Cave Game

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What do you do after you make your own 3D Renderer? You use it to make a videogame, of course! Cave Game is an attempt to recreate an old Java applet game I used to play in the computer lab in high school. It was your basic cave flyer game but presented in first person rather than a 2D side view, making for an intense experience as the speed increases and the cave narrows.

The game features one-button gameplay: tap the screen to accelerate up, or release to let gravity pull you down. If you hit the top, bottom, or any obsticle, you lose. The caves are randomly generated, and your speed increases the longer you fly. The longer you fly, the more points you get. The fun is trying to set a high score while flying through an ever-shrinking cave at a faster and faster speed! Here’s a clip:

Remember The Helicopter Game? Flying a helicopter through a cave while dodging obstacles? Similar gameplay but in 2D.

Something similar is also found in the Stardew Valley fishing mini-game. Although in that game the fish moves randomly and you are trying to keep it inside the green bar, basically an inversion of a cave flyer game (and only in 1 dimension).

This illustrates something interesting about the Cave Game: it’s technically 1 dimensional game play (going up and down), in a 2 dimensional cave (you can see what’s ahead), presented in 3 dimensions. Wow, I feel dizzy.

Some details about the original

Since making this game, I’ve managed to find some details about the original, which was called 3D-SF Cave and developed by Sunflat.

Here’s a Jayisgames review of the original game from 2005.

I’ve also found a version of the original game on iPhone, available from the app store here (ad supported). Here’s a screenshot of that:

What’s next for Cave Game?

I would love to add a Cave of the Day feature where everyone competes for a high score on the same cave. Wordle inspired, obviously.

The cave generation algorithm could also be improved. I like how the original has ‘squeeze points’ periodically in the cave that the player must navigate (seen in orange above).