Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Solar Subs
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 377 | 3.84 | 74 | |
| Fun | 620 | 3.53 | 73 | |
| Innovation | 250 | 3.87 | 73 | |
| Theme | 227 | 4.14 | 73 | |
| Graphics | 623 | 3.91 | 73 | |
| Audio | 190 | 3.98 | 73 | |
| Humor | 968 | 2.59 | 56 | |
| Mood | 368 | 3.93 | 73 |
Great artwork. Is there an end to the game because I couldn't get much further once I reached the pitch black levels?
Some submarines would spawn on the edge of the screen, with only half of it visible. Might be one of the browser-only bug tho. Maybe restricting the submarines so the'y can't spawn so far from the middle could fix it tho.
But definitely an enjoyable experience :)
Pretty good! Sometimes the subs would spawn ontop of each other so I would just have to randomly click around the screen. Other than that, great jam game! :smile:
Really like the use of the light! And the transitions are well done! The levels where you can't see anything except where the light is projected was a nice touch, it really evolved the mechanic! Good job!
This is a genious concept, and would make for a fun full game with a little more polish.
Great work. Best score I got was 55!
Really like the art style! The levels getting darker and darker really was great but the pitch black one is just toooooo spooky ;) Great job
High score is 36 so far. Really nice work. It got a little too hard to notice the subs further down but I guess that's the point lol. I kinda wish there was a penalty for clicking the fish. More fish which sort of look like subs and a shorter time limit would make things more urgent for sure. Still, a really nice game as is. Love the mood the graphics created
Really great atmosphere, great concept. This was fun to play! Only feedback is sometimes the subs would appear half off the screen but that could have been a webGL thing. Great job!
Super awesome, innovative gameplay! I love how it gets darker and darker, it's all very moody and tense by the end. I especially liked the lighting effects and the sound design.
Great submission, love the lighting and atmosphere, the 2D shadows were really nice too!
Very atmospheric! Clicking on the subs and hearing the little noises was very calming and cathartic after the chaos of the JAM lol.
great stuff!
good atmosphere, music and art! the only thing is that it is a chill game with a chronometre so feelings are mixed lol
Great music and atmosphere, and I found the gameplay very original and dynamic. An extended version of this would be perfect for mobile phones.
Just did a few runs of your game, very zen! if I had to suggest something it'd be an option to skip straight to the fully dark levels. Also just an idea: how neat would it be if there were some things like hostile fishes that you shouldn't light up? so you had to pivot all around them. Start it off as the anglers that you can see during the light, then have stealthy hostile fishies that hide in the dark till you shine on em :D
hi, I like the atmosphere and mood. The music is great and the game looks nice. I had trouble with the screen size.
I love it, the gameplay is simple but really fun! Atmosphere, graphics, audio, effects, they're all brilliant, so I only have 2 suggestions:
1. The subs appear randomly, right? I'd add a piece of code that makes sure they're not too close together, and if that already exists, maybe increase it a little, i had ships nearly on each other which made the second one really hard to spot
2. Progression! there's lots of room for "upgrades", like a bigger light which would be useful in the darker levels, perhaps more time, etc
ASMR game, love it! Seriously though, this is a great entry. I had some trouble with the play area being larger than my browser window so had to scroll a few times... Loved how it got super dark. Unique puzzle mechanic. Great compo entry!
You nailed it @Simpathey!!! Great entry. Play area is larger than the browser window so I had to full screen to run properly, but I still enjoyed it!
Really nice game, only got 42 but had a bunch of fun playing it. I have only two concerns:
1) You have to actually click on the sub to power it. At the beginning I was using the mouse only to "direct" the light but it didn't work until I clicked in the actual sub. I think only using the mouse for direction would be nicer.
2) Playing in the Itch.io page, sometimes a sub would spawn beneath itch's buttons and I couldn't click. If I put fullscreen (I have a 3444x1440 monitor) I couldn't see the time.Screenshot_2.png
Besides this two little things, awesome game. Really enjoyed playing it. Congrats :smile:
I got a high score of 60! Only because I'm a dirty cheater who exploits bugs by double clicking the subs in the web build. -10 internet points to me. But back to the game, The light and shadow effects were great! I loved watching the creatures swim past my light. I only wished there was a to slow down and enjoy the visuals while also preserving the high score competitiveness. Maybe a free play mode with no timer?
