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Depths' Tale [JAM VERSION]'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 4.203 | 4.203 |
| Polish | #1 | 4.392 | 4.392 |
| Art | #2 | 4.647 | 4.647 |
| Sound | #3 | 4.392 | 4.392 |
| Atmosphere | #4 | 4.471 | 4.471 |
| Theme | #12 | 3.745 | 3.745 |
| Gameplay | #13 | 3.569 | 3.569 |
Ranked from 51 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I'm a sucker for seafaring and pixel art and the atmosphere your team pulled off using these two together is incredible well executed! The CRT section at the end there was also really mesmerizing to just stop and soak it in for a moment before continuing. I will admit it took me a few seconds to grasp each of the minigames but I did get it and I enjoyed the game overall. Extremely charming and beautifully made.
ohh thanks!! Is the first time we do something in 3D, our art was usually pure 2D pixel art. However for this we felt that we needed the additional immersion layer that 3D gives and we just experimented some stuff, I have to say that the really good pixel art from our artist helped a lot!
Left my comment on the game page itself but accident, but if it's not too rude I'll just copy-paste it here for visibility:
Very very very cool! I can't believe how many mechanics you crammed in with only a week of development.
I especially loved how the mysterious artifact clearly "wanted" to get caught. Really neat how that was expressed via gameplay.
I also love how you integrated the theme into the mechanics -- each of the mechanics decays with additional use, which is especially clear with the movement at the end.
Not game related per se but your game's itch page is also very pretty!
Thanks for your message! We are very happy you enjoyed it! Some of the changes in the mechanic were very subtle, I was thinking nobody would notice how the last fish catch changes, but turns out yes haha!
Also now the itch io page looks even better with your comment!
I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been said by others. Absolutely stunning game! I have no idea how you pulled such a thing off in a week's worth of time.
It was tough, the whole team was working non-stop and there were quite a few last-minute changes to try to polish it as much as possible. We had to cut some of the content we had planned so it would fit within the jam's timeframe, but we hope to expand on it in a future update. Thanks for playing!
Can't speak highly enough about the atmosphere and vibe of this. Art was lovely, the sound design, the music (especially at the climax — during gameplay i think you could've done a *touch* more, it seems like it was *only* the drone until the end).
Really struggled with the minigames. I figured fishing out easily enough, but my clicking seemed to do absolutely nothing and I just had to wait until the fish accidentally stayed in the catch zone for long enough. I got there in the end on the radio, but a small guide of some sort on what the goal was could have been handy.
Thanks so much for playing and for the kind words about the atmosphere! We’re thrilled the art and music hit the right notes for you.
Regarding the minigames, for the fishing you are spot on about the momentum. You aren't alone in that feeling, and we’re looking into ways to polish so it feels more responsive.
The radio was tricky to balance! We’ve made some tweaks to the visuals to help with clarity, but clearly we still have room to improve here. We don’t want the minigames to feel frustanting but just something to immerse more the player.
If you have any more recommendations, feel free to share. It means a lot to us that you enjoyed the overall experience!
Wow. No words. That is the best game I played in this jam. Congratulations to all of you, such a amazing game!
Thank you so much for your kind words, we really appreciate it! <3
Short and effective experience, I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the slow build-up through the fishing game. The graphics are also up my alley, I like when the horrors are more abstracted so you can let you imagination fill in the gaps. My only critique would be the screen-shake part of the game, I got a little motion-sick when trying to adjust the sound waves. Maybe it was too strong or too random? Not sure. But overall I really enjoyed it!!
Thank you for your review! The shaking scene was trying to emulate the real feeling of trying to use the radio in the middle of a cathastrophe. We are sorry if it made you a little bit dizzy, we deffinitely can look into that. We appreciate your feedback and kind words :)
Absolutely loved this game!
