Strange New Tides by Indie Game Academy
Link to Itch page: https://indiegameacademy.itch.io/strange-new-tides
Welcome to Strange New Tides, where tiny creatures make a big splash!
You’ll play as Munch — a small, blue-tentacled Cthulhu trying to find his place in a strange, sandy world. Washed ashore in the quirky beachside town of Saltbay Cove, you’ll explore, collect tiny geodes and fish, and upgrade your humble (and tiny!) home into something glorious. Get to know you're itsy bitsy neighbors, who look... strangely appetizing too.
Key Small Features:
Play as Munch: A hungry, little Cthulhu rocking some snazzy shorts. Explore: Wander around Saltbay Cove and meet kooky (and tasty-looking) tiny creatures. Collect & Upgrade: Build your sandcastle kingdom from a humble trash-can-sized home. Discover: Uncover who you are and find your place in this whimsical world of tiny surprises. Jazzy Soundtrack: Chill to the small, beachy beats of an original score.
Our Tiny Tale:
You play as tiny Munch. Your average little boy — 10 minutes years old, blue with tentacles, and a very hungry Cthulhu. But there’s a lot to learn in this strange new land! After a storm sweeps you from your familiar undersea world, you wash up on Saltbay Cove — a bright, beachside town full of small, unfamiliar creatures that look oddly… delicious. With nowhere else to go, a rusty pail for a home, and tiny new neighbors who could use a hand (or tentacle), you decide to make the best of it. But will your unquenchable hunger for these smaller creatures get in the way of your new life?
Get ready to dive into Strange New Tides! Tiny creatures with big hearts!
Control scheme: Keyboard and mouse Move: WASD Interact: E and Space
About the Developers:
At The Indie Game Academy, we’re all about crafting stories and adventures that spark the imagination — like rolling a natural D20 on creativity. With megajams, we set out to try and give early career devs a chance to have a AA experience and learn in the context of Ludum Dare! Our team is an amazing guild of industry veterans and brave new adventurers, questing together to bring indie games to life. For this project, we rallied about 40 talented folks for the Ludum Dare 56 Game Jam, where we had just 72 hours to conjure up something magical based on the theme "tiny creatures."
This game is a true collaborative adventure, where every team member brought their own unique skills to the table. We’re beyond proud of the world we’ve created and how this experience united such a wide range of talent. We hope you enjoy this strange and wonderful new world!
Credits:
Willem, Creative Director
Abram Buck - Art Lead - https://abrambuck.com/
Cody Getz - 2D Character Artist
Helen Vo - 3D Artist - https://www.helenvo-prod.com
Erica Chiem - UI/UX Designer - https://ericachiem.wordpress.com/
MB Chimid - Concept Artist & Illustrator - https://mbcportfolio.carrd.co/
Jamie Wind Whitmarsh - Audio Lead, Composer - http://www.gameaudiowizard.com/
Paul Shelley - Lead Sound Designer / Voice Actor - https://www.paulshelleyaudio.com/
Annie Okuhara - Lead Technical Audio Designer, Sound Designer, Voice Actor - https://www.annieokuhara.com/portfolio
Kyle Waldon - Technical Music Design, Composer - https://kwaldonmusic.wixsite.com/sound
Lisa Kachouee - Voice Actor - http://www.lisakachouee.com/
Nine Levitzki - Lead Game Designer - https://nine-levitzki-portfolio.super.site
Maria Shurupova - Game Designer - https://www.toaddoesnot.com/
Marc Magruder - Game and Level Design - https://tinyurl.com/2s3e2aak
Sky Evans - Technical Design - https://skylarkblue1.itch.io/
Elliot Wurst - Engineering Lead - https://elliothwurst.wixsite.com/elliotwurstgames
Chase "Venera" Moudry - Systems Engineer - https://venera-program.itch.io/
Rohaid Bakheet - Gameplay Engineer - https://rohaidbakheet.weebly.com/
Sabrina Purswani - Gameplay Engineer - https://sabrinap.itch.io
Abhyu Sardesai - Gameplay Engineer - https://abhyu-sardesai-profile.netlify.app/
Beth Makielski - Marketing Lead - https://bethmakielski.wixsite.com/portfolio
Carli Velocci - Marketing and Writing - https://carlivelocci.com/
Luis Alvarez - Marketing and Design - https://www.ideomancer.io/
Euclid Marguez - Marketing and Design - https://yukisoba.itch.io/
Kristi Eckert - Narrative Design Lead - https://kristi-eckert.com/
Quain Holtey - Narrative Designer - https://www.quainholtey.com/
Ulises Rubino - Narrative Designer - https://urubino.my.canva.site/
