Play dino game
Black D. Gold's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Secondary Theme Interpretation | #33 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Gameboy Soul | #46 | 4.171 | 4.171 |
| Overall | #67 | 3.814 | 3.814 |
| Quirkiness | #74 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Gameplay | #96 | 3.686 | 3.686 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #150 | 3.486 | 3.486 |
| Graphics | #171 | 3.829 | 3.829 |
Ranked from 35 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
In our game you travel back in time to slay dinosaurs to harvest their oil in the future when they have decomposed. Oil is also called black gold, and what is older than dinosaurs? Together that gives "old gold"
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Comments
This game seems very difficult, but I really like the theme and idea of it. The idea of killing dinosaurs in the past for something now is just funny.
I liked the variety of bosses, and the art is quite nice as well! I agree with the other comments on there needing to be more i-frames or knockback after getting hit, though. Other than that, I had a good time with it!
I played this on stream today (recording here) in case you’re interested in watching a playthrough. Good job!
Really appreciate the amount of bosses in this game and how they all have different kill methods. I feel like they could have lasted a lot longer in general because except for the first two (three if you count gathering the materials for the ankylosaurus, I think), most of them die real fast.
Neat little entry! One small nitpick I have with the art is how the knight's blade trail is outlined (feels like a solid object because of it. Like a bug net) Other than that, great work!
The gameplay, audio and graphics look nice, the palette swaps were a bit jarring but nothing too serious, great job!
I really liked the world and atmosphere! I just felt like I couldn't attack after getting hit, which was a little frustrating. ^^'
Cool interpretation of the theme and we have a funky little lore to slain dinos in the past. The bossrush was fun and each of them was unique which is a nice touch!
Graphically the game looks neat, we have palette swaps, tiles, smear animation frames, overall cool job (I do feel like the starting green could be turned down an notch though, just a bit).
MSX and SFX were great, the ost was a bop!
Overall cool game, well done!
Thank you for the feedback! I think were gonna revisit the game after the rating is over and fix some bugs. We'll keep the recolor of the green tint in mind!
Yoooo I think this is my favorite game of the jam! It's a brilliant interpretation of the theme, and of all the Zelda-likes that I played this jam, this one felt the best, with the smoothest combat. The bosses were great, with a wonderful variety, and I loved the environment. There were so many nice touches, from the bobbing trees to the bridge that bowed beneath your weight. Really great job! 5 stars across the board from me.
Thank you so much for this very generous comment :).
One inspiration was as you mentioned zelda: links awakening. We really aimed for that vibe. The second big inspiration was monster hunter and maybe dark souls because of their movement.
We would have lovef to polish it a bit more but creating the sprites took a lot longer than anticipated. We are looking forward to the next gbjam next year. Working around the limitations was really fun.
A very good game! Bosses are unique, fun interpretation of the theme, and changing color palettes on different parts of the island is such an awesome idea!
Thank you!
Tons of personality and a really nice, strong setup both from a theme and story perspective!
Really enjoyed all the variety the bosses had to offer, though I was a bit dissapointed in the brachiosaurus being so easy to kill since you can just wail at it while its doing its flamethrower thing (fantastic paleontologically accurate addition, btw).
I do have a couple of actual criticisms regarding the combat mechanics. First, adding some i-frames after being hit would make the game feel way fairer. I got double, triple, and even quadruple hit by a bumbling velociraptor more than a couple times, and it felt annoying every time. Second, the sword slash cooldown has a deceptively long cooldown, and I found myself facepunching velociraptors super often because I'd think my sword was back up. Maybe a flash or visual cue to tell you it's ready? There might be a thing where after you get hit you also can't swing for a bit, but I can't be entirely sure.
Overall, fun stuff. Hoping to see more out of this team, it feels like they have good instincts for what makes fun games.
Wow thank you so much for the amazing feedback!
