norris-eldridge 2021-04-26 23:29
Great first game and great entry! The submarine and all the other assets look great! The level background is a bit boxy but this is an awesome first game :)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Dangerous Depths
By mololo
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1625 | 3.01 | 60 | |
| Fun | 1393 | 3.01 | 61 | |
| Innovation | 1847 | 2.25 | 58 | |
| Theme | 726 | 3.78 | 59 | |
| Graphics | 1478 | 3.05 | 59 | |
| Humor | 1298 | 2.15 | 47 | |
| Mood | 1696 | 2.64 | 58 |
Great first game and great entry! The submarine and all the other assets look great! The level background is a bit boxy but this is an awesome first game :)
The solid color background is bland. Maybe draw a repeating image for the background? Add seaweed, clams, fish and other details.
I like how the sub and explosive mines look.
The mystery boxes are a nice addition, but I rarely get them since I can't steer my sub towards them fast enough.
The gameplay lacks variety. Perhaps add moving explosive mines. How about a button to slow down the sub? That could require fuel. Collecting fuel could be another part of the game.
Nevertheless, for a first game this is pretty good considering the time constraints.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I was aware of the lack of background details and @patrickjr I was thinking about the possibility to slow down the sub using some collectible fuel but didn't have enough time to implement it.
I had many ideas that I had to leave aside, but I plan to continue working on this game and add the missing pieces.
A small indication what will come, would be nice
Looking great here, good feel of a game, interesting concept.
I thought that the game mechanics could have been more interesting. I liked the mystery boxes. It could have used to music outside the title screen.
Great game, my best score was 5573. The 3d model of the submarine is really great. Are the mines placed randomly? The algorithm is really good if so. It feels very fair, and when I died I know if I was a bit better I could have dodged it. For improvement suggestions : Maybe make the camera zoom out just a touch when you get the speed boost(or decrease the speed multiplier). After a few play throughs I figured I should avoid the mystery boxes because it was basically guaranteed death if I got the speed boost, because there was so little time to react. It was up to chance if a mine was in my way while it was triggered.
Overall, great first attempt. I like the models and the sounds, though I also think the uniform 2D background is somewhat bland, especially given the more detailed models in front of it.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
@adam-k everything is generated randomly (including the mines and the mystery boxes) with more mines the deeper you go.
The mystery boxes were designed to either help or try to kill you, it's up to the player if they want to take a risk :)
It doesn't look like it, but it's insanely hard. It's either based on pure luck or on your split-second reaction time. I happened to collect a box and it made me go even faster. I really thought the boxes gave you something *positive*.
The positive from the boxes are the slow boost and the rocket boost(when the submarine nose is pointing downwards).
The box that made you go faster, if it was the rocket boost(submarine nose pointing downwards), had also immunity to bombs for 3 seconds.
That's harder than I thought, but it's absolutely great! All in all it's a nice game. Good job!
Congrats on your first Ludum Dare! And welcome to the nasty world of UI scaling issues :sweat_smile: You might want to check your UI canvas scaling: I would guess that it's set to "Constant pixel size", which makes it look a bit odd on a larger display. But anyway, cool game, keep it up!
DangerousDepthsUIScalingIssue.png
This is great for your fist game design! I enjoyed it, you could also add some visual effects when you hit the bombs!
Thanks for the feedback guys.
@arttu-halonen yes I had so much trouble with the UI scaling, in unity was looking perfect but when I uploaded the game, some texts were outside of the screen. I had to fix and upload it 4 times until I got it to look good on my screen :sweat_smile:
@behdad will do in future updates
Very solid for a first! Everything works as it should, looks like anything that was really missing would have been ironed out with another day or two of extra time. Glad you put in a reset key - flew off the side of the map at the start just to see if you could
never actually managed to pick up one of the boxes, didnt quite have the reaction speed to divert course in time. could have helped to give the player some extra control over their descent rate? otherwise, nice sub mission submission
Well done. Some things I would tweak is to position camera that you could see more underneath and that game over sound really caught me off guard, a more subtle volume for that would be great.
Congrats on your first game! We ended up having very similar ideas, I knew I wouldn't be the only one to think deep means submarine, but it's interesting to see the different variations. I think it would help the game if you could make the player and enemies smaller (or pull the camera further) to give players more reaction time.
