Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Benski
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | Zooid Nexus | compo | 196 | 3.30 | 3.31 | 3.28 | 2.94 | 3.23 | 2.20 | 3.22 |
Very impressive submission!
The atmosphere is sinister and the mechanics are simple within a very complicated game loop.
It was a bit hard on me (especially the jumping), but other than that it's one of the most "complete" package games I got to try out this jam.
Well done!!
I loved how the game had a similar element to mine (Swimming to avoid collision :))
- The arcade style is really cool! - Great theme implementation - Overall fun and functional game.
It is a bit on the hard side, though. After 10 tries, I decided to give up. But I definitely had the feeling that just one more try and I'll get it haha!
Great work!!
A bit of critique *** The jaggy movement of submarine/camera/screen threw me off. In my opinion waiting to get oxygen at the air pockets would be better as an instant fill. It was a bit hard to sit and watch the oxygen meter go up slowly. As you mentioned already, I was sure some of the floating objects were collectibles.
First off, great game idea! Made me laugh when I heard the voice in the sketching layer.
The switching mechanic has huge potential, but to use it mixed with jumping/movement mechanics, the movement mechanics themselves need to be more polished and refined. (Keeping in mind that it's a 48 hours jam and I'm sure you did all you could in the time frame).
Overall it truly had a ton of potential, but I got stuck on the part that I assume I needed to jump and press Shift on the level on the left to open the door on the right side. Pressing Shift just didn't do anything so I gave up on it eventually.
Other than that, great work, I was eager to continue and wished the controls and jumping mechanic were more tight.
Great entry and interpretation of the theme!
The world has such a groovy feel, beautiful modeling, and the animations and feedback feel great!
Well done!
A bit of crit:
It took me a while to understand the goal, the fish seemed like visual props to me so I thought the goal was to go through the white circles in the water. The fish catching mechanic itself was a bit quirky too, but I can easily see how it could be better if you had more time to put into it!
Really solid and fun!
- Sword falling mechanic is a blast - Movement feels good and responsive - good theme fit, especially with knights, they are my favorite
A bit of crit:
- The bullet enemies have an un-natural Ai, shooting the moment they notice the player - Even though the can see the player only directly, the bullets go through the blocks - The fall to death height was very unclear, I ended up giving up after many tries because of it
Overall a very fun game, well done!!!
Great submission!
- Very unique theme interpretation and mechanic
- Feels well packaged and functional
A bit of crit:
- The dialogue threw me off a bit. Personally, I wished for either a more "professional sniper" dialogue or something completely non-sensical. This felt like the middle between them and didn't connect with me.
Best game I got to play on the jam til now.
- Level design 10/10
- Characters with different abilities hit the sweet spot, although I wanted to have more character-specific puzzles.
- I loved the atmosphere, the characters and overall simple but on spot design.
A bit of crit;
I'm nit-picking here because what is feedback without criticism right? I would say maybe the character feel could be improved. The movement is stiff and the transitions between jumping to landing felt off. (But this is not something I would expect from a game made in a weekend and it completely blew my mind!)
Amazing work!
Hey! I get a "file not found" error when I click either of the download links
The art and mechanics of moving the submarine felt great!
I couldn't quite understand how the game works with the amount of oxygen and losing items when Rising back up.
It seems it's unintentional, I also had my whole screen turn white after I bought the flash light.
A game with great potential, well done!
Loved seeing another UE submission.
- Great atmosphere - Visual effects - Use of physics
A bit of criticism:
- No menu, and the game throws you out when you die - I did not understand what to do except play around with the boxes and door - The camera lag after the mouse felt unnecessary
I loved the feel of the controls, I think it's super difficult to make a floaty submarine feel so responsive and normal when maneuvering. I loved the effects of the sonar and wished there were also fish to hit with it etc. - Great controls - I had fun reading the general information prompts - Changing and dynamic environment - Good theme interpretation
I really got the sense of going deeper and deeper thanks to all these.
A bit of critique:
- After the first wish the fish in the sunlight. I was just holding down the 'S' key apart of one or two cases where I needed to maneuver. (Still got the chills and was scared to hit something, but it barely had anything in the way).
Overall great game, well done!!
And should I say Behazlaha? Haha cheers
Great submission for a first game jam! 48 hours is a ton of pressure, my first jam was a whole week so I had more of a soft landing.
The visuals are great, it's fun to hit the fish!
a bit of criticism:
- The fish spawn positions didn't make much sense, they could spawn on top of the player and that's it? - Addition of points and health could have made a major difference.
Overall great submission!! Well done!
Hey! I'm also glad to see another UE game!!
Literally made me laugh out loud, the sound design and models are spot on and are hilarious!
- Great interpretation of the theme - Next level funny - Well packaged and functional.
A bit of crit: - The fast movement of the walls was a bit too much for my brain haha - The collision with the walls and other objects didn't pack a punch, and I think that in this game even a few small changes to this subject would make a huge impact (literally).
Well done!! Thanks for the positivity and laughs
@psychomonster
Thank you for playing!
To be honest this game doesn't do justice to the Zooids and Siphonaphores. When I was researching for the game idea I had such a grand vision and ended up with a bunch of glowing spheres.
Have a great time and tons of positive feedback too! cheers
@scott-r-howell Thank you for playing and for the positive feedback!!
@clintor24
Yeah game jams are a bit of a mess for Unreal engine, it's better to use engine that supports playing in the browser in these cases. I think I'll try to learn a bit of Godot just for game jams when I feel I'm knowledgeable enough in UE (which probably will never happen XD).
Haha very sharp!! indded all the sound effects in the game are actually from the UE menu sounds XD (except the music itself I mean). I was definitely looking to save time, but I'm unfamiliar with rigging. Funny enough I have spent the whole first day animating the sphere to act like a blob with spring and stretch physics.
Thank you for the deep and positive feedback!!!
@atsh
Thank you for playing and feedback!
Indeed I forgot/didn't have time to implement the level change, and also add the third level I Originally planned. I think I have overstepped it on the second level, because I realized I won't have time to add a third one and pushed the difficulty too far apart from the first level.
My original plan was not to even make a snake-like but I wanted to have a a chain of different organisms that will do different jobs for the bigger organism resembling the Siphonaphore. But as always, I dream too big for my developing skills at this point hahaha.
About the shapes, I agree, I wish I had the skill and time to make some beautiful models, but that's for next time haha.
@milq
Thank you very much, I appreciate the positive feedback!
Indeed my development skills were pushed to their limits, I'm really bad at planning ahead haha.
I believe you already know how I enjoyed your game, I appreciate your feedback very much!
Cheers
@helagos Thanks for playing and feedback!
Totally agree, I wish I had more time to make more levels and also add more variety. Unfortunately I got to the level design at the last few hours so the level design was pretty rushed.
Cheers!