| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #545 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Artwork | #1054 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Creativity | #1684 | 3.861 | 3.861 |
| Enjoyment | #2691 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Narrative | #2813 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
Ranked from 36 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?
Count down your depth as you descend into the ocean.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
see description for full credits
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Benim
This game has the best athmosphere for any game in this jam.
It feels a lot like Iron Lung with its artstyle and every aspect of the game builds this anxiousness in me, from the sfx, the graphics and controls even, and I can't quite describe it.
If you ever releases this game in full, I'll be sure to buy it!
I really enjoyed playing this game! The atmosphere was so well crafted that it genuinely made me feel a little uneasy at first. The art and sound design worked together incredibly well to create the world and really pulled me into the experience. At first, I found the mechanic of holding E and using the mouse to adjust the values a bit awkward. However, I quickly realized that this "awkwardness" actually made the gameplay more engaging. If it had simply used the arrow keys or another standard control scheme, I don't think it would have had the unique feel. Out of all the games I played this time, this one had my favorite atmosphere. Great work!
THANK YOU!
I can agree that the mechanics / controls are a bit janky.
I'm glad to hear that your experience shifted tho, haven't thought about it that way.
I think I need to find a mix in-between to make it perfect.
Really cool to hear your experience, you brought a different perspective to me.
I'm really honored to hear that you thought my atmosphere was your favorite, it is really motivating!
Thanks again for commenting! :D
It feels like a commercial game already! So impressive for such a short deadline to deliver. The art is amazing, the sound is so immersive. I would suggest just to add a hint for the controls on screen to make it more intuitive once you are starting. Great game!
Beautiful atmospheric game. I love how tactile the UI is, making you feel immersed in the world.
My main criticism would be that there's a lot of turning, because the UI is spread around all angles (which makes good use of the space but is hard to get feedback on what you're doing). As an example, the descender lever is facing away from the screen, so you have to E to pull the lever, mouse down, E to let go of the lever, look at the screen, then when ready, turn back to the lever, E again and mouse up. This could possibly be made easier if you could somehow HOLD a lever while turning your view, then be able to release it while not looking at it. (Someone here mentioned VR - I think this would actually work much better in VR because I could drag the lever down and hold it, while looking at the screen.)
Also I must admit that I gave up after 3 packages. I just did the same thing three times in a row, taking several minutes each, and nothing new happened. If there is something else in this game (enemies or some kind of secret) then the game needs to make mechanical progress. Having the first three quests be exactly the same kind of suggests that nothing new is going to happen. But doing that first one was really a treat, well done!
Thanks for the awesome feedback and critique!
I agree with you about the lever being in a weird spot, I thought the UI sounds would be enough for the player to know when they reached a package, but I understand that I could have improved on it more.
I also agree with the lack of content / mechanics.
ATM, the game is contentless. I created the game mostly to try and get a nice atmosphere going and left it mostly as an empty canvas, since I didn't have time to make a fleshed game-loop. I thought it would be easier for people to get ideas flowing for suggesting.
I'm still trying to figure out how I could improve the content.
Appreciate the thought-out comment, thank you! :D
I would approach it like this: each package is a "level". Each level something interesting or unexpected should happen. It doesn't have to be a lot, it just has to be something to tell me that I should keep going. (Do you remember those old point-and-click adventure games? There would often be times where you had to do some action three times to progress, but the game would always show a bit of progress each time, like a new line of dialogue or some cracks appearing more and more in a wall, or something, to indicate that you're progressing and not just doing the same action possibly forever.)
So I would make a list and write down, for each package, what is the new thing this time? I think it would help if you added one new element: the package comes into the vessel and you open it up and something is inside. That way, what is inside the package could change. Package 1 is normal, it contains a gear or whatever. Package 2 is mostly normal - it contains a gear but with some slime on it, indicating huh, maybe there's some creature out there. During package 3 the lights go out and you have to find a power source in the dark. Huh that was weird. Each package something new should happen and there should never be a run of two "normal" packages, even if some of them are not super interesting, so I am always being reinforced that something unexpected could happen on any one of these. The longer the game goes, the more interesting the events need to be, to keep my interest.