I like the random box, I think it should appear way more, because they are what spice up the game so you should really take advantage of it.
Simple, clean and really fun! The tutorial is beautiful, as so it is the game itself.
Mechanics are simple to get, and i don't know if has a end, but i couldn't pass the 4k. Nice toutch with the small light on player, by the way!
Thanks for the feedback guys, I will consider your suggestions and try to implement them in a future update.
Nice job, would be nice to move the player up a bit or zoom out a bit. Also it's possible to move at the beginning to get outside the map bounds :smile:
@cyanilux, yeah tought I fixed that by adding some barriers, but somehow I managed to remove them.
I guess to much ctrl + z trying to fix some UI stuff and didn't realize it removed the barriers(they were invisible). :sweat_smile:
hello, for a first game it's really good =) I enjoyed playing it. Now the bad things :p : the power ups are impossible to catch if were not close to her that's not a rlly good thing. Miss a little more of graphism ( good submarine ;) )
Simple but clean. Congratz for your first game !
Good first game, now some recommendations to improve it:
- Give us a small signal (maybe at the bottom) when we are close to a debuff/buff. - It falls very quickly maybe some control to slow it down or speed it up. - zoom out a little bit more, or the capacity to zoom and zoom out.
Welcome to the madness of LD. Hope you had fun.
Thanks for the feedback.
@binaryprinciple, @globulous thanks for the suggestions, I will try to implement them in the future.
And yes I had a lot of fun making the game :smile:.
Fun game, cool music in menu.
Nice game! For a first a game jam it is really good and I really appreciate the tutorial in game and the effort with sounds and music. The submarine and the boxes remind me my childhood with crash bandicoot on PS1! I think you can tweak the speed progression to manage the challenge and encourage player to take a risk and to be rewarded. Also adding some layers of visuals effect and sounds effects you can improve your game feel when you're going deeper and deeper in the oceans. Great job and keep going :smile:
Great first entry. My only recommendation move the camera down a bit, so that the sub is more in the top of the screen. That way we can have more time to see what is coming and actually manage to take the buffs. Continue the great work.
Nice simple concept. good to play once or twice. I would move the camera up a little, so the player would be more active and less reactive. but overall really nice!
Thanks for the feedback guys, great suggestions, I will try to implement them in the future.
Simple, but tried and true formula. As a few people have commented, I found the speed boosts to be a hindrance, rather than a benefit.
The models were nice, but the background could have used a little something to show movement.
Really nice job finishing your first game! My first finished game was also in a jam years ago!
Thanks for the feedback @andrewkennedy, the speed boost is supposed to be a debuff(makes it hader to dodge), but if you are lucky enough and dont hit a mine, its a nice increase in meters.
So it can be helpfull early(since there are fewer mines, and it can help you go deeper faster), but very harmfull the deeper you go.
Sub model is cute, though, the camera is too-zoomed in and it is super hard to avoid mines the deeper you go and collect any of the power-ups, maybe some pointer/indicator showing where power-ups are coming could help with that, on the other hand, moving the sub to be at the top of the screen seems like a good approach also. That said, great first entry!
Solid game, simple but engaging. My only comment is that the mystery box are difficult to predict, and when player see them it's almost too late to reach them in time, like @buckmeister mentioned. Otherwise, good job!
Thanks for the feedback guys, I will try to implement them in the future.
Nice game. Congratulations. I would recommend to move submarine to the top of screen. In this case player will have more time to react.
Pretty fun game, really liked the fast paced nature of it! Like the others here, I would also recommend adjusting the camera such that the submarine is in the top of the image. Just to make it easier to see what's coming.
High Fives for your first game and first LD. Keep it up!
Hello, friend! I like the idea and mechanics of your game, the music and the graphics themselves are just great!
The only thing - at the very beginning, if you sharply go left or right - you can jump out of the "reservoir" and go down through the void endlessly, filling the score. You definitely need to solve this problem - put invisible walls or just limit the scene! 7BJRpq3cJg0.jpg
Good job, congratulations on your first game and your first LD!
The controls were good and I liked how the submarine turned! Also cute music and nice simple graphics.
