Tiefenmesser by axelrinaldo
I've had an idea for a top down Silent Hunter-inspired submarine game for some time now. This theme was too perfect not to act on it.
So, are you perhaps also interested in captaining a submarine in dangerous waters? Weaving your boat sneakily past the enemy destroyers? Being sunk? Even if you don't I'm sure you'll at least enjoy the UI, programmer art-like though it may be.
Here are some screenshots to grab your attentention:
They'll never see it coming
Oh no, they had friends
And an image explaining the UI to avoid any possible confusion:
And here are some instructions, important as always: Sink enemy ships using your torpedoes while avoiding being sunk yourself. You can place your submarine at three different depths.: * At surface level your speed is increased but ships will see you and fire their guns at you. * At shallow depth the enemy have to use their sonars and hydrophones to detect you and then drop depth charges. The range of their hydrophones depend on the speed of your boat. * At deeper depths you take less damage from depth charges but lose your ability to see.
Controls: * Space - Launch torpedo
R - (R)aise your depth
F - Go deeper and deeper
E/Q - Zoom out/in (useful for spotting ships)
W/S - Raise/lower speed
A/D - Rudder left/right
M - Mute the music
Tools:
Unity
Aseprite
Bosca Ceoil
Sfxr
ChipTone
Audacity
Krita
Did I have time to do everything I wanted? No, of course not, but I'm still happy with the result. While I do already have a long list of improvments I didn't have time for I would also like to hear what you wonderful people think I could improve, my love for submarine games is probably blinding me to a lot of problems. :D
Also, the name is misspelled in the cover image. That's what happens when you're under pressure (submarine pun, please laugh).
Ratings
| Overall | 304th | 3.625⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 385th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 127th | 3.875⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 593th | 3.35⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 450th | 3.45⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 307th | 3.395⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 601th | 1.912⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 325th | 3.444⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 14🗨️ |
I like the clunky controls that leave me a real impression of maneuvring a big piece of metal.
The only thing that prevent me from playing far more time is the speed of the submarine.
:clap:
- everything!
- good music that fits the game
- sound effects are all great
- the complexity of systems based on the player's actions are awesome
- innovative controls that make sense
Improvements:
- There's nothing stopping someone from taking a 'spray and pray' method of attack; the torpedos are too plentiful and fire too quickly force the player into calculated attacks; perhaps this is an OK method of play; but maybe put some form of reward system in for tactical playing (e.g. high points for accuracy)
Bugs:
- didn't notice any
The whole atmosphere is great. I really like the subtle details like the ocean being a blueprint map, and the German (?) words on the UI controls. Also, limiting the UI to not show in the further zoom levels was smart, otherwise it'd be overpowered.
The AI seems just smart enough to kill you if you're not doing the bare-minimum to avoid them, but also not smart enough to really put up a challenge. That's perfectly fine for me in a gamejam honestly. I plaid 3 or 4 times and got better every time. Awesome!
I felt that the gameplay was pretty balanced as well. Turning speed and speed of the submarine itself made it not too easy or not too hard to take down the subs. This made the game rewarding to play!
The music was good as well, and it felt somehow like submarine music; kind of ominous.
Maybe to improve, I would say that it needs some sense of progress. Some examples of how you could do this could be making different levels with an increasing number of submarines. Or adding powerups/upgrades/health pickup items.
I liked the basic game mechanics and think that you could build upon that if you wanted to develop it further post-compo. It definitely is a bit challenging to control at first, but that's part of the game and fits the submarine well. Making the speed influence how easily you are detected is quite clever and has a cool risk and reward balance!