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Homeward Depths's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #4 | 4.552 | 4.917 |
| Theme | #32 | 3.858 | 4.167 |
| Originality | #39 | 3.780 | 4.083 |
| Overall | #42 | 3.439 | 3.714 |
| Audio | #46 | 3.318 | 3.583 |
| Fun | #58 | 3.086 | 3.333 |
| Accessibility | #68 | 2.700 | 2.917 |
| Controls | #85 | 2.777 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.7.2
Theme Interpretation
Running out of oxygen marks the impending doom of the player, and the rumbling marks the impending doom of the world.
Wildcards Used
Right Wildcard
Tag Along - The player character has a companion
Source
no
Discord Username(s)
dotoclock, ses101, Pret, Cameron_Luan_Composition, Sydney
GWJ Participation Level
This is the first for four of us, and the third for 1 of us
Team Size
5
Generative AI Disclosure
I confirm that this jam entry does not contain any AI-generated content
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Comments
Aw man, the art and presentation are gorgeous!! The synopsis on the game's page feels like the setup to an award-winning thriller, kudos on such a cool premise. ^^ Baby is a precious bean, every time the fish slipped past me and ate her I felt terrible, haha. The fact you guys hand-drew the entire world is epic, it gave me Hollow Knight vibes in the best way possible! The "glow-in-the-dark" aesthetic is both beautiful and spooky toward the end.
My bad for the late review, really glad I got to play and rate this :D Congrats on a very well-earned #4 in graphics!!
I found this to be the most graphically appealing game I've played in this jam. Really well done art and the music was nice as well. The rest areas didn't stand out to me at first so I was confused when I ran out of oxygen the first time. But after that it was smooth swimming. I got baby home and then it went black so I assume I beat it or it just bugged? Great submission though really enjoyed it!
So glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing! And yup, you won :3
I adore this theme but I had trouble with the gameplay. Baby seemed to die whether following or left behind, and there didn't seem to be much I could do about it. Got the upgrades and triggered them and those pesky monster fish kept zooming straight at baby! Oh well, maybe there's something I'm missing.
Good job overall!
Yeah, I do wish had had time for on-screen tutorials for more clarity. To protect baby you needed to put yourself between it and the monster fish. Regardless, thanks so much for playing and for the feedback!
I really enjoyed the aret and music in this. But I struggled to get very far. I found it really enjoyable but I wish the rest spots could act as respawn points when you die instead of remaking you play the whole thing. Great job!
Just saw someone else's comment about the upgrades! With the upgrades, I did not die nearly as easily so that helped a lot!
Really love the art direction and execution in this, can tell a lot of love went into it, and the animations on the player character and baby are really captivating. I’m also a huge fan of anything with glow/bloom and nice lighting. :D
In awe at the talent on show. Enjoyable to play and a nice use of the companion wildcard too. Good job!
Tim
Thanks so much, Tim! Glad you enjoyed it! Can't wait to get a chance to check out your game too :)
Gorgeous art.
I found it odd that the collectables were huge, like there was a missmatch with player size.
I died like 4 times before I stopped playing. Only on the last time playing I realized that you had to spend upgrade points, imo it would be better to make them auto assign since you are not making a choice when you spend them. Besides I would also add checkpoints so death doesn't feel so punishing.
I didn't understand how to make the baby swim pass the monsters.
It's cool that we ended up with similar concepts in our games.
Thanks so much for giving it a try! I get where you're coming from with the collectables - there are a lot of things I (Phia) would personally change if we had had an extra day or two. One of those things, unfortunately, would be a more clear tutorial since you kinda have to read the directions to know that you even CAN click to move the baby around. Looking forward to checking out your game later!
This was really cool, love the whole underwater style and worldbuilding. Appropriately difficult/satisfying mix of exploration and guiding the fella.
One criticism (bug?) is that seems like oxygen rate is tied to framerate. Died a lot to figure that out
Assuming there was nothing else to see after leading it to the big guy? got a black screen. Otherwise really liked how it got more creepy and dark as you get further down near the end
Oh my god AWESOME catch thank you so much. Yeah the ending screen is just black (we ran out of time for a proper ending screen haha). Anyways thanks for playing glad you enjoyed it! I’ll be sure to check your game out when I get the chance :D
I really love this art style, very unique! I think our teams interpretedthe theme in a similar yet very diferent way at the same time. I was enjoying the game but kept dieing at the same spot some ways down from the second safe point but not sure why as nothing seemed to attack me and my health had not drained to 0% either.
Thanks so much, and I can’t wait to play your game when I get the chance! Question about the deaths: was the enemy fish getting to baby offscreen? That can cause deaths. Or did you notice anything about where/when it happened?
That is possible I did leave baby behind on that part because the time before when I tried to dive with baby the enemy fish also got to baby so I figured that the safe zone would be the best place for baby until I had to move forward to the next safe point.