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A jam submission

Bolt to the GoldView game page

Find the Old Gold in the caves in Bolt to the Gold
Submitted by Monkeys Dynamite — 1 hour, 44 minutes before the deadline
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Play bolt to the gold

Bolt to the Gold's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Secondary Theme Interpretation#4352.3243.600
Soundtrack/SFX#4921.8072.800
Gameplay#5381.6782.600
Gameboy Soul#5611.8072.800
Overall#5661.7642.733
Graphics#5821.5492.400
Quirkiness#5901.4202.200

Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game meet GBJam's theme
Bolt to the Gold interprets the secondary theme “Old Gold” literally.

Set during the 1848 American Gold Rush, the game follows a miner exploring ancient cave ruins in search of the long-lost Old Gold. Throughout the run, the player must fight enemies, overcome dangerous rooms and traps, and collect enough gold to reach the final chamber.

At the end of the journey, the player finally discovers the Old Gold hidden deep within the ruins, completing the treasure hunt that drives the entire game.

The secondary theme is therefore not only part of the game's setting, but also its main objective: explore the ancient ruins, collect gold, and uncover the long-sought Old Gold.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Hey! I really enjoyed the game's concept, but I think the gameplay needs some review. I found it really hard to get through the rooms, and I also got crushed by the walls a few times. But it's noticeable how much work you put into it! I really enjoyed the concept, and I think with a bit more polish to the gameplay, it could be really fun to play

Developer

Thank you so much for playing our game and for the feedback!

We’re really glad you enjoyed the idea and could see the effort we put into it. We agree that the gameplay and collision still need some refinement, and we plan to work on that after the jam, including balancing the difficulty to make the game more accessible while keeping it fun.

Thanks again for playing and for recognizing the potential of the game!

Casimiro — Programmer, Monkeys Dynamite

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoy the concept for this game, but it is a little rough around the edges. I can't say I was able to complete the game, but I did try a good handful of times. I do enjoy the level design, there's definitely a lot of thought that was put into how to get the player to engage with enemies in closer ranges, or force them to keep moving to avoid getting hurt. I also really enjoy the time you put into idle animations, it's very cute. Some notes to consider:

  • There's 6 colors on the menu. As far as I can tell, the gameplay only uses four so I think it's just the brown and gray on the menu that are a problem.
  • The resolution of the sprites and environments are all within constraints, but the movements aren't. You can see this when you move a little bit that you're able to shift subpixels, and when you fire diagonally, the pixels on the arrows are rotated diagonally as well.
  • There are a lot of collision issues:
    • I've seen enemies that are nowhere near spikes take damage and die as if they were on spikes.
    • The handling against walls and doors and chests are sticky, a lot of times if you're firing while against one, you get stuck there for a while trying to gather the acceleration to escape.
    • Pretty consistently, you can approach the north door while enemies are still spawned and get handled onto the other side of it, softlocking the player.
    • Chests only open when you approach its hitbox from the south side. I would have written this off as possibly intended, but if you work your way around from above it doesn't open, you have to approach it from the south by a distance.
  • Almost if not every time I'm killed by a bat, I get a crash after game over with this log:
    ```
    ___________________________________________
    ############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of  Step Event0 for object obj_enemy_parent: Unable to find instance for object index 21 at gml_Script_scr_enemy_attack_type_2 ############################################################################################ gml_Script_scr_enemy_attack_type_2 (line -1) gml_Object_obj_enemy_parent_Step_0 gml_Object_obj_enemy_type_2_Step_0 (line -1)
    ```
  • Just a very minor bug, but there's one room I found where the south door is shifted up one tile.

Great work on this!

    Developer(+1)

    Thanks a lot for playing our game and for the detailed review!

    We were aware of some of these issues, but others were new to us, especially the crash involving the bats. We didn’t have as much time to test the game as thoroughly as we would have liked during the jam.

    The chest interaction was intentional — it was designed to only open from the south side. The enemy hitboxes, however, definitely need some work.

    We also plan to rebalance the game so that finishing a run is more accessible without taking away the challenge and fun.

    We’re really glad you enjoyed the level design and the idle animations, and we really appreciate all the feedback!

    Casimiro — Programmer, Monkeys Dynamite

    Submitted(+1)

    Greetings Monkeys Dynamite, i have played your game and recorded the video of speedrunning this game and let's just say it was great, but i found an error about some GML_code here is the copy:

    ___________________________________________

    ############################################################################################

    ERROR in action number 1

    of  Step Eventobj_enemy_type_4 for object obj_projectile:

    Unable to find instance for object index 21

    at gml_Object_obj_projectile_Collision_obj_enemy_parent

    ############################################################################################

    gml_Object_obj_projectile_Collision_obj_enemy_parent (line -1)

    Developer

    Hi KimiGaming64, thank you very much for playing our game!

    Could you please send us the video of your gameplay at monkeysdynamite@gmail.com? We would love to see your speedrun.

    We hope you enjoyed the game, and we’re always open to hearing your feedback and suggestions.

    Best regards, Casimiro — Programmer, Monkeys Dynamite