The i-frame thing we heard a lot and i agree, thats definitely something well look out for in the future! The visual indicator for when the sword is ready is also a great idea, ill definitely remember that as well. We kinda focused all our time on trying (and quite frankly more often than not crashing out over) trying to do pixel art that looks passable, since this was pretty much our first time doing that and we dont have a talent for normal art either. So whenever we got something done we just implemented it and left it as is without really revisiting it. For the future actually going over mechanics and with the feedback in mind i think those annoying things can be ironed out as well. (Also of course we had to be as paleontologically accurate as possible, whenever we weren't drawing we were researching our dinos. That's also how you got the bubble shooting Spinosaur)
Thank you again for the kind words and feedback its much appreciated!
Great theme, gameplay and really enjoyed the music. Love love love the concept of going back in time to kill the dinosaur so they can harvest the oil.
I died on every boss attempt (likely skill issue on my part lol) but still had fun. Great stuff!
Thank you! I hope you noticed that you can try all the levels out of order and died on all of them separately and didn't die on repeat to the first boss. Im glad you still had fun playing even if you died a lot!
what a charming game! the theme is really unique and i love dinos. fun music too. good job!
Thank you!
Hell yeah, I need me some of that sweet dino oil!
This was a unique take on the Old Gold theme, so kudos on that.
I like how the game uses the same map but on each level/objective there’s different things to do. The Zelda-esque movement and map transitions helped give off a good amount of Gameboy feel.
My the best part about this entry is probably the bosses – great work on making a good amount of variety and behavior for each one, that can sometimes be difficult to pull off with limited time. My favorite boss was the one underwater near the bridge.
My constructive feedback would be that I easily get stun locked a lot. Some more invulnerability duration would have been better. Although it could just be a skill issue on my end.
Keep it up!
Thank you so much for the long feedback! Quite a few people had the stun lock issue, its just something that slipped under the radar since we always play tested it ourself and played the game for long enough that it didn't happen to us. That's definitely something to keep in mind for the next project!
The game is super fun, and I love how much everything in the environment moves, the trees, the bridge, and so on. The animations are great too! One thing I didn't really like was the palette switching, which I found a bit unpleasant. But other than that, it's an awesome game!
Thank you! The idea behind the palette switches was that we wanted to make all the regions have a color that fits it. The beach is yellow, the woods are green, ocean blue and so on. But i can see how the switch might be a bit harsh, im glad you could still enjoy out game though!
One idea for the palette switch was to use a tween between base color but ultimately decided that it wouldn’t fit the vibe we are aiming for and that it would maybe collide with the 4 color rule.
I really like how you implemented the theme! The graphics are also really nice, and I like the soundtrack and SFX as well.One problem I encountered is that when you defeat a dino and the defeat animation starts, you can still get hit during the animation if you walk into it.
Futher great submission
Thank you! Yes that is a known problem, that we sadly weren't able to fix in time, but apparently its a frame perfect thing, so congrats for getting the frame perfect damage bug!
Hell yeah! slayin some Dinos for that sweet oil, what is there not to love!
This was really good, ye had a whole map to explore, multiple hunts, narrative! A package filled with goods!
I also manage to leave boss arenas by having the dinos pushing me out, happened when I fought the velociraptors!
Thank you! And there's another bug for the list, im glad you still enjoyed it!
Now that’s a cool interpretation of the secondary theme!
I liked that each mission had you going to different parts of the map.
I do wish there were a bit more “invincibility frames” after getting hit, or maybe a stronger knockback, so that the player is pushed out of reach of the enemies.
Other than that, the art is very nice and the story and music are fun, this is a nice entry overall!
Thanks! Yes i agree I-Frames would have made at the very least the Velociraptor boss significantly less frustrating.
I love how alive it looks, everything is moving in the background. Art is amazing. Good game
Thanks for the kind comment!
That’s a really cool interpretation of “old gold”! I loved the variety of the map and the boss encounters. Well done!
Thank you so much!
Loved dashing my way across the map and fighting dinos. The bosses were a lot of fun, only complaint I have is that there aren't any more to fight :)
Thank you! We had plans for about 3 more bosses but since were absolute pixel art(and normal art) beginners we already spend the majority of our time drawing the sprites we have in the game now and sadly didn't have time do draw those too.
ahahaha, that 'you made the dinoes extinct' was great. I loved the joke.
Thanks! Thats what happens if you mess with dinos in time travel :)