LudumData

Subsanity by cannashblue

[raw]
made by cannashblue for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Dive deeper and deeper into the deep blue sea. Will you reach the ocean floor? Or will you succumb to subsanity...?

screen2.png

Tools used: Code/engine made using Java, libGDX, Box2D, and Ashley Entity Framework. Artwork made with Aseprite. Music/sound fx made with Reaper and Reason. Levels designed with Tiled.

How To Play

WASD to move. You may have to click the game window first. Avoid dangers, such as sharp coral, sharks, jellyfish, and geothermal vents. Your health is shown at the top left with air bubbles. Throughout the game, there are checkpoints shown by air pockets underwater. Surfacing there will heal you and set it as your spawnpoint if you die. Try to reach the bottom of the game! Have fun!

*If you have any performance issues with the HTML version, I recommend running the downloadable JAR version of the game at the bottom of the itch.io page. Thanks!

Credits:

Garrick "Cannash" Bauer - Code and Level Design

Hali "Ashlynn" Bauer - Art

Aydan "Aylou" Bauer - Music and Sound

Kenyon "Caz" Bauer - Misc Art

Playtesting friends:

Ryan Perry

Luca Rehab

HTML5 https://cannash.itch.io/subsanity
Executable JAR https://cannash.itch.io/subsanity
Executable JAR https://cannash.itch.io/subsanity
Executable JAR https://cannash.itch.io/subsanity
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/subsanity

Ratings

Overall 159th 4.058⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Fun 169th 3.976⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1082th 3.083⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 152th 4.226⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 303th 4.221⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Audio 81th 4.202⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 991th 2.561⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 172th 4.167⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 63🗨️

Feedback

GreatCadet
27. Apr 2021 · 03:42 UTC
This game is amazing! The sound and visuals really stand out. The level design was well done and the controls were basic, but felt very smooth. Great work!
Fuzzy Lobster
27. Apr 2021 · 03:44 UTC
I really like the tileset and sounds. Beautiful
brianpow
27. Apr 2021 · 03:45 UTC
Great color design and solid movement for the sub, excellent job!
abvadabra
27. Apr 2021 · 03:45 UTC
The art in this game is gorgeous, as well the sfx/music. Pretty solid entry!
Swoof
27. Apr 2021 · 03:47 UTC
Absolute blast to play! I loved the controls and the art and especially the music! You totally captured the mood of going deeper and deeper into the ocean.
Sad Pea Games
27. Apr 2021 · 03:48 UTC
Nice game! Good job :D
T C
27. Apr 2021 · 03:48 UTC
Visuals and Music were awesome. Game had a good balance of control vs. fun. Really liked how different each environment felt. Very well done!
Lighty_the_Light
27. Apr 2021 · 03:52 UTC
Five star for all!
This game is amazing!
Excellent art and audio work, very balanced game design, decent game length.
A little bit hard to control though.
Love it!
NDHR Productions
27. Apr 2021 · 03:53 UTC
That was super duper calming. I could see that being expanded on a ton
JKazuk
27. Apr 2021 · 04:06 UTC
Very cute! Although I had some performance issues
Fuzzy Lobster
27. Apr 2021 · 04:24 UTC
I keep coming back to this one. The atmosphere is really good
Carston Schilds
27. Apr 2021 · 18:39 UTC
Awesome work! Loved the music at every level
kev_The_GameDev
27. Apr 2021 · 20:09 UTC
Nice game! I had problems to distinguish the back- & foreground in the first part of the game, but liked the artwork and atmosphere once I met the sharks. Overall a nice game!
🎤 cannashblue
27. Apr 2021 · 21:46 UTC
@jkazuk I recommend trying the downloadable JAR version of the game. It has better performance on most computers. During playtesting, I noticed that the HTML5 version lags on some (but not all) computers. I'm still trying to optimize it.
fabula_rasa
27. Apr 2021 · 21:57 UTC
Totally cool. Very polished and a pure pleasure to play. Movement felt just right - not too much inertia that would make it frustrating, but some to make it feel natural, just right. Levels are interesting to explore and pretty on the visual side, and the music really enhances the experience.

And the fact that you can land your submarine on the "Thank you for playing" text just totally won me over :)

I really have nothing bad to say here and not even one piece of advice for improvements. It's great :)
teenythanos
28. Apr 2021 · 00:32 UTC
This is adorable! I learned the hard way which walls you can't bonk, but so so lovely. And such fitting music!! Lovely all around.
kleinzach
28. Apr 2021 · 00:37 UTC
Very well done. The controls felt really solid, and the mazes fair and decently challenging. The game looked great, though at first it was a bit hard to tell what elements were foreground or background. The first wall I hit happened to be one of the orange ones which hurt, and made my try to dodge all the walls later on which no longer hurt, so it might have just been me, but maybe the telegraphing of mechanics was a little off. Overall I loved it though! Congrats to the whole team!
0mbre
28. Apr 2021 · 00:37 UTC
I find it a little bit hard to control but it's really cute and calming !
JKazuk
28. Apr 2021 · 01:06 UTC
Yep, the downloadable version is infinitely more playable. Absolutely loved it and updated my review accordingly. The whole game just oozes charm and that water shader really ties it all together. Wish it kept going though! 😋
🎤 cannashblue
28. Apr 2021 · 03:05 UTC
@0mbre It's possible that you're experiencing lag on the HTML5 version. It makes the controls very difficult. I could be wrong though. :) But one of my playtesting friends during the jam experienced bad lag and thought it was a controls issue too. The HTML5 version seems to have performance issues on some (not all) computers. I would recommend trying the downloadable JAR version if you can.
vsi-
28. Apr 2021 · 07:53 UTC
very nice looking art, gj!
TommyTheITGuy
28. Apr 2021 · 08:43 UTC
Good loking art. The music wonderfully creates the mood. I enjoyed the sound the sub made. Could use a better ending though. ![123.png](///raw/342/3/z/41247.png)
Hapiel
28. Apr 2021 · 09:48 UTC
Nicely done, great art and sound!
PizzArt64
28. Apr 2021 · 11:04 UTC
Pretty well made!
lesinvisible
28. Apr 2021 · 11:15 UTC
Nice and relaxing small game. Red corals remind a little of the infamous TMNT NES swimming levels.
Le Slo
28. Apr 2021 · 11:31 UTC
Greatly executed game, not innovative, but very polished. The art was fantastic (except a bit of problems in the first section with one of the background tilings), level design was nice and the section of the sharks (even being easy) is a nice point for the flow of the game, perfectly accompanied with the music. Apart from that, I would say that I would have played with arrow keys (always enable both, if you have the opportunity) and that the first saving icon confused me, because the SFX sounds only when you are healing, and the sprite doesn't change in any way to let the player that something happened (I didn't die, but I'm expecting those are checkpoints). Very solid entry!
LDJam user 245161
28. Apr 2021 · 18:45 UTC
Cute! I had a fun time, and the art/music/mood were all on point. Good job!
🎤 cannashblue
28. Apr 2021 · 22:26 UTC
@le-slo Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I knew the background tiling was an issue. It was one of those things where I said, "I'll fix it later when I have time." And the time never came. Same with the checkpoints. I hastily added the floppy discs because I figured I needed something to signal that they were checkpoints, but I didn't put enough time into their implementation... And I'll definitely keep the arrow keys in mind for next time; I didn't think of it. Thank you! This was my first game jam. I wish I had the experience I have now before going into it. It just means I'm looking forward to next time!
🎤 cannashblue
28. Apr 2021 · 22:35 UTC
@tommytheitguy Thank you! I actually had spent several hours early on coding a boss fight against a mantis shrimp that I never implemented, even though it was almost done. I just didn't think it fit the mood or vibe of what the game turned into. The song for the fight is actually in our soundtrack.zip on the itch.io page. The scope and design of the game changed a lot over the course of the jam. This was my first time participating in a game jam, so I wasted lots of time on things I didn't even use in the final product... If my team and I had a better vision and plan from the beginning I feel like we could have done so much better. We're all really looking forward to doing better next time!
Onizik
29. Apr 2021 · 05:58 UTC
Very nice gameplay, art and music!
In HTML5-version I have a problems with optimisation but the game has been completed
LelulaGames
29. Apr 2021 · 06:25 UTC
Such a short, but sweet, little game. I loved the graphics, and the controls were just floaty enough to give it some challenge, but not too much to make it impossible. A great balance. The change of the music as you got down deeper and deeper was pretty awesome too. I liked the "thank you" at the end, but maybe adding a treasure room, or some glowing coral to juice it up would be great.

