LudumData

Reel Deep by frenchie

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

promotion06.png

Reel Deep

Ahoy! There's a treasure at the bottom of these seas and you're gonna be the one to get it! Bring some loot back with you to upgrade your hook! Then go Deeper and Deeper until the end!

How to Play: The goal of the game is to get the sunken treasure at the bottom of the sea. In order to do so, you must navigate down to the bottom without filling up your hook's capacity. You will grab anything you touch on the way down. Once the hook is full, you start going back up! On the way up, anything you run into will knock something off your hook! Whatever makes it with you to the top will be sold. Use the money to buy upgrades and go Reel Deep!

Controls: * Mouse to navigate menus * Arrows to move * C to use repellent (must unlock first)

Hints: * Your progress is saved! Come back later if you need a break * Fish and rocks are not very valuable. Better treasures lurk deeper!

Credits: * @ec2151 - Music and Sound Design * @MaxBize - Programming * @NitoDoodles - Art and Programming

Changelog: * Fixed a soft-lock where you couldn't beat the game if you didn't win the first time you made it to the bottom * Fixed a bug where you couldn't buy something from the store if you had the exact money for it

Gold Hook Hall of Fame / Bragging Rights:

  • @eta (honorary)
  • @luc-creationallabs
  • @smbe19
  • @fribolin
  • @littlew00d
  • @skosnowich
pw: ludumdare https://frenchie14.itch.io/reeldeepjam
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/reel-deep

Ratings

Overall 82th 4.182⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 50th 4.227⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 560th 3.523⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 163th 4.216⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 259th 4.267⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Audio 49th 4.314⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 637th 3.024⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Mood 629th 3.698⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Given 55🗳️ 70🗨️

Feedback

karlipoppins
27. Apr 2021 · 02:56 UTC
Awesome game, I love how polished this is. Amazing music/graphics/gameplay loop. I still think it's unfair that I see more treasure coming back up than I see going down :P Also I hate the little fish.

One of the best jam entries out there by far!

![run.png](///raw/b56/z/40234.png)
SamarthMP5002
27. Apr 2021 · 04:55 UTC
Amazing UI and graphics, the performance is not the best. Also, the meter depth counter is totally inaccurate because one meter down is like the height of a fish in the game.
Pete Valeo
27. Apr 2021 · 05:00 UTC
Great look and feel. I liked the color scheme, and the oceanic vibe really comes through. The audio work is good - nice effects, good mix. The music is a well executed musical vision but didn't totally feel like it matched the mood of the different parts. The reeling-up tune was jaunty and for whatever reason gave me the sense of cruising along in the van in one of the Ninja Turtles games for the NES. Which is a curious association! But I like it.

I wish the fish were a little bit slower when you first get started but I might just not be good at this kind of game 😆

Nice work!
Kaabiikaze
27. Apr 2021 · 05:05 UTC
I LOVE THIS GAME! Seriously, I really like the concept! Would make fora good mobile game!

So where to begin, the art is super charming! It reminds me of a game called Part Time UFO, especially the UI. The fish are really adorable, slthough I never seen so many clownfish that want to grab a hook haha!

I think what really sold me on this is the music. Mad props to that; it was really well executed, especially when you snagged all of the items in one round and about to reel up. Which makes me really like how difficult you can make the game (either go deep and get lots of fish or stay up high and only get a little bit)

Some feedback, the UI on the browser is a little shrunken on my screen (not sure if it's because of my monitor or playing it on browser is different. Also, the pricing of some of the upgrades after level 1 shoot WAY up so you do have to grind a bit to get those better upgrades.

Overall, amazing job!
SirDuck
27. Apr 2021 · 05:07 UTC
Wow, this is incredibly polished. Great job!!! I can't get over the fishing rod. If I am super nit picky I initially had a hard time telling what I could buy... but I am being REALLY nit picky. The best visual game I have seen so far! (Awesome mechanics too!)
Adam Wilks
27. Apr 2021 · 05:13 UTC
Amazing polish for a jam game. Most polished jam game I've seen so far. Great job on the sound effects and I loved the brief pause when you attach to the last item on your way down.
Smoothie
27. Apr 2021 · 05:29 UTC
OH MY GOSH!!! I think this might be my favourite game jam game ever! The level of polish is unreal. Loved the gameplay, and the hook rising fanfare is so good. The concept is so great. Hats off to yall
No Grapes Games
27. Apr 2021 · 06:10 UTC
Definitely reminded me of Ridiculous Fishing, and that's a good thing! You really nailed this it's really well done. Great art, great music, and insanely addictive. Solid entry ~ And I would love to see downloads to play offline if possible!

