Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → bakuzen
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | Esca - Ludum Dare 57 | jam | 552 | 3.39 | 3.13 | 3.01 | 3.36 | 4.05 | 2.87 | 3.47 |
I enjoyed this game a lot! I made the mistake of not reading the controls properly at the start of the game, so when I lost I re-read it and learned about the waypoints. Then I had to go back a second time to give it another shot :D I'm glad I did, because the extra content made it even better ^^ I love how well the audio and visuals tie in with the overall mood, you really hit the nail on the head with all of it. Great work!
My compliments to whoever wrote the description to your LD entry, the way it's written like a whimsical poem fits the charm of the game so well! I couldn't help but play through this multiple times just to enjoy it longer, everything from the art to the atmosphere and audio is pristine <3
I did have issues at the start of the game where the bird would instantly fall off the screen to the left of the crocodile (I just retried until it worked properly), and I also didn't realize that certain teeth were 'sick' and had to be avoided. I had to re-read your description to figure that out, which I guess works too in the end ^^
Awesome work overall, definitely one of my favorites!
Awesome work on this one, I love the mood and the satisfaction of destroying everything :D Bonus point for including frogs, frog/10
Just when I got the hang of the sonar and started feeling like the creepy sound effects were starting to lose their effectiveness because nothing was happening.... LMAO well done. I really enjoyed the visuals and sonar mechanic, and being able to find the right path felt really rewarding!
As far as feedback goes, I would've loved if the walls weren't as bouncy-- that got a little frustrating at times, having to try five times to get into a narrow passage without bouncing off haha. And it might've been helpful to prompt the player to try dropping a beacon with 'B', because I totally forgot about those until I was near the end.
Great work overall, I really enjoyed it :D
I love this game, from the anticipation at the intro scene to the gameplay itself :D I wasn't mentally prepared for the first time I splat on the surface of the terrain, especially combined with the music hahah. As far as feedback goes, I would've loved to see the player character angle into the direction of their flight, that would've added a lot to the feeling of going fast.
Overall great work, and my compliments on getting such a polished result!
I gave the game a try just now, and I have to say nothing about the mouse controls felt weird-- so I'd say the locked cursor works well :) (The movement was a little sensitive though, but that might just be my mouse set to a high sensitivity)
Gameplay is smooth and I'm a big fan of the UI details/aesthetics, so I enjoyed it a lot ^^ The one thing I'd suggest is that there's little tension in the early game, a few peeks at the Leviathan chasing you would've been a great way to get me to lock in haha
Overall awesome work on the whole project!
The mood and graphics of this game are gorgeous, made me lock in right away as soon as I reached the first puzzle haha. Would love to come back to this game when I have the time and play through the game properly! Amazing work of everyone involved :)
I love the level of detail in this, from the music's immaculate vibes to the little guy's hat bouncing in his idle animation :) It has a lot of charm, and along with the unique gameplay it was a lot of fun to play! I personally struggle a little to make my way back up to the surface, but when it works well it's really satisfying how smooth the movement is. Awesome work to all ^^
I had so much fun with this one! I honestly nearly gave up on it at first because the early-game cursor debuff was torturous. But after sticking with it long enough to get the final mouse upgrade gameplay started clicking. The visuals are super cute (the gnomes' little rainbow trails are my favorite), I love the contrast between the whimsical vibes and the evil upgrade descriptions :D Great entry!
The spear bird is such a whimsical little guy, I adore him :) The overall mood of the game is really fun, diving into the water and getting multiple fish in one go is really satisfying. I ended up dying a few times just because I failed to turn around to the surface in time, but once I got the hang of it it was a blast just flying and diving around to get the upgrades ^^
I had quite a baffling bug where my character would continuously turn to the right, which meant I had to keep fighting to keep my camera still and not spin clockwise the whole time. It was better after I lowered sensitivity and sometimes I could stop the spinning by moving my mouse left and right a few times, but still strange!
Nonetheless it was an enjoyable game to play, I love the combination of the bright and varied sea life and the tension of travelling further and further away from safety. The photo camera was a nice way to give the player a reason to explore while progressing through the game too.
I would've loved to get some feedback from the camera while you're adjusting focus to know when you've got it right-- sometimes it felt like you had to take a photo before you could tell whether it was properly focused or not.
Overall loved your entry, great work to the whole team ^^
I love that you added a dev high score in the intro screen, that instantly made me go 'Oh, it's ON now...' and lock in haha. Turns out there's no way I can beat that score, but at least I did have fun dying over and over again!
Jokes aside, the polish on this game is really impressive-- all the visuals are tied together really well, and the game loop is really smooth. The procedural aspect kept it from getting too repetitive, but over time you still get better at each chunk of level that you've practiced.
