Squiggly Squid by Flauschzelle

[raw]

made by Flauschzelle for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Explore a calm underwater world in search of curious human artifacts! What wonders does the deep sea hold?

A physics-based game of skill and exploration. Estimated play time: 10-15 minutes.

Fun fact: we built our own in-game level editor + a lot of custom rendering code for this entry! :D

Gameplay trailer

(Contains mild spoilers.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKk3CsLEDDQ

Controls

The game can be controlled by keyboard, mouse or gamepad:

Swim forward: ↑ or left mouse button
Turn left/right: ← / → or mouse movement
Grab/release object: Space or right mouse button

Next page: Space or left mouse button

Pause: P (releases the mouse cursor)
Quit: Esc
Mute music: M

(You can also customize the input mappings if you don't like the defaults. See the file path that is shown on the pause screen for that.)

Post-Jam Version

After the jam was over, we continued to improve our game. Now that the voting is closed, we publish this version, which includes these bug fixes and new features: * physics are now independent of the FPS, so the gameplay and control should now feel the same on every machine * Press B to eject a cloud of ink (it's not useful, but it's fun!) * much nicer graphics with depth of field, particles in the water, better lighting, color perspective, fluid dynamics… * levels with more decoration, style and flair * small jellyfishes no longer bounce around like popcorn * Other fish behave more life-like

Misc

The Music is Easy Lemon, Arcadia and Waterlily by Kevin MacLeod.

Special thanks to @larkinia for testing and brainstorming help!

Made with LÖVE. To run the Linux/macOS version, install LÖVE 11.3.

Source Code	https://gitlab.com/blinry/squiggly-squid
Windows	https://blinry.gitlab.io/squiggly-squid/downloads/blinry-squiggly-squid-win64.zip
Linux / macOS	https://blinry.gitlab.io/squiggly-squid/downloads/blinry-squiggly-squid.love
Source Code (Post Jam)	https://gitlab.com/dielenamaria/squiggly-squid-post-jam
Windows (Post Jam)	https://dielenamaria.gitlab.io/squiggly-squid-post-jam/downloads/dielenamaria-squiggly-squid-post-jam-win64.zip
Linux / macOS (Post Jam)	https://dielenamaria.gitlab.io/squiggly-squid-post-jam/downloads/dielenamaria-squiggly-squid-post-jam.love
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/squiggly-squid

Ratings

Overall	1077^th	3.429⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Fun	711^th	3.475⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	917^th	3.2⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1307^th	3.325⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	729^th	3.825⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Humor	630^th	3.029⭐	19🧑‍⚖️
Mood	595^th	3.725⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Given		14🗳️	14🗨️

Feedback

MerlinnSound

27. Apr 2021 · 13:36 UTC

Good game. The music is beautiful. Unfortunately the game crashed with an error message:
Error

objects/jellyfish.lua:99: attempt to index field 'image' (a nil value)

Traceback

objects/jellyfish.lua:99: in function 'draw'
layer.lua:89: in function 'draw'
level.lua:176: in function 'draw'
scenes/gameplay.lua:67: in function <scenes/gameplay.lua:62>
lib/roomy.lua:83: in function 'emit'
main.lua:159: in function 'draw'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'

Chartle

27. Apr 2021 · 13:42 UTC

Lovely game, the squid controls were less annoying than I would have thought haha. I liked the switch up with different objects in level 3. I did find that I could get out of the levels (or at least over the rocks on the side) by making momentum in the water and then moving my mouse in the direction I was going to rotate the squid and roll myself over the rock (which looked very funny).

MarcoMing

27. Apr 2021 · 13:45 UTC

Very good game, it reminded me of Ecco the dolphin, a game I loved as a kid ahah, God job!!

Archie Evans

27. Apr 2021 · 13:47 UTC

Really nice fun little game here. Looks great and the way you control is nice, I did find it a bit hard to control as the squid seems to slowly rotate for some reason? Makes it hard to keep him straight though I suppose that adds some difficulty. Good to have a narrative running through till the end as well.

