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Deep Blue
Deep Blue
By jiri-hysek
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 90 | 3.98 | 61 | |
| Fun | 367 | 3.45 | 61 | |
| Innovation | 578 | 2.98 | 61 | |
| Theme | 172 | 3.99 | 61 | |
| Graphics | 85 | 4.16 | 61 | |
| Audio | 94 | 3.86 | 59 | |
| Mood | 16 | 4.37 | 61 | |
Comments
The game looks fantastic! Great job at letting simplicity work for you. The lighting effects do such a good job at setting the tone with the silhouettes. The set piece at the end felt like a reward to see it.
The monsters look awesome, but I wish their movement matched a little better. It was clear the eel-tailed one was going to be faster just by looking at (nice work there). But I was surprised how close I could get to the first "shark" without it attacking and I couldn't tell if the big angler was using its light to spot me or not.
It might have been helpful to explain the dash mechanic closer to when it's needed the first time. I died a couple times before remembering I could do that. Thanks for the checkpoints though!
@goodgamesjames Thanks a lot! I'm glad you like the look of the game and also that you made it to the endQ You the first player apart of me who gived me a feedback. So I didn't know if it isn't too hard but I putted about 7 checkpoints there so I should be fine :)
Yeah, you're right with the shark - they have 3 rays and I putted them im wider angles to let the shark charge into the player that is a bit more above or below. But if you fit between the rays, it cannot notice you. Anyway, since they are the first enemies you encouter in the game, it's not that bad that they are more forgiving..
kromeboy
2021-04-26 09:53
Game is whell paced and and the level design in great.
Completed in a few try. The big fish is really scary
incd021
2021-04-26 13:16
Scared the shit out of me, multiple times.. I Like it! Glad you included safe-points, it would have been hell without, thanks. The mood is amazing, music and graphics gives a real claustrophobic feel. Top marks from here. Great work!
boltkey
2021-04-26 17:45
I want my money back, the fish can fly in the sky.
Pretty scary and well polished. Controls don't work in webgl version.
@boltkey really? What browser and OS? I played webgl version several times... those web browsers :-/
msipp27
2021-04-26 18:38
Really really hard, can't get past the second group of dash fish
trexxak
2021-04-27 00:05
Yeah, the first angler really knows how to punish your greed and shock you with his swiftness :D
I made it to the station, and all in all - this is very atmospheric! If there was a nitpick, it would be that the controls sometimes feel a bit 'wonk' and the reach of the big fish feels arbitrary at first.
Other than that though very nice stealth-like game!
2021-04-27 10:17
Scary game! I included it in my compilation video series of a bunch of LDJAM games! https://youtu.be/5_7QHLz41l4
@msipp27 sorry to hear that - the difficulty is always hard to balance in the jam games. What's too easy for someone, it's too hard for someone else.
Anyway, the easiest way to pass the first group of sharks if to move to the very top of the cave, they cannot see you there :)
lomna
2021-04-27 12:18
Great lighting effects. The game reminded me of Limbo. The atmosphere is great.
enderr42
2021-04-27 21:55
That first shark attack..... The atmosphere in this is awesome, great job!
This is so cool and moody. I loved how it kept getting dark and darker and the contrasts got better and better. Thank you so much for not punishing me for dying so much and not having to go all the way back. Checkpoints made for a great experience. :D
stin
2021-04-28 11:34
Cool mechanics but graphic could be better
Subnautica vibe, love it :smile:
I like you made your game feel deep and dark while having the main play area pretty bright and easy to see. Great choices of color!
I like the simple/stylish visuals. The gameplay is also pretty simple and easy to understand.
I think the most constructive feedback I could give is, dying from low oxygen felt like it happened out of no where. Some kind of obvious warning, or animation could help with that. Maybe if the flashlight flickers at low levels, and turned off on death that would help?
Overall a good entry! good job!
pfs
2021-04-28 12:38
Really nice graphics. I especially like the lights! The detection range for the big fishes seems a bit unpredictable though. Great game overall, well done.
@ismael-rodriguez Thanks for your feedback, I also think that oxygen deserves more balancing (no time unfortunately, I was messing with post processing instead :D) Player also could have more oxygen to be able to dash more often. Well.. at least checkpoints worked pretty well :)
@jiri-hysek YES The checkpoints were great! I forgot to mention that, definitely a good idea to have those player friendly checkpoints! And also, leaning into that dash ability could have opened up the game to be a little more fun.. But understandable considering the time limits. Definitely a good job though!
todward
2021-04-28 18:47
Man I liked the scary mood of the game. Reminds me of the underwater Level of "Commander Keen 4" only much much darker. Great work!
