Helena by Minus

made by Minus for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

You're a captain in your own little yellow submarine. Your mission is to get as deep as you can, but your journey will be hampered by a host of sea creatures. Your only options of survival are upgrading your ship and avoiding the creatures.

You control the sumbarine with WSAD, you can access upgrades with U and your journal with TAB, you can scan creatures and objects if you keep your mouse on them for 3 seconds. You can't scan the small fish and scrap, just so you know.

Web build is back!!

Link	https://minusminus.itch.io/helena
Link	https://drive.google.com/file/d/17AI7exiQXe0BAZPo8Ec7Mws_wpnUA1kt/view?usp=sharing
Link	https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VW0AV_L6QnTgEldA2Ee-IM7Vh8cuCKSK/view?usp=sharing
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/helena

Ratings

Overall	1829^th	2.667⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1864^th	2.296⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1571^th	2.704⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Theme	469^th	3.963⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1324^th	3.278⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Mood	865^th	3.537⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Given		23🗳️	30🗨️

Feedback

eta

27. Apr 2021 · 09:49 UTC

Sorry for the noob comment, but how do I run the Linux version?

Szatku

27. Apr 2021 · 10:32 UTC

Hi @eta. Run HELENA.x86_64 executable by /path/to/exec/HELENA.x86_64

MatiF100

27. Apr 2021 · 10:52 UTC

Seems like nice game base

Pros:

-Great music

-Nice atmosphere

-Fun exploration

Cons:

-Submarine is a bit slow and sometimes feels tough to control

-Once you get maxed out, there is nothing to do, as below certain level everything is black anyway

-Light could work on water, not only fish and maybe use some kind of resource so you would need to collect it

eta

27. Apr 2021 · 11:07 UTC

Thanks @szatku, I was able to run it now! It still seems a bit clunky, I couldnt upgrade the diving depth, and upgrading my speed did not show effect i think, the boat was still very slow.
The music and the setting was nice, and i like the scanning mechanism where you get a bit of backgorund on the animals.

🎤 Minus

27. Apr 2021 · 11:45 UTC

@eta We're still investigating issue with slow movement, depth was maxed out already at the start by mistake. New build is now uploaded with at least some issues fixed.
Thanks for playing our game :)

cireneikual222464

28. Apr 2021 · 19:53 UTC

I like the graphics and the music! But, as others have said the movement is extremely slow and makes it impossible to avoid obstacles (but I can just tank the damage and repair).

Gabriel Pittol

29. Apr 2021 · 00:29 UTC

Nice game, I do feel some enemies glitch when they are too close to each other but overall pretty nice!

nicksmaddog

29. Apr 2021 · 00:34 UTC

I agree with others about the movement speed being slow. Didn't really seem possible to avoid a lot of the sharks as they moved a lot faster than the submarine. I really liked the graphics, and the ambient music was great!

Ian Kettlewell

29. Apr 2021 · 00:36 UTC

It's cool how you can use dolphins to shield yourself from being chased by the big scary fish. It made things a bit more strategic!

frokes

29. Apr 2021 · 00:42 UTC

Difficult to dodge what is thrown at you and the scanner didn't appear to be working for me. The mood was great though!

LDJam user 242787

29. Apr 2021 · 00:51 UTC

The game felt a bit buggy, but the atmosphere of the game made up for it. Nice

olivv_g

29. Apr 2021 · 16:44 UTC

I really liked the audio and the fish models, which were kinda spooky! I agree that submarine is sometimes tough to control. And I don't know if it was only my case but the bar wouldn't restore after gathering parts for the ship. Pretty good game tho!

Szatku

29. Apr 2021 · 23:47 UTC

@olivv-g If you open menu with "U" key - you can use collected scraps to upgrade/repair your submarine :)

Arctiform LLC

30. Apr 2021 · 04:19 UTC

I really liked your models but I think the mechanics and game play could use some work. It's really easy to to get all the upgrades fast and the fish do almost no damage.

Dest_69

01. May 2021 · 20:43 UTC

Nice graphic, but have bug with music, and submarine very slow, can't run away from very big and fast sharks

kr0s

01. May 2021 · 21:59 UTC

I liked the atmosphere of the game, and I liked the creepiness as the submarine went further down, especially the glowing eyes of the whales. I couldn't get the scanner working, and after I upgraded everything, the game became very easy - I just had to repair the damage from time to time.

Joror

06. May 2021 · 18:45 UTC

Fun diver! The music was calm and nicely fitting. The surrounding getting darker was a nice touch - probably should have let that started earlier. :)
A few more sound effects would have been good, especially just simple ones for damage or picking up scraps.
Nicely done~