Very cool visual style and fun, relaxed gameplay. It would've been cool if you didn't need to click the actual sub but instead just point the light and click anywhere. The atmosphere and soundscape was really chill. I really liked this game and could see myself playing a longer version with different environments and maybe playing against clock could be replaced with some more puzzley aspects. Maybe reflecting the light around obstacles that otherwise block it and such? Great concept :)
A unique take on the Deeper and Deeper submarine theme; the art and audio is lovely.
Very original idea! I loved to play this game! :heart: However I would like to play more levels! There's a limited time and after to try something about 10 times the best result I got was 54... That's a good score?
Great game! Keep it alive! Well done guys ::clap: :clap: :clap:
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The gameplay is really cool and fluid ! Love it. Great job
Great atmosphere in this game, music is perfectly boosting it, good job.
very nice, I got a score of 44! It gets much harder once it gets pitch black, but I also like the slow progression for it getting darker and darker. Makes me feel like there could be some story in there if you can get to the bottom. Two things from me is having to click on the sub (though I guess that can prevent random clicking), and sometimes the sub will spawn near a sub or spawn in the light (it'll be nice if the subs also faded in or so rather than just popping in). I really liked the atmosphere and the lighting, nice job!
Love the art style and music! Very interesting take on the theme!
Excellent game. The visuals of the flashlight are really cool since they allow you to see silhouettes but not color. Overall mood was great. I would really like to see this expanded on post-jam. Obstacles that block light would be cool, or a mechanic where your accuracy of click influences how much light gets passed on to the next sub so it adds conflict between speed and accuracy. Really well done.
Visuals: There's quite a few sub games during this Jam/Compo - this one is my favorite visually. The sunlight effect is well done, and visually looks striking when fish pass by to block your beams. That and the small touch of particle effects in the water gives a good full vibe to the game.
Music: You nailed the music! Great underwater vibes and an immersive theme.
Game mechanics: Simple but interesting mechanic to play through. On a longer challenge the only thing I can possibly think of adding is maybe mirrors or ways to make the shining between two submarines a bit more complex.
Only confusion: Without reading the instructions I was confused on what to do for a while. I kinda just shined the light on the sub. A lot of bad ADHD gamers like me miss instructions so maybe a little pop up on the first sub that said "click" would've resolved that. Not a big deal.
Overall, great job executing the theme and style of this game. You both should be proud!
I still haven't gotten tired of deep sea lighting. It looks great.
Managed to get to 56 total. Very solid take on the theme and mechanics to match. Once it was too dark to see everything at once it very much felt like I was getting deeper.
Nice ambient soundtrack as well. Good job!
That's a really good concept that embraces the theme like I rarely saw. The concept is simple, yet fun, the art is good, the ambiance fits well... I want that game on my smartphone !
Really fun game! I really liked it a lot! I only have a comment, I sometimes had a hard time finding the new submarine when it appeared in an already lit place (specially in the darker levels) because my brain assumed I already clicked it. Besides that, it's a really good and cute game!
My highscore: (Almost nice) image_2021-04-29_183115.png
Also, thank you @simpathey for playing my game on your stream!
Very cool idea for a game. The mood and ambiance are spot on. The first few levels are very easy, which is necessary for getting your head around the mechanic, which is simple, but takes a few subs to lock in. Once the world goes Dark, the real fun begins. Perfectly executed, no bugs that I could see. Wonderful little game that I will definitely play more.
Thank you so much for bringing this by my stream. I had to break the VOD link into two because I lost my connection in the middle of playing. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1004676947?t=0h50m8s https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1004703239?t=0h2m45s
I'll see you on twitch sometime soon.
