Cool game! I like the idea of losing visibility as you go. I would prefer more responsive movement. Delayed speed changes is less realistic, but also less frustrating.

I like the lighting effects

Great game ! While those type of games are quite common in this jam, it still is innovative enough so it's memorable. Also the music, while simple, really helps convey a mood to the game. It reminded a bit of the "20,000 lums under the sea" levels in Rayman Legends.

The mood of this felt great. Lightning was pretty.

Agreed, the mood, the use of light and visibility works really well.
Also, URCHINS!!

Congrats :) we made it!!!

The increasing difficulty is a plus. Good visual effects

I love it! Those sick beats go perfectly with the game. I do kind of feel like the game hates me, though, but maybe that's what I get for using the D-Pad on an Xbox controller. (Xboxes aren't exactly known for having good controller D-Pads....)

Nice shadow effect :)

I agree what others had said about the music and light. It really helps set the mood of everything. It actually feels like you are going deeper into the waters :). Great game and great work!

Thank you very much for your entry - I hope you had great fun making it :smile:

Nice lighting effects :smile: simple and well polished entry :thumbsup_tone1:

I hope you'll drop by mine and give it a spin :wink:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:

I got a high score of 249.6m :>


I was surprised at how many times I wanted to retry this. It's a simple diving game but you did a lot right with it. I like how you have the goal of getting air and light while also avoiding stuff (simply avoiding stuff can be boring in open spaces, so drifting around corners and in between rocks to get stuff makes it fun). Also, nice job with the hitboxes - it always felt fair when I died. I also enjoyed that difficulty oscillated, as it gave a sense of breathing room after difficult sections (something I could learn from when designing levels!).

Some negatives that come to mind are that the difficulty seemed to plateau after a while? The difficulty from 100-200 felt a lot more similar than the difficulty leading up to 100... (Or maybe I was just getting used to the game?) I would have also said that the physics were too slippery at the start, but I actually found it kinda fun to drift around corners after getting used to it. Oh also, perhaps the ability to move the game along faster when approaching the bottom of the screen would be nice, but that's more of a would-be-nice and not super important. Oh also I just remembered that when using gamepad, after using the d-pad, the analogue stick didn't seem to work. I restarted the game and completely forgot about that issue until now, though.

Overall, it's a simple game that nailed the fun factor quite well. Nice work.

@maple Thanks! You've gotten the largest score I've ever seen; amazing.
Yeah, when designing the hitboxes, the general rule I like to follow is that pickups have bigger hitboxes, while enemies have smaller ones so that it feels more fair. also the upper 3rd of the player has no hitbox so that the player doesn't die because of contacting the legs/feet. :)

You are right about the difficulty curving off. I tried something like this because I expected that the spawn interval would go out of control after a while, so I tried out a rounded-off curve.

I was actually trying to figure out ways to make the game go faster for more experienced players during development, but I just wasn't sure how to go about it. I was thinking of using a powerup for that, but it ideally would be something that's always a risk vs reward so that all levels of experience can enjoy. The idea of being near the bottom of the screen is actually a fantastic one! I should have thought of that, haha.

The d-pad bug is also something I came across. It's a Unity bug on WebGL builds that I don't believe I have any control over, rip haha.

Thanks for playing :slight_smile:

Great simple but fun game. I loved the pixel art and the lighting effects. If this were adapted to the phone, I could see myself playing this on the go.

I reached a point where I had zero visibility and was just moving blind with no way to recover. I feel like it would be a better experience if there was still some way to come back, even if extremely difficult or risky. Maybe if the glow orbs were still visible, even in the dark so you could make a desperate attempt to grab one before you die.

The premise is simple, but well executed. One thing I liked was how the stars make the entire level brighter for a time, rather than extending your vision to the max. I think a little extra difficulty the longer you go would be a welcome addition. Maybe something like the darkness closing in faster or perhaps limiting the max field of view the deeper you go. The background music fit the vibe very well - a great example of "less is more".

Thought your game was nice! Controls were hard to get used to as they seemed sort of delayed. Played a couple of times and had a blast once I got used to that

@jason-wilson Actually, both of the pickups do faintly glow. :slight_smile:

Perhaps it's too subtle, but I thought about this small detail so that players can have a clutch moment of saving themselves. It's slightly what inspired the starfish idea, as it gives a guide to navigate to the next potential glow bulb, should they completely run out of circular vision.

But yeah, I think some more options to save yourself might be an interesting idea as well, like maybe the urchins gain occasional luminescence to help avoid them and then recover.

Thanks for playing, I really appreciate it! :smile:

Fun game, quite addictive.

Very awesome, incredibly well polished game!.

My 4 year old son loves Jacques Ives Cousteau tv shows so we couldn’t pass by. I’m not an experienced player (I prefer quests) so I couldn’t dive too deep but still scored better then my son) I liked the gameplay, the lightning effect and art.

Fun game, i just think the dificulty could increase faster. But well done :D

The dragging movement in the water felt good and the music in the background really added to this game.
Well done!

Really liked this entry! Made me want to try compo next time. Enjoyed the atmosphere, animations, music. I also liked how light was used, I think the volumetric light worked well and I liked how the game goes darker but you can bring back some light, which makes everything lovely. Great job!

Really nice idea for a game, with lovely art (seriously that swim animation was adorable!) And the music was really quite catchy too!

I think little polishes like a few extra animations, or some fish in the background could take it to the next level! - I also think it would make a great mobile game! Nice work overall!