Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Deep sea fishing
By spexxilove
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 246 | 3.05 | 21 | |
| Fun | 266 | 2.73 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 200 | 3.05 | 21 | |
| Theme | 66 | 3.89 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 257 | 2.81 | 21 | |
| Audio | 1 | |||
| Humor | 142 | 2.76 | 19 | |
| Mood | 149 | 3.40 | 22 |
That's quite the original mechanic you got going there, sucking up fish! I like the concept and the feeling of mystery. The graphics could be a bit more fleshed out, but this is part of a jam so there's definitely the option to go for "programmer art". Well done overall !
Making such game in Unreal Engine 5 is interesting decision! Anyways.. Good job!
Enjoyed the shiny surprise at the bottom!
Welp I met fred lol. This was a great concept, kinda of reminded me of subnautica. Honestly you could make this into a super fun game with just a bit more control over your character, some fun sound effects, and maybe more character to the fish you catch. Great job!
looking down at as the cable disappears into the inky darkness below accompanied by absolute silence is one of my all time new favorite moods. I think you chose just the right amount of content for a ludum dare game.
Haha very cute! Actually feels somewhat close to a night dive! With some oxygen mechanics and a few other layers, could be a really addicting game! Well done!
Ha, got jumpscared by Fred as well, what a way to go. So yeah, made it to the bottom as well. Very fun take on the theme, sucking up the fish felt pretty neat, especially once you have all the bait upgrades and the whole area is swarming with fish. That was extremely satisfying. Had a nice balance of when you get upgrades, there was a nice progression there, I thought that was balanced very well. The dark atmosphere with the little shining star-esque effects gave it a nice mood as well. All around a very fun game, very well done!
Nice little game you made there! The visuals are really nice, all in shades of gray, and the distance a vision being reduced creates a nice mood!
I wish you added some intriguing music to it. It doesn't need much, just a note here and thereAlso some sfx for sucking the fish, it would have been the only sound your hear down there. It would have added so much!
Nice job!
Super charming idea with the fish suction mechanic and Fred at the end. Just invokes a nice sense of "Aw hell yeah!"
Simple graphics but it comes together well with the black&white, fish look cute, fred looks cute and scary, and you did the atmosphere quite well with the lighting! I love how you implemented the little marine snow particles to indicate water flow, it adds a lot of recognizable deep sea atmosphere and makes the mechanic feel satisfying.
And I like the straightforward set of upgrades. Definitely impactful to get the bait upgrades, and I think you tuned the progressing cost well.
My main suggestion would be to better express the feeling of progression. I liked that the fish got more valuable over greater depths, but I bet if you gave them different colors based on their value, it'd hit that recognizable feeling of "Oh sweet now there's more purple fish, I can get even more money." I didn't realize at first that the value of the fish was changing, and was nervous that it would get grindy. You certainly balanced the values well, but a bit of variation would have boosted the dopamine.
Also I would suggest a combination of faster descent speed and much more distance with each rope upgrade. The feeling of the depths was definitely hit here, but you could have really made them feel like they're encountering the yawning depths without changing the game's duration/pace at all.
Last thing is I felt it was a bit tough to tell how the vacuum was operating sometimes. Again the particles were a great way to communicate this, but there were certainly times where I was pulling in a fish and it escaped, or other times when it seemed like I should have been hitting them. Other times I was surprised the vacuum was reaching.
Some simple feedback on the fish to indicate "this fish is being vacuumed right now" would have helped with that. You didn't have much to work with but even like a simple spin on the fish when being vacuumed could have worked :) This is just a more nitpick thing that doesn't necessarily warrant priority.
All said, wonderfully executed on a simple but nice idea. Unique take on fishing, good use of upgrades. I enjoyed the gameplay, especially towards the end. It is missing a bit of variation and progression, but you did deliver some sense of that with the bait upgrades and price scaling. You definitely hit the theme as well. Good stuff!
cool concept, it would be nice with some more active gameplay and some sounds to make catching fish even more satisfying!
Oh why did you put the "go back to main menu which restarts the game" button on the same screen as "shop you need to constantly open"? It got me twice!
I loved the atmosphere the use of limited lighting, monochrome, anchor point with progress number, and particle effects had! Fun twist at the end.
Also, thank you for playing Sacrisquare last year!
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It is a very good entry! I loved it. I see how it can be further developed and I believe you see it too! Very good result for COMPO
Good job and all the best to you!
Wow this one was really nice!.
Clever game, I enjoyed it! I can't complain about the lack of audio as my game has no sound either, but I do think for future iterations, an audial component will def boost the immersion for this game. Good job!
I liked the mechanic of this and it could be a fun game with some more polish. I think it most badly needs some better indication of where the suction is and when you collect a fish successfully. Even something as simple as a sound effect when you get a fish would help. It seemed like toward the end there were just so many fish so you could just hold left mouse for a while and collect them. Maybe you could add something to make capturing the fish more interesting, like they change direction and you have to keep them sort of centered in the suction or they'll get away. Really nice atmosphere with the low visibility and the little specs to indication motion. Thanks for sharing
I really like how you captured the under sea depth vibe. The art might be simple but with the particle effects and fog it really does sell that deep sea vibe well. The mood is really strong in this. Well done!