I really liked this, it felt more fun than I expected. I got to just past the storm before drowning. There was a pleasantly surprising amount of dialog and it was fun to hunt out the quirky little nuggets especially the manatees? talking to you as a human. It looks like youve powered through quite a few of these LD, congrats on completing another, and its really interesting that you make these for retro consoles as well!

NES support is SO COOL! :D

My first impression was wow this is so cool that it plays on NES! I have downloaded the ROM! And then as I started playing it I thought this game is truly amazing. I think you reached your goal, because this emotionally affected me and made an impact. I think that putting this extra layer into your game was done brilliantly! I am going to think about this game the next time I make one, and hopefully try to impact the player as well. I also loved the music and art style! Super well done!!!!

Thank you all for the kind words!

@fatcrow just so you know, your comment made my night.

I find it insanely cool that you made an NES game for LD! The audio and graphics are good for the platform restriction. This interpretation of the theme is unexpected, unique and emotionally intense. The intro text was a bit of a spoiler for me, but I acknowledge its necessity.

All in all, a very nice experience personally. Thank you for making this.

I survived the storm! You've done well; the rising rates of suicide need to be talked about more often.

It's not so easily apparent when someone is hurting so deeply. Thank you for making this!

Wow, making a game with a meaning for Ludum Dare was quite unexpected but welcome. Also, it's an NES game and it's always neat to see someone keeping the NES alive!
Maybe one little thing I would've added is just a bit more challenge, I managed to beat the game on my first try without dying. Still, it's a great and welcome entry

I'm always impressed by the fact that you are able to make a NES game in such a short timeframe... And with such a deep meaning too! I really loved it, good job!

Done with style, very impressive!

Wow! Despite the heavy subject, I actually had a lot of fun weaving in and out of the currents. Absolutely well done, this was a great way to bring an important subject to light. +1 for the links at the end of the game!

WTF. An NES game?! I've also had a family member drown. So that was kind of a bummer. But that's not your fault. Nice work!

Thank you for the kind words everyone! They're very much appreciated.

@vectrex28 That's fair on the difficulty - the "hard" mode was actually the original planned difficulty, but I made a late decision to ease it up. My thought was that with the theme of this game, I'd much rather anyone be able to complete it, rather than giving a really tough challenge. (Especially with the attention span most people have for game jam games)

Fun fact on that difficulty switcher, I actually implemented it in the last 20 minutes of the compo. The commit came in 2 minutes before the deadline!

And mikelovesrobots, I'm so, so sorry this game brought that memory back up.

Aah, this was really something! Really splendid in your production of it as an NES game— Making stuff as homebrew for old traditional consoles is always neat. The good 'ol NES spritework and sound implementation was all quite nice and I had a good time playing through it, and the undertones of your game were written in well. It was a unique experience.

I don't know how you made all this is such a short time! Great job!

This game was actually pretty good, and it's awesome when someone creates something to an old console and it actually works on it. Congrats!!

Damen you made a nes game haha that's super awesome. Sounds, art, dialogs, all felt very cohesive. It's a solid contender. Also those were some really smart seals!

Really impressed! Wow making a NES game for a game jam! Loved the music. Time to play it some more :-)

okay. Wrting a game for the NES is a step harder, than to write it on a better perfomance maschine.
This is very impressiv. Good Work!

5 stars overall! Great art style and intriguing gameplay!

Good work with working with such a hard system really nice little game

Really, really liked this! Wonderful work!

I echo what everyone else has said about how cool it is that you made a game for the NES and one with meaning in such a short time. I was able to beat it (normal) my first time, but I completely agree with your reasoning for the difficulty level. I love being able to play through a complete LD game. One minor issue I experienced was getting "stuck" on the edges of the rafts/animals when they were in close proximity to each other. I was eventually able to all the way up and around the raft in reverse. Just a small thing, didn't affect my enjoyment. Good work!

Thank you all again for all the positive feedback! This was one of the most challenging games I've done for a Ludum Dare, and I'm so glad to see people enjoying it.

@tddawson Thank you for the bug report, and sorry for the frustration! That's a known bug sadly. It's an [issue with nes-starter-kit](https://github.com/cppchriscpp/nes-starter-kit/issues/15) that I've been trying to squash for a long time. I think I may need to rewrite a lot of the engine to avoid it. Getting stuck between two sprites is new to me though. (and definitely not good >_<) I probably won't fix it for Depths, but I'm definitely going to try to fix it in the engine!

Beautiful. I loved that it was on the NES too, but in any case it was a lovely interpritation of the article. Glad you added the easier mode - not sure it should be too difficult to stay afloat!