Extremely polished! I love the visuals and the music compliments them beautifully. The game is engaging and bountiful checkpoint do not make it frustrating when you die :smile:
I'm quite sure I managed to bug the second big angler fish out of existence! When I lunged at me, I hid back into the narrow corridor I came from, quickly. And the big fish just... disappeared. Hit the wall and was erased from existence! I have magical powers! All fish tremble before my might :wink:
Overall, it's a really impressive piece of solo work!
PS. We made our game in Godot as well and there are also problems with HTML build. All the shaders just disappear in it, like they are not even put in the build. No idea why. But we decided not to post HTML build this year at all because of it.
The moodiness in this game was awesome!
Also, thanks a lot for making checkpoints I've been playing my frustrated way through way too many games without it.
I saw you wrote it in the description, but I missed the fact that bursting used a lot of oxygen. At first I though I was dying because I ran too fast into a wall. In any case I figured it out after a while then felt a bit stupid.
In any case, really cool visual style. And I simply love all the creepy fishes. Good job!
Very spooky game. Every new predator fish scared me more than the previous one and when I thought I could no longer be scared the giant fish with the lightbulb jumped on me. It also adds to the mood that the water gets blacker as you go deeper. The only thing that I disliked a bit in your game was that when you turn your body when going downwards the flashlight goes all the way around you. A great game besides that, one of the best I've played this jam.
iluvatar
2021-04-29 15:22
Wow, this was damn scary. I really love the atmosphere in this game, the graphics and sound is just amazing. I really felt suspense when I was swimming around the predatory fish. And hell, some passages were hard! But that's a good thing. Amazing entry. I am just afraid not everyone managed to finish this game, because in some parts it felt really challenging.
fl
2021-04-29 15:43
Beautiful game! I wish that the game have more gameplay on "very darkness" lighting.
yngvarr
2021-04-29 17:09
Nice work on mood, this game's audio and graphics are superb! I really want to dive into its sources to wrap my head around all the lighting tricks you've used. :)
As for gameplay, well, the game seems extremely unfair. Not only it takes very much oxygen to dash, the character dies instantly without it, giving up chances to collect the oxygen tank by inertia. And once predator spotted me with its tail. 0_o
Despite that, the game is gorgeous! And it was an interesting experience to have. :thumbsup: I've recorded a playthrough if you're interested:
https://youtu.be/PpbkM6dojYM
@yngvarr great playthrough, thank you! Very smart overcome of the first shark ;) I can see from the playthrough and other feedback that players would like to use dash more often. I agree it would be more fun. If I had time for some playtesting, I'd probably give players more oxygen.
The fish didn't spotted you by the tail - it just turned around and instantly spotted you. Turning around is instant and there is unfortunately also no timeout between detecting a player and attacking. So the fish turned around and instantly attacked you. I could balance this better as well.. but one can never simply do everything in the compo :)
Lightning effects are achieved just by standard Light2D and a little fiddling with WorldEnvironment :)
preda
2021-04-30 11:15
I really like the mood and lighting as a whole
jin9310
2021-04-30 17:40
The atmosphere is really on top notch level! I am really glad that you have included so many checkpoints! Really great entry and deep down there it can be really scary. And the end?! Love it! Really great job done!
This was a really nice atmospheric game! The creatures did give jump scares! The way they lerped to you was scary though felt a bit harsh from a gameplay sense. Really enjoyed the choice of colours, and how the torch became more useful the deeper you got.
extar
2021-05-01 13:17
Very stylish. There was some odd collision with the enemies and the way the diver's torch totally changed direction and when just tapping the movement keys was a bit annoying. Minor negatives out of the way, I really enjoyed the murky look of the game. The shadows, dark environments and especially the music really set the mood well. The character design was really cool too, those are some pretty scary sea creatures. :)
lereveur
2021-05-01 17:42
Very nice arteworks and mood! Gameplay is well balanced, and I managed to finish, so, very well done!
Wow! Very intense, and excellent use of silhouette and sounds to build tension. It was tricky, but thanks to the checkpoints I did get through it!
[Thank you for the submitting the game to the stream. If you want to rewatch the feedback, you can do so here.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1008357028?t=03h14m23s)
Really nice game. Got some great stealth/horror vibes going on.
