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The 9th Wave's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artwork | #92 | 4.583 | 4.583 |
| Narrative | #332 | 3.812 | 3.812 |
| Audio | #1208 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Creativity | #1435 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| Enjoyment | #4399 | 2.792 | 2.792 |
Ranked from 48 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The 9th Wave is built around a natural, unbreakable loop — the rhythm of the sea. Waves in the game come in repeating cycles. Each one follows the last, growing stronger over time. This mirrors an old maritime idea: that waves arrive in sets, with the ninth being the largest and most destructive. The crab, in its quiet determination, builds a tower between those cycles, knowing that whatever progress it makes could be wiped away when the loop completes. In The 9th Wave, the loop isn’t just a mechanic — it’s the nature of the world.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See itch page for full credits.
The 9th Wave
One night, a little hermit crab looked up and saw the moon. It decided the moon would be its new shell — distant, quiet, and untouched. So it started building. Piece by piece, it stacked whatever the ocean left behind: driftwood, coral, broken glass.
The sea can be generous. It delivers strange, useful things to the shore. But it also takes. The waves come in loops — steady, growing, always returning. Each one stronger than the last, until the ninth wave erases all that was created.
The 9th Wave is a stylized puzzle platformer about building toward something impossible before nature takes it away. Your goal is to help the crab construct its fragile tower fast enough to reach the moon — before the wave crashes down and wipes the structure clean.
It’s a quiet story about persistence, timing, and how long you can hold onto something before it slips back into the sea.
Tags: #Puzzle #Colorful #Platformer #stylized
Submitted for: GMTK Game Jam 2025
Theme: “Loop”
Controls:
AD – Move
Space – Jump
Left Click - Grab an item
ESC – Menu
Made by:
Game Design: Mykola Ihnatenko
Management: Amaliya Parkhimovich
Lead programmer: Juliusz Trochimczuk
Programmer: Ivan Havrylenko
Programmer: Mark Matveyenka
Lead artist: Yan Rybchynskyi
Artist: Karolina Rybchynska
Artist: Biana Rybchynska
Artist: Rafael Moroz
Music: Mykola Ihnatenko
Sound design: Amaliya Parkhimovich
Sound Effects:
* small waves river 2 PM 220428_0340 by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/739336/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
* Waves at Shetland Islands 3.wav by straget -- https://freesound.org/s/434615/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
* Steps_Fine_Snow_Or_Sand_Gentle_17 by BlondPanda -- https://freesound.org/s/778536/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
* Button Click 1.wav by Mellau -- https://freesound.org/s/506054/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
* Bouncy Squelch.wav by duckduckpony -- https://freesound.org/s/130510/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
* Cartoon Explosion (designed on cassette tape lol) by modusmogulus -- https://freesound.org/s/784205/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Beautifuls and Amazings
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Comments
This may be my favorite art of the the jam ! (besides our game ofc.....) And the audio is beautiful as well. I wish you had more then 9 waves, or infinite tries. And i like the fact that you have to cook with what rng brings to you.
Hi! Fantastic art, intro and vibes! Really cozy and cute feelings, poetic beautiful idea about reaching stars. I liked it.
The gameplay was a bit hard for me! Like the previous commenter, I would really benefit from something that is still and could support the structure of platforms. Without it - no matter how I build - everything is crushing with the first wave. But it still can be interpreted as a nature of life... Oh, poor crab, I feel you! :D
This game is sooo cuteeee. but it's a bit too hard for me. those waves crashing my tower made me lose my mind ;-; I wish there was a structure that could stay grounded to help out a bit. Still loved the vibe!
The art and animation are absolutely GORGEOUS! The gameplay is definitely challenging, though that might just be a skill issue on my part, haha.
Wow your game looks and sounds so good! I really like the cute little guy. I had some weird bug where I couldn't pick anything up or do anything... except when I was in the settings menu. This probably got triggered when on the start of the game I tried to get the volume down. Regardless I like your idea and it has so much character, congrats on your submission!
The artwork is really nice and the idea with waves is fun, but I've got frustrated trying to build my way up.
great game! The art is absolutely amazing.
Thanks!
Holy the art is INSANE! I don't know if I like the gameplay though, it can be annoying sometimes. Having your tower be constantly knocked over by the waves is my main annoyance, the building physics are also a little finicky
There are some very skilled artists on your team to create such nice-looking artwork for this game in such a short time! The building physics can be finicky though, and a few times I just phased through boxes and couldn’t grab them.
The pusherfish is so funny, love the art style and the interpretation of loop! Rotating items is quite annoying sometimes though. Great work :D
Was a cute story, I liked the lil hermit crab and his old cartoony style. I found it a bit annoying that a wave would come through and just wipe out my stairs though and sometimes items would just seemingly be washed away before I could grab them. Still though very cute game and I liked the idea! Nice work
such a thoughtful and beautiful experience. it's so lovely to see lil gems like this in a jam, wow :)
Thank you a lot < 3
An incredible job done in 4 days. The visual component is stunning, combined with music and ambient sounds, creating a very pleasant and peaceful atmosphere. I wish you to reach the top 100!
Awesome artwork and animation! Narrative and music are really cool too! A bit too difficult to build the tower, and it seems that sometimes some hit box on the objects don't spawn or appear and disappear! But other than that it's a really nice game!
beautiful artwork
Thank you!
Beautiful, beautiful artwork and very sweet narrative. Gameplay was a bit frustrating, though. I think if the objects had some sort of snapping feature so that they stick together it'd be really fun to build!
Beautiful illustrations and a very cute and simple story (just the way I like it). I do wish I had more ability to manipulate the stuff like rotating bottles, and that there was more of a tie to the theme. Still, I enjoyed my time!
This is a really cool idea! The illustrations are amazing and super beautiful. The controls were a bit too hard for me to use, but it's still a great submission for the jam.
What a lovely game! I also cheesed it by using the jellyfish jump... I don't know if I was meant to reach the moon, but it gave me a blue screen once I reached it :( I really liked the art and the grabbing and building mechanic! Really creative take on the theme :)
oh... well, as long as it was fun xd
Sorry for the blue screen, WebGl ate our cinematic :c
Damn, I really want to see it now, if you have a gameplay video hmu :p
liked adorable little crawb and artstyle in a whole, cool concept too, and also A POEM IN THE BEGINNING? If that isn't 5 in narrative - i don't know what is.
it was pretty hard to build a tower though, so i cheesed it by jumping off of jellyfish while holding it in air
Thank you so much — really appreciate it! 🥳
We actually made the final round easier, but unfortunately didn’t manage to push the changes in time… The game will be more stable in the final build once the game jam ends. :)
I hope you managed to finish the game and saw the final ending scene!