Truly awesome concept; Just last week I thought it'd be cool to make a game where you navigate via a radar, and here you've accomplished it perfectly in just a few days!

I would play a full game of this.

Great idea and very well executed! The concept is easy to grasp and fun to play :) (Even if quite difficult in the beginning. )

5/5

I couldn't think of a better concept that would fit the theme.

Great and a clever game. Just the thought and execution is just perfect. Loved everthing, even the greatly accomplished annoying head banging feeling. Great job. Keep up the good work :)

Very cool concept! And a finished overall experience, with story, gameplay, art!
One thing that maybe make navigation easier and I don't know was it intentional. When you rotate or going deeper - dots from radar is moving with your motion, but when you moving in your level plane, they stay in place, only new dots are can help you to understand where are you. So maybe they should move too?

@runuchok Thank you for your feedback. That is sadly a limitation of how I implemented the sonar. When I created it I liked the effect a lot and kept it because of that, but in hindsight I am not sure if I would do it like that again. Your concern is definetely valid and I share it.

Very cool game! The most unique concept so far. Good job!

I really like the mechanics.It blew my mind at first but after getting used to it I really start to appreciate the way it works.
I would love to play this maybe on a smart watch with haptic feedback and using the Digital Crown to turn around and up and down.
Great job!

Just... wow. This is amazing. I was properly stressed driving that submarine around, and the sound of colliding with the walls was really cool. Glad I played it till the end, even though I got a little lost :laughing: I would love to read a blog post of the development process if you ever write it up.

When I read your post I was a little bit turned off because you said it would be too cryptic, but I tried it anyway out of curiosity. And I was pleasantly surprised!

I've got to say this game is insanely well designed. I understood de UI pretty quickly, and it blew my mind that I could "see" the level layout just by looking at a radar.

This is one of the winners for me, congratulations!

Very nice idea and implementation. Though, after page 4, when the waypoint seemed to be below the pocket I was in, I ended up bumping around for 15 minutes looking for a pathway and then giving up. Some sort of a 3D map would help, but I get that would take days to implement. Best entry so far in technical terms, very nice graphics as well.

@kr4ft3r if I am not mixing something up, there should be a tunnel straight down, right above where the next waypoint is visible. It is very tight and easy to miss. I made that section too hard, depth in the game is often very hard to gauge, especially sudden changes like at that spot.

Did you notice the effect that is showing the direction towards the next waypoint? It is easy to miss when playing, but it might help you find the way.

Ah ok, I thought it must be some passage outside of the pocket that I missed, will give it another go to follow the story through, thanks.

Personally I loved the lack of map, I thought it have a real submarine vibe and having to rely on the ceiling and ground sensors. I would love to play more of a game in this style

Awesome ! Good job, the game is really cool

Wow, this is one of the coolest game concepts. Very atmospheric, you can see that the you worked hard on this.

I just don't know what to say. It's all 5 star. Very nice!

Wow, this is a piece of art. I really like the way you integrate the topology. I really felt I was in the submarine. The story is really cool. Brillant.

Moody and fitting the theme. Is there only one ending?

@baturinsky Thank you for playing the game. Yes, there is only one ending.

That's pretty scary to be sure! However at one point near the end I found a 'hole' in the ceiling, I was able to go up in a void (I went to -300 but decided to go down again after that)

@arivenzys Thank you for letting me know, do you remember after which page?

I think it was right before I had the 'murky red water' entry. If I remember correctly, just before that I went up to follow a tunnel, then I had to go down again (and that's where I went up because I wasn't colliding with the ceiling).

@arivenzys Thanks a lot. Wow, that hole was super obvious in hindsight :D Just fixed it in 1.6

Nice music and idea!.

The game is quite innovative, I like the way you placed no boundaries at all, until I moved randomly and hit the wall (that scared me a little bit but there's no penalty for that right?). At first the bumping was fine and I got to the waypoint soon enough, then I got used to the controller and moved to further depth. I was bugged out by the up-down controller, there was a lack of motion indicating that I was moving forward or backward. Still I really liked the sound and art design, I just think a bit more ease in navigation is necessary.

