. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got to fourth place in the online tables. My best run came to an end after I blew myself up with dynamite while trying to kill a ghost. The ghost phased out at the last second and survived.

I don't really understand the mechanic that locks out certain items - does it mean that in each game, you can only buy the stun gun OR the umbrella OR the drill? If so, why did you do it like that?
I haven't tried the umbrella or the stun gun yet, but the drill seems quite underpowered, since it barely does anything that you can't do with your pickaxe.

The cursed idol was a nice touch, though I never was able to get it up to the store.

[Hempuli‽]

Thanks!

I thought that it might make the game too easy if the player could buy them all. I'm not anymore sure if that's the case, though.

It feels that both the Umbrella and the Drill are underpowered, so I'd be happy to hear any suggestions to how to make them better!

[moi]

My main problem is with ladders yes

[Hempuli‽]

My main problem is with ladders yes

Hmm. Any suggestions of how to make it better?

[The North]

I believe I found a bug, although I'm not sure.  The blue gems seem to be worth 4,000, while the red gems seem to be worth 3,000, despite the fact that the red crystals appear later than the blue.

Also, I didn't like the golden idol lava mechanic.  I saw the lava and figured it was going to rise, but I didn't know that the camera was going to follow the lava, giving me like two tiles of breathing room.  I felt like I died cheaply on my best run.  The memorization mechanic is kind of lame.  (Somehow I still got the best highscore?).

EDIT: Also, the most efficient way to play the game is to never buy items.  I'm not sure if I like that.  I think I got the best high score just because I didn't buy any items.  I didn't even use the items that were given to me, though.  Hmm, depending on how far those two ladder kits can reach with 3 uses each, I guess I could only use the ladders at the end to make a huge ladder to the top, thus subverting the memorization.

[Hempuli‽]

You can easily get the best highscore currently, it's not very high atm.
That jewel case seems annoying, because blue gems should only be worth of 2000. I'll look into it.

I'm not sure which version you have but today I lowered the level of the lava, so now you can move more freely. Actually, I'll do a slight change to it right now. Ok, there's now a new version WITHOUT that lava-scrolling, now you scroll by yourself!

Thanks a lot for the report!

Oh, and congrats for those rather awesome scores you've got! Hopefully you'll even beat the game with the new version.

[moi]

It's on indiegames.com/blog

[The North]

Okay, I apparently had an old version with weird bugs, because now I can't dig straight down and the blue gems seem to be worth the right amount.  Now I'm not sure how legit my old high score was.

[Hempuli‽]

Okay, I apparently had an old version with weird bugs, because now I can't dig straight down and the blue gems seem to be worth the right amount.  Now I'm not sure how legit my old high score was.

Haha, I'll surpass it anyway soon!

[The North]

Do you get points for the idol?

[Hempuli‽]

Do you get points for the idol?

Yes you do, and regarding your scores I'd say you'd easily be the first if you did as well and also got the idol.

[sergiocornaga]

I'd love to see this get as many little updates as Spelunky has.