Hope this helps!
Oh wow, thank you so much!
This is the type of comment I was looking for when leaving the canvas empty :P
This was very helpful, I really like your idea and the comparison to the old point-and-click adventures games was a good comparison.
I think adding a stage where the drone comes back would add a lot, really good suggestion!
Thank you for explaining everything from the players-view, really good feedback! :D
I love this game the atmosphere is so good it reminds me of iron lung. The audio work is amazing and the polish is great. The only thing I couldn't figure out was the end condition. I got to around 750 meters and looked didn't encounter anything. The only feedback if you keep with this project is I wish there were markers on the sonar that showed degrees/distance. Aside from that this was a fantastic game and has me inspired to make a atmospheric game. :D (I did find the duck)
WOW thank you so much! :D
I'm really honored, I appricaite your kind words.
Sorry I got a bug leading to the enemies not being able to move unfortunately.
Thanks for the suggestion, yes adding some angles would be nice.
I'm so happy to have inspired you, make sure to message me if you end up finishing the game, I will playtest if you want to!
(the duck is on the ground, close to the angle switch :P)
Game was having quite a bit of issues on my end. It was just the Unity Skybox and nothing else except for UI and some outlines of the interactable objects. This might be a local issue or something, I'll try it again tomorrow.
Wow the quality of this game! So polished. Also, I love the controls, it gives a nice tactile feeling to it. Great job
I enjoyed playing this game! It looks really polished. I liked the audio and the atmosphere in general—they're really good! Congrats on the submission!
Cool entry! The atmosphere is unsettling... and I adored that.
The controls were hard at times, but nothing game-breaking, I had fun! :)
Good job! <3
Awesome game! The atmosphere is amazing. The interpretation of the theme is pretty creative, and the idea is well executed. Of course, as you said in other comments, the monster is bugged and that would've been awesome to see. It was the perfect way to make use of such an atmosphere. Even with that missing, the packages mechanic itself is cool, and if you can make encounters with the monster feel tense, then I actually believe this is good for a full release. Good job!
WOW, thanks so much!
Its really nice to hear that you liked the atmosphere as that was the main thing I focused on.
I have gotten some people interested in the game so I might consider expanding on it.
ATM I'm just trying to figure out how to make the game feel more "multifunctional" if that is the word :P
Gonna go to the drawing board and try to figure out some more elements to add to the game.
Appreciate the comment! :D
Cool game i really loved the 3d models it felt so polished to be for a game jam i also loved the menu design and the sfx they fit really well with the atmosphere u went for, however having a tutorial on what to do would have been nice cause at the beginning i didnt know what to do but overall great game keep it up!
I thought the atmosphere was awesome, the sound design and environment worked so well to set the mood. I really liked how there wasn't just an aiming marker on your radar showing you where your retrieval drone was going to go, it took trial and error, forcing you to actually learn how to operate it. I wasn't entirely clear what benefit the packages were having, or if they did anything at all, but it was a very cool experience collecting them!
THANK you so much!
I really appreciate your attention to detail and feedback.
This was mostly just a fun way for me to try and create an atmosphere.
I wanted to challenge myself making a game where nothing actually moved. Unfortunately I didn't have time to implement the packages value etc.
Thanks for commenting and playing! :D
The atmosphere is really cool. Figuring out the controls is not the easiest. Might be that I missed the instructions or something, Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to trigger the retrieval part .
Oh sorry for that!
You have to descend / ascend until you get to the retrival part.
Then you have to look at the radar and look for the blue circle (package).
Use controllpanel (Angle / Distance and Button) to launch a drone towards the package, where angle is 0-360 degrees and distance is 0-100 meters.
You can see your launched drone on the sonar as a pink ping, once you have launched it.
Thanks for playing, sorry for the lack of instructions :D
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