Awesome job!
eta
27. Apr 2021 · 07:10 UTC
I loved it. The visuals are amazing, nicely drawn objects and the movement of the string is so well done! Sounds match very nice and give a good feel. The game is so addictive with the upgrades, and I love it that you included the golden hook just for the lolz! The only problem I had when I went for it, is that when I arrived at the bottom the third time, there was nothing left and then I was stuck, so no golden hook for me, i guess :D. ![reel.png](///raw/87c/92/z/40506.png)
WhiteCubeGames
27. Apr 2021 · 16:24 UTC
Very cool game! I like it. Good luck!
🎤 frenchie
27. Apr 2021 · 17:10 UTC
Thanks for playing everyone! Glad you enjoyed it! :smiley:

@samarthmp5002 I'm pretty sure clownfish are one meter tall :stuck_out_tongue:

@kaabiikaze thanks for the feedback! I agree - balance could have used a little more tweaking. Not sure why you're seeing weird things with the UI. What's your resolution, browser, and zoom setting? Game looks a little weird if it's not at 100% or 200% browser zoom.

@sirduck UI tweaks was on my list but ran out of time! I also just went back and noticed you can't buy things sometimes even when you have the money for it :frowning:

@eta :scream: :scream: :scream: That's a game-breaking bug right there!!! If you didn't get the chest all the way back up the first time it would have been impossible to win! Also, means you soft-lock if you try to win multiple times. Just fixed it! Sorry about that. You still get bragging rights
TheGamerASD
27. Apr 2021 · 17:22 UTC
Nice game! The artstyle was nice and the game was fun to play.
NoahJ
27. Apr 2021 · 17:56 UTC
Nice game! It feels a lot like an old game I used to play on my iPod, such a cool concept with the dodge fishing! Well done :D
Eugenik
27. Apr 2021 · 20:16 UTC
Great game in so small amount of time.
Kaabiikaze
28. Apr 2021 · 05:28 UTC
@frenchie Ah I think that might be the reason; my monitor that I was playing has a rather weird resolution. I think I scaled it up a bit in the OS, which might affect how some things are displaying in the browser. Nevertheless, it is a really minor detail; most likely an edge case if anything else.
kr4ft3r
28. Apr 2021 · 16:14 UTC
This is the most well rounded LD48 entry I have seen so far. Really, congrats. You got everything right - the loop, the challenge, player progress, graphics, animations, sounds&music. All while sticking with the theme. Might be too difficult for some, but this game deserves some effort from player. Definitely should be among top 10.
ec2151
28. Apr 2021 · 16:46 UTC
@kr4ft3r that we should be so lucky! I am happy that you found the game so amenable. Funnily enough I had wanted the end-game to be more difficult, but I suppose skewing more accessible is de rigeur for gamejams.
Luc-creationallabs
28. Apr 2021 · 18:57 UTC
Wow, that was very well done, the level of 'completeness' is huge and the amount of gameplay that you have extracted from this simple dynamic is really impressive. I mean, everybody knows that if you implement an update system you will have more replayability right away, you also have a high risk of creating a very boring experience where the player doesn’t even want to grind because the whole thing seems empty and unattractive, BUT you implemented everything in a very balanced way, I really commend you for that, it was a very rounded game in all aspects, the music was very good, the graphics and the mechanics too. This game would probably achieve a very high position in the ranking, totally deserved.
#### and now here is my braging rights picture :smile: ####
![3.png](///raw/090/53/z/41580.png)
Junebug
29. Apr 2021 · 04:00 UTC
I loved this one! I think the music and audio might have been my favourite part, it was so upbeat and the music for reeling in matched the feel of trying to dodge all those fish and rocks. The fish felt a little hard to shake when they started tracking you. The C to blast them away helped, but I wished that they would stop chasing after some time. It felt like the screen got really clogged up if a lot of them spotted me.

Thanks for sharing this! I had fun.
RafaBriet
29. Apr 2021 · 14:50 UTC
Loved this game.
smbe19
29. Apr 2021 · 15:31 UTC
Can I now have my bragging rights?

