The Deep Madness by Sargonius

[raw]
made by Sargonius for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6haUmVyaQE

How to play:

  • Take your rifle and harpoon.
  • Kill the Summoners.
  • Harpoon the supplies.
  • Fuel the ship with bodies of your enemies.
  • Slay the Ancient God.
  • Survive.

Controls:

  • WASD to move.
  • Left click - Rifle
  • Right click - Harpoon

Good to know:

  • You can harpoon upgrade crates, don't miss them!
  • You can't swim and will die in the water.

Used assets:

  • We used a default Unreal Engine FirstPersonTemplate (basic input, camera, some shooting foundation)
  • AI for the splash art, textures and Music (opted out from Audio)

Source code:

Though this is a Jam entry, we have a full sourcecode available in a public git repository. Feel free to check it and sorry the messy blueprints and occasional copypaste of stuff instead of a proper Interface calls... :D

Project is made with Unreal Engine 5.3.2

Ratings

Overall 772th 3.411⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Fun 634th 3.395⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 971th 2.92⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Theme 967th 3.123⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Humor 817th 2.622⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Mood 597th 3.536⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 86🗳️ 156🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Sargonius
15. Apr 2024 · 20:07 UTC
Fixed a possible death after defeating the boss. Reuploaded the build with the next version.
LocksmithArmy
15. Apr 2024 · 20:23 UTC
I love this... like cthulu raft! so good.
Bloomworks
15. Apr 2024 · 20:25 UTC
Truly Love-raftian!
Sariiger
15. Apr 2024 · 20:53 UTC
Took me a few attempts, but finished it! Reminded me of Raft with the hooking resources part. The boss fight felt really epic with that music playing.
PandaPuffsForBreakfast
16. Apr 2024 · 01:18 UTC
It was cute
tolstooo
16. Apr 2024 · 07:19 UTC
Rrrr, Cthulhu!
zablas
16. Apr 2024 · 07:20 UTC
Feels like a horror version of the Raft.
LDJam user 382819
16. Apr 2024 · 08:20 UTC
![1115.gif](///raw/367/d5/z/63814.gif)I'd love to work on this kind of theme too, but unfortunately, our creative well had run dry at the time. It's really great to see you making this game.
SLagos
16. Apr 2024 · 08:59 UTC
really like it the game, its gets kinda messy with the spawn having to keep track of everything.
But I playing at least a few times, so it was fun.
some enemies got below the raft so its kinda hard to hit them.
Overall it was pretty fun, awesome job.
WestEastStudio
16. Apr 2024 · 09:26 UTC
Great fun game. One of the best games in the jam. Great work!
ChrisBeck
16. Apr 2024 · 09:32 UTC
Liked this a lot, managed to slay God on my first attempt. There might be some issuse with the precision on the harpoon, there were a few times I thought I should have hooked boxes when I didn't but that's the only complaint! Really nice art, the music and sound are good and it fits the theme!
kaesterin
16. Apr 2024 · 09:43 UTC
Wow, I absolutely love this game!!!!
Good music + clean work + Cthulhu = success! :fire:
HardyTryer
16. Apr 2024 · 11:23 UTC
When I played for the first time I didn’t read the tutorial carefully and then didn’t understand how to refuel the raft. But the second time I managed it and reached the boss.

I really like that the game has an upgrade and progression.

Art style is awesome. Mood is deep and gorgeous. Fish are very angry) very cool game. Congratulations on the completion of the jam! Good job!
Maks Night DLC
16. Apr 2024 · 13:12 UTC
Looks epic. I love games based on the books of H. P. Lovecraft. A little empty, but this does not affect the impression.
karamaajalt
16. Apr 2024 · 13:18 UTC
Very nice looking graphics and fun gameplay, good job!
JustARoom
16. Apr 2024 · 14:02 UTC
Amazing atmosphere and visuals, fun to play too. Love slaying a lovecraftian god
artmachine
16. Apr 2024 · 17:08 UTC
adapt, survive, cthulhu fhtagn! challenging, but fun game
LDJam user 0
16. Apr 2024 · 19:58 UTC
Fantastic work on creating such an immersive and engaging Lovecraftian adventure! The art style is captivating, and the gameplay keeps you on your toes. Absolutely loved the epic boss fight and the atmospheric music. Great job!
Sevadusk
16. Apr 2024 · 22:05 UTC
Pretty nice graphics and a great game! My one critique here is that there definitely could have been some feedback when the weapon hits and/or how much health an enemy has left somehow.
Fenix131113
16. Apr 2024 · 23:08 UTC
I really liked this game. She could be a full-fledged survival in the likeness of raft. Very interesting and responsive mechanics. I can also mention the good visual style and ease of operation. But I couldn't defeat the boss, because there are so many enemies at the end. But you did a great job! I would play a full-fledged game.
Master-YEET
16. Apr 2024 · 23:14 UTC
Really cool game with epic boss fight! My only complain is the lack of crosshair and I feel the buffs crates didn't change much when picked up.
jqnox
16. Apr 2024 · 23:15 UTC
It ain't a bad game, loved the action. Died only once (accidentally harpooned the fish), don't know if you can take damage any other way since I didn't get any. Loved it though. Really like that devs used Lovecraftian lore.
Myerzinho
16. Apr 2024 · 23:15 UTC
Going for Cthullhu was a good choice on this theme!
ScreamingRainbows
16. Apr 2024 · 23:24 UTC
Really fun game !
I realized how much i suck at shooting things without a crosshair XD.
anaastaska
17. Apr 2024 · 08:43 UTC
It was fun and action, i enjoed the game. Also graphic is really good.
aracana
17. Apr 2024 · 09:05 UTC
I really like it! It is def a fun game to play, even though i do wish i had a crosshair and the harpoon pull was a bit more consinstent. But i really enjoyed playing it and i played it multiple times till i finally managed to kill the boss.
litterattus
17. Apr 2024 · 13:42 UTC
Didn't manage to kill the boss but here are some notes:
- It was a bit hard to understand what's going on in the beginning, e.g. can/should I try to shoot the monster that's behind me and how the refueling works.
- Not sure if being able to fall off the raft adds anything substantial, especially if it's instant death. Maybe it could just take time for you to climb back up, during which you cannot defend your raft, or something like that.
- I'm not sure how much randomness there is when it comes to generating the pickups themselves but whatever's the case, it's sometimes hard to spot them, barely a corner peeking out of the water. I feel like it's already hard enough to harpoon them while defending the raft without the additional challenge of not actually seeing them.
- This is more of an aesthetic choice, but when I think of fighting Cthulhu, I imagine it taking place at night while the full moon is shining over foggy water. This is more like just a foggy afternoon :D
- Overall enjoyable experience.
🎤 Sargonius
17. Apr 2024 · 15:24 UTC
@litterattus thanks for the detailed feedback!
You can't shoot the monster behind you and he is mostly for cosmetic reasons at this moment. If you're too slow and don't refuel your boat - objects around you will slow down and the tentacles will get to your raft (but that's it, they don't kill you right now ;-).

Climbing back to the raft was scraped during the development, we didn't have a lot of programming hours available, sadly. I thought about teleporting player back to the raft with some damage after the fall, but it seemed weird.

Pickups are random with extra random rotation. Yeah, some of them can be barely noticeable :(

As for the light, I agree, some change of lighting during the bossfight or the overall Morning-Day-Evening-Night with bossfight cycle would be great.

Again, thank you for the feedback and for playing our game!
Kilian BAPTENDIER
17. Apr 2024 · 15:55 UTC
Hey!
Nice idea and good execution. I like the progression and the feeling of becoming more powerful.
But I have some troubles with the character controller and feedbacks in general. It's hard to aim without a cursor, to know which fish is attacking and what the summoners really do (I guess they are spawning fish ?).
I love the way you explained the mechanics at the start, nice animation!
Anyway nice entry (Love Cthulu too <3)
Meranolean
17. Apr 2024 · 20:21 UTC
Hey! It's a really nice game. I played a few times and killed the God. So I give you honest feedback:
- Graphics is very cool. It's amazing if you did it in 3 days.
- The sea move with the boat (I understand that actually all buildings around move, but we stay). So it a bit make feel that it's a fake
- It's not clear from gameplay that these flying enemies are summoners. And just once you get it - the tactics is very simple - kill summoner first and you easy win.
- I think you can make something amazing with this 3-days game. Maybe some survival roguelike.

Anyway, thank you for experience!
🎤 Sargonius
17. Apr 2024 · 20:32 UTC
@meranolean thank you for the detailed feedback!
Yep, we did everything from scratch in 2 days, actually (the last day I had to work and we only did the tutorial and some bugfixes + testing). Some textures were ai-generated, that's why we had to opt out from graphics and I'm still quite sad because of that :D

As for the rest of your notes - you're completely correct. The water is the most basic water you can do, I wanted to speed it up with the boat, but didn't have time to try.
Tactics is very simple, yep, just kill the summoners and don't get distracted with a floating loot. The summoners are the only real danger. We tried to keep it simple and mostly went for the overall feel and mood instead of the hardcore experience :D

We're thinking about doing something with this base, the overall concept of Lovecraftian exploration-survival game seems very fun. We already have a project we're working on as an indie team, but I hope to return to this concept afterwards :)

Again, thank you for the feedback!

![photo_2024-04-13_16-07-55.jpg](///raw/9e5/e1/z/6431c.jpg)

![photo_2024-04-13_16-49-24.jpg](///raw/9e5/e1/z/6431d.jpg)

![photo_2024-04-13_17-29-19.jpg](///raw/9e5/e1/z/6431e.jpg)
Meranolean
17. Apr 2024 · 20:47 UTC
@sargonius Good luck with your games! And thank you for sharing 3d models. It's really interesting!
Codbaade
17. Apr 2024 · 22:29 UTC
really like the stile of the game and game play it was really fun and would play again
barce
17. Apr 2024 · 23:41 UTC
I'm a simple man. I see Cthulhu, I upvote :joy: Jokes aside, really fun experience. I loved the atmosphere of the game. Congrats!
IRoRoI
18. Apr 2024 · 11:36 UTC
Great game! Great atmosphere. I got enjoyed!
RuiqianZhang
18. Apr 2024 · 13:50 UTC
goodgame!
Dimi Kaye
18. Apr 2024 · 15:31 UTC
Yep this is so cool. The visuals are great and it was tense when the tentacles moved closer. Badass boss too. This combo with harpooning power ups, defending and trying to escape definitely has potential. Very well done!
Joshua Miller-Pio
18. Apr 2024 · 17:03 UTC
I love raft, this is an instant win over for me great job!
Lila Pause
18. Apr 2024 · 17:08 UTC
Nice, remindes my on the game raft.
Thomas Gelman
18. Apr 2024 · 17:12 UTC
Pretty cool game! Love the vibe a lot; the visuals and audio helped create a really cool atmosphere for the game. Sometimes I felt that the harpoon was a bit jank, but it never got in the way of the fun of the game. Also the boss fight at the end was sick. Well done!
Desh
18. Apr 2024 · 17:12 UTC
Very good overall!
6Knowledge
18. Apr 2024 · 17:14 UTC
There were so many fish around my raft. I honestly had no clue what the magical pyramids were doing the entire time, they just kinda hung around looking at me. The fish on the other hand were very aggressive and constantly swarming at certain points creating a pile.

Interesting idea, but kinda fell flat.
Persepolis
18. Apr 2024 · 17:16 UTC
A cthulu raft! I struggled on the boat for a long time but accidentally fell in the water.. :(
Quinn Davis
18. Apr 2024 · 17:18 UTC
This was fun! Took me two tries to reach the end. It is satisfying to pull in the boxes with the harpoon.
Telkan
18. Apr 2024 · 18:20 UTC
The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay was solid, good job! Looking forward to what you might do with that concept in the future, good luck!
nsadie
18. Apr 2024 · 19:22 UTC
Nice graphics and some solid gameplay! I feel like this is a good concept that can be made into a very cool game!
Baluj
19. Apr 2024 · 00:41 UTC
It's an interesting concept, I like art. Good job!
TWTwoFace
19. Apr 2024 · 19:23 UTC
Good concept! Nice work!
CallMeTy
22. Apr 2024 · 20:58 UTC
It went from feeling like raft on drugs to a intense version of raft on drugs. The boss fight was a lot of fun and added a lot to an already pretty interesting game. Gameplay loop was fun in my opinion and I did not really encounter any bugs (other than often trying to stress harpoon health and accidentally getting a fish which I would first have to dump, but that's just skill). Great job guys!
filgru
29. Apr 2024 · 23:27 UTC
Hell yeah! Awesome idea for the game! Lovecraft's atmosphere is very much present here. I've almost managed to defeat the boss. It would be nice if there was some kind of crosshair there:))
I really enjoyed playing your game. Great job!!
Skleembof
03. May 2024 · 18:25 UTC
I like the unique setting and concept. The feeling of building up speed was well implemented but I wish there was a visual indicator of your stats so you can track how fast your going and how much power and distance you added to your harpoon.

The music was great and the final bossfight felt sufficiently badass.