@valeth2124 Thank you for your feedback. Can you elaborate on what you mean by no boundaries? There should be green dots whereever the sonar finds a wall, did you not have these? With these visible you should get a sense of motion. Bumping into the wall does nothing. The game would have been too punishing with you losing health everytime you bump into something. The great impact sound is punishment enough :D

@poweranze boundaries as in physical wall, and the art was a bit abstract so at first I didn't think they were supposedly walls until I hit them xD

Extremely well done. I especially appreciate the lore pages that keep popping in. Having delayed visual feedback also meant that I was way more careful than I typically am in games (even though hitting a wall didn't seem to damage the hull) so great way simulating "reality" in that way. I hope you continue building on this!

Is there also source code available?

Really enjoyed this. Definitely five stars in innovation and graphics, even if I did get lost :smiley:

@astavie Sadly not, I used Playmaker, a Visual Scripting tool for Unity and I cant give access to that without sharing the whole project. There is no actual readable code. But if you have a specific question I would be happy to answer it!

Very immersive sub simulation! I love the beautiful monochrome UI!

Amazing concept and style, very unique, fantastic work!

Keep ut the great work, following hoping for more interesting games in the future!

Scary! I got all the way to the very very deep hole followed by unknown entity, then I was dedded. :(

Super fun and innovative game! Super nice atmosphere drawing from both visuals and audio alike! Amazing!

Wow, what a great experience. Exploring the depth in a submarine only relying on your instruments is a nice concept. You also managed to create the right mood by adding fitting sounds and some story pieces. One of the best entries I played so far.

Amazing concept and execution. The navigation is unlike anything I've played, and I really enjoyed the minimalist sound design in the same vein. Some of my favorite moments were propelling into the unnaturally round tunnels and wondering what I was really diving deeper into - I doubted it was simply just a cave more and more. Very well done.

you got a great writer as a partner, that story was really well written!

I think punishing the player a bit with hitting walls would have added to the immersion (which is already great): with the number of lives you put here, it might have been too punishing but adding a bit more health or making 2 or 3 hits before losing 1 life could do the trick imo.

anyways, congrats for this game, great experience

@brainloaf-studio @vivien-fargette Thank you both for your kind comments!

If the game wasnt for a jam I might have added a real health system, but I didn't want to punish the players too hard for not understand a movement system with is probably new to every player. I pondered capping the health at 1, so the players would still have tension but I think restricting the hull getting damage down to just events does a greater service to the story. I also didn't want to force players to replay a relatively slow game when there are thousands more games waiting to get played. In short, I get the sentiment and with more time I would probably implemented damage in some way or another. Thank you for Input!

Love the strong mood that game has!

I would also like if the controls were displayed in-game :)

this is suuuper good! the tension of not being able to see properly is adkljhflasdjhflakshf you should keep working on this concept!

@kornel Thank you for your comment. Pressing H open the controls while playing.

Total 5 stars, incredible experience.
The mood, the immersion, the game design, the choices you made to make the game confusing and yet readable... I am truly impressed by your game.

It was really exciting to play this! Loved the concept. Good luck in Greenland :D

Very atmoshperic and immersive. I'd say the only downside is the pacing that can be improved on, but there is so much potential here for a full-fledged adventure/horror game!

It's amazing idea! You should to finish it and release in Steam!

Very nice game, probably the best theme match I've seen so far. The slow sweep rate of the radar gets a bit annoying at times, but I guess that's for gameplays sake. Graphics and audio both fit the game nicely. Well done!

I like the idea of using sonar - very unusual concept which makes your game very noticeable and innovative 5/5.

What an amazing idea for a game. I suspect that a great deal of complicated 3d coding was involved in making this game seem graphically simple. There’s a lot going on and it takes a while to get your head around everything you need to pay attention to, but it’s worth the effort. Some how, with little more than green dots and some parchment this game creates a beautiful and engaging world. Great sound, no bugs. Big thumbs up.

