Discover the deepest depths and find some surprises.
Tools: Unity 2019.3 / Krita / Audacity
Thank you ElZach for the "Wiggle" and everything ;)
Short, sweet and very welcoming after two long days of very intense developing.
The art style is pretty and it reminds me very much of the art some of my friends make, so good memories.
There's actually little touches of polish that I just skipped past without at first really taking note, but which are important nonetheless. Like the aforementioned 'tutorial on the title screen' and the litle sound that play when you undarken an area.
(Side-note: Implementing 'overlapping shadows' effects in 2D gave me some headaches during LD39, I hope you took a less time consuming route than I did back then!)
Anyway, what took a bit getting used to is 'straight' WASD in combination with the character orienting themselves. It seemed it messed with my ability to control the character a little bit. This did help it feel more 'underwater' somehow, so I guess it helped with the immersion? (… pun not originally intended, but welcome.)
Speaking of immersion, I think a fullscreen mode would've really helped for this game in particular!
The only other gripe I have is that it ends just a bit too soon. (Also I'm not sure if this game would benefit from 'there should be more to it', or if adding stuff would detract from the experience…)
Charming and comforting game. I'd really want to play it on my console sitting down on the couch after a long day of work. It's very relaxing and brings me into the meditative state.
One small thing that you can polish to make it even more fluid(?) is the smooth disappearing of these dots when you collect them. But in a jam version, you always have little things to polish :)
Great entry, all of the aspects of the game are equally good. Excellent job! You have mad skills, and definitely a talent!
Wow you managed to get all the best bit of Aquaria into a 48 hour jam entry! Beautiful backgrounds and music, nicely compact and super easy and relaxed to play. Agreeing with some others, I really think a different collect sound would improve things a little, but that's my only negative in an ocean of positive thoughts about this game.
Beautiful, just beautiful. The main character reminds me a bit of Monument Valley and the overall style of some areas in Ori and the Blind Forest.
A lovely intro screen doubling as a mini-tutorial, not that it's really needed but it's a great idea.
More interesting gameplay would have been nice, but I don't think the game would have been better if there had been enemies or an oxygen bar or something like that. As it stands, it's mostly about exploration and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Maybe Abzu is the game I should have been reminded of, then :)
The visuals build up a nice atmosphere backed up by suitably eerie music. The sound effect for collecting the dots stands in stark contrast and should be swapped out for something else.
Exploring the dark cave and finding all of the dots (pearls?) was a brief experience. I'm one for challenge and problem solving, so this time the short duration was a plus. A longer project with this minimal design would require absolutely amazing audio-visuals and a unique underwater world to keep me invested, so some other kind of interactivity is probably a better bet.
For a jam anything goes, so ok work.
This is such a pretty & relaxing entry and feels extremely polished.