The view ahead was fairly limited and I think it would be a bit more fair to have the camera have the submarine higher in the screen.
Thanks, for the feedback guys.
@pnikav there were barriers, but somehow I managed to delete them, without knowing :sweat_smile:
I'm not quite sure if I'm allowed to fix it now.
Very nice simple game although moving the character up towards the top of the screen so the player has more time to react to the mines might make it a bit more skill based and lead to less random deaths.
Nice liitle game , maybe a little details in the background will make it cooler , Good work
Nice simple gane with cool graphics
Great work on your first LD entry! At first I thought the submarine moves way to fast but you adapt to the speed pretty fast and then it is fine. One thing I would suggest is to make it visible which powerup a mystery box is. Speed boost and slow boost pretty much compensate each other and decrease the value of the mystery box. Though the rocket boost is still good enough to be motivated to collect the boxes
Fun game!
This is a great first game. The controls were responsive and the reaction time from the submarine to the bottom of the screen was pretty well-balanced. It did seem to me that the power-up blocks were actually something to be avoided, as they have a 66% chance of speeding you up which is nearly always suicidal (the rocket one does grant invulnerability but it can still drop you off right in front of a mine and leave you with no time to get out of the way).
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Great Artwork on the Submarine and Mines. I do think the UI could've used some as well as the environment background. Sound was nice and music was pretty great. Good Work!
Great concept and art! In terms of gameplay I didn't feel very enganged, probably because I only had two options, going left or right, and they were pretty similar. It would be a bit more interesting if, for example, you could use the boosts voluntarily, instead of instantaneously. It's great to have the sfx, makes the experience much better, keep it going!
Thanks for the feedback guys and @vetu11 great idea, I will keep that in mind for future updates.
Pretty game! The idea is good, so simple, but so cool) I like the light on the depth)
I liked the 3D lowpoly style graphic and the idea of going deeper and deeper with your submarine. Good game!
Nice fun entry! I would have loved to be able to see a LITTLE bit further, I normally didn't have time to react to mystery boxes except if they were really close to me.
I think the art is quite well done, but would have loved some more details for the borders on the side (rocks or something).
Good first entry!
Thanks for the feedback guys.
@nsadie I planned to add some scenery but didn't have enough time :smile:
This was a fun little game! I would have liked if the camera looked a little bit further ahead, since things behind me are kind of useless to know about but more ability to look ahead would have helped. I'm not a huge fan of the mystery boxes being hard to reach but sometimes having a negative affect. It seems like its safer and more reliable to get a high score by avoiding the boxes just like the mines because of the chance of getting a negative. It could be interesting to have subtle differences (not too subtle) between 2 different kinds of box that give good/bad pickups so that observant players can make an informed choice. Randomly getting something that screws you over isn't super fun. I like the core concepts here, and things looked visually great and clear. Really solid work for a first jam/game!
Got to 5100. Only real critique i have is that the camera should be placed a bit lower so that you can more easily see what's coming.
Nice graphics and animation in this. Very simple game mechanics, it'd be nice if there was more variety in the speed which you descend or if there was more inertia to the submarine as it moved. It fits the theme very nicely. Also, I really appreciate you making the game run in-browser, big convenience points. Cool game :)
Thanks for the feedback guys
I like the 3D effect when the submarine rotates. Gameplay wise, I had a hard time picking up any crates. I felt it started out a bit too fast, perhaps?
Thanks for the feedback @tkers, guess you are right. At the time I was making the game it felt easy to me and not that fast, maybe because I playtested a lot :smile:.
Congratulations on your first game. I liked the graphics and the idea, it fitted with the theme. I had difficult in see and avoid the bombs or collect the mysterious boxes. Maybe it is interesting to slow down the obstacles at the beginning of the game, or to change the position of the camera, to see the obstacles better. I loved the detail of the submarine's light turn on when it reaches a certain depth.
Nice jam entry and first game too! A lot of people have already given the feedback I would point out, so I'll just say I appreciate the visual indicators of the powerups and sound effects! I've seen a couple games that reward powerups, but don't communicate their effect well (especially if they are subtle) And I like that you keep the high score visible too so the player knows what they are trying to beat
Great start, keep it up!