Thank you so much for bringing this by my stream. Here's a link to the VOD:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1004825468?t=0h41m56s

@ramble-house-games Thanks a lot for playing! ♥

What a fantastic use of every aesthetic element you possibly have to set a mood! The visuals were amazingly simple yet 100% conveyed what I imagine a radar system would visualize. What's more, the fact everything lagged behind a bit (due to the view only refreshing at set intervals) played a role in the gameplay as well, making movement clunky and really fitting to someone with nothing but just some way points and whatever limited view they have of the world. The 3D effect was executed in a fantastic way as well! The soundscape was fittingly minimalist and the slow, low droning reverbs of the hits to your hull really made them impactful and reinforced the loneliness. Overall, this is the best use of aesthetic and mood I have seen so far in the jam!

As far as the gameplay goes, I enjoyed it, but I do feel like it is rather minimalist. Navigating is a fun challenge in and of itself, but after a while it does start to become a little draining. Basically, in the last third, I was kinda just waiting for something exciting to happen. I feel like you would need to implement some more mechanics and interactions to mitigate that. Maybe use the flare a bit more proactively for some light puzzle solving? Or maybe make the events that do happen a bit more interesting, because although the many question marks are a good way of indicating unknown horror the first time around, I would have loved to see a bit of that horror at least later on so the game has a build up to it. Imagine you go down minding your own business then suddenly some organic barely distinguishable creature parts pop up on your screen, but it's maybe too late to dodge them now due to your radar's delayed vision. It would be nightmare fuel for me and many others, I can imagine. Regardless, these are all things you can explore in a post-jam version and don't take away from your fantastically polished and unique game!

One last point I have has to do with the story. I wasn't really engaged, honestly. I think that's because there wasn't enough of it and also because it didn't appear consistently. I kept expecting a new chunk for every way point, but that wasn't the case. This made the amount of story there not enough to truly grip me and also the rate at which it appeared not consistent enough for me to care. Additionally, due to the latter, I also felt it was a bit intrusive. I didn't have a flow that I could get into, I had to constantly be on edge for a new story segment and then stop whatever I am doing currently just to read it, instead of knowing: "Okay, I am at a way point, I can take a breather now and read the story bit that I just got". All worthy of consideration for a post-jam version.

Overall, fantastic work! All my criticism is basically just that I want more of it, and that is the best criticism one could get. Great work!

@shell-pirate Thank you so much for that in depth comment! My Girlfriend and I played your game a few days ago and we can still recite our poem!

Roses are crimson

Violets are longing

Sugar is comfort

And so is belonging


You touch on many points that I agree with. An Idea I had very early but scrapped because of time was to have a camera or a porthole to look out through. Just imagine if you would look outside and some eldritch abomination would stare back. Some goes for the pacing and flow concerns you bring up and if I continue working on this game I will need to find some solutions that fit the game better. Again thank you very much for your detailed comment, I wish I could give you more than just one heart!

Very original game, few games look like this. The gameplay is quite fun, it takes a bit to get used to the steering, but after that I had a blast. The atmosphere was great, I really felt like I was there. The storytelling was top notch and made me more interested in aquatic life. Overall, great game, hope to see more from you!

@tommytheitguy Thanks a lot for playing on stream!

Hey matey, thanks for submitting your game to stream! I had fun playing it, and I hope you found the feedback useful! Here's the vod if ya wanna rewatch it;

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1006003249

holy fucking shit man. i dont know what to say, this was amazing. first game i've given perfect scores to across the board. i want this in my steam library.

The story is super interesting and was my primary motivation to finish the game. The gameplay after mastering the controls is very smooth and the mood perfectly fits the submarine world. My only issue: I was not able to read the last "update" till the end before the game ends. So far my favourite entry this jam!

Great experience, I really liked the idea/execution of using sonar to navigate a level. I'd really like to see it expanded upon with some more interactive elements other than just navigation.

Not only a great idea, but the execution of it is also flawless. Figuring out the navigation and reading of the radar takes a bit of time but once you've got the hang of it it's quite comfortable. Hull integrity is thankfullly quite forgiving, so you don't need to play perfectly to reach the ending. While some stretches were maybe a bit long the mystery kept me going until the end. It's also nice how the you could really feel the difference in the areas despite everything being filtered through dots on a radar.

