Version 0.01, made in 15 hours for Trijam #293 'At the bottom of the ocean'

Controls:

WASD / Arrow keys - Movement

Mouse cursors - Player direcion (BioLum rocks need to be looked at for the mining interface to activate)

F / Shift - Turn on/off torch

E / Space bar - Hold to begin mining, release to complete mining

P - Pause game

Oxygen supply - Red bar

Power supply - Yellow bar

Instructions:

Mine BioLum from the glowing ore deposits around the map and bring it back to your spawn point, the diving bell. From the diving bell you can recharge your oxygen and power, as well as see the whole map and how much BioLum you still need to mine.

Corrections facility form, please select an option or enter the requested number for all fields marked ' [ ] '

Attention, Convict [INSERT CONVICT NUMBER]. You have been transferred to penal colony Nautilus on the ocean planet Andarus 2-b. You will serve your sentence by descending into the depths and mining for BioLum.

Due to [YOUR DISPOSABILITY / EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES] we are only able to provide you with a damaged X-2 model of mining suit. While not intended for ocean floor use, the X-2 has a more than generous oxygen tank for 90 seconds of use and a small but helpful secondary battery that can power the headlamps for up to 15 seconds - simply return to the diving bell you arrived in to replenish your supplies automatically. The bell has unlimited power and 5 minutes worth of oxygen inside, along with a scanner that will show the wider area around you - flickering lights means there is BioLum to be mined!

Please note that the rumours of deep-sea giganticism having resulted in large and aggressive mega fauna on Andarus 2-b are [SCIENTIFICALLY CONFIRMED / COMPLETELY UNTRUE]. Just worry about keeping an eye on [YOUR OXYGEN SUPPLY / YOUR MOVEMENT SCANNER] and keep mining!

Lost in the dark? The X-2 comes pre-equipped with a state of the art digital breadcrumb trail - when you move, a green trail will flow back to the diving bell! Use it to follow your way home. When returning to the diving bell, your trail will freeze, allowing you to see where you have already explored and allow you to decide where best to mine next.

You will be sent down in your diving bell to a pre-identified plateau deep in the ocean - do not step off the edge, as we will [REFUSE TO / BE UNABLE TO] commit to a rescue - the Abyss is at present almost completely unmapped, as our depth probes have yet to find the bottom.

Do remember the value of different colors of BioLum, with the more valuable versions more likely to be found towards the edges of the plateau. However, these will prove more difficult for your X-2 mining suit to successfully extract.

Best of luck Convict [INSERT CONVICT NUMBER] and happy mining!

Development

What started with naive optimism ("I can finish my scope within 3 hours!") ballooned into a much larger effort over the weekend to have something to submit to Trijam. For better or worse, I absolutely fell in love with my idea of a mining game at the bottom of the ocean, with bioluminescence and extremely limited air + light.

The biggest learning opportunities for me game in the design/implementation of the minigame + the movement of the fish/monster. For the former, I had a good idea quite quickly of what I wanted, but implementation took some time to find a reliable method that gave accurate results based on players' inputs. For the latter, I still don't fully understand steering behaviors, but will revisit + update this project with improved pathfinding - for now, I'm quite proud of the state machine I managed to get in place and how well it works!