Wow. This is... wow. You know that feeling where you are sitting and playing a really good game or watching a really good movie for a long time, and then you get up and you feel dizzy, almost some form of numb? Like when you become so immersed in something that you can feel a physical difference when it stops? That's what this game did for me. While the gameplay itself wasn't super innovative, it was definitely fun to play through, and I absolutely loved the way that you flipped the theme on its head to tell an emotional tale and spread an important message about suicide awareness. I enjoyed the graphics and occasional humor thrown in to some of the dialogue. However, I think what makes this game special is its mood. The way you incorporated the idea of clinging to things of sentimental value to stay afloat in life and avoid giving up and succumbing to suicide as an actual gameplay feature is incredible, and the audio not only provides feed back wherever it is necessary (like blips for dialogue and a sound effect for restoring stamina), but the way that the music starts upbeat and cheery but becomes slower and and a lower frequency as things start to take a darker turn is subtle, yet works so well. You took a risk, but I say that it was worth it. My first overall 5-star rating.

Really impressive, powerful stuff. The relationship between the gameplay and the story is perhaps a little on the nose, but its really impressive for a Ludum Dare game. I definitely felt motivated to help my little guy swim to safety. On top of that, the art and audio were fantastic and the characters and writing were super strong. You should be incredibly proud of yourself, this is a real achievement and one of the best entries I've played.

This was awesome! At first I was expecting to like it because it was an NES game, but this is unlike any NES game I've ever played-- not because of the gameplay itself, but it's the message and how it's delivered so effectively. The gameplay was fun, and the visuals and audio were definitely nice, but I think it's the use of the theme that amazed me the most. You did phenomenal on this!

A very good game. Definitely resonated with me, personally. The only criticism I have is that the collision detection is a bit wonky. But I'm sure you knew that already. Thanks for making this.

This is really cool - reminds me that I've been meaning to make a game for an old system, maybe the original gameboy. Really nuts to think about doing that for a ludum though -- awesome work!

This is probably the deepest game I've played here.
Well done on audio, graphics, and driftwood/preserver placement, as well.

Nice game, I felt like it wasn't too hard, but not too easy either. Only difficulty issue is that it was almost too easy at the end, but I sort of liked it given the Jam (I wanted to see the end). I really love the NES titles - this is the second I've come across and I'm just really impressed. The sound was really well done, GG.

Thank you all yet again for all of the wonderful feedback!

@mutt You should totally do it! There's a ton of really good tools these days; it's easier than ever to get started.

If you haven't seen it yet, the recently-released [GBstudio](https://www.gbstudio.dev/) is very easy to pick up, and will help you create a decent game for the gameboy. (It's also free)

[NESMaker](http://www.thenew8bitheroes.com/) also exists, though it's not free, and I'll admit I had a hard time figuring out how to use it.

I'll also shamelessly promote two projects of my own: you can make a very simple puzzle game using [NES Puzzle Maker](http://puzzle.nes.science) (the editor is actually an NES rom; you can run it on a console if you want!) The end result is a downloadable NES rom.

Finally, the engine I made this with is also open source: [NES Starter Kit](https://cppchriscpp.github.io/nes-starter-kit/) -- it's a little harder to pick up but I'm always open to supporting it.

I'd love to see you jump into the retro scene!

This is a game that caught me off guard. The simple graphics and audio (for today, mind you. Excellent work from a technical standpoint!!!) really lull a person into thinking it was a simple endeavor. And it wasn't.

This game had depth that I think some modern titles simply can't hit. You delivered a strong message in an powerful, yet not in-your-face way. It's the kind of subtlety that can be simply described as masterful.

Awesome work!

Nice to see that someone else did a NES game :)
Congrats, the music and graphics are pretty good

Great mood! I even felt a bit nervous when the storm started. I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to the sea creatures. They gave me much needed encouragement. I have one nit about the controls. When I swam into a raft, I couldn't swim along the side, but had to swim directly away from it to not be stuck.

In another life you could have sold me this cartridge! Other than getting stuck on things sometimes, I had a blast!

Cool idea and well executed. Crazy it works on a NES! :smile: Good job!

Wow, very good. Made it to the final raft and followed the story, this is cool, also that it is really working on the NES! Graphics and audio was very fitting, a lot of good text to keep the motivation up to get through the next current. Controls were ok, yes when moving away from a piece of driftwood you need to steer directly away, not in parallel to it, but I quickly got used to this.
Very well done! :thumbsup:

Very well put together and thoughtful game. I really enjoyed it and what you were trying to do. I also relate to your main character, which I'm assuming is modeled on yourself. It was nice getting to know a bit about you through this game. Keep on keeping on. :)