This is an amazing idea, with a really unique art style, atmosphere and gameplay! I really liked the story too - the mysterious tone as I kept sinking deeper and deeper into the sea was fascinating. I just wish the visuals were a little more user-friendly. The concept of using sonar for visuals is genius, please keep that, but perhaps speed up the rate scans are sent out, and reduce how long it takes for them to fade afterwards. I'd have enjoyed the game a lot more, and been far more immersed, if I wasn't bashing into walls I could hardly see until a few seconds afterwards.

But, that one issue aside? Amazing game, I loved it.

Out of all the submarine games I played so far, I think this is the best execution I came across.
I was a bit taken aback by how "austere" things look but it help immersion, I quickly got into it. That was a risky bet to only have a sonar to see environment but it help immersion so much and make for a great gameplay. It shows you put some thought in it as it doesn't actually behave like a real sonar would (dots move when rotating even when the scanline is not scaning that area), and i'm sure that's better that way, for easier gameplay. No losing hp on the hull when hitting surface was pretty wise too, I wouldn't have finished the game as i get frustrated pretty quick. I could feel the pressure arround me. Honestly really good work on immersion and atmosphere. Now, my only complain would be about the GUI. For a moment I didn't understand that the litle semgent was pointing towards the objectives, i thought it was north. Now I maybe stupid but I thiink it could have been more obvious. I was only using the distance meter and playing like a "colder/hotter" game. My second complain is still about the ui as sometimes the tabs would cover that metter that i was using to know where to go. One last final "complain" is that I'm not willing enough to scroll through tabs or page of scenario, so, I didn't read any of those tabs, I'm the one to blame for my lazyness for sure, but I thinks some sorts of dialogue between the people inside the ship with you would have been easier for contextualization. All in all, that's a great game and I'm just pointing details trying to be constructive. GG

Dude this is amazing! One feedback, turning and going up and down will smoothly move the radar points but going forward and backwards won't. This is visually confusing and caused me to crash multiple times. Other than that, stellar job!

really interesting game, i like the idea and the look/feel of it a lot. i do feel like the radar mechanic would be a little less frustrating if the points moved with the camera in the X/Y axis like they do with the Z (up/down) axis?

Nice job. It took me a bit to figure out I could move up and down but that's just because I didn't read the instructions.

Very interesting looking game! It was a real brain bender trying to visualize the environment. It was a little tedious which almost made me not finish the game. I think the game needs something else besides a unique environment to make getting to the waypoints not feel so boring. One idea could be to have more crew personality with little text bubbles of them saying stuff or voice acting of some banter. Or something else entirely to keep the player entertained while looking at the black and green void haha. Audio was amazing.

Not the easiest game to master, but I loved it ! I really felt like being in a submarine (well, that's how I imagine it). Really polished game, intereseting concept, nice design. Well done !

Ty for the game ! it is flawless!

Very nice submission! I was a big fan of the graphics and sound which were very well done. The gameplay was pretty confusing to me. Perhaps it's because i skipped all of the text on the LD and ITCH page. Eventually once i realized i could go up and down as well as WASD, i got the hang of it tho! Fantastic!

I absolutely loved it! I adore the gameplay concept and think a longer game, perhaps with survival aspect, would be great. I'm just a little disappointed by not to know what's the thing in the cave. :p Thanks for that experience!

What a nice and interesting game! Great job visuals!

I loved the art direction, though atleast for me (and well vimlark lol) the game was pretty confusing, scanner could be faster, i didn't really get what flare does, also a more visual depth representation would be epic

Really interesting idea. I learned today that no one would ever want me navigating on a sub LOL

That was the most claustrophobic game I've ever played well done! The sonar really builds the mood and over time you get better at reading the landscape (cavescape?) when you come to the really large decent bit you I really had my heart in my stomach when I realised I was over a pit which was so deep it started off, off the scales!

Really cool way to use the radar as game mechanic! The way points are well set, so I didn't have too many issues to find the right way. Sometimes I had some difficulties collecting the way points even though I already saw them :smile: You managed to build up a great atmosphere using the game mechanic and the story you build around that game. Really enjoyed this one!

Stumbled upon the icarus when joining the theme slaughter round for the next LD and just loved it! Thought I'd let you know, even though this is 4 months old by now :)

@tobias-maushammer Thank you! Excited to see what you are creating this year!