Leilani Kaiser - Narrative Designer - https://leilanikaiser.carrd.co/
Enaree Kirkorian - Lead Producer - superposepress.com
Riikka-Lotta Pehkonen - Producer - https://essillore.itch.io/
Doug Terhune - Technical Producer - https://juzek.itch.io/
Lauree Akhtar - Producer - https://linkedin.com/in/laureeakhtar
Hayley Durham - Lead QA - https://hayley-durham.gitbook.io/game-uxr-portfolio/
Sam Mardell - Technical QA
Martin Tsolov - Functional QA
Nathan Ellens - Functional QA
Claire Wilshire - QA Assistant, Production Advisor - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairewilshire/
Rick Williams - QA Assistant, Engineer/Production Advisor - https://trensharo.itch.io/
Jessica Rowley - Community Wizard - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicarowley/
| Link | https://indiegameacademy.itch.io/strange-new-tides |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/strange-new-tides |
Ratings
| Overall | 826th | 3.25⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 925th | 2.875⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 818th | 2.943⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 850th | 3.216⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 748th | 3.307⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 212th | 3.75⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 345th | 3.398⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 638th | 3.42⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 101🗳️ | 78🗨️ |
I enjoyed the different dialogues, and the story felt well rounded (I choose to stay).
One thing: both walking and fishing felt just a bit tedious. It felt, like the reaction time was just a bit delayed, as if I am walking through quicksand and even when I got good at the fishing (I definitely tried that multiple times) it just had a bit of delay, that kept being a bit irritating.
But that definitely feels like a minor quality of life thing, that happens during a game jam.
Also I wasn't exactly sure what the day-night circle was for, but I didn't mind that either.
Overall a great experience, and I am very happy I found this game, and will come back to see what happens when I leave :)
This feels to me like a classic quantity-over-quality problem, where you set out to do something too ambitious and lost track of how you were going to integrate it all and make it feel good to play.
The entire game is so well polished and the amount of love in the details is noticeable <3
Great job ya'll!!!
👏👏👏
If I'm being honest however, I wish there was more interactive games beyond fishing. I get that there are other methods of gaining sea glass but the fishing mini game seems like the most interactive one out of all of them. Had there been more besides that it would've made earning the sea glass more engaging in my opinion.
Also, nitpick, but the arrows could've been made clearer. I thought they were hands to a clock at first (although that could very well just be me haha).
Overall though, the game has a lot of charm. I can see people playing it as a way to relax and to see what they can do with their castle. That and being in charge of a team of 40, with only 72 hours to make something, is definitely ambitious. That should be appreciated.
Overall while I think there could be some improvements, I think the team did good. So nice job!
The only thing is that, personally and in my humble opinion, I don't connect with the main character for some reason. However, that's a personal feeling and obviously doesn't affect my rating. I'm also impressed by the number of people who participated; managing and organizing a game with so many contributors is a tremendous achievement!
Overall, it's a very complete game. Great job!
@sviborg Totes agreed on the controls. We're looking forward to polishing this up once the jam is over. Thank you for giving us your time and writing such beautiful comments. They really warm the team's heart.
@weefairyfabi So happy there's another Crabigail in this world! We fell in love with ours so we know how lovable they are. Also, thank you for playing the game and sending us this love <3
@desibragg Thanks for checking it out! :champagne:
@paroxysmal A seemingly small but never trivial concern! We have some non-Americans participating thankfully, which probably helped drive that decision. Your appreciation was passed on! Thanks for checking the game out!!
