Creatures of the abyss by kumber

[raw]
made by kumber for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Eat squids but be careful not to be eaten by the bigger fish!

Immagine 2024-10-07 234333.png

I couldn't start working on the game until mid-sunday, so I thought, hey, why don't I use that little time to learn something new? So I put my beloved HaxeFlixel on the side and downloaded Godot. I started following a tutorial and then little by little the game took shape.

It's just a tiny game but I had fun making it, so enjoy!

Ratings

Overall 979th 2.955⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 905th 2.909⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 959th 2.636⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 866th 3.182⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 807th 3.159⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 928th 2.976⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

karakv1s
11. Oct 2024 · 14:36 UTC
That's cool! But why to swim up you have to press z button? It's little bit uncomfortable
drinkycode
11. Oct 2024 · 14:55 UTC
Pretty nice for starting mid-Sunday and learning a new engine! One note is that the dither for the sea does cause a little eye strain on my part.
Don Fouts
11. Oct 2024 · 14:56 UTC
Nice simple game with solid controls. The background is a little busy and hard to look at, but other than that for the amount of time spent on it I think this was a great entry, nice work.
LDJam user 2331
11. Oct 2024 · 15:00 UTC
Really cute survival game. :) IMO the dithering of the water background kind of clashed with the fish sprites---not that the dithering looks bad, but that the fish aren't comparably dithered to match. In contrast with the other comment, I actually liked the Z to float as it's often a natural jump button in Z/X + arrows control schemes for 2D games. Having multiple options (e.g., allowing both Z and up) might be good to accommodate more preferences. :) Nice work for starting so far into the jam!
RoTob123
12. Oct 2024 · 16:07 UTC
nice surviving game, but it would be nice to see from where the big fish would come out and to add hp system. :)
Samuli
12. Oct 2024 · 18:56 UTC
Cool little game. Really nice dither.
🎤 kumber
17. Oct 2024 · 14:15 UTC
@drinkycode @meep @samuli Yeah I liked the dithering too! I believe the clash effects is so noticeable because one of the colors is much darker than the other. I had no time to experiment then but I'm planning to fix it in a post-jam version.
Thanks for playing!
🎤 kumber
17. Oct 2024 · 14:19 UTC
@meep @karakv1s I felt that having to repeatedly press a button to float up would give the game a "swim or sink" feeling, but I agree, the option to use the UP button for this is definitely going to be included in the post-jam version!

Thanks for playing!
🎤 kumber
17. Oct 2024 · 14:25 UTC
@rotob123 why not? And maybe give the little fish some way to get revenge on the big fish :)

Thanks for playing!
ArmainAP
17. Oct 2024 · 14:53 UTC
There is always a bigger fish!

I wish a bit you chose a different background. Not sure if my eyes are weird, but after staring a while to hurts adding to the challenge. :shark:
🎤 kumber
17. Oct 2024 · 15:02 UTC
@armainap Your eyes are not weird, sorry for adding that to the challenge 😅

Thanks for playing!
ironhandMD
17. Oct 2024 · 15:12 UTC
nice game! the mechanics is straightforward, and this has good replay value, keep it up!
🎤 kumber
17. Oct 2024 · 15:15 UTC
@ironhandmd Thanks for playing!
csLupius
17. Oct 2024 · 15:26 UTC
Good entry
Good graphics
Difficulty is a bit high (controls didn't help me) :) Bigger fish come too fast without any warning. If you can figure a way to make it more fair this would be more fun
LDJam user 174638
17. Oct 2024 · 18:52 UTC
Nice entry, simple yet fun. I think having just few sounds when eating something or getting eaten would have improved it. I really liked the minimal art as well.
Congratz for your entry :)
Levi
17. Oct 2024 · 21:40 UTC
Nice work. It reminded me of that indie arcade game Black Emperor, with the simple game mechanic pushed to the extreme. A sign of care in game design. Good job keeping your scope tight for the short time period.
LDJam user 240296
18. Oct 2024 · 11:55 UTC
Cool! It's great that you used the jam as an opportunity to learn something new, that's right. My respect! The game turned out to be funny and plays nicely, you can get stuck in it) The only thing is, the controls are not very intuitive. At first I didn't understand how to float up and several times at the beginning I lost because I was drowning. It would be nice to replace it with something more standard (WASD, arrows, etc.) or indicate the current controls in the game description. But still a very good game! :fish:
Odronin
18. Oct 2024 · 12:16 UTC
It would seem that what could be simpler than not colliding with another fish in the ocean, but no, it is not simple :)
To encourage the player not to stand still, you can periodically aim the fish at the player's current point.
Pachino55
20. Oct 2024 · 01:23 UTC
Cool game, a little bit weird to use the z key to go up, but once I got used to it, I had fun
Weird Orb
20. Oct 2024 · 14:35 UTC
Those fish come out fast, I got spooked the first time! Nice work here, especially for just getting started with Godot. I wish you sank a little bit faster to allow for better mobility down as well as up, but still enjoyed it!
Dianavi
20. Oct 2024 · 17:26 UTC
Why Z? Whyyyyy. Good game, by the way! Nice gameplay! I just don’t know if the hover effect on the retry button is normal.

[Capture d'écran 2024-10-20 192129.png](///raw/44d/f4/z/68fd7.png)
johnbrynte
21. Oct 2024 · 20:42 UTC
Well, this was really scary! I think the dither effect added to the murky feeling and not having full control of the situation. Would be nice to be able to dodge if a fish comes charging at you. Maybe with a recharge timer. It would also be fun to collect some kind of power up to be able to get back on the nasty biters. :fish:
LDJam user 243193
22. Oct 2024 · 09:28 UTC
Nice feeding frenzy clone, except that you don't grow in this game. This could be better if there were warning before a shark charges in so you have time to dodge.