squimmy 2026-04-21 03:28
I thought this was fantastic.
Tight and controlled scope with plenty of polish; this was a neat little experience that didn't overstay its welcome.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Effigy of the Sky Lords
By purrseus
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 280 | 3.78 | 58 | |
| Fun | 269 | 3.61 | 57 | |
| Innovation | 620 | 3.03 | 57 | |
| Theme | 724 | 2.93 | 58 | |
| Graphics | 205 | 4.15 | 57 | |
| Humor | 49 | 4.13 | 55 | |
| Mood | 210 | 3.98 | 56 |
I thought this was fantastic.
Tight and controlled scope with plenty of polish; this was a neat little experience that didn't overstay its welcome.
Grr!!
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There is also a bug where if you get the written parchment and get zapped you have to do the Sirina dialogue again and the written parchment disappears. The ending can still be finished though.
I LOVE THIS GAME
Damn, this is a really nice little quest with cute characters and a cozy world. My English isn’t good enough to figure out where to get ink for the letter. But it very sweet!
This is just great. I love the visual style which feels like something for the NES but with character sprites and vibe out of Omori. I immediately got the "very bad ending" after biting the hook and already fell in love with the dialogue. If you hadn't mentioned this wasn't written by a native English speaker, I never would've noticed! If there's one thing I would nitpick, it's that falling off the world feels a bit weird since we are underwater.
Team Cardinal rise up! Really nice pun :D Fantastic entry, short and sweet with an offer to try different endings if the player feels like it. Really sensible for a jam entry. Clever writing too!
Very cute! The text progression and visuals feel pretty polished. Wish we could swim uphill just as fast :P
The art and the 3d world and camera combined with the 2d sprites were perfect for me, and I was told I got the best ending which makes me happy! Awesome game! :)
I love the art style, I wish it had some music to go with the underwater theme (sad that you ran out of time before you could add some!), but otherwise the atmosphere is perfect! I also like how the characters are talking in animal crossing style. Selkie is my favorite character ;)
Love the 2d to 3d approach
The sound effects and art are both very impressive!!
I was able to fall off a cliff and fall as a fish. It's like a burning fire in SpongeBob, hahaha. But seriously, I really liked the smooth gameplay. The camera is cozy, the level design is good, and the interactions with the characters are fun. I want a roommate just like him, hahaha.
Great game, you guys are great!
A bit hard to me to read, the text is quite difficult. But style is cute. Completed with 1 ok ending.
Simple but extremely effective presentation, I liked a lot of the jokes and I have a newfound appreciation for text that doesn't become partly white while I try to read it :) Great job!
So adorable and funny! I got stuck with finding the ink and anyone who can write, maybe I've misunderstood smt. But still this game gives a pleasure with it's graphics, characters. sounds and jokes!
I love this, the world feels super cosy and has so much character
It really has the same vibe as my game: talking to a bunch of NPCs and discovering little secrets. I really like this idea of mixing 2D with 3D. And it was well executed. The story is quite funny.
I confess I found it funny that a fish fell into a hole in the sea and died. :)
Congratulations!
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Nice aesthetics & writing! Y'all made a cool little world under the sea with some fun characters, I look forward to playing this again with music
Thank you so much, everyone, I worked on this game alone and poured my heart into it, your sweet comments mean a lot to me :blue_heart:
The game is created in [wareware](https://wareware.rip/), so the 3D world, movement, falling physics, dialog system, talking sounds etc. are predetermined. I can wholeheartedly recommend wareware to anyone even vaguely interested in making a similar game, it was pure joy to immediately focus on graphics, level design and dialogs without having to deal with a framework ☺️
@andriybyelikov Your reports are very much appreciated, I fixed these things immediately 🫡
@skeyven @neshtyak There's another area if you leave the city through the path between Stardude's and Selkie's house. I will try to add something to make this more obvious. Sorry you got stuck, but thanks for giving me this valuable feedback!
Great presentation! You built a cute little world where you can unlock new areas. I liked that.
The walking sound was too loud in my opinion. Apart from that one sound, I liked the other sound effects a lot.
Congrats for finishing this game all by yourself. :)
This game has everything that matters for a full adventure game! I like the humor and aesthetics the most. Controls and how conversations work could be improved, but hey its a jam game. Nice work!
I realy like the Grafics
I came to an OK ending. Nicely presented world, great dialogs, good sound effects and several endings! Well done for giving an opportunity to play on any device, I played it on my smartphone, it runs smoothly:)
Around-world :D that was funny. I love everything about this game. I already started typing a comment after finding he OK ending but then went back to find the other endings and did not regret it!
couldn't figure out where to take the empty scroll, to get the ink, but man the dialog animations were fantastic, a cool world you created with all this, very good styling and theme to it all!
I only finish 2 ending and can't find the other 3! (I get the "good ending" with the skull, and the "best ending" with the message. I also try to get all dialog possible !)
Very cool game, I would probably try again later!
Selkie is batting bruh. Also the graphics and quest were great (I only did best ending), but the sfx could be a bit harsh on the ears at times.
This experience is a nice little package with a lot of character in the art and story. Length just about perfect. Love the variety of neighbors and their quirks.
But while we're speaking the language of violence.... can I put the jellies on that hook? BZZZZT!!
Never heard of wareware before, interesting. Your English seemed flawless.
Very cool entry!
Yay, got a good ending (with the skull). I might check out others later as well - I really enjoyed the game, I think this is a good application of the underlying quirky engine. The graphics are very consistent, the audio is a good addition, and the writing is funny.
The only issue I had was the collision detection. Maybe it's related to the perspective - I often unintentionally collided into objects, sometimes fell off the level, sometimes got zapped by the jellyfish, or initiated dialog which I've already read. This wasn't anything major though.
It's a very good entry, thanks a lot and congrats!
I like this art style and this journey through the storyphoto_2026-04-25_15-05-20.jpg
This was really cool! The dialogue was charming, and I loved how people moved around and said new things as the story progressed - it made the world feel a lot more alive. I was able to find almost all the endings (four out of five), except what I assume is the "bad" one. I found the "very bad" ending, but can't figure out what I could do differently to produce a different outcome. I agree with others that music would add a lot, but given this is a jam game I can forgive the lack of it.
Most of this might be the fault of the engine, but I did find the movement somewhat awkward. Slopes are slow to traverse, and sliding down them when standing still feels a bit odd. The camera motions also required a lot of micro-adjustment on the more precise sections, like the hills. Those are just minor concerns, though.
Cool visual and audio.
Cute, atmospheric adventure! Good looking presentation. Gameplay is pretty easy to understand, though exits are not marked as such.
Very cute little adventure game!
Both the story idea and the dialogue is very funny. I loved the branching paths and multiple endings (got the "good" and "best" endings). I also liked how the theme is woven into the story.
Fun to see a submission made using wareware! Your pixel art is adorable and works great with its aesthetic.
This is SO cute and very polished! I could see this on Steam already! I really appreciate the little details like the walking/swimming sound and the speech sounds too!
Super! I loved getting the different endings. Full of charm. And now I have to check out wareware too.
You made a solid quest. The visuals are excellent, but it lacks intuitiveness in areas where you can move to another part of the map - they don’t stand out from places where you can simply fall down
I really enjoyed the art and mood for the game. Gave a sort of Paper Mario with the 2d sprites in 3d world. The SFX and animation of moving around felt very good. Some quirky writing and good little story. Was a little uncertain on outdoor area transitions at first, not sure if they can be made more visible. Overall good entry!
I love the artstyle, gameplay and the interactions with NPCs, the quest was fun and I laughed when I saw the "spell". I also enjoyed getting different endings and the fact that the NPCs locations and dialogues with them changed as the story progressed. The music playing in the backround would be nice, but it's not something that bothered me, because of the cute sounds effects when we were moving or talking with other characters.
Sometimes I had a bit of a problem with movement, and because of that I fell off or started a dialogue for the 2nd time, when I was trying to move around the character, but maybe it's the fact that I'm not accustomed to this type of movement and perspective. Also it took me a bit to figure out where I can go to be transported to a different location, because those places weren't exactly the most distinctive, but it wasn't such a big problem, as I was exploring everything I could.
Anyway, I loved this little game and after typing this comment, I will definitely be back to find other endings. Amazing work, loved every second of it, it's a very cute game. ♥
I love how the fish moves, the pride flags for color blind fishes, cute jellyfish, the jellyfish that were just lonely, the story, random German Gesetzespassagen and dialogs :smile: My only complaint is that the entry to other sections was a difficult to find for me, was stuck because of that a few times. But fantastic entry!
I love everything about this game. I already started typing a comment after finding he OK ending but then went back to find the other endings and did not regret it!