I really like this, the difficulty ramps up so well once the daylight runs out, but the visibility of all subs in the early stages really makes it easy to pick up on the puzzles before getting thrown into the deep end.
Good concept, good art, and the music and sfx fit the mood perfectly.
Simple gameplay, but very fun! I exploited a bug where I clicked desperately on a fish and it activated the next one, so I got a dirty score of 88 :P. The graphics and the audio are very good! But maybe if it didn't have this bug and if it had a ranking at the end, the game could be more interesting to play.
Straightforward gameplay and concept that follows the theme, the music was very fitting, all round solid entry.
This is a very professional game. I like how you used the brightness to make each level feel like you were diving deeper and deeper into the dark. When I started to get in to the larger/deeper areas the sounds and visuals reinforced the idea that I was decending into the ocean. Your early levels were well balanced to teach the player how to engage with the game without being condecending or taking the player out of the experience. It reminds me more of the flow of Mario where the player naturally starts engaging and by playing you learn how to play. Its really impressive that it was created in a weekend.
I know you developed this for Windows, but I think this would be such a fun table game or something on the Switch where you can turn the ship in a circle with your finger and feel more natural with exploring the deepth. There was something about using a mouse that took me out of the illusion that I was decending the ocean.
I hope that you continue to work on this!
Really good game ! :heart: The music fits and the graphic are great :))
I like how both our games are submarine based but play very different hahaha. Thanks for submitting it! -PomoTheDog
Interesting idea, love the lighting effects. The graphics and sounds are great. Good job!
A simple and interesting concept. The graphic is simple and welcoming. The soundtrack captured me! This atmosphere of mantra abyssal environment makes all the difference. I really liked it. If I were to change anything it would be that a submarine could not appear in the light of another. In the logic of the game it would not make sense for the submarine to be in the light of the other and not to energize itself.
Congratulations to the team for the game.
Congratulations for the game, I loved the mechanics and the challenge that you managed to generate, my suggestion for future upgrades would be not to make the light so harsh, and if possible to put a blue layer in front of all semi-transparent to keep the background feature embarrassed sea, I am very happy to have participated in this Ludum, and to have met such nice and talented people, a big hug from a Brazilian man with bad English, but with a good heart.
Really cool game, the concept was easy to grasp and addicting to play! Great atmosphere too!
The audio ambience was the biggest attraction here. However the game itself is not very creative.
My first score ended up being a 49, though I wonder if I could improve that with a little more practice.
I want to first address the gameplay side itself, ignoring presentation-- it's a real neat concept, and executed fairly well. The game getting darker with further depth naturally makes the actual gameplay loop harder to score on, and the player getting more hurried/frantic hardly helps with scoring those final points before the timer runs out. It carries that theme of going deeper brilliantly. Overall I have very little to report, it just works as intended and I never ran into problems with the rotation or the sub registering. Maybe a small light pulse from the sub might have been nice purely for some kind of validation on a successful click, but that's nitpicking.
It is just a sort of clicker game of sorts at the end of the day, which would still be fine as it's working as intended and still has some sense of difficulty/progression. It's just a solid game through and through, and I feel like there's potential going either way-- it's solid enough as an arcade game, and could probably be expanded on for a more traditional title as well. That said, calling it "serviceable" doesn't do it justice after bringing presentation into this.
The art, audio, etc. had to be addressed on its own-- the ambient score, the tones on click, the simple sprites and light masking, the 2D shadows, the particles and background objects that distract the player-- it all comes together for something spectacular. The music score reminds me of something I wrote a while back on a _good day_, but with way more polish and actually fitting into the game's atmosphere. It feels like you used every hour of the jam to _master_ the atmosphere. I love that background audio that's somewhere between a distant siren and a space pad-- it makes just enough of a tune to be distinguishable, but blends into that atmosphere so perfectly. Just... bravo.
As for criticisms... it just comes down to the WebGL build. I was entirely unable to play it due to scaling problems. I won't let that affect my opinion of the game as I know fully well that Unity's Web Player is a total toss-up.
Everything about this feels perfectly scoped, perfectly executed, and finely crafted. Excellent job!