Also really happy with all the checkpoints.
filgru
2021-05-03 21:41
Woow!! It's a quite scary game!! It's got atmosphere like "Limbo". Really cool music and sounds! I like how light casts shadows there. Pretty scary/nice looking design of the fish! The animation of the diver could be more flexible. But it works anyway as it is:) Very good controls, game is nicely balanced. Good idea with picking up the oxygen on the way down deeper and deeper! I enjoyed playing this game a lot!! Great work!
johnnyjw
2021-05-03 22:13
Really amazing game might be one of the best entries I've seen in a long time. The graphics fit the game perfectly and the simplicity was great for a compo. The light mechanic was also really cool. I was gonna say I would like it to be used more for strategy but you did that near the end of the game so job well done. It also seems really complete all the wat up to the ending animation. Very well done!
starerik
2021-05-03 22:27
Oh, god! The scares actually got me. Very atmospheric, and the sound design got me at the edge of my seat. Generous checkpoints, which is welcome! Very well done!
Really impressive for a solo 48-hour effort! The lighting and sounds are all spot on. I do wish the music didn't start over every time you died.
The controls are tight, but I noticed if you're swimming down and to the right and want to start swimming down and to the left, the diver will do a complete spin around instead of just changing the angle to the new direction. It didn't affect my experience in any way, just thought it was a funny quirk.
But yeah, very nice work!
What a great Game.
The Mood, Flair and Atmosphere is sooo Intense. I really loved the Game and got scared 2 or 3 Times. The Lighting Effects where on Point and the Graphic was on Point.
I really want to know why the big fishys are there and what is down there in that underwater Station.
Well Done, Really Good Job
Amazing game! I really enjoyed playing it! I finished the game and I think you did a great job (especially with the compo rules). The graphics are great and I love how all objects have a small swirling effect from the water. The colour theme is great (especially with how the light works with everything) and all the visuals come together consistently. The game was of good length and I really liked how you posted that zoomed out view of the map on Ludum Dare's main page. The gameplay was smooth and was appropriately tense. The controls were simple which meant the player could be more creative about how they navigated the map. The atmosphere was spectacular too!
The only thing that confused me was when the second massive fish with the light in front of it attacked me, I either respawned in a place I didn't recognise (I couldn't tell if I had died or dodged it) or it pushed me somewhere I didn't know, but that didn't stop me from getting to the end. Also, sometimes the character would spin in the opposite direction to obtain your desired look direction which was a small pain. For example, if you were moving south-east and changed to moving south-west by releasing the "D" key and pressing the "A" key, the player would rotate anti-clockwise (270 degrees) instead of the shorter clockwise (90 degrees). This meant the light was pointing in the wrong direction for a second so it was harder to see where you were going. But these are very small things to point out. Overall, 5 stars by a mile!
madorly
2021-05-06 01:45
I really liked the game, such a cool ambiance! The graphics, the music and the sound design worked really well together, the lighting was stunning! I really enjoyed my dive, good job!
I had some trouble understanding when the fishes will attack me (did they spot me with my flashlight or something else?) but it didn't prevent me finishing the game.
Great little game! I made it all the way to the end! (Let's not talk about how many deaths it took me to get there *ahem*) The graphics, while minimalistic, were well executed (that flashlight glow!) and beautiful in their own way, the sound contributed well to the mood and the atmosphere! Wow!
justcamh
2021-05-09 01:30
Hey matey, thanks for submitting your game to the stream! I really enjoyed it, and I hope the feedback was helpful. Here's the vod if you wanna rewatch:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1015379431
icxon
2021-05-09 06:32
Great visuals and pretty balanced timings for a compo game! Jump scares are the best when they are not just unexpected out from nowhere (in many horrors) but you can clearly see how to avoid them and they are still scary, like in this exact game. :shark:
Here is my playthrough:
https://youtu.be/YQV4v15EaA8
Cool ambiance, terrible hitboxes. The eating animation sometimes snaps my guy back after he is already out of the way - this is the Dark Souls of fish stealth games! My suggestion is mouse-based or analog-stick steering with free 360° movement.
qyouk
2021-05-14 14:34
The visuals are stunning and the level design is pretty good! But the hitboxes are way to unforgiving and the game become frustrating really quickly. This is enforced by the fact that the controls, even if they're not bad, don't really fit the dodge/dash mechanics. So with some little changes, I think this game could be great, it has a lot of potential! I hope you'll keep working on it in the future! Good job!