See the Light by DeadByDeath

[raw]
made by DeadByDeath for Ludum Dare 57 (COMPO)

Play on itch.io (it seems like HTML5 build does not work through the "build-in" launcher).

A brief description

You are a little Anglerfish, trapped in the darkness of the deep ocean. You heard many times before, that if you try to swim up to the surface, you can see a whole different world, where light overcomes darkness...

So, this is your time. You are going to see the light and escape the depths of the ocean!

Controls

Use W to swim up, and A and D to move left and right.

You have an energy bar at the bottom of the screen, if you have no energy, then you cannot swim up.

Eat smaller fishes to get more energy!

Be careful to avoid bigger fishes, because when you are going close to them you spend some energy to avoid being eaten!

Reach the surface to see the light! Have fun! :smile:

Disclaimers

All assets and SFX were created by me. Music was downloaded from an open source website. Find it here.

Ratings

Overall 226th 3.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 280th 2.595⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 277th 2.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 125th 3.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 171th 3.333⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 200th 2.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 121th 3.5⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

BadPinkChicken
07. Apr 2025 · 09:36 UTC
Love the chill vibe, big fish doesnt seems to work tho
busisen
07. Apr 2025 · 09:54 UTC
meditative experience, super chill. did you make the music? it's great. nothing seems to happen when reaching 0 hp though. regardless, nice entry!
LDJam user 385997
09. Apr 2025 · 20:39 UTC
The music and atmosphere are amazing. I also love the anglerfish sprite.
🎤 DeadByDeath
11. Apr 2025 · 16:43 UTC
@badpinkchicken If you collide with them, they just reduce your energy a little bit. Each big fish can collide with you once!

Thank you for your kind words!

@busisen No, the music is from a royalties-free site (I forgot to opt out from music), you can find a link on the description! Yes, the number at the bottom is supposed to be your energy, so the only effect is that you cannot swim up when it is 0. Thanks a lot for your kind words!

@liquid Thank you for your kind words! Have fun :smile:
atsh
12. Apr 2025 · 06:36 UTC
Minimalist game elevated by the gorgeous pixel art, animation and music

Just wish there were more fish, and that I understand how to position my fish height wise, but very relaxing game
Alex Davies
12. Apr 2025 · 06:46 UTC
Love the atmosphere! It might've been nice to have more variety in the fish as you go up. 2000m is quite far to go considering it's the same fish the whole way.
jacobingalls
12. Apr 2025 · 06:54 UTC
Super chill! Just what I needed. I thought the gold fish were just like coins, and that it was a high score kind of game... ugh. But once I saw the light, it all made sense. I do wish the upward movement was a bit more telegraphed because it sometimes felt a little floaty, but I think that was the camera trying to tell me I was going down, but without texture in the background is can be hard to tell. Otherwise it think ti was great!

![Screenshot 2025-04-11 at 11.48.39 PM.png](///raw/da9/b1/z/6c0b1.png)
MiNiGor
12. Apr 2025 · 07:19 UTC
GG, but slowly control
henk
12. Apr 2025 · 10:58 UTC
I think there should be a background graphic to help get a sense of vertical motion. When I
tap the up arrow, sometimes my fish would appear to move upwards much further than I expected,
as if I had held down the button, but I couldn't tell if that was a bug in the controls or if the
camera was moving in a way I couldn't see.

It's also not very difficult to make it all the way to the top
even if you ignore the larger fish when grabbing the smaller ones, making the game not
very challenging. Perhaps that was the intent, though.
PapyKent
13. Apr 2025 · 07:12 UTC
We went for a similar game idea, it's interesting to sea another on that kind of game! (and a better mastery of pixel art than mine haha). Very chill and calming! Great job!
spacecadet
13. Apr 2025 · 09:11 UTC
Really relaxing experience. I really liked the atmosphere and the pixel art and animations were really nice. The game felt a bit too long for what it has to offer gameplaywise but apart from that really cool entry.
muriel
13. Apr 2025 · 15:19 UTC
Lovely art and music, at the beginning instead of wanting to go up I wanted to go down haha as one of those fish that have the light I thought that I had to go back home xD

But once I understood, it has been nice, as others say it is relaxing and I think that it is minimastic, good fonts, nice color palette, IDK a very solid entry.

Also good catch on adding an alternative link, even games that are supposed to work in the LD website sometimes it is hard for my computer to make them run, so the itchio link was a blessing.

Great entry and keep it up!
loveapplegames
13. Apr 2025 · 18:58 UTC
Nice little game, cute pixel art. The music makes it into a sort of meditative experience. Sometimes the player swims up uncontrollably, it seems to be a bug. The background colour becoming lighter as you go up is a nice touch. It would be nice to have difficulty progression and/or different fish as you move upwards.
JHax
13. Apr 2025 · 21:18 UTC
Really cool atmosphere, I realise the music's not original, but it's certainly well chosen! The pixel art fish are very cute, and the animations add to that nicely. Personally I think I'd have liked to see the background continue the pixel-art style a bit rather than having a smooth gradient (or at least feeling like it's got a smooth gradient, I think I noticed some crisper lines between colours further down). That is a bit nit-picky / personal taste based though and a lot of it comes from the rest of the pixel-art being so great - the scale effect on the bigger fish I thought was particularly good.

The game being about getting out of the depths of something rather than further in is a nice twist on the theme as well.

Very relaxing though!
Eugenik
14. Apr 2025 · 12:05 UTC
This game is full of surprises
Ani
14. Apr 2025 · 22:52 UTC
Lovely, simple game. The W/A/D movement wasn't working for me though, only the arrow keys. The movement is a little on the slow side but I did find it quite relaxing!
LudumCor
15. Apr 2025 · 01:31 UTC
![GameCompleted.jpg](///raw/eae/46/z/6c347.jpg)
Very relaxing game! For me, W A D was not working but the arrow was working. Damage from the big fish does not seem to affect the gameplay that much. I loved the mood and the music. Well done!
ljg
15. Apr 2025 · 20:52 UTC
Cool game! The animations and music all added very well to the overall atmosphere of the game. Well done!
🎤 DeadByDeath
19. Apr 2025 · 12:06 UTC
Thank you all for your kind words! :smile: