Come Shell or High Water by ursagames
You are Dab the crab, on a mission to collect yummy fish while avoiding a pesky seagull who wants to collect YOU.
- Windows Build is much prettier than HTML5
- You can press ESC or Backspace to pause and change settings! Accessibility options added for speed lines and invincibility.
- Controller should work, but was not tested much.

| Link | https://ursagames.itch.io/crab |
| Link | https://ursagames.itch.io/crab |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/come-shell-or-high-water |
Ratings
| Overall | 331th | 3.747⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 413th | 3.574⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 385th | 3.556⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 462th | 3.784⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 473th | 3.784⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 97th | 4.019⭐ | 81🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 104th | 3.913⭐ | 82🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 255th | 3.805⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 101🗳️ | 188🗨️ |

We are super grateful - though not yet done updating the game. ^^;;
We are probably going to be pushing updates up until the last minute so if you're curious about what will change feel free to check in then. :D
I'll check your games out then too. On my otter honour.
Game is fun, I like the switching of land/water and how it effects the fish visually as well as mechanically, a cool use of the theme! Keep on crabbin
@gerd Thank you so much! Ursagames came up with so many cool things for this jam and Spooderdooder made some solid models. =)
@gamejmunk Thank you for that feedback! We can try to remember to include a mouse portion in our tutorial next time. I had noticed that the mouse wasn't shown and then *completely* forgot to give that feedback to the team. Woops.
@coolbeens Glad you enjoyed! Ursagames and Spooderdooder did a great job with the gameplay and modelling and TinyViking did a great job with the music indeed. Thank you for the feedback. =)
I am glad to hear you had some fun with positional strategy too. I was worried I either made the map too sparse or too cluttered so your feedback is a big relief.
gameplay, cute graphics, thoughtful physics of the controller and the world, music really sets the atmosphere, as well as messages after the bird pecks at the crab
Managed to trigger the button on top of the pillar but wasn't really sure what it did
@cosmonautical Triggering the button on top of the pillar opens up the area with the secret pineapple- but that's easy to miss that's what it does as there isn't a clear connection. If we had more time I had planned to add wires between active puzzle pieces to see where the button goes, but alas the puzzles were done in the last stretch of the jam.
@defrag Honestly, I probably should have just let people skip the tutorial by going backwards, but was worried people wouldn't get the main mechanic so it does lock you out until the bird steals your can. Though the tutorial is quick to get around if you aren't looking at the floor. Also the save system keeps track of if you've completed the tutorial and once you have the door is always open.

I was trying to make sure that things didn't feel too cluttered/annoying while avoiding the sparse feeling I missed the mark it seems. Good to know that next time I can play more with my field. :D
But after more exploring, I saw that there was a LOT more thought and intention put into this that I expected. First off, the water wasn't simply to float the fish up and down. Your jumps changed, as well as some other environmental objects.
Then I started noticing and playing with the puzzles more, namely the pillars. I had to resource manage my hats to make sure I could survive while enacting my plans. I think that intensity and sense of danger helped the game a LOT from just being a simple collectathon.
Basically the whole vibe I got from this game was the same one I felt when I played Supraland. I loved opening the secret areas. I loved seeing how the water mechanic played into everything. I won't even go into the hilarity of the seagulls and hats, everyone else has already covered that.
So a great job creating a Metroidy game set under the sea, something I don't get to explore much!
i was a bit confuse at the begining but when i understand that i have to eat fish during beach, game become really fun !
I'll echo the praises of the folks who've already commented, especially in terms of the sound, art, and how smooth the whole presentation was. The bubbly visuals were nice for transitions, menus were appealing (which isn't always the most exciting thing to work on) overall level of polish felt really high to me for a jam game.
I think the gameplay itself was pretty neat. The things I could do weren't too wild (walking around, jumping, pushing stuff around - feels conventional and familiar as far as 3D physics-ey platforming goes) but the theme was integrated with those fundamentals really effectively.
One of my favorite features was how my vision was restricted when the water disappeared. It got me into a nice rhythm of going into "scout mode" as soon as my vision cleared, whether to find another hat or pick out my next landmark to tackle. It's a nice contrast to the "do stuff mode" of water, the time when I can jump and scoot things around properly.
One thing I noticed is that my interest in exploring the different locations and landmarks I could see outweighed my interest in fish-gathering pretty quickly. I don't think it's necessarily a problem, per se (it's more of a testament to the visual appeal of the pillars, boxes, and lego-style monoliths in the distance) but I think as-is it's not really reeling me in (ha ha).
I can imagine some different ways the fish could be made more meaningful, but maybe it's right for the fish to gradually fade into the background. It shows how I've grown, no longer a crab with sights set on the fish flopping on the sandy seabed. No, I look to the pillars in the sky and dream of the day I can reach the sun. And maybe a nice pineapple hat too.
Thank you so much. :two_hearts:
Also thank you for noticing the level design work.
Nobody ever notices the level design work. :cold_sweat: