The Last Miner - LJ23 Edition
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
So, here it is; my entry for LÖVE Jam 2023: The Last Miner.
What little story there is is explained in-game (with some insight from the screenshots), so I won't mention it here.
What I will mention here, however, is the fact that the mining and refining actions have a chance of failure. Sometimes, you will mine for ore and get nothing, and process an ore and not get a crystal. It's a badly presented feature, not a bug.
I wanted the game to be bigger, with more features, but I was unsure whether I would have made it in time, so I made something smaller and more basic instead.
After the jam is over, I'll start working on the post-jam version, making the code less messy, and adding all the features I initially wanted.
Made with Love2D 11.3
Font used: Monogram by datagoblin.
UPDATE: I won't make the new version in Love2D. I'll be using Twine for that.
Download
Install instructions
To run the .love file, you'll need to extract it and run it with Love2D.
To run the .exe file, you'll need to extract it and run it, as usual.
Comments
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Quite an atmospheric game. A little bit repetitive and luck dependent, but the story really makes me want to stick around to find out what'll happen at the end
Thanks for the comment!
I'm glad you like the writing and the atmosphere.
It's repetitive because I had never finished a game before, or participated in a game jam, so I didn't know how much time implementing everything would take. So in the end I decided to implement only the core gameplay loop. Basically, only the things absolutely necessary to finish the game are implemented. It's essentially a prototype.
The luck dependence comes from the time this was supposed to have a skill system, so greater your mining skill, greater your chances to successfully mine an ore, greater your combat skill, greater your chances to hit an opponent, etc, until you max out a skill and get a 100% chance of success. I scrapped this early in the development, along with most other things, but left the luck dependence in after testing the game multiple times. With the luck dependence, it lasts about five minutes once you know the correct order of actions, and I thought that was a good cut-off point for what the game was.
Last night, I started work on the expanded version, where I will implement all the features I had planned. I started with the energy system with sleeping and (optional) eating. Related to that, there are also two new locations: home and restaurant. Hopefully, it's a sign the game will become less repetitive one day.