@xparker not just you at all! We'll def try and get some of the player experience tested for stuff like this as we polish it post-jam. Thanks so much for checking it out. Passed your comments along to the audio team!!
@demiclod My answer to MDSalomon above will def also inform you (if you were curious), but fundamentally you're dead on and we're gonna keep building them out for a release post-jam. Thanks for such a thoughtful write up and for giving solid crit we can use!!
@langotriel Omg... geeked by this reference. We have a couple Monkey Island megafans on the team and one of them may or may not be responding to you right now. The answer to how you organize that many people is... make sure you work with people who are incredibly kind! Jk kinda of course it takes a lot but we have such an impassioned and kind team so when you run into a million inevitable tangles... the shared love and excitement gets us through.
@wraithind You're totally right. See my answer to mdsalomon in the comment above for context if curious, but we had deeper systems intended for all of the games you mention and they simply fell out of scope. We absolutely want to follow through on your thoughts as we build out/polish the game post jam!
@glaikunt Thanks so much for pointing out that bug! I passed along your comment on the ending to the narrative team.
@bacalear Thanks for playing!
@milq thanks for such a lovely and attentive comment!! It's really beautiful to have someone think through all the various parts of the game like this. Honored truly. If you'd like, would you offer some more thoughts on the disconnect with the main character? Maybe Munch will never be for you, but maybe it could help the narrative team as we're planning to finish and polish the game post-jam!
@zathnic thanks for playing!! I address the need for depth in our systems in some of my comments above, but suffice to say you're right on the money and we really appreciate your comment!
I've often heard the intent to do something similar to Zelda. However, in the Zelda games, Link doesn't speak or show emotions because the idea is for the player to feel as though they *are* Link. In fact, you can even give him your own name. That's why Nintendo avoids giving him any distinct personality. But in this case, Munch does speak, and we hear a range of tones in his voice. However, when Munch talks, I don't see any corresponding expressions on his face, it remains static.
There are several ways this could be improved. For instance, you could animate the character when they speak, or you could simply display a portrait with different expressions alongside the dialogue. For example, when Munch emphasizes something, he could have one expression, and when he's serious, angry, or happy, he could have others. In my view, a system like yours would benefit from showing these changing expressions next to the text. It doesn't need to be a huge number of images! The same artist who created the scenes could spend a bit of time drawing these facial expressions to go with the dialogue. I think this would help me - personally, and this is just my humble opinion - connect more with Munch and the other characters overall.
That said, I still think this is a very well-rounded game and a huge achievement considering the size of the team. I hope this feedback comes across as constructive and isn't taken the wrong way.
But seriously, it's cool that you were able to connect 40 people to one project in just three days. I'm not kidding, I think that's quite an achievement, it's hard for me to even divide responsibilities with a few people sometimes.
That said, while I appreciate the intention of getting a bunch of beginners AA-sized team experience, I think it would have been really useful to include some more general industry practices here as well. I am specifically talking about the strong need for a style guide for this project. The combination of low-poly 3D models, seemingly unintentionally low-res character sprites, and polished, high-res UI elements just does not work. I obviously can't know about your development practices but it feels like some additional planning on the specifics of how the game would look would have been useful.
Additionally, I wish there was a little more in the game indicating a larger story. I actually didn't realize there was more narrative content on my first attempt, and got tired of the minigames pretty fast. It feels a little like the player is expected to be familiar with games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, which is bad for the beginner player.
But overall, I really really love the concept - and I do think this is an impressive feat given the time limit and the level of coordination that would have been required here. Thanks for letting me play it :)
I will just complain about the movement control, the character movimentation is odd.
Graphics 9/10, Sound 8/10 ... (I am not saying it was bad... I'm saying that you had room to improve it).
Don't take it personally, my game is also on the LD, you can go there an see it, and make a fair judgement aswell, ok!? Overal rate in my oppinion: 7/10.