Love it ! I did a similarthing with a sonar but not same gendra. Love the look, the end got me haha

Nice! The title staying in the world was a nice touch. The messages along the way kept me interested in keeping on going. The text sfx felt a bit jarring but i enjoyed my journey to the bottom overall.

Great work and thanks for the game!

Simple game but quite original idea. I like the graphics, specially the sonar wall detection effect. God job!

It is a good idea and can be used as an interactive documentary for kids. It can be filled with lots of real information and I can see a kid going through this and learning a lot about the Mariana. The stuff with green waves is also good mechanic. The only downside for me is the audio. No matter how low I set my volume it still made me uncomfortable and not in the good way :D

Very educational with an unexpected ending! Liked the presentation of facts and effect of the sonar. Well done!

Why did you opt out of humour though?

Nice simple entry, though like mentioned above, could be used as a tiny education game. Sonar mechanics are nice and satisfying to look at. I was like: "Battery seems to be holding well, what will I even need it for?" and the ending certainly surprised me!

Ooo I like the sonar effect! I did think that the dialogue typing sound was a little jarring. However, I do appreciate the fun facts! I was surprised at the ending, it was a nice treat for making it all that way!

That sonar effect was really neat. Had a peak through your code to see how you did it and learned some new things about godot. I was also impressed by how many fish assets their were. Really helped to bring things to life.

very nice! great sonar effect.

The sonar effect is very interesting !
The instructives messages are also a good idea that make the experience very cool.

Negative point would be the writing sound that is quite terrible :(

@p1x3lc0w @ali-yagmur @coatline @helagos

Thanks for all the feedback! The whole audio thing was new to me, and can be improved for sure. Will give it a shot post jam


@grid96 at the time I didn't think humor was relevant, but I guess the ending can be amusing :)

This got me good hah. I was on edge the whole way down due to thalassophobia so I legitimately jumped. Well done! The facts along the way were interesting as well.

Like others, I was very impressed with that radar effect. Had me wondering how it was done- then I remembered this is compo, I can just check! Awesome work.

Wow! my favorite one I've played so far. Clean and beautiful graphics, very impressive that you made all of those sprites in 48 hours. I also liked the sonar effect, that was well done. The movement and controls were forgiving and didn't feel janky. It's nice to play a game sometimes with not mechanics other than "go deeper". Not sure what the thing at the end was, an eyeball or something?

As others have said: The sonar effect is so cool!

Haha I was waiting for something like that happen at the end. I jumped out of my seat nonetheless. Good job! The atmosphere was great! (no pun intended lol)

@betovf @phlip45 @boboneoone Thanks a lot for the kind words, especially about the graphics which are not my main skill as a programmer.

I followed a lot of tutorials, especially by [slynyrd](https://www.slynyrd.com/blog) and [mirru](https://x.com/mirrutatep)

Again I'm not really an artist, and I agree that it's not super clear that the final sprite is an eye, especially in the dark. Maybe I'll give it more work post jam

Oh, big eye!
I am very like your game! I like it immersiveness, its like a good story. I want more games like this.

Thank you!

Pleasant controls and the most suitable graphics. At a sufficiently deep depth, I really began to feel lonely. The ending is intriguing. And the sounds, the sounds are good

I loved the feel of the controls, I think it's super difficult to make a floaty submarine feel so responsive and normal when maneuvering.
I loved the effects of the sonar and wished there were also fish to hit with it etc.

- Great controls
- I had fun reading the general information prompts
- Changing and dynamic environment
- Good theme interpretation

I really got the sense of going deeper and deeper thanks to all these.

A bit of critique:

- After the first wish the fish in the sunlight. I was just holding down the 'S' key apart of one or two cases where I needed to maneuver. (Still got the chills and was scared to hit something, but it barely had anything in the way).

Overall great game, well done!!

And should I say Behazlaha? Haha cheers

@benski
Toda :)


Yes I agree the navigation in the game could be more challenging. I even thought about making you lose health if you hit the sea floor, and tried to think about ways to block you in the middle of the ocean, like other submarines.. I didn't do it eventually due to lack of time. I also thought about the sonar interacting with the fish, but again, it was hard fitting everything.. Maybe in the post jam :)

Thanks for the feedback!

@dzejpi @yossarian @conradoclark @xpoho @follusior
Glad you liked the ending, and for the feedback in general!

I was actually inspired by this [image](https://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/rxko0l.jpg) I saw many years ago, and I incorparted many elements into the game, including the "ending", if an image can have one :)

I love this idea. You're the first one I've seen to show off how mathematically staggering the depth are, and this is conveyed well with leaving the photic zone after only several seconds, but still diving for soooo much longer. I love it. Big deep sea fan and this was showing off a lot of stuff I like. Really enjoyed the fish sprites. I was hoping for some deep sea snailfish or something though!! Just nitpicking I really enjoyed that aspect :)

I like the visuals here a lot, the watery ambience looks great. The deepening water color is really well done, and I like the look of the flashlight and the sonar effect. Very effective use of the graphics, sells the mood well.

