LudumData

Drying Up by Allenial

[raw]
made by Allenial for LD 42 (JAM)

What is Drying Up?

In Drying Up you play as a fish in a small pool of water that is slowly draining. The goal of the game is to find 10 pearls before the water completely drains. As you do this you will be running out of space because of the dropping water level making it difficult for you to access other areas of the map. Drying Up uses an interesting control scheme in which only mouse movement is used. No buttons are pressed at all!

Controls:

  • Mouse Left = Swish Left
  • Mouse Right = Swish Right
  • Mouse Up/Down = Aim Up/Down
  • (Move like a fish!)

Note:

Drying Up was created for Ludum Dare 42 using Unreal Engine 4. Before this weekend we knew next to nothing about Unreal Engine 4 so we were learning it as we were making the game. I know we made some mistakes (I'm worried about performance due to the polygon count) and it was a challenge but we learned a whole lot! Anyways thanks so much for checking out our game!

Created Using:

  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Blender
  • Substance Painter
  • Substance Designer
  • Photoshop

Install Instructions:

  1. Download .zip file.
  2. Unzip .zip file.
  3. Open Sealz.exe
  4. Play game (maybe have fun?) To close the game while playing it swim to the water surface. This will kill you and open the main menu allowing you to quit the game.
Windows https://lemonlimelife.itch.io/drying-up
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/drying-up

Ratings

Overall 772th 3.222⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 974th 2.833⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 356th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 657th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 574th 3.472⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 536th 3.194⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 2🗨️

Feedback

erebus
15. Aug 2018 · 04:56 UTC
Really interesting game. I like the level design, but it could use more clear landmarks (different colored areas) so you can figure out where you are. Also, maybe have the fish able to jump out of the water and not instantly die but just make a splash and go back in. Death should only be when you run out of water. Also, the controls are not bad per say, but the camera does not work with them. Having a camera that flows behind the player based on where they are going instead of where they are looking would be much less nauseating. Still, good job overall.
mindfungus
17. Aug 2018 · 01:30 UTC
It took me a bit to get used to the controls, but once i did i had fun looking for things. The fast camera movement was a little uncomfortable, but there were nice places to find in the environment! When the water gets low enough it's hard to avoid touching it accidentally.

It would be amazing to have a mouse-invert-y-axis option.

Good job!
batmanasb
17. Aug 2018 · 02:04 UTC
I really wish the camera wasn't locked to the mouse movements...
JesterSeraph
17. Aug 2018 · 02:26 UTC
The game is very fun, the movement is challenging but makes sense. The objective to get the pearls was a bit addicting, would have loved for some more notice of the water level and if you went above it intentionally you died, or some way to see where it was more visually.

Overall really fun 3d underwater themed game!
RedHermit
17. Aug 2018 · 02:30 UTC
I like that you tackled a new technology for the event, and were able to complete a project in the timeframe with that new challenge!

I had no issues with performance, but I have a gaming rig.. gtx 1080ti, etc..

The art/environment was very nice, and the subtle other effects like bubbles and such were nicely done too.

I'm a bit on the fence with the movement mechanic. I like that you were thinking outside the box with it, and making it a more organic / "be one with the fish" feeling, but what I didn't personally like with that is the camera being statically tied to those movements/fov for the fish, making for a bit of a nauseating experience when trying to swish back and forth too quickly. Perhaps if you allowed the fish to move with the mouse as designed, but applied a gentle rotation/non static follow to the camera as those movements were occuring, it could improve the visual experience during the moving, and still be a great movement mechanic.

All in all, very impressive for the timeframe and with a new technology, nice work!
Yaro
18. Aug 2018 · 18:03 UTC
It would be nice to be able to change up/down inversed movement. And camera movement is a bit to fast.
Fammy
18. Aug 2018 · 18:41 UTC
Really cool game! You can put a picture in the description of your game for attract more people. But you had a really good idea!!
Quetzakol
18. Aug 2018 · 19:19 UTC
Very good job overall, especially since it was the first time you tried Unreal Engine 4!

I liked the original controls, the simple gameplay and the graphics. There's a nice atmosphere overall.

Aspects that could be improved are the camera (like others said it shouldn't follow the mouse and shouldn't move abruptly) and animations. I also don't get the link with the theme.
Carlos Giraldo
18. Aug 2018 · 19:49 UTC
Good job with the environment! The only mouse controls I think could have worked but the camera didn't help. It needed to be a little looser so that it's not that nauseating to move the fish. Good job though for trying a new engine!
Paulo Augusto
19. Aug 2018 · 15:57 UTC
Good game man
DarkGuardsman
19. Aug 2018 · 16:06 UTC
Ok game, needs a lot of work. The level could use brighter colors, movement was slow and left/right click didn't do much. Was expect some kind of tail animation to show movement with swishing. Pearls were easy enough to find and the map was ok. However, camera would glitch often and ran into a few render problems. Last problem would die instantly toughing surface water. Would be nice if there was a damage delay with camera fade.

Additional to this the game opened on my secondary monitor instead of main monitor. There seems to be no option to fix this or run the game in windowed mode.

Over all good start, with a little work I can see this being fun.
NORRIMO
20. Aug 2018 · 12:29 UTC
Really interesting experience. I like the idea of ​​moving like a real fish and that reminds me a little bit of Abzu. :D

But I have some advice for you. At first, I thought that near each bubble would be a pearl. But often the bubbles did not lead to a pearl. What does not be so bad, because the player thus more explored the area. But unfortunately I also had problems with the orientation. What you should pay attention to in your next games is to show the player where he already was by dividing the look of the level into different sections.

But I also have to say that I liked your level a lot in terms of discovery. Everywhere there were tunnels and small hiding places. That was very good. :)
Avon
20. Aug 2018 · 13:14 UTC
Great job on the graphics, though the level was a bit too dark some places. The movement took some getting used to, it wasn't bad when I got used to it, though I would have preferred to have a button to accelerate. It would also have been cool if I could press a button to rotate the camera to look around without moving the fish.

The mood in this game could have been great if you'd had a fitting music track.
Zicboy
22. Aug 2018 · 09:52 UTC
Great game! loved every bit of it!