Nice graphics and easy to follow gameplay, the pink fish moved abit to fast to dodge, decent game overall.

Really enjoyed the art. Such a cute whale in the back there. I agree that some were hard to dodge. Thanks for this!

Gorgeous game! It got a little too hard for me after the first couple of levels. Overall it's very well made and I enjoyed playing it.

This was a fun game! I didn't quite reach 5000m, since some of the pesky fishies were difficult to dodge down there, but had a great deal of fun nonetheless.

I loved the art from the get-go and the little tutorial before gameplay made sense. The game felt polished and well-executed to me.

The only thing that bugged me was that in my opinion, each "stage" lasted a tad bit too long and mostly consisted of repeated actions after figuring out the enemy movement. I feel like cutting 1/3 from the time on each depth level would impact the overall enjoyment positively.

Still, one of the better entries I've come across this LD!

This is a cool atmospheric game! The graphics and especially the effects are decent and the game itself seems very polished. The only thing frustrating for me was the double attack of one kind of fish. When it gets dark (a nice change in mood btw) it's really hard to dodge them, because the second attack didn't have the exclamation mark on it. Maybe a bit less fish on the deeper levels would be nice. Apart from this, you guys did a great job!

Great looking and sounding game. Reminiscent of old arcade games.

I like how submarine is drawn very nice. But background in drawn in high resolution and it dont look good with submarine. But game is good

Thanks for all of your feedbacks, I have reduced the length of each level and also reduced the amount of fish spawned to curb repetitiveness!

How pretty! What a great entry! I love the part with the light. The length and difficulty is just right. A few more options to defend or dodge mechanics would been nice to have. All in all great job!

@shadow30 @remusnomos @saerki @beats @valid @darqweful Thank you all, we actually designed the torpedo to be indestructible, meaning once you shoot it will clear the whole path where you are facing. If you took aim carefully and made sure it hit multiple enemies, then you will be in safe place. Due to the shooting mechanism we actually made the level a bit more difficult.

Chefs kiss to you back. Love the game. Something that cracked me up was the sound of torpedos XD its sounds like AK

Very addictive and exciting game. I liked the art and how all the fishies look :) the rifle reloading sound is amazing. Had to replay a few times to adjust to the steep difficulty curve after reaching 2000m though, but it's no problem after you get the hang of it.

I like this game. It looks pretty nice and the idea to turn everything darker the deeper you dive is great to increase the difficulty. I think you matched the theme pretty well. Shotgun sounds for the torpedos were a bit surprising but I find it kind of funny. Also your fish look cool. Nice job.

I had a lot of fun playing this game! The visuals and audio were just... so good - I was very immersed. Thank you for sharing!

really nice art, liked ur concept, good job!

A simple but well-executed game. It has some nice features that elevates it, such as getting darker as you get deeper, which also makes the gameplay more challenging. I could have done with some more health pickups personally. Overall, a nice little arcade style game. I liked the old-school UI too!

You achieved a nice progression and difficulty and kept the game fresh with new enemies. Very impressive how much you managed to fit in there. At the deeper depths the game got very tense, especially with the pink and green fishes who chase the submarine. Very enjoyable game!

Nice leveling up. Then you ramp up the difficulty. Good Job.

Nice work! Took me a minute to realise that I can't move when the anchor is going down, but really fun, firing that torpedo was super satisfying! Nice work!

THAT's what I imagined for this Jam's theme! I love how the atmosphere changes when the submarine dives deeper and deeper into the sea. Graphics and sound works great together and the game looks polished! It's easy to learn and entertaining.

This was a pretty game, the balance was set very nicely! It would've been cool if there was boss at the last part (like the whale)

Amazing game guys! Great presentation (art, UI, sound, tutorial, everything really). You also did a good job mixing up the game with new enemies and mechanics (like the darkness). A nice twist on a shoot em up also with having the player in the middle. This in combination with the darkness, limited ammo and fast fishes made it quite difficult though, but that doesn't have to be a negative :D

The work done by this team is great! Lots of personality, crunchy sounds, good sountrack. It kept me engaged.
Although the mechanic is simple (up/down/shoot) the enemy variants and the fact you had to wait keep it interesting. Also appreciated that the game kept me informed all time, how much time to wait, health, cooldowns.
Excellent entry!

Great work. Good effort on putting those detailed instructions in there at the start. As others have said I like how you've used the darkness to build a sense of ominous doom and make it more difficult once you need your flash lights. Good overall presentation with the sounds, graphics, and mechanics all well done and working together cohesively. Well done.

We did it! Took us a few tries but we got there. We really appreciated the clear instructions and easy controls. The different types of fish made a great challenge and the game had an amazing atmosphere, especially when the lights came on. Great game!

A very atmospheric game, between the bubbles, the music, and the brilliant background art.

I wasn't sure what "OHKO" meant, and assumed it was the same as "OK". I immediately tried to collect a bomb, and realised it probably stood for 'one hit knock out'.

I've seen a few other submarine games, but the idea of getting deeper after a fixed interval is a really nice version of that concept.

Loved the torpedo. Very satisfying to fire.

Great work !

nice little game, I loved the artwork here

the dive speed of the submarine could be slightly faster but that's just a personnal preference.

Some tweaks could be done on the fish' speed and behavior but that was really cool to explore the background art as we're going deeper and deeper ;)

Yarrr' So y'all want a review of ya journey in da deep sea? Not ready for a desk job yet, eh? Do be careful though, this review fill with praise!

I uploaded our gameplay of your game on youtube, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=1F0Ywiy2Mt8&t=14697s

Thanks for being part of the stream, it was amazing! :smile:

What a polished, compact, fun experience! I really enjoy everything about your game: the story, the graphic, the simplicity of the controls, the challenge, the variety between each level, etc.

It's really a great game! Congratulation! :v:

The art is beautiful :thumbsup: Bomb fx is cool also.

The down between level is too slow, that's break the rythme but it's still very funny to play.

Good job.

This has really an innovative game mechanics. Graphics and sounds were great too. Good Job.

Thanks for bringing your game by my stream for playtesting! Sorry I wasn't able to get to it when you were around. If you'd like to watch the play and commentary you can view the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1008703891

Really cool game, nice art and good music. Congratulation!

[Disclaimer](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/so-so-phia/done-with-compo-i-might-yet-move-to-jam-if-i-feel-like-it)

Hey! Mood is great, looks nice save a few nitpicks, but I'm not going to go into those things since you wanted to hear about balance and difficulty.

I played the web version, and it was far too easy. Then I downloaded the older windows version, and it seemed kind hard to me. I got killed at the first level where the lights go out. (I was glad I got to see the ending with the easy one, but enjoyed the harder one more gameplay-wise.)

I suspect this is going to be a problem of most games with simple mechanics. (It took four days for a friend of mine to finish [my game](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/so-so-phia). It is meant to be finishable in 10 minutes.) We make gamejam games here. A gradual increase in difficulty is not really that of a viable option. These games are not meant to become classics with people spending hundreds of hours with them, so there isn't really much room for a learning curve. The best one can probably do is add a few difficulty levels, and let people go at their own pace.

Anyway, good job.

---

If you want to see all the star ratings, you need to tell me explicitly. I can send it to you on twitter, discord, or I can leave it in the comments. I have no idea how this would affect the ratings from other people, so you decide if and where you want to receive them. If you want them on twitter, tweet a link to your game and tag me, or send me a PM. If you want them on discord, send me a link to your game on discord.

[@dizztalgamedev](https://twitter.com/dizztalgamedev)

Discord: kuro#4651