Cievers

27. Apr 2021 · 13:48 UTC

I was thinking to myself; "it would have been nice to find different objects instead of just watches", and then the game totally re-invented itself by giving you a new challenge just by the type of object you were carrying! Well done :D

PowerAnze

27. Apr 2021 · 13:53 UTC

Unfortunately I couldn't play further than Level 1. On the level transition the game crashed. I was playing on the windows build:

Error

objects/jellyfish.lua:99: attempt to index field 'image' (a nil value)

Traceback

objects/jellyfish.lua:99: in function 'draw'
layer.lua:89: in function 'draw'
level.lua:176: in function 'draw'
scenes/gameplay.lua:67: in function <scenes/gameplay.lua:62>
lib/roomy.lua:83: in function 'emit'
main.lua:159: in function 'draw'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'

Nikl

27. Apr 2021 · 13:54 UTC

Nice art with surprising details in some random deep corners of the map. I had some trouble with the controls, since navigating with my mouse kept going into random directions. I used arrow keys instead which works nicely until yoou need to click forward a lot (e.g. carrying the suitcase :smile:). The idea with the objects changing your physics is cool. I especially liked the message in a bottle pulling you up.

blinry

27. Apr 2021 · 13:58 UTC

@merlinnsound @poweranze Thanks for letting us know! We think we know what caused your crashes, and deployed a fix for it just now, if you would like to try again!

pepnou

27. Apr 2021 · 14:17 UTC

Fun chill game. I enjoyed launching myself into the air at high speed XD. The border of the level arent high enough, you can jump over them.
Good job!

Paperdomo101

27. Apr 2021 · 14:51 UTC

I had a great time playing this game! The music and sounds were very immersive and calming, and the controls were simple and intuitive. The floating bottle was a fun little twist to the gameplay that I didn't expect, I would have loved even more objects with different physical attributes. Nicely done!

oddarock

28. Apr 2021 · 20:55 UTC

I really enjoyed the graphics and the atmosphere. I played the squid with a keyboard and it was sometimes difficut to control it as it turns too quickly in my opinion. The last level was really interesting with all the physics tricks you could use to carry objects. Nice, moody and insteresting entry !

lenaschimmel

29. Apr 2021 · 22:50 UTC

I just published a small update with a single change: smoother camera movement even in extremely shaky situations like in level 3.

(We believe that this late update is fair, because it makes the game more accessible. Prior to the update, the shaky camera might have caused headaches or motion sickness.)

caeonosphere

30. Apr 2021 · 10:11 UTC

What LD submission page is complete without a victory receipt?

![ss.png](///raw/8d0/41/z/41c10.png)

What a unique submission! I quite enjoyed being a squid dragging a fork through a tunnel. I bet you could wring some fun puzzles out of these geometry problems. The buoyancy on the bottle was clever as well. My hand got pretty tired mashing the up arrow, I'll say. Oh, also: some of the most fun I had was when I thought there might be an easter egg out of bounds to the right of the first level, trying to swim up and fling myself over that little hill. Lots of opportunities for future exploration here.

MateusBoga

30. Apr 2021 · 17:47 UTC

Really nice game! Definitely deserves more ratings :) Really liked playing it on stream! Here's the VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1006074751

VixenMink

08. May 2021 · 01:40 UTC

Very calming music and sound effects. Ecco was one of my favorite games as a kid and I feel this one is also right there up my alley

mehtoh

08. May 2021 · 12:08 UTC

I only got to level 2, but I loved the squid mechanics! The controls were great and intuitive. I spent a little bit of time just pushing around some fish, which was fun. :D
Great game overall. :)

ElllaDee

09. May 2021 · 06:09 UTC

I think your game is great and it deserves rating in the end. Good job!

lenaschimmel

18. May 2021 · 21:32 UTC

We just published our Post-Jam Version, which includes some bug fixes, and much more polished graphics, but otherwise is the same game as before.

For me, this has mostly been an experiment to find out how far I can go with a 2d-Engine like Löve2d to achieve a 3d-like look with a lot of depth. The fluid dynamics (which affect the underwater particles) were by far the most challenging task and took more time than a whole game jam :smile_cat: but for me, it was totally worth it!

Also, you can now spray around some ink to annoy the fish around you :squid: :fish:

![Bildschirmfoto 2021-05-18 um 23.31.09.png](///raw/171/e/z/42917.png)

Jupiter_Hadley

19. May 2021 · 13:42 UTC

Interesting world! I included it in my compilation video series of a bunch of LDJAM games!
https://youtu.be/rQyFGYR3HW4