Seems like plenty of people have mentioned that some of the deaths felt a little unfair, but aside from that it turned out really solid. Well done to both :)
I enjoyed this a lot, from the gameplay to the visuals and overall mood (especially as a general minesweep enjoyer :D)! I did have to go back to the tutorial to remind myself what the ':' meant again, so some visuals within the game tutorial itself would've been a nice reminder-- but knowing the time constraints, I'll take having to spend a few more seconds on reading haha (plus the description explains it really well!)
I'll definitely have to come back to this one to try and reach Depth 10 ^^
As soon as I saw the upgrade cards I was like 'Aw hell yeah' because that's how you know it's going to get good haha. I agree that I had to make myself stop playing because I got sucked into the game loop so badly, this is one of those games I could see myself downloading on my phone or buying on Steam just to kill some time :D The gameplay turned out really polished and I love the variety in buffs you can get, great work!
The little bonfire animation has to be my favorite animation that I've seen during this jam so far :) The art and mood is very charming! I agree that checkpoints would've been nice, especially so people can easily see more of the game ^^ Great work to everyone!
This was such a fun game to play through, the characters are so charming. I'm glad we get the chance to break the ice with all of them :D I love the lighthearted approach to the theme and the little details like the characters exiting the scene in silly ways-- but in the end it got deep too!!
Lovely work on all fronts <3
I love the art and the variety of enemies (both their design and gameplay mechanics) ^^ I did feel like I was missing something movement-wise, so I'm glad I double-checked the description to see that you can use Space for a boost haha. I'll have to keep re-playing this a few times to see how far I can get :D
I gotta admit, I was charmed right away because of the game logo and the design of the vessel. The way it clutches the items to its chest made me unnecessarily invested in helping it get the job done 😭 Really enjoyed the 15 minute playthrough, the minimap + sonar made it easy enough to find the general location of all the trash without giving it entirely away (albeit a bit on the easy side). I also enjoyed approaching the surface with high speed and breaching the water like a graceful dolphin, even though nobody was around to witness it :(
Feedback-wise, I struggled a bit with the font too. I would've preferred if the upgrades weren't abbreviated, for clarity. Some additional variety in the environment would've been nice too, to keep the player invested in exploring for the sake of discovering what's out there, rather than just to complete the game. But the game in its current state is already very lovely, well done both ^^
The first thing I thought when I began playing this game is "Oh, hell no..." which was soon followed up by "oh, HELL NO!!" with increasing intensity haha. The mood you created with the gameplay is really well-crafted, and both the art and mechanics worked really well to enhance it.
It did take me a while to figure out how exactly to use the flashlight, but thankfully I managed to figure it out "just in time" ^^
Great work to both!
I'm with the people who struggled to progress through this game-- mainly the controls and memorizing what the sonar pings revealed of the map. I'm still loving the mood and execution though, especially after the visuals drew me in. The one input I'd like to add is that it's easy for players to accidentally lose one of their cannons at the start of the game when they're clicking through the dialogue :P
Awesome work to everyone on the team ^^
I just need you to know that the concept of a pizza deliverer descending from the sky like some religious figure is am absolute work of art and I appreciate it
Love how much energy the art in the intro scene has, and I like the bits of tutorial at the start to help the player get the hang of the controls early on. It did take some trial and error to figure out how to deal with obstacles etc, but losing the game a few times was worth it for that ending art too :D
@magnesiumninja Oh, good catch on the score appearing properly for a split second before returning to 0, I didn't even notice that myself! Seems like you're exactly right on the score being reset a little too early, if I ever push out a more polished version of the game that'll be the first pesky mistake I'll fix hahah
Thanks for the feedback, especially the issues with control-- lots of room for improvement there ^^
@gold-daniel Ooh a triple digit score, well done hahah ^^ If I had an extra day, a starting screen or something similar would've been a really nice upgrade yeah. Makes sense that the lack of one caught you off-guard, but good to know for the future! I'll have to practice making some in my free time so I can get them in quickly for the next game jam :D
I enjoyed this game a lot, the smooth gameplay and overall mood makes it perfect to just relax with :D I love the drill's design with the spinning rotating parts, it becomes low-key hypnotizing if you look at it long enough hahah. The 'Low Battery' warning was also perfectly in-time to book it back to the Shop in time before the battery runs out.
A polished Steam version sounds really promising-- I'd love to see a more fleshed out version with more variation in upgrades, especially since the upgrades in this one did end up feeling a bit linear. Stuff like additional drilling tools, sensors or RNG events could be really fun to have the player really notice their progress.
Overall great work, hope to see more! ^^
I must've played through this a dozen times to make sure I got all the routes and read the story properly. I love how much care was put into the writing, and the visuals are really striking-- overall a great combination! Awesome work ^^