I have no gripes about the gameplay. Obv it's just kind of for the purpose of swimming around, but all the cool deep sea facts kept things interesting, and the length of the game was good. I think even though it was pretty barebones gameplay, it did well to focus and emphasize the theme, so it still was entertaining. I liked the ending too

You mention audio is new to you. I think the sounds aren't bad. It was just insanely loud, and startling with the first sound you hear. You gotta be careful of volume and never put a full volume sample in without turning it down. A good rule of thumb is to listen to music or watch youtube while you test your game. It's necessary to do that little bit of audio mixing. I definitely had to settle into the sound because the first thing you hear is a super loud harsh noise.

That said once I was moving around, the audio wasn't an issue. It kept me immersed and all.

Overall this is really cool! Gameplay wise it's not super ambitious, but the concept and the visuals all came together, and you sold the theme/mood well through visuals and gameplay. It resulted in a fundamentally nice thing that I enjoyed playing, well done!

Nice one! I really liked the overall theming and concept, with the little trivia about the depths; the sonar visual effect was really cool btw. My main complain is the gameplay is a little limited as it's mainly goiing in a straight lines (except a handful of times when you have to dodge stuff) so it's a bit boring. On the other hand it did really feel like i was going 10,000m under the sea which is cool, but i wish the journey was a little bit more interesting gameplay-wise. A solid entry overall!

Like many before me mentioned above, artwork is pretty good, SFX and drawings! I was expecting to find plastic bags on the bottom of the trench, but the actual ending was just as horrifying...

Veeeerry nice visual effect with the sonar highlighting the walls, and I love the extra touch that the wall color fades out between pulses! The propeller spinning animation was impressively convincing, I would expect that to be hard to do in 2D, so really nice work there!

I think the sonar sound would have been really neat if you did some echoing or reverb on it, maybe something to try.

Congrats on your first Ludum Dare! And going right for Compo!

Interesting and interactive way to show how deep the ocean goes. Reminds me a lot of "If the moon were only 1 pixel" with space replaced by the ocean. I would love to see an extended version of this where the route is even longer to get a better sense of how massive things really are.

I liked that there wasn't much gameplay, I think it would distract from showing off the scale of the ocean in an immersive manner (though I don't know if this was your goal). I enjoyed this, well done!

This is a great, quick, deep dive (sorry) into just how deep parts of the ocean go. I really liked the sonar ping effect, it was very effective for keeping enough of a view on the edges that following them was possible but also selling just how dark it gets down there. I think this game is a great example of how to bite off just the right amount of game for a jam and execute it well. Great job!

@swooty

Wow thanks for the detailed feedback! The tip about lowering the volume of generated audio, and comparing it to other audio is very good one. Honestly I think I was just so used to it after hearing it again and again that I probably needed to show the game to more people. My family saw it, but I think they got used to it as well, and again it was on my computer im which I lowered to volume to reasonable level

BTW, The original James Cameron dive took 2.5 hours or so, so I tried to make the dive 2.5 minutes to keep it reasonable for a jam game :)

@thomas-bringer @bad-fetus @smilewood
Your comments really highlight my dellima of should I just keep it realstic and immersive but gameplay thin, or introduce some gameplay element and challenges, but lose some of the focus of the story. I guess both approaches can be valid :)

@mhorth

Great idea about the sonar effect. Wish I knew how to do that. Will try and research it for the post jam version

The game was so chill and relax... I found it awesome that it has some "educational" purpose, and a very chill vibe just observing fishes and stuff. Once into full dark, the idea and execution for sonar visualisation was quite neat... I wish it was a little less dark however to fully enjoy the ocean world bestiary (but totally understand it' has a purpose/meaning :). Also I did enjoy the pixel art, especially the submarine design. I wish there was some kind of more evolved gameplay while playing it but on the other hand I totally enjoyed the ride and the surprise that this calm created. Good job!

Great little fun-ducational thingie. I saw the last fun fact fact coming from a mile away yet it still surprised me!
I wish your ocean had a bit more life in it, it felt like the fishes were in like 4 meters out of theentire depth.
Loved it otherwise.

Super moody and spooky. I was on edge the whole time.

Nice lighting this is one of my personal favorite out of 5 so yeah this is already an indie game but if you add more it could be a top contender! Keep it up!

I would like next version to be a happy ending.

