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The Lob's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Execution | #15 | 3.619 | 3.619 |
| Game Design | #16 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
| Audio | #17 | 3.190 | 3.190 |
| Overall | #18 | 3.393 | 3.393 |
| Visuals | #29 | 3.286 | 3.286 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Burying mechanic is interesting. I wonder if it can be expanded in any way. Specific shapes of graves that can fit only specific types of enemies? I don't know, I just love interactive elements!
Anyway, the ambience was pretty creepy, which didn't really fit to my feelings of laughter when I was burying a dolphin and then roleplaying Touhou near the end... but I guess that's how a fever dream would go 🙃 Also bonus points for letting me kill lobsters.
I guess what's missing in terms of gameplay is any kind of feedback to your interactions - the biggest offender here is shopping. I didn't even realize at first that I was even making purchase, but hey, at least I got myself 4 bucket upgrades!
Very amazing game! Make sure to expand the content post-jam, all the other things for a enjoyable experience are there imo!
I played the native linux build, which panicked while compiling the shaders when first entering the game due to an IO Error. It worked fine on the second attempt, and I coudn't recreate the crash trying 5 more times.
Since I wanted to be resource-efficient, I threw the first 3 corpses into the same pit (there was enough space!) but the game forced me to dig them out again and bury each in their own hole :/
Also, I had some struggles fitting the whale into the hole and the grab hitbox for the octopi was a bit fiddly. Distinguishing dead from alive octopi was a bit tricky, which made running around the map scary even after purging the octopus clan :p
Still, having tried 12 submissions so far, gameplay wise this was the most exiting experience for me :)
I like the ideas and the digging/filling mechanic is quite neat.
It would be good to have audible indicators that the quest/task list has changed; didn't notice it at first and did some wrong things and maybe broke the progression -- somewhere along the way right-click to grab stopped working and I couldn't pick up anything to bury it. (I think I went right past the whale in the shop and engaged with the squids in the next room first, if that helps.)
It would be helpful to put the control instructions in the game itself (had to quit and read the game page to remember Right-Click and 1/2/3).
The Linux build doesn't finish loading after several attempts (there's a 'Flame.ktx2' loading error, though I see the same messages on the Windows build in Wine and web but it continues and runs :shrug:).
Also, seems the native builds are double-zipped. Probably not necessary :)
Hope to see this continue post-jam!
Obviously it’s not quite done, but what’s there is extremely my kind of stuff. Love the somber vibe, the creative gameplay twist, the falling sand mechanics, etc!
what an intruiging game! great atmosphere and the digging mechanic is very cool
Very cool digging mechanic
Couldn't load the game (tried 10+ times)
Web console says "Unable to find a GPU! Make sure you have installed required drivers!"
Edit:
Got it working by enabling Vulkan in the browser flags (Linux diff I guess)
The review:
Very fever dreamish and enjoyable
Not sure if there is no ending or it bugged after burying the whale and 2 octopi
Sorry about that! I didn't have a linux machine to test on. No ending currently, ran out of time content-wise. Thank you for debugging/playing :)
The falling-sands dirt is super cool to see and I really liked the whole setup and puns (cleaner snail, the lob). Very appropriately seedy atmosphere too, and impressive work getting all these different elements in within the time period, like the UI, task list, dirt, shopkeeper, dialogue, and so on. Great work!
The digging is very satisfying. The texturing worked out super well, and I dig the overall ambience of the game. I wasn't sure if I finished, but I completed the task list and started mucking about the level, finding all sorts of odd landmarks like a blocked dirt wall and an army of octopi. I recorded my play session here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Va97xCPrq8
Thank you and thanks for the video! Very useful for seeing what went differently than I expected :)
I love the airborne grab
Love that the name is a pun and I am impressed by the marching cubes digging system you made.
Very nice
Dang that digging was satisfying, both the sfx and the graphics! I liked the eerie atmosphere a lot- having to bury the enemies you kill is a novel idea. I did get stuck at one point with not having a body to bury, but I still had a good time.
Ya I ran out of time trying to make the full game loop/chain here past the tutorial area. Was wanting to improve enemy design and make it more of a bullet hell that ramped up in a linear-ish level (goals of "bury N bodies" to get to the next area or a new gun and such)
Wow, the digging mechanic is fun! I have no idea how you implemented the mud covering effect, but it looks great. I've finished seven tasks on the list, though I’m not sure if I've actually finished the game yet.
The BGM on the website is good, but there's a little bit of noise. it’s not a big deal. I still enjoy the suspenseful atmosphere!
Thank you! Ya the audio multithreading would've fixed a lot of the glitching with the audio. The mud covering/digging is based on cellular automata kind of like falling sands/powder game.
I kind of ran out of time for what I wanted to add for the tasks. I wanted to add a "bury N bodies", "take out the octopus gang house", "check out the expressway" and such as a second objective list after "The Molt".