What Swims Beneath Us. by DrunkardWolf

'What Swims Beneath Us.' is a short horror game set in the horrifying depths. The player must try to get as deep as they can before they run out of oxygen or get caught by what swims beneath. When moving down, the beast will come hunting, so be careful and track the monster on your tablet, with your eyes and with your ears.
How to play: - Click to the left or right of the screen to turn. - Click at the bottom of the screen to bring up/put away radar tablet. - Click on the button at the front of the cage to start/stop descending. - The monster is attracted to the sound of the cage descending. - Track the monster using the tablet, your ears and your eyes. - The tablet has a limited battery life, so don't rely on it too much. - Keep track of oxygen and get as deep as possible without dying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zetLHubjBzM


Ratings
| Overall | 51th | 4.095⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 312th | 3.541⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 199th | 3.689⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 14th | 4.458⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 30th | 4.365⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 37th | 4.081⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 8th | 4.446⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 39🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
The creature sometimes clipped through my cage but those kinds of things is completely normal in a jam game anyway
At first I thought this was a little bit too easy, since you can just outwait the shark... then I realized that air meter wasn't a pressure gauge for an endgoal, it was a timer. I played it _way_ too safe. Then, the tablet, your instant cheat sheet... has a limited use... that's a neat design. I do wish I could look up or down, though, and I had a little trouble clicking the descent button because of how small the pad is. Maybe that's by design though, the fumbling on my end definitely added something to the atmosphere.
I love the visual aesthetic, but I hate sharks. Your sharks and underwater monsters in particular have all of the qualities that I despise about sharks. Trying to be a bit more neutral, I'm impressed by how many fish models that save for a little clipping here and there managed to look the part in a Compo game. Seriously, rigging and setting up all these 3D models on such short notice is really impressive.
Editing my comment to add this in: I didn't even comment on this, but aside from the chunky graphics the audio actually carried the weight of being underwater incredibly well. I don't have too many comments on that front because it all just built on the atmosphere without sticking out. The heartbeat indicator was also a nice way of conveying player info, but I like the fact that it can potentially hurt your score if you're overreliant on it. In short, there's just lots of little things that really make this game something special.
Incredible work, and worth five stars... but please, no more sharks.
Overall, very impressive game !
I really loved the atmosphere. Kudos for doing a 3D game out of 48 hours. This kind of old gen 3D is working perfectly to create such ambiance.
The gameplay is limited, but it stays a solid atmospheric simulation.

Very well done!
Keep it up!