Depths Beneath by Stals

[raw]
made by Stals for LD29 (JAM)
**To launch - Run Depths Beneath.exe**
WASD to move
Avoid fish, collect coins, gas and also Wrenches to repair.

For Programming we were using - C++, Marmalade + Cocos2dx
Photoshop and Illustrator for art and a bunch of other stuff for music and sound effects.

There were a lot more ideas that didnt make it into the game - but we hope you will like what we managed to make in this short 3 days

Protip: upgrade "Hook Plus" =)

P.S.
To close tutorial, shop or any other dialog - press X in the right top corner
Last balance changes were made at 4am local time so the end game could possibly have a problem
Quick Dive is not fully finished - you dont get invincibility for extra time after it ends.
Also - if you have some visible lag on collisions - please lower the sleep_time value inside settings.xml

Game by Svetozar Powerful and Stas Korotaev
(currently working on a post-jam version)

By the way, thank you all for the helpful comments!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.19 381
Audio(Jam) 2.88 449
Fun(Jam) 3.23 238
Graphics(Jam) 3.08 484
Humor(Jam) 2.43 423
Innovation(Jam) 2.57 581
Mood(Jam) 3.02 396
Theme(Jam) 3.26 323

Feedback

TheLastBanana
29. Apr 2014 · 07:22 UTC
I enjoyed it a lot! I got all the upgrades. :)

The sound for collecting coins was really nice, especially when you got a whole bunch in a row. The claws were also fun to play with.

My only complaint is that it felt like how well I was doing had more to do with random chance than with skill -- if the game happened to spawn a lot of fish near each other (especially the sharks) or not enough gas, there was no hope of getting past that point.

Still, it was well-done. Good job!
robopossum
29. Apr 2014 · 08:24 UTC
Audio and graphics are both nice, simple animations would make this even better. Also, you should definitely add 'fuel low!' and 'hull critical!' warnings. Great work! :D
stephan_h
29. Apr 2014 · 09:06 UTC
Good job. Feels already quite polished.
The ocean feels a bit too sterile to me. Could use more noise, texture.
Kragnir
29. Apr 2014 · 17:31 UTC
I must say that you managed to make an impressive amount of stuff in the short time available. The game might be a bit slow and relying on covering the screen with fish a bit too much.
morganbengtsson
29. Apr 2014 · 19:27 UTC
Quite fun! Nice graphics and sound. Though the control would benefit, if the sub had smoother acceleration.
Tititesouris
29. Apr 2014 · 20:07 UTC
Addictive, good mood, great game. Although it gets very difficult when all the sharks spawn together, so I actually haven't completed the game. Was still fun :)
sP0CkEr2
30. Apr 2014 · 04:31 UTC
I have to admit - when I saw the picture of your game I was - meh?!? but man it was great. a real gem. of course I am a sucker for upgrade type games. great job!
Thorig
30. Apr 2014 · 11:12 UTC
This is a nice polished game.
GamerTaters
30. Apr 2014 · 11:18 UTC
Cool game. I liked having to manage various resources as you dodge incoming obstacles. I did get confused by the bronze coins though. I thought they were gold at first and kept choosing them above the silver coins for a while. I really like those claws too! Love the upgrade system.
conno1234
01. May 2014 · 18:58 UTC
I love games where you constantly upgrade your equipment. This is the first I've seen like this in this year's jam.
Dreii
02. May 2014 · 08:52 UTC
Hey nice! Good job on the upgrades it adds a nice pacing and flow to the game!
Teesquared
02. May 2014 · 11:29 UTC
Really fun. Very polished UI. The bars that shrink and expand on both sides are cool (vs 99% of games go in one direction). It takes several upgrades before you can really play effectively. Ship size feels large. Great job.
StoneMasters
03. May 2014 · 09:23 UTC
Couldn't really go through the last part. Always hit a wall of fish. Had everything upgraded! Fun tho!
Spellmaker
03. May 2014 · 10:28 UTC
Nice game, the twist on the common autocollect upgrade was pretty cool. Only sometimes the RNG felt a bit too powerful
mechabit
04. May 2014 · 13:03 UTC
nice artwork
CiderPunk
04. May 2014 · 14:16 UTC
I spent faaaar too long playing this, but I did find Atlantis so that's ok.
BlazingFanfish
04. May 2014 · 14:46 UTC
Amazing! So much content in a single Jam. One of the most polished that I've played. Great! :)
DavidErosa
05. May 2014 · 23:18 UTC
Nice sound. A bit hard for me, but I'm really goofy :) It remembered me of Ridiculous Fishing, but trying to avoid fish :)
HuvaaKoodia
08. May 2014 · 19:29 UTC
There are many similar entries in this genre, unsurprisingly taken the theme of the jam, and thus far this is my favorite.

Top reason: It's not just a grind, there is legit challenging gameplay in here!

The good and the bad:

The quick diver skill is a great boost to cut down the early level grind time. I haven't seen something like it before in games like these.

I hoped the hook would be an active ability, but alas that was not to be. Some active abilities would keep the gameplay fresh once the upgrade system settles down to just offering plain passive buffs.

The upgrade system in itself is a bit basic. The items are tiered very similarly cost-wise so I mostly purchased them in sequence tier after tier. One way to change this and allow more player decisions in upgrading is requiring different mixtures of resources for every item.

In other words the level has varied resources instead of only cash: gold, silver, jewels, shells, starfish, you name it. Each upgrade then demands their own resource, meaning I can prioritize collecting those resources which give me the upgrades I wish to get.

Also good job on using xml files. Allowed me to decrease the hook upgrade costs to a more reasonable level. An automatic save system would be a nice addition.

Bug report: Using escape to close the upgrade screen spams the launch sound rather disturbingly.