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swooty 2025-04-08 21:58

I think this is a really cool idea, especially with the latency thing. Really sells the whole remote/inacessible vibe of the deep. The graphics and concept really impose that threatening presence the deep has, so well done on that. Even though a lot of aspects of the visuals are simple, it's all effectively done, and sold well by the post processing.

Overall with these visuals and the concept, I think you totally nailed the theme, while also conveying the mood of deep exploration.

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My main issue with this is with the way the sub moves. When you move left/right, it quickly depletes all of your vertical momentum, but this doesn't happen the other way around to the horizontal movement. What keeps happening is you'll be descending, you'll scootch a bit to the side, and all of the sudden, you lose all vertical speed, while your horizontal speed is normal.

It makes things often feel stuck, or "locked up". Doesn't feel great to move around. The best comparison I can think of is trying to move a shopping cart sideways, with the wheels just scraping on the floor.

This also makes it hard to get an intuitive sense of how the sub is going to move, which is an issue for your game concept in particular, because the player **needs** this sense to effectively navigate when the latency is high. All of my deaths were from the sub not moving in a way I expected.

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My other issue is just with the screen tilting effect. It is cool and helps sell the visuals, but it is tuned too high here. It's a bit disorienting/motion-sicky, and this is amplified by the issues with the sub controls when things are easily tilting while struggling to get the sub moving.

Finally my last small nitpick is I wish there were a bit more sounds here. A simple sine wave sonar ping. And also I still cannot figure out what that bloopy sound is supposed to mean. Is it a depth marker thing?

Overall I think this is such a cool concept, and when paired with the visuals, I think it's just a good piece of effective art. You should be very happy with how that came together. Nailed the theme, and is a neat idea.

I think if the sub's controls were more standard (with just simple velocity interpolation) then it would be a lot more enjoyable to play, and interact much better with your core mechanic.

Awesome stuff

jamesgames1000 2025-04-12 18:59

Fun concept, but I keep losing my signal how do I not do that?

jovialknoll 2025-04-12 19:01

I thought the visual effects and sonar sound fit in very nicely with the aesthetic you're building here. I didn't end up taking the time to collect everything but the game made me feel like I should just keep trying, was very compelling.

Possibly the deceleration on a moving sub (without buttons pressed) should be a little more, but overall I think it felt very good. I liked the UI displays giving me a ms count though that might mean less to some players, maybe that could be in addition to something like a visual showing the time delay (A circle being drawn in that amount of time? a bar filling up towards "one second" at max? unsure).

Great implementation of the theme, I love that the depth does something mechanically instead of just being the location.

mdsalomon 2025-04-12 19:13

This might be the most mechanically interesting game I've seen in the jam. Atmosphere was on point and the latency gimmick created some honest stress in the final parts of the game. Even the death screen was engaging. Was kinda shocked when the game just ended after collecting enough treasure, since there was still others to collect deeper still. Might be a bit too abrasive for more casual play, but I felt it was a solid experience that fit the theme perfectly.

thomz12 2025-04-19 11:25

@jamesgames1000 Thanks! You're probably losing signal because you hit the walls. Try to avoid touching them as even the slightest hit will crash your submarine! 💥

wo-ri-gou-le 2025-04-19 11:55

This is my best so far in ld57, absolutly outstanding! Sound, yesh! Graphic, brilliant! Gameplay，nice and brilliant. Vibe, super tense and hyper good and brilliant.

So I find the trick to qualify amount of movement by quicky press arrow buttons serveral times, some thing like 5 down 4 left, and wait for it to happen, there is almost no risk failing. But it still plays! And is even more fun when I did so.

Shaders are smart and effective, noise is the best, sfx is the same, I like how effective this game is and delivered everything alltogether in such polished form. Love it!

Also it's such good explaination on the theme!! Depths with latency? That's freaking genius

edit:Bruh is on self-made engine? Dude you are just so freaking cool guy that does not exist

oadt 2025-04-19 12:22

Simple gameplay idea, but the effects and controls were pretty fun! The distortion didn't feel overdone (at least to me). Cool work!

she-wrote 2025-04-19 18:04

This is a great compo game! The atmosphere is built so well, though it's slightly brought down by the very simplistic submarine art — I wish there were a few more details — and the coins, which feel a bit out of place. However, the 'don’t touch the edges' gameplay is super well done and fun, and the HUD is amazing. Great work!

jamesgames1000 2025-04-19 22:42

@thomz12 Yes that was it, I can't believe I didn't realize that was it XD

blackcat508 2025-04-20 06:38

absolutely amazing graphics and effects

asieke 2025-04-21 05:08

Digging the crtv aesthetic!

deformhead 2025-04-21 13:25

Really nice entry!

I lost so many times because of the leaderboard, I must admit... :see_no_evil:

God job! :clap:

fireye 2025-04-23 02:47

The leaderboard was a great touch and I love the idea of latency as a problem. The collision wasn't fully predictable, but I'm not certain if that was intentional. The pinging was a super neat aesthetic as well. Good stuff!

zimny11 2025-04-23 14:05

The mechanic is really interesting and screen visual effect adds a lot to the game. Ping sounds are a bit annoying for me. I looked at the leaderboard and wow, I needed 3 times that time :D Anyway, nice job with the game, I had fun trying it out!

neon 2025-04-23 14:44

Really well done on the visuals, the radar effect, the wiggling, the curvature and chromatic aberration, it really makes for a distinct and good looking game. The gameplay is simple but works, though I wasn't great at the lower levels once the ship starts ~~moving by itself~~ being really affected by latency — I barely avoided the walls when it was just me and my WASD :sweat_smile: Nevertheless, good vibes.

leonis 2025-04-29 23:27

Love the Game. Made the highscore quite easily but I needed to do better. Still have the high score now after a few hours of tryhard. I have to say the screen blinking everytime we collect a coin is tiring after a while (a long while aha).

leonis 2025-04-29 23:35

I like the fact that it is hard, the screen tilt and the horizontal moves being faster than vertical ones. It makes a good game to tryhard. But it would work better with a joystick for fine controls. Particularly the very end part where it is so hard to pass through the last gap.

leonis 2025-04-30 18:44

I don't know why I tryharded THAT hard, but know that the high score is now 42 sec. I guess 40 could be made aha. I won't play this game again I guess. Thank you for it :)

thomz12 2025-05-05 18:20

@leonis thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it! 😄

42 seconds is super impressive, well done! It took you 356 attempts, most of anyone! I didn't think such a time was possible haha.

I'll let you know when your score has been beaten so you can keep playing! 😉