![Bildschirmfoto von 2021-04-29 17-29-42.png](///raw/11a/z/41963.png)

Really awesome game, enjoyed it very much. I liked the change between going up and down. Was very fun to play.
testuser
29. Apr 2021 · 19:12 UTC
Great game. Fun music and well polished assets and good take on the launch+upgrade genre. One request if you develop further is add an indicator for how many repels you have left in a run.
Fribolin
29. Apr 2021 · 19:37 UTC
![Unbenannt.PNG](///raw/c48/a3/z/41a3b.png)
How could I resist to get this, just to brag with it XD
I loved the gameplay, it was really addicting. Just the idea that you have to bring back up what you caught was genius, it really gave the gameplay another dimension. The music also did a good job at conveying this feeling of rush. All in all, just an amazing game, an endless mode would have been cool, but absolutely not neccesarry for a game jam.
Very good job
Xeke-Death
30. Apr 2021 · 11:30 UTC
Strangely addictive.

I liked the speed mechanic where your position on screen determined the up/down speed.

Nice graphics, music was cool and fitting. Clown fish are annoying and not at all funny.
duo-afgebeld
30. Apr 2021 · 21:16 UTC
Very addictive, great graphics and sound. Upgrades are well thought out. It kept me "hooked" until I hauled in the treasure at the bottom. Avoiding the obstacles/fish seems impossible at times. I think there's an optimal strategy when going down, by just sitting in a bottom corner.
LittleW00D
30. Apr 2021 · 22:43 UTC
I don't think my words will summarise how great this entry is, so I'll keep it brief!

You really blew it out of the water with this entry, which is my favourite out of all that I've seen and player.

The gameplay is insanely addive, the graphics and music are wonderful!

The upgrade system works wonderfully, although once fully upgraged it makes it too easy to reach the bottom and grab the chest.

My only minor piece of criticism is the button mapping to use the repellant; Why 'C'??? It would've made more sense to make it the spacebar.


Bug: Golden hook only appears underwater and not during the cast-off or treasure banking animation.

For a future update I would love to see an angler fish included in the lower dephs that the player could sacrifice a treasure slot for in order to see at lower depths.![Screenshot (79).png](///raw/53a/e1/z/41d90.png)
ec2151
01. May 2021 · 00:02 UTC
@littlew00d I will admit that that anglerfish idea is pretty cool! I am happy you played to the end and enjoyed yourself!
feralpoodles
01. May 2021 · 05:12 UTC
Never have I played a fishing game where I so desperately wanted to not catch any fish, and the fish tried so aggressively to get caught!! Definitely one of my favorite entries so far, also probably the one I've sunk (no pun intended) the most time into, lol. Concept/gameplay itself is really fun and unique, the graphics are super cute, and the music is really nice! So polished too, just so many little details (the way the line interacts with the fish, the way the lower-cost fish knock off first, the way you can turn off upgrades, etc) that really bump the game from good to great. Super awesome job!! :)
ty_
01. May 2021 · 05:32 UTC
hell yea! this had me playing for way longer than i planned to! it's really fun and the art and audio is super charming too. overall a BRILLIANT game, i love how the music changes on your way back up and when it freezes and plays an almost boss fight style theme when you get the final treasure. love it! all the best!
juako
01. May 2021 · 05:36 UTC
super nice game! It works great, had a lot of fun. Best of luck!
sdata
01. May 2021 · 05:55 UTC
Definitely reminds me of Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing in all the best ways! I really appreciated that the game has an ending with the treasure chest too! I had made it down to the bottom the first time with only space for one more thing, so going back down the second time I was worried the chest would only be a large amount of money, but the tension buildup and ending text were a great payoff!!
LDJam user 2331
01. May 2021 · 07:00 UTC
Very polished, and surprisingly balanced for a jam game. :) I think it was just the right length for the amount of content- as it was starting to feel repetitive, I reached 1000m for the first time and seeing the chest made things fresh again until the ending. :D
LALAKI7
01. May 2021 · 18:00 UTC
Very nice presentation, polish and juicing! However, I'm a very strong opponent against rotated pixel art since it causes ugly looking distortion. If you don't wanna manually draw all the individual angles for your art you could try using a pixel art rotation algorithm in the future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel-art_scaling_algorithms#RotSprite

Other than that awesome work!
astronautmikedexter
01. May 2021 · 22:34 UTC
Oh wow, yes! Great SFX. The music was brilliant! goood job, light hearted and just fun. The SFX for dying/getting stuck etc was brilliant and switching to the new track, awesomework dude!. Can see this easily as a wi game type music.

The game mechanics were solid, i love how the movement of your hook felt going down and the system for gaining money and upgrading was on point.

I thought the art was great, very gameboy esque and blocky. I'd like a bit more variety as you descended though maybe?

Overall a very solid entry!
Jonrei
02. May 2021 · 00:22 UTC
Im usually not a huge fan of fishing, but youve managed to create something more than just an "afterthought minigame", but youve made something really fun! And i love games with upgrades! good job!
Skosnowich
02. May 2021 · 08:43 UTC
Great game, it feels very polished. I actually have no negative criticisms. I already tried the game yesterday and to stop, as I opened it up again today, I was extremely positively surprised that it actually saved my gold progress. Not a thing you expect from a Jam game. The fishes chasing the hook are very annoying, but this a good thing and adds a lot to the fun of the game. I liked that there are two music themes, one for going down and one for going up. Overall the sound effects are very pleasing. The graphics are crisp and look very fitting. Also I liked that it gets darker and darker the deeper you go, atmospheric!

And here, of course: ME RIGHT TO BRAG!

![Screenshot 2021-05-02 104131.png](///raw/c31/z/41fcf.png)
Gordy Keene
02. May 2021 · 19:01 UTC
Never did figure out why I kept loosing everything on the way up, but I love the music and the 8 bit graphics.
🎤 frenchie
02. May 2021 · 20:51 UTC
Thanks for playing everyone! :smiley:

@testuser Definitely! Ran out of time on the repel but would have been nice to polish it with an indicator and also audio and visual effects

@fribolin Endless mode would be cool! Actually wouldn't be too hard either since everything is procedurally generated except the top and bottom

@littlew00d I've been doing lots of PICO-8 recently so 'C' just seemed like a natural button to use :sweat_smile: Also, gold hook not appearing above water is because we ran out of time. Some of the stuff above water is spritesheet animation and we didn't make gold hook versions. Or maybe it's a special kind of metal that only looks gold underwater :stuck_out_tongue:

@lalaki7 Interesting sprite rotation algorithm! Do people actually use this in real-time across all their assets though? Rendering at 8x resolution and multiple passes for every sprite feels like a performance nightmare. If you know any good, performant, Unity-ready implementation I'd love to see it! Would make a great tweak in a post-jam version

@gordy-keene Might help to read the instructions at the top of the page :wink: You collect items you run into on the way down. On the way up, you lose items on your hook when you run into things
LALAKI7
03. May 2021 · 07:48 UTC
@frenchie I imagine you could use it to prerender all the required angles, fake the rotation using these prerendered sprites and not actually use the algorithm in game, as yeah it's probably a performance bottleneck, especially for mobile.

Did some quick searching and couldn't find any unity assets for the latest version of unity, only implementations for older versions that might not work anymore: https://assetsale.herokuapp.com/ja/contents/55499
https://forum.unity.com/threads/pixel-art-rotation-a-tool-for-your-pixel-art-games.325072/
RoofloorWall
03. May 2021 · 17:35 UTC
Somehow more chaotic than ridiculous fishing, which makes it very entertaining!
Ismael Rodriguez
05. May 2021 · 04:24 UTC
Very nice game. Everything is GREAT! The fish could get a little nippy, but there are good countermeasures against them. It felt pretty bad to get beat up on the way to the surface. The repellant was good, but what about something that guarantees I come back with *SOME* money? Just a request from a bullied fish hook lol

The music is very nice and I like the changes for each phase. I love the little clicky noises the critters make as you gain their attention!

Visually the game is beautiful. Great pixel art, well animated, and nice juicy effects! (maybe the coin's don't need to rotate though? They can look kind of funky with all the broken pixels)

Overall a very good game! I feel like it would work well as an arcade game, trying to win tickets to trade for prizes!

Good job everyone!
ColeSlaughter
18. May 2021 · 19:51 UTC
I absolutely adored this. This has got to be one of my favorites of the jam. I love how elegant the design is here, and how it seems like y'all managed to think of everything. The ability to turn off power-ups like the magnet when they're no longer needed, loading the bottom of the sea with additional treasures to make the trip back up more manageable, all of it. And that's to say nothing of the fantastic audio and visuals on display here!

I'm quite simply blown away. Phenomenal job here!