Those sharks :(

Fun game!

I really enjoyed this game. Some things surprised me because I played it on Itch before reading this page - but that was absolutely fine. Definitely want to download the code to try it (so it runs better on my machine, but that's more my Mac than your code I suspect). The beginning of this game is one of the best openings I've ever seen, where it drops you in medias res, goes over the credits, and then gogogo. Good stuff!

Fun and relaxing game, REALLY good job!!!

Really fun game. On 5th try I finally made it down to the skull depth, and made it to 22700 before finally dying.

The music is fun, the visuals all work really well together, and it is appropriately challenging. I wish the transition from zone1 to zone 2 was faded so it is not so jarring, but the other transitions were fine. I loved the lighting effects when the jellyfish would glow in the dark.

Wow, this was good. Spent so much time trying for a high score! Definitely caught me off guard when we got to the deeper depths and things (like the music) changed.

A lot of my time was spent with my head at funny angles looking at the bottom of the screen trying to see as much as possible, so I sometimes had trouble seeing my life count since they're at the top left.

Loved the credits and title being at the top of the level, and the submarine being a part of the title (before play began) was a great little surprise. Enjoyable fitting music, nice clear graphics and the gameplay/controls felt good. Is there anything beyond 20,000?

Excellent job!

(Our high score was 20,922)

Fun game. Love the visuals.

Enjoyed this! The visuals and music were great. It was super hard but fun! I got a kick out of the submarine leaving the titlescreen. Great stuff!

I love your cute graphics and integrated title sequence! We thought about doing something like that but it fell by the wayside. The variety of marine life really added up to a delightful visual experience.

Nice entry! I love the mood, the graphics are sooo cool.
I would have liked some seconds of invulnerability after being hit, the combo jellyfish+shark is really deadly...

Great work!!

Loved the atmospheric music and pixel art, really made it feel like diving into a deep and colorful ocean. The lighting effects on the jellyfish in the deeper waters was a really cool touch, and it was fun to dodge sharks and marlins. I don't know if there was supposed to be an effect when touching Hanna/the whale, but I tried to grab her every chance I could. It was a pretty chill time, and I enjoyed it. Great job!

Thanks @nice-gear-games !

Since its not said explicitly anywhere, I can spill the beans here. When barrels (which give you more life) are spawned, a whale is spawned at the same time and it swims upwards. So if you see a whale coming up, you know that below it there will be a barrel at some point and you can try to hang out in that area to pick the barrel up if its safe.

Thanks for playing!

Good job guys! Visuals are great, title with submarine idea is great, glowing jellfish nice touch.
Just an idea, you could add a little visual indicator for seperating the ones you should avoid. Overall cool and very clean game :)

It is a bit hard to control the player, but overall the game is fun. I think it would be better if you can slightly adjust your height, that would make it a bit easier to dodge some of the obstacles.

Very stylish.

Nice and difficult, just how I like it. I like how it got darker the deeper you go, too.

Haha, last section is truly difficult! Quite fun and pretty game out there! Great work

killer whale doesn't joke haha. I liked the art. The game is indeed relaxing but I could maybe be a little more faster.

Simple but challenging, and the music and overall mood are nice too! Maybe it will be more fun if adding some collectibles or powerups.

Wow amazing !
Very simple but effective game.
The music is good, the graphics are great. I like it.

Rewarding experience that kept me going for a high score. I liked hanging out in the jellies just to slow down and take a second. Thanks for the game.

I like that some of the fish chase the sub. I kinda wish there was controls for up and down, but non-the-less, still a good game.

Nice and challenging. I like the way that the vision was more limited the further you got in. Really enhanced the challenge.

Gave up on 4th attempt, witch is nice.
Normally give one or two oporttunities to a game.

Fixes :
1 - It is not very clear how to move faster.
2 - The ammount of lives you have is too punishing on the beggining.
3 - Those sharks are really pissed off!.

I liked how the submarine dettaches from the title.
Clear audio.

These sharks are constantly destroying me, why are they following me ?!) The design of additional lives can be made more expressive, because they can be overlooked. I also want to highlight the beginning of the game and the audio - I really liked these two aspects. Thanks for the game)

This was definitely fun.

Things I really liked:

1. The mechanics were fun
2. The title screen was great
3. It nailed the theme
4. The darkness was a cool way to add challenge

I have a few suggestions for small tweaks that I think would make it feel better:

1. Add more cues that the schools of fish are speeding you up and the jellyfish are slowing you down. Maybe "speeding up" and "slowing down" sounds, graphical speed lines to indicate you're going faster, and a little animation (can be 1 frame) on the fish/jellyfish to indicate that you collided with them and the increase/decrease in speed is due to that.

2. Shrink the hitboxes on bad things, in particular the jellyfish. In these types of dodging games, the thing that feels good is _just barely_ dodging something, and you can get that feeling more often if it's possible to get closer to things without actually hitting them.

3. Some transitions feel abrupt, and I think they would feel nicer/more polished if smoothed out.

1. Tween the speed changes just a little bit

1. Make the darkness changes fade in

1. Crossfade the music changes a little bit

A calm, diving game which could potentially be endless (I tried only 3 times). I enjoyed the simplicity of the game with its 2 button controls. The darkness as you go deeper was a nice touch too, I was positively surprised when it happened the first time.

if you're looking for things to improve my suggestions would be. Please keep in mind these are purely from a player perspective as I don't fully know what the intended experience you set out to build was :)

- Have the different elements be easily understood as positive or negative. I read the instructions but it would be cool if it was presented in game itself, maybe shape languages or colors (sharp for enemy, round for friendly?)
- Like simonbw said above, smaller hitboxes would make the game more enjoyable since we can have more close calls
- Potential interactions between the different elements, giving players strategic choices to run into elements. Maybe you want to purposefully slow down to avoid hitting a bunch of sharks?

This really nice calm coffe break game. Even though you explained everything in the title screen I've had some problems remembering which fish does what I believe if you would change color palette for each fish type it would really clear things up.

Hey nice little game! I had fun playing it, good job.

Fun little game it's really interesting how many diving games this gamejam has but all of them are different

Nice game. But it's very difficult at the depth because it's dark. And sharks chasing you everywhere.
What I did not like a bit: jellyfishes form some triangle patterns, which does not look natural. Otherwise cool game, yeah.

Great job on the challenge level, I think the different methods you used to up the challenge was good. Also all the different variety in ocean life really stood out. Great job!