Cute little game, that is actually informative. But wait, what was that thing at the bottom xD. Anyway, I like the way you implemented the sonar. I guess a more complete game could add some more challenge to it but that's a great COMPO entry, good job!

I was very scared after 1k depth, so I played the rest without audio and never left the down button :D Great mood, also nice visuals. I think you could've used a taller aspect ratio to fit better with the game, since important movement is mostly vertical. Well done :clap:

@gargantuan-janitor that's actually the case in real life :) but I agree more fish would be nice

@chuckiee great idea about the aspect ratio! I planned to add mobile support post jam, so I'll give it a shot

@knarf @aynu @jeremyfa

I agree it was a little shallow (no pun intended :)) in the gameplay department. Thank you so much for your kind words and constructive criticism!

@gsoutz Actually in real life this trench was explored without anything lurking about, so maybe I should have a more realstic ending :)

Really like the way the sonar lead the way! the light is almost useless in such deep waters. Cool that you made it to scale as well!

Very cool. I feel like I toured the trench. I like the facts that come up as you descend. I wouldn't have minded even more of them. Also awesome that you used a scale and accurately represented what would be around at each depth. As I was playing I was wondering if that was what you were doing, so I was glad to read that was the thought behind it. The sonar effect is cool. I like the tension of how you can't quite see where you're going till that ping goes off, but by then it's probably too late to react. It added drama as I was going further and further down. And of course, the ending was great. Maybe not accurate to what's actually down there, but it gives your game a satisfying narrative climax. Great job!

How fun! I played a diving game a few days ago that had me going past the Mariana trench :)
This is really well made, and I appreciate the attempt at realism. I don't see educational entries that often at all, props! The marine life sprites are adorable, too. Aaaand... there sure was an ending! All in all good work!
(I had music playing in the background, and one of the tracks synced exactly with the sonar pings... :D )

@the3rdhunter @bridgeonastick

Thanks for playing and the feedback! I'm thinking about doing 2 changes in post jam to make the visibility a little better - pull the camera forward so you can see more before you, and start the sonar ping a little in front of you, so if your're moving forward again you'll see more

@fusionnist
Thanks for the kind words! I actually wanted to have music in this, but I don't really know how to make music and wanted to be on the combpo. Maybe I'll add some after it's over :)

Very well done for a first Ludum Dare! The graphics were beautiful, the sonar and how it show the borders of the trench was a nice touch. The depth messages was interesting and the ending took me by suprise. Well done!

Great minds think alike! because my game is also a submarine with a sonar that search for packages and while keeping an eye on cabin pressure.

@binaryprinciple I thought about introducing a PSI system as well, but couldn't really think on a good idea. I just played your game and it's implemented very nicely there. Thanks for the feedback!

Lovely little simulation. Even tho it was basically pressing S, having the sonar tied it all together very nicely and the game overall felt very good to play.

Neat game. The sonar effect was really well done, and the lighting was great.
I really liked all the various sea creatures though the game mechanics encouraged me to blast past them without stopping to admire the artwork.
The sound design could do with more work, it didn't really feel like the dangerous deep underwater trip it should be.
Also the submarine pointing straight down like that bugged me a bit.

Cool concept with a side of education. Not much gameplay beyond just going downward, but it was a nice change of pace from many of the other games. The graphics were really well done, and the sonar effect was super cool, though the sound got a little annoying. I was going to call it a very nice, cool, and calm game, until I got to the ending. Very fun surprise twist there. Good work!

I love the game and the approach! It is somehow simple yet unique. Great entry!

@holysparks @eyedromeda @kiv Thanks for your feedback!

@someone
Agree with all your criticism.

I considered having sort of a mini game where you need to take photos of the various sea life, which might have encouraged more exploration, but scrapped this idea to keep focus.

I also wanted to have some sort of deep ocean sound, but I'm at a loss of how to achieve this effect, and will need to research this

As for the submarine, I suspect what's bothering you is the fact that it has a top half with periscope, and you're totally right. In real life the submarine was indeed pointing down. In hindsight maybe I could've consider at least retracting the periscope when diving



As a lot of people mentioned: The sonar effect is really great! :)

Your idea of having a challenge in between like taking pictures would improve the gameplay and I think it is now missing.

But still, I had the urge to discover the bottom of the ocean. The collision of the submarine with the surface was nicely done. The surprise at the end was cool. The trivia about heights was also a cool feature of the game. Good job! :)

I enjoyed this! I appreciate the jam entries that are doing something a bit different, like this one.

It was a great vibe. I guess two small things that jarred me out of the experience: 1, the sonar effect is very nice overall but the sound is a bit harsh for one that's repeated so often, and if it were more mellow I think the vibe would be more chill; 2, it's probably just me, but a handful of times I let go of the mouse click to stop and look around at the fish, but the camera had this disorienting recentering effect that ... I can't explain why but it felt like a punishment, so I didn't want to stop very much.