I loved the pixel art and then using the shaders to make the 3d portions feel cohesive down to all the different mini games and mechanics! Truly the end result felt extremely polished and the exact type of interactive experience I DEEPLY enjoy and create a really immersive experience! Even down to the TV screen affect when focused on mini screen. I did find some of the mechanics a little clunky from the execution standpoint. Agree with murmurations feedback about the fishing minigame I was going to say similar. I also found the dials to be a little finicky but that could've just been user error.
Also wish the decaying of the ship was more obvious throughout the experience so it felt more like it was building up to the SINK moment.
Overall though extremely polished and impressive and I'm so impressed about the quality you reached in the time frame! Feels like a full fledged release rather than a week long jam project! Excited to follow your future projects :D
The feedback for the fishing minigame has been pretty universal. We need to make some minor tweaks to the upward inertia to make it a bit easier to change directions when the fish decides to dive toward the bottom. The same goes for the dials, we'll need to work on them after the jam to polish things up for the next version.
We tried to show the decay with a change in the boat's textures, which might not have been as obvious to the player as we would have liked. In hindsight, maybe a bit of a 3D changes to the model could have helped with that.
We tried to do our best in 7 days, focusing heavily on reducing the scope and then expanding it only once we had a playable base, to avoid what happened to us in previous projects. Thank you so much for playing!
Thanks for your message! We truly tried to make everything that happens in the game diegetic and real so it would feel more immersive (though we had to give up on some of the tutorials, lol).
Yeah, the execution of the minigames definitely could have been better; this is common feedback we’ve received. For the scope of the game jam, we focused on telling the whole story, but it’s something we will work on!
As you said, we would love to add more time to the boat so it has more weight in the game and the ending hits harder. This is definitely something we’ll try to do in the future.
Really happy you liked it! The whole reason we create is for people to enjoy it.
I gotta say, any cosmic horror stuff that focused on oceanic settings is like my Favorite Thing, and this game is just absolute catnip for Me Specifically. Absolutely gorgeous art style, loved the different mixes of little styles with each of the minigames. And the chroma effect for everything is the perfect touch, I adore how this game looks, no notes on that. Music is also peak as well, love how it changes over time. The music that triggers towards the end in particular is very haunting, I adore it. There's so many nice little details in this--I love the sway of the boat and that it's not just static, it really makes the whole experience immersive.
I honestly have very few feedback notes to give that aren't just me gushing about this. The most prominent is just the fishing minigame mechanics--fishing minigames are my favorite in any game, and I'm particularly fond of any Stardew-like mechanics. This one is close, but just needs a little dialing in to feel balanced: it's a little too strong on the upward movements, and the downwards motion feels particularly slow, so everything felt a little sluggish. (Props however to the ? fish following your cursor, no matter where you went....that gave me chills, excellent telling story through gameplay.) Beyond that, the only other thing would be it didn't feel super heavy on the decay theme, but honestly the atmosphere and whole polished experience sells cosmic horror so well, I don't really even mind.
Overall, one of my very favorites I've played this jam. This had such cool ideas implemented, and I loved the telling of the story through minigames. And god, I gotta say that final zoom out shot is *peak*, love it, one of my single favorite moments of any of the games I've played this week. All in all, a fantastic entry, very well polished and put together Love to see what you all come up with next!
Hello! Thank you for your amazing words and for spending so much time in such an elaborate message ❤️
From the gameplay perspective we agree that the fishing minigame could feel better. It was actually one of the first things we implemented and did not receive much love since then, but I think with a couple of adjustments we can make it feel better.
The awesome music was made by one of the team members, and all the music was created with the game narrative and tempo in mind so it could boost the overall experience. Thanks for appreciating it; the music in your game was superb too.
About the decay theme we tried to incoporare it in two areas (SPOILERS AHEAD). The boat which decays deeply as you progress and the whole reality which declines towards the last scene. We understand Cosmic Horror as such an horrendous force that destroys our idea of reality.
Thanks again!
The game I submitted for the previous Eye Jam ended with the same quote! What a wonderful little game, I liked the transition into a whole other style too. Thank you.
