Silt Spawn (Demo)
Silt Spawn is a casual exploration-based survival platformer set within twisting, dark, and dusty caverns.
(By default, use arrow keys to move and X to interact.)
This project was initially a way to practice procedural generation, art and animations with a limited palette, and nitpicky color-controlling shaders. However, over time, it has grown into a game of its own. Right now, the demo is a prototype of what could become a full 20+ hour experience... if people enjoy what there is now! So, if you want more of this game, or have any feedback for future projects, please please please let me know!
Art, music, programming, writing by me (@auranym)
Design and writing help from vivi (@vi-enti)
Thanks for playing! <3
Download
Development log
- demo released!Dec 29, 2023
- november 3, 2023Nov 03, 2023
- october 20, 2023Oct 20, 2023
- october 6, 2023Oct 06, 2023
- september 22, 2023Sep 22, 2023
- september 9, 2023Sep 08, 2023
- august 25, 2023Aug 25, 2023
- august 11, 2023Aug 11, 2023
Comments
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Wow! I haven't been on itch in months and returning to see the fruits of your persistence is an amazing feeling. Looks so awesome!!! Great job for persisting on this project
hey thanks! I really appreciate your comments on the dev logs! they were genuinely a big source of motivation to get this demo released. :)
The game was awesome. played it for a while. Never played something like this so it stands out unique to me. Liked the RougeLite mechanic (I may be wrong about the name of it). The art looks good, and the simple mechanics works well with it.
But I have found a bug, which I believe maciek.glowka (the author of the comment before me) had some issues with it too. After while, the game does not allow you to pick items, and how I'm sure of this is because I stand next to a thing I expected it to be a sprout and restarted the game and I was able to pick it, in fact I was able to pick everything pickable afterwards.
So here's a bug report for you, and I'm glad I was able to help.
thanks so much for the kind words! it means a lot to hear that the design of the game works, since it's a mishmash of a lot of mechanics from other games that I like. so if the core loop of Silt Spawn is fun, then the demo is a success!! :D
that said, I'm sorry you encountered this bug :( I'm tempted to say that it's more of a bad design choice on my part instead of a bug. but either way, I realize now that you should always be able to grab items, and the idea of a "selected tool" really doesn't need to exist. hopefully, in reworking this, the bug you found will get squashed! so thank you again!
Oh that didn't even crossed my mind, and yeah I agree about changing it to make the players be always be able to pick items, which is just a simple action and doesn't really need the extra layer. Tho if you prefer it to be this way, just let the player know somehow, as it is not something common in other games to be assumed(at least I haven't seen it).
And the game itself, the setting and the environment looks unique to me and I believe the idea is worth polishing. Here's some suggestions from me: Add more mechanics (but don't make it noisy), add objectives which get harder as the game progresses, and add some more NPCs, for teaching the player different mechanics(and also quests).
I'd be happy to see more from your game in the future.
Hi, I've followed the development a bit on Twitter, so I am happy I could finally play it :) I really liked it however didn't get too far.
As it has already been mentioned a mini-map would be a nice addition. I was also thinking about a possibility to speed up time for a moment (for the situations were the storm is coming soon and I am next to the shelter, so I do not want to go far and thus wait for the storm).
Also, my last 2-3 runs I could not find any pebbles nor sprouts to pick up and was starving quickly (or maybe I was finding them, but they were not highlighted to pick up). Not sure if I was that unlucky or it is kind of a bug? It started after I got the second construction recipe. Will try again and see :)
thanks for the in depth comment! a mini-map is on the list of potential upgrades to add in the future! a "speed up time" button is an interesting idea, maybe there can be a pop up when entering shelter? it's worth exploring for sure
I *think* your issue comes from the controls not being intuitive. if you have the "build" tool selected, nothing can be collected. this is definitely a design mistake, and I'm sorry it's giving you trouble! fixing this is top of my to-do list, even if the demo isn't expanded upon much more than that.
that said, I really appreciate your feedback! this demo is a great learning exercise through and through :D
Oh, that must be it - now I feel a bit silly :) Maybe if the active tool icon was always visible - not only when the inventory is shown - that would be sufficient?
I have to try again now :D
please let me know if that was the issue!
Yes, that was it :)
Would you be able to provide a linux build? Thanks so much. I've been playing through the web browser and it's a really well put together chill experience. :)
i'm not able to test a linux build, but I'll add one! thank you for the comment!
Loved it!
Played it for one hour, the art is lovely and the cave atmosphere is very immersive, exploring was definitely my favorite part.
I hope toggling between the options(grab, build, etc) were a bit easier, once I got all the tools it was a bit confusing, I managed to get used to it but it took me some time. Amazing work!
that means a lot to hear that the atmosphere was engaging! fun exploration was probably the main thing I was trying to achieve! if I continue this project tho, making the controls simpler is top on my priority list. thanks so much for playing! :)
The new additions are great! Got all the way up to building a lantern and only died once. I like the reminder on the timers when they hit halfway too. The only problem I had was with the controls. Toggling between the inventory, grab mode, build mode, net mode, and different objects was a lot to handle.
thank you for playing! that's impressive you only died once! it does look like the biggest issue with other people as well is that the controls are clunky when managing every tool/building. so I greatly appreciate that you took the time to write a comment! :D
Woah, this is so cool. I love procedural generation stuff, so it's always nice to see people experimenting with new ideas for it :]
hey thanks! it's a fun challenge, and I'm glad the experiment is paying off :D
This is really neat! I love caves and pixel art so this is right up my alley. The feature I would like to see is a mini map that fills in as you explore, so you can know you if you explored the whole cave.
thanks for the suggestion! I have toyed with that idea myself! there is code in place already that would make it easy to make a simplified map of each cave, so I'll explore a map mechanic when making this project into an actual game :D