Great work! I wish the boost button could have been held down and I couldn't get the hang of using the sonar to find distant vaquitas but I had fun swimming around just looking for them!
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Bonita: Turning Tides's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Educational value | #1 | 3.844 | 3.844 |
| How it looks | #2 | 4.219 | 4.219 |
| How well the theme was used | #3 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| How it sounds | #6 | 3.594 | 3.594 |
| Fun to play | #7 | 3.219 | 3.219 |
| Innovation | #7 | 3.031 | 3.031 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Unity
Comments
Absolutely fantastic! I really enjoyed the controls, especially on controller. I could have spent hours just swimming around in the water. The educational facts about each species were fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing the updated build.
Submitted
Green ImpactBeautiful project, the water and artwork is amazing! Pretty relaxing, although I couldn't really figure out where to go, and I found some info and got a 'ding' sound but that didn't save anything. I eventually saw Jern play it and how that works, seems random to find? Wish there was a way to search that didn't feel random, I think maybe the sonar could have gone a lot further? Other than that, the controls and camera felt a bit awkward, not sure why, I think maybe I expect it to feel like a flight sim where you're swimming by default? Might be good to try "press to stop" (i.e. swim forward by default) rather than "press to swim" (stopped by default)..
Anyway, great job and congrats!
PS: I'm a big fan of the sonar mechanic, I based my previous game jam project on that!
Submitted
The King and his SpleenBeautiful game. The art is amazing the water looks great. Also an extremely important topic especially with save the Vaquita week coming. It made me care a lot about the vaquita. Very educational as well. I do agree with other comments though that maybe a stop motion to read the facts more would be good.
I love the exploration and the boosting. I struggled a bit with the movements but it might be a skill issue. I do think some guidance on where to go might have helped me a bit.
I did have to try 3 different browsers to get it to work, even the download did not download for me.
All in all amazing work. This should be shown to kids, classroom and adults too. Let's hope this does not become a historical memory game and that we actually SAVE THE VAQUITA!
Submitted
Green ImpactWith a dealthy fear of open water the web build suited me greatly. I really love the atomosphere and sounds, A great eductational game. I know there may not be much scope to expand the current version of the game but with the atomosphere and envirnomental design there potential for a great game.
Submitted
JernJam2026 - Moon MinerThanks for giving it a go, could please let me know which browser you were using? You're the second report of missing water but I haven't been able to replicate it yet (I think you're on Linux as well, which I've not been able to test, but the other was PC). I'm pretty sure it's due to some browsers not fully supporting WebGPU yet.
Thanks for playing it, glad you had fun swimming around (I spent far too much time soing that too :D). I tried a version with an orbit cam and it is nice being able to see the player vaquita, but went with the follow cam as it was less time/work to get feeling decent. I'll be looking to explore it again though.
Very immersive and atmospheric. I liked the controls and particularly enjoyed boosting towards the surface and doing a majestic arced jump out of the water :D I didn't manage to rescue anything but I had fun trying
Submitted
Nana: Bloodshed at 7, Bingo at 8Gorgeous game! Felt very immersive and had me immediately wanting to do my very best for this vaquita! Definitely needs some warning for people with epilepsy who may try to play it in-browser.
Submitted
Five FieldsLove the atmosphere created by the colors and soundscape. Even if there was nothing to do it would be enjoyable to just swim around and vibe.
Something odd I noticed playing the web version is that the caustics in the shallow water seemed to be freaking out and vibrating. The surface was also doing the same thing.
I also encountered framerate issues that seemed to potentially be related to asset streaming. Chugging/hitching occurred when moving, especially when dashing, but would go away after a few seconds of not moving typically. Not 100% sure if that's the only thing going on with the web build though.
Will try the downloadable version later.
Submitted
Something is FishyThanks for playing and letting me know about the caustics issue, if possible could you let me know what browser you played on, I've not seen it on the few I've tried so far? I suspect it's related to the terrible framerate which is 100% due to me adding too many fish towards the end . I've got a better performing build ready to go once the jam is over. Download version should play and look a lot better.
Very relaxing and calming game with lovely visuals. I wanted to make the dolphin jump out of the water and was able to do it a few times but not really sure how I did it. Very enjoyable exploring the underwater world. Excellent entry.
Submitted
No Tea Till BerlinAbsolute masterpiece! I have thalassophobia, so this was fun! It was educational and horror for me :) Thank you for your submission! Super educational and fun.
Submitted
Borrowed LightBeautiful game. Beautiful effects. I think I ran into a bug where the distance to a vaquita was always 12m. Educational value is great, maybe there is a way to make them easier to read, maybe stop motion and make them bigger and have the player dismiss them? Controllers were a little awkward at first, but I got used to them. The science was spot on, I would love to see this fleshed out and used in classrooms. You did a wonderful job. Lag wasn't too bad for me in the browser (M4 stock Mac Mini running Brave), but my fan definitely kicked on. SAVE THE VAQUITAS
Submitted
Skeeter's Pollinating AdventureGlad you didn't get hit as much with the webgl per issues, I've got it performing a lot better now so the build after the jam should run a lot better. I'll have to look into the distance UI bug, it's not something I've seen my side before. For the info text I'm planning to have a section in the menu that gets populated with info for all the things you discover so you can read them whenever you want aftre unlocking them. I've also added more control options so there will be full mouse control including steering and more button options for sonar/interact.
Brilliant, brilliant. First game in the queue, absolutely class, as someone used to say! Great immersion, beautiful shaders, assets and animations. Impressive work. I saved all of them, and I hope I've visited all the points of interest in a well-balanced 20 mins playthrough.
Nothing to add, really; maybe a little spring - orbiting of the camera while swimming? But I didn't really miss it!
Submitted
Kryokit salvationAs other's stated it was a bit laggy but usually only when I surfaced for water, really nice looking game and original concept. I sadly however did not find all my siblings, but had fun playing it!
Submitted
Howl At NoonThanks for giving it a play, and yeah the web build performace suffered from me adding a bit too much towards the end and running out of time to optimize for it. It does play significantly better in the windows build but I wanted to add the web build aswell as I know not everyone has windows or wants to download anything (possibly to my detriment).
some extra helping hand on where to go to start the game would be good, it was a solid 5 m before I found a baby. sonar active distance is very short, basically just what you can see. I like the vibe though, with some extra polish it's a contender to fill the slot between fluid and echo
Submitted
BlackLight GlorptributionThanks for playing, the sonar currently has a 60m range but I think it feels shorter now as I increased the base move speed so you partially catch it up if you use it while moving, I'll definetly be looking to increase it. I'd planned to have a bunch more things to discover/interact with to mitigate the "dead time" but ended with about half of them to get it submitted in time.
As Linux user I managed to run game under Wine (because web version looks very bad), but mouse support did not work there. Lucky controller fully worked and I managed to complete game. Game is nice, educational, looks good. Well done!
Submitted
Unlikely HeroBeautiful and cool game. Sadly didn’t work well on the web build but looking at the screenshot and what I noticed in the web game, it was very nice!
Submitted
John Whiskers - Catdective
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