Solar Subs by Simpathey
Harness the power of the sun as you take a deep dive into the ocean. Enjoy the music, which is an original composition, as you power your subs to explore the depths bellow. Please download the Windows standalone if you are able because the Web GL has some bugs the standalone does not.

| Play in Browser | https://simpathey.itch.io/solar-sub |
| Download Standalone | https://simpathey.itch.io/solar-sub |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/solar-subs |
Ratings
| Overall | 377th | 3.847⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 620th | 3.535⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 250th | 3.873⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 227th | 4.141⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 623th | 3.915⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 190th | 3.986⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 968th | 2.593⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 368th | 3.93⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 74🗳️ | 112🗨️ |
Some submarines would spawn on the edge of the screen, with only half of it visible. Might be one of the browser-only bug tho. Maybe restricting the submarines so the'y can't spawn so far from the middle could fix it tho.
But definitely an enjoyable experience :)
Only feedback is sometimes the subs would appear half off the screen but that could have been a webGL thing.
Great job!
Also just an idea: how neat would it be if there were some things like hostile fishes that you shouldn't light up? so you had to pivot all around them. Start it off as the anglers that you can see during the light, then have stealthy hostile fishies that hide in the dark till you shine on em :D
I like the atmosphere and mood. The music is great and the game looks nice.
I had trouble with the screen size.
Atmosphere, graphics, audio, effects, they're all brilliant, so I only have 2 suggestions:
1. The subs appear randomly, right? I'd add a piece of code that makes sure they're not too close together, and if that already exists, maybe increase it a little, i had ships nearly on each other which made the second one really hard to spot
2. Progression! there's lots of room for "upgrades", like a bigger light which would be useful in the darker levels, perhaps more time, etc
Loved how it got super dark. Unique puzzle mechanic. Great compo entry!
1) You have to actually click on the sub to power it. At the beginning I was using the mouse only to "direct" the light but it didn't work until I clicked in the actual sub. I think only using the mouse for direction would be nicer.
2) Playing in the Itch.io page, sometimes a sub would spawn beneath itch's buttons and I couldn't click. If I put fullscreen (I have a 3444x1440 monitor) I couldn't see the time.
Besides this two little things, awesome game. Really enjoyed playing it. Congrats :smile:
However I would like to play more levels! There's a limited time and after to try something about 10 times the best result I got was 54... That's a good score?
Great game! Keep it alive! Well done guys ::clap: :clap: :clap:

when fish pass by to block your beams. That and the small touch of particle effects in the water gives a good full vibe to the game.
Music: You nailed the music! Great underwater vibes and an immersive theme.
Game mechanics: Simple but interesting mechanic to play through. On a longer challenge the only thing I can possibly think of adding is maybe mirrors or ways to make the shining between two submarines a bit more complex.
Only confusion: Without reading the instructions I was confused on what to do for a while. I kinda just shined the light on the sub. A lot of bad ADHD gamers like me miss instructions
so maybe a little pop up on the first sub that said "click" would've resolved that. Not a big deal.
Overall, great job executing the theme and style of this game. You both should be proud!
Nice ambient soundtrack as well. Good job!
My highscore: (Almost nice)

Also, thank you @simpathey for playing my game on your stream!
Thank you so much for bringing this by my stream. I had to break the VOD link into two because I lost my connection in the middle of playing.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1004676947?t=0h50m8s
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1004703239?t=0h2m45s
I'll see you on twitch sometime soon.
Good concept, good art, and the music and sfx fit the mood perfectly.
I know you developed this for Windows, but I think this would be such a fun table game or something on the Switch where you can turn the ship in a circle with your finger and feel more natural with exploring the deepth. There was something about using a mouse that took me out of the illusion that I was decending the ocean.
I hope that you continue to work on this!
Congratulations to the team for the game.
I want to first address the gameplay side itself, ignoring presentation-- it's a real neat concept, and executed fairly well. The game getting darker with further depth naturally makes the actual gameplay loop harder to score on, and the player getting more hurried/frantic hardly helps with scoring those final points before the timer runs out. It carries that theme of going deeper brilliantly. Overall I have very little to report, it just works as intended and I never ran into problems with the rotation or the sub registering. Maybe a small light pulse from the sub might have been nice purely for some kind of validation on a successful click, but that's nitpicking.
It is just a sort of clicker game of sorts at the end of the day, which would still be fine as it's working as intended and still has some sense of difficulty/progression. It's just a solid game through and through, and I feel like there's potential going either way-- it's solid enough as an arcade game, and could probably be expanded on for a more traditional title as well. That said, calling it "serviceable" doesn't do it justice after bringing presentation into this.
The art, audio, etc. had to be addressed on its own-- the ambient score, the tones on click, the simple sprites and light masking, the 2D shadows, the particles and background objects that distract the player-- it all comes together for something spectacular. The music score reminds me of something I wrote a while back on a _good day_, but with way more polish and actually fitting into the game's atmosphere. It feels like you used every hour of the jam to _master_ the atmosphere. I love that background audio that's somewhere between a distant siren and a space pad-- it makes just enough of a tune to be distinguishable, but blends into that atmosphere so perfectly. Just... bravo.
As for criticisms... it just comes down to the WebGL build. I was entirely unable to play it due to scaling problems. I won't let that affect my opinion of the game as I know fully well that Unity's Web Player is a total toss-up.
Everything about this feels perfectly scoped, perfectly executed, and finely crafted. Excellent job!