Thanks for your words! The transition was something we had in mind from the very beginning and I believe it ended up working really well.
Thank you! The quote is really powerful, as it enbodies the whole of Lovecratian cosmos creatures. Saying that a creature might even outlast death is... terrifing 😨 Thanks again for playing!
I have always believed that game development is an art, and this game reflects that belief perfectly. It's well designed, intriguing different parts of my brain from the styles of mini games, to poetic philosophy. Well made!
That is honestly a huge compliment to us, we tried to find a middle ground between the interactive part and the narrative, and we are glad it's appreciated so positively. Thank you so much for your words and for giving it a try!
Thank you! Regarding what you said about poetic philosophy, the passage at the end is taken from a poem by Lovecraft called ‘Azathoth’ (1931). We had already conceived the ending before coming across this text, but when we found it, we realised it fitted so well with our original idea that we felt it was important to include it. That creature from Lovecraftian mythology resembles ours very closely, so it’s a way of paying homage to it.
Great game, and it has minigames! The feeling of dread is transferred perfectly, although eldritch horror screamer was a bit too much for my ears, haha!
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it. We adjusted the volume to create a surprise effect, but maybe it’s a bit too much. We can revisit that; we definitely don’t want to hurt anyone’s ears! 😭
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous; it features the kind of pixel art I really love. It also incorporates Lovecraftian elements and blends multiple gameplay mechanics together. The atmosphere is nailed perfectly, and I was able to deeply immerse myself in it while playing. Overall, it was a fantastic experience.
Hello, thank you very much for your kind words! As for the Lovecraftian elements, we weren’t very familiar with his work, so I had to do some research 🤓. I interpreted cosmic horror as an overwhelming sense of helplessness when faced with a force from the cosmos that is beyond the human mind’s comprehension. We chose to create a short, self-contained story, in keeping with the resources we had available at the time. We’d like to keep improving for the next one. Thanks again!
Absolutely beautiful game, the technical art is super impressive and the shaders look phenomenal
Thanks! I really had a lot of fun messing around with the shaders hahaha
I like how the ending reminded me of Little Nightmare. Love those minigames. They were really engaging to play. I wish there were more minigames. Great game!
We're really proud that you thought of that game! We had planned to add a few more, but doing it in just 7 days was a real uphill battle. We'll try to add them in a future update. Thank you so much for playing!
Beautiful and immersive. A really smooth experience, polished to the bone! Since there are few minigames, might make them a bit of a bigger challenge, but this being a jam, we don't want any difficult puzzles so that's understandable!
At first we thought about making them a bit more complicated, but after playtesting over the last few days, we decided to make them a little easier to give more weight to the narrative experience and avoid potential frustration. Thank you so much for playing!
great vibes. smooth mechanics. very solid short experience
Appreciate it!
I absolutely LOVED this game! between the art style, the story, and the minigames, this was incredible! ESPECIALLY the ending!!!
Thanks a lot! We are thrilled to see that the ending has the impact we were hoping for
Awesome game, so well polished, loved how going left in the ending segment just breaks the button lol
We knew someone was going to try that, we had to make sure it couldn't happen! Thank you so much :)
Absolute cinema
🙌🏼
In terms of imagery this game is amazing, both the atmosphere and presentation are gorgeous. Really felt what the game wanted to convey. The music is well made too. I like the length to be honest, cohesive and self contained enough to be fun. The art itself can be polished up a little bit. And the minigames while sufficient, could be upped a notch to really give the game some mechanical layers. Great job on the game!
Thanks for the feedback! We’re so happy the atmosphere and music resonated with you!
We agree that the minigames could benefit from a more developed loop to build up that sense of monotony before breaking it. This was our first time experimenting with a 2D/3D style, and our pixel artist is actually a programmer turned artist, so we’re really excited to keep exploring and improving it haha, I believe we have lots of room for improvement here.
Overall, we wanted to see how we worked together as a team and it seems like we’ve made something pretty cool. Thanks again for playing, we're so glad you enjoyed it!