Sound the Innersea by tukisboolukis
PLAY
https://tukisboolukis.itch.io/depths
Saturn's sixth largest moon, and the most reflective body in the solar system. Its 20 kilometer thick icy shell hides an ocean. This inner-sea is warm, dark, and teeming with life...
Your expedition is tasked with breaching the moon's crust and exploring the depths below. The seafloor is believed to rest 10,000 meters below the ice.
Assume the controls of your remote submersible. Dive for the seafloor. Can you sound the Innersea?
CONTROLS:
Shoot weapon: LMB
Swap weapon: SCROLLWHEEL (must be unlocked)
Sonar ping: SHIFT or RMB
Thrust: SPACEBAR
Gameplay
You must manage your sub's HULL and ENERGY while below the ice. ENERGY replenishes automatically while idle.
To repair the HULL, hunt alien GASBAGS for their useful fluids.
You'll need DATA for upgrades. SCAN alien remains by pointing your sub's scanner toward them long enough.
Use your SONAR often to avoid dangerous aliens and upgrade your sub back at BASECAMP when your sub is destroyed.
Credits
TukisBoolukis: Coding
TheSmellofOxygen: Art, SFX, Music
And ykydowk on cgtrader.com: spotlight effects
Tools
Godot 4.4
Aseprite
Bitdragon
BFXR
Post Jam Update:
The following changes were made after our initial entry in order to round out the experience, and only uploaded after voting concluded:
Added a better victory screen, which rewards 100 research data and shows some sea-floor life.
Adjusted spawn rates of sea-life
Added larger gasbags that heal more and deadlier deep predators.
Changed gasbags to drop hull-repair orbs rather than instantly repairing the sub.
Changed sub controls to reduce RMB finger strain. Now auto-targets cursor and RMB is an alternate sonar ping control.
Added a "crush" depth where the sub begins taking damage unless an expensive upgrade is purchased. This is not a hard dive limit, but discourages players from immediately beating the game without engaging with the upgrade system, and incentivizes our intended progression.
Added a radial light upgrade.
Clarified text for upgrades in menu.
Added menu sounds for buttons.
Added a "Surface" button to end your dive early and return to basecamp for upgrades.
Added FX to the shock cannon.
Fixed a bug that prevented the laser drill from doing damage to the predator fish.
Changed the main dive song from an accidentally used placeholder to the planned track, which was less repetitive/busy.
Fixed the shock range upgrade not taking effect.
| Link | https://tukisboolukis.itch.io/depths |
| Link | https://github.com/austingwatson/Depths |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/sound-the-innersea |
Ratings
| Overall | 546th | 3.4⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 657th | 3.043⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 524th | 3.114⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 136th | 4.153⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 207th | 4.125⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 352th | 3.417⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 630th | 2.222⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 339th | 3.721⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 49🗨️ |
The fact the sharks hesitate a bit before biting proved crucial as you can hypnotize them easily by brushing them on the nose as they approach. You can also capture a few so the journey to 10k is less lonely.
Sadly i did not enjoy the gameplay loop that much. It was cool to dive into the ocean but the combat mostly felt annoying to me. Since the ammo and movement were tied to together i felt that it was best to just stay still when fighting since you run out of energy so fast if you tried to move and fight. Since the movement is so fast once you accelerate, it was weird mix of stand still, dive, stand still. I dont really understand the how the yellow fish behave. They swim at you then run away if you shoot them enough? It was pretty annoying to get upgrades since the green one only gave hp and other enemy just runs away. Other option is to try to farm the hidden enemies but if i did that yello fish would come hit me and then id had to chaces them to get maybe a reward. I did not like the long delay of collectin the pickups either. Since you went with the more thematic scan etc idea and fish would run away when dmg but i think it clashed with the otherwise arcade like feeling of the movement, combat and upgrading. Maybe using some button to instanly "scan" the data so there is the interaction of scanning but you dont need to sit down for so long time.
Sorry for my rant but i really liked the potential that was there but I just didnt enjoy the game play loop, though the athmosphere was super good. I think the ideas are great and mechanics work but the balance is off.
I really liked the using inworld meter for energy, though it was little hard to notice at start.
Is there a way to go back to the upgrades without dying ? At some point, I really wanted to spend my money and it was actually difficult to get myself killed (especially after you upgraded some armor).
The concept is interesting, but it still requires some work on the balancing imo. On one hand, the very first enemies you encounter are pretty much unavoidable and unkillable with your starting gear, which is kind of frustrating. On the other hand, the sub is pretty tanky and there are tons of health everywhere. All in all, it balances itself, but you can almost ignore all enemies, which makes encounters kind of insignificant. It would've been more interesting to have way weaker enemies near the surface (that can be killed in one shot, and move a bit slower), but drastically increase their damage. In the current state, it was way too easy and I got kind of bored.
The controls are kind of unusual, but you get used to them after a while. Why do we have to hold RMB though? It would be way more comfortable to just look wherever you point your mouse cursor. My hand was getting sore after holding RMB all game =) It would be useful to have a reverse gear as well.
Some upgrades for the light could be great too. Relying on spamming the sonar is kind of tedious.
Anyway, I enjoyed the atmosphere and I kind of played it as a peaceful exploration game =)
About the gameplay, I struggled a bit at first to get used to using space + RMB, but once I understood it, I was able to make progress and it became quite easy. I also liked the effect when your energy runs out, it gives off a strange, eerie sensation. At the start, it was fun to kill enemies, but after a while, I realized I could just go downward and avoid them entirely, as they didn't seem able to damage the ship from behind.
Overall, it looks great and creates a strong, immersive atmosphere. Nice work!
Great job!