But overall the game drew me in and kept me in this sort of semi-hypnotic state in a very nice way.

The ocean gets dark quick! And is very deep.

Well done!

Simple but really nice game. Thanks for the sonar that makes things simpler when you get to a certain depth. I loved the commentary as you go deeper. Kinda knew what to expect at the end, but still surprised me. Really nice entry ! :)

@lllarso @agraffs

Thanks for playing the game, and for your feedback!

@pkenney
2 very good points..

I can totally understand how repeating sounds can make things annoying. In the typing sound I added some pitch variation. I wonder if something similar will help with the sonar, in addition to making it more relaxed

Regarding the camera - I tried to move it a little bit forward when you're moving to help spot things on your way, but it did felt jarring when it got back. I'll give it more work to make it more smooth, because it make sense you'll want and stop from time to time

I really liked how you tried to replicate real life, it made everything feel immersive and interesting. The fun facts were a nice touch too, they added a lot. I did miss having some gameplay though, since it felt more like a cool interactive exhibit than a game. But it was still fun and had me on the edge of my seat as I went down!

Great game, simple, short, but not boring and full of interesting facts. Something keeps pulling you deeper and deeper! 😄 Like Dory: "Just keep swimming, down and down, we swim down and down." I think it would be more interesting to see a trash dump at the bottom, contrasting with the nature.

I love the attention to the little details! It felt really scientifically accurate (even though i can't validate any of it lol). You got me at the end, wasn't expecting it at all :O Gave me a certain maze game PTSD lol

that's a really great entry! love it!

Nice to see another person play with godots lighting for a dark ambience, the sonar was a really cool touch as well (would love to you how you did that). As others mentioned Audio could improve, the only Tip I would give you there is, especially for the theme, use reverb and delays.

Great job for a first ludum dare and especially for a solo dev!

What a fun little educational experience! Visuals were superb, loved the lighting effects and the sonar. The cute little bubbles from the propeller were a nice touch.

As others have mentioned, there wasn't much to do gameplay-wise, but I kind of liked it as-is; as a sort of interactive educational experience.

Impressive solo compo entry, loved it! <3

This was brilliant! I really enjoyed the educational aspect and the atmosphere. The battery and oxygen gauges had me thinking for a second that this was a survival game but I'm glad there wasn't a need to rush (and the gauges were in fact put to good use!). At some point in the darkest depths I noticed I was so drawn in that I was holding my breath, but nothing could prepare me for what came next. :grin:

@texugo @toilari @kaba
Thank you so much for playing and for you kind words and feed

@ammonit
It's interesting you're not the first one that expected to see garbage at the bottom. I actually read that it was considered to dump nuclear waste on the trench since it's so deep, and I considered to include it in the game to explain the ending

@ntmalichi
I appreciate you noticed the science influences, as I did tried to incorporate it, and (wrote)[https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-trench/my-first-ludum-dare-simulating-the-deepest-dive] about it


@kujoen
Thank you so much for specific tips in reverb and delay. I'm totally clueless about sound so it's very helpful to be fed with a spoon sometimes:)

I enjoyed this game. It was interesting for me to read the information as we aproach the trench! Maybe it would be a good idea to make the navigation in levels a bit harder. Also in my own opinion, adding more stuff(fish, different objects, etc) in the sea could probably add a bit of more exploring feeling to a game. But the game is still interesting. Good job !

Nice little game, interesting explanations, sonar idea is good, unexpected ending, would be great to have problems during the dive. Thanks

I don't know if I could exactly call this a "game" but I don't think I need to. It's really quite a nice experience. (Until the end, of course!)

I think you could have gotten away with slowing things down a little. It's fine as it is, especially since you don't want a jam submission that people are reviewing to feel tedious. I just wonder if taking it slow and easy on the way down would feel meditative on top of being educational.

@vityusha @jtap @coda-highland

Thanks for your feedback. To be honest I was concerned about making a longer or more complicated entry on my first try. The main feedback I got is that gameplay and challenge is missing here, so I would definitely give it a shot next time!

Interesting, a sort of educational game about how deep the trench is. I like how the sonar is showing the surrounding edges piece by piece. Little jump scare in the end haha. Well done :)

You got me with the jump scare at the end! Very nice entry and the game had really nice mood, being a bit spooky the deeper you get!

I was gonna say that was a really chill, relaxing game. But then that ending hit me... I had my headphones at pretty high volume and I think I actually screamed lol.

Great submission!

I really enjoyed the aesthetics! The facts related to the depth was a really nice touch!

Good small game about depths. Nicely made. I love that ray of light is turning up and down, creator is aware of small details and it is just great!