Also met one bug when I got stuck on a shark a couple of times. I still got through so it didn't bother me, but maybe adding an invincibility frame so you can get away from the shark once you hit it would be good.
kingslee142
29. Apr 2021 · 20:31 UTC
Very nice game idea. I like the changing enviroments and different obsticles on your way. As well as good choice of music gives good, spooky at times vibes. Well done!
Revilo
02. May 2021 · 05:23 UTC
Lovely graphics, I found myself getting confused by the different layer colours and found myself unable to find the way as I thought the brown/red background was also coral. I could imagine it would be difficult to navigate as a colour-blind person but overall a nice little game, well done
Super Hadoken
03. May 2021 · 16:16 UTC
Nice graphics and mood.
The slow pace was a nice change. The shark section was unexpected but fun enough although a little easy.
Could do with some feedback to show that the save point was activated, eg. change the colour. The sound was easy to miss on low volume.
Cool game.![3f5a0.png](///raw/be6/e2/z/42185.png)
Nessou
03. May 2021 · 20:23 UTC
Very nice game! At first I didn't understand which walls were dangerous, and also the saving points because the volume on my computer was too low. But except these few things I really enjoyed playing it and wished it was longer! I also liked the fact that in some places there were multiple ways to reach the bottom and therefore once can choose the path he prefers! Well done!
It would have been nice also to be able to use the arrow keys.
Glaikunt
07. May 2021 · 09:21 UTC
Aw this was such a nice game to play through! Great job all of you! The art, music, gameplay blended together so well. Those water effect are awesome! It was a little easy I was left wanting more which I would say is a good thing :D Thanks for making the game fellow libgdx-er :)
Echo GameWorks
09. May 2021 · 20:06 UTC
Quaint, perfect controls for an underwater vehicle, and really enjoyable to play. I thought the music was great across all the areas. That extra bit of polish was awesome. Great work!
OddballDave
13. May 2021 · 09:02 UTC
Great entry. The audio in the third(final) area was amazing and really set the mood. The graphics overall were good, but again the third area shone out in that department too. The level design in the third area was also streaks ahead of the other two. In the first area the mishmash of tiles made a few sections unnecessarily confusing, the cleaner look of the third was much better. It was a great decision to switch up the gameplay for the second area, but it did feel a bit lacking with only the sharks to contend with.

Hope that didn't sound too negative as I really enjoyed this. I played to the end and even wanted there to be more.

Good stuff :8ball:
🎤 cannashblue
14. May 2021 · 05:03 UTC
@oddballdave No worries, I really do like the constructive criticism. I actually designed the third level in the last few hours of the jam. I coded the geothermal vents in the final hour... I'm glad you enjoyed it! I just wish I had had more time to design more levels, or expand existing ones. I'm hoping next time to do a better job at planning and managing my time; this time was a mess as far as that goes. I'm very proud of our artist and composer though, they did great! :raised_hands:
SleepyStudios
14. May 2021 · 06:16 UTC
Such a nice, cozy little game; love the atmosphere and controls! The art and animations specifically were great, though I think that the foreground and background could be better differentiated. It's cool that there are multiple paths you can take, I wish there were more levels!
Shoc
16. May 2021 · 06:57 UTC
You made a really nice atmosphere of the game and that is pretty difficult!
Nice job!
LDJam user 250426
16. May 2021 · 19:15 UTC
Very chill, relaxing game! Art is great and goes great with the music and sound effects (I love that water effect too!) The save icon communicates well what it is and the blinking encourages the player to go towards it, but I think there should be a visual effect that it did indeed save the players progress either a particle effect or even a color change. Some bubbles would be so cute at the end of the submarine too *o*

+points for jellies I love jellies <3!

The sub is really fun to control, there's been a handful of sub submissions but I really like how yours feels to move, and the minor angle change when you move up or down helps a lot with the feeling

Good job all around!