Jellylight by Steven Garberg

[raw]
made by Steven Garberg for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Drift into the deep in Jellylight: Descent into the Deep, a serene-but-spooky descent where you play as a glowing jellyfish plunging into the darkest depths of the ocean.

Keep your glow alive by collecting bioluminescent krill, dodge hostile sea creatures, and light the way forward as you fall further and further into the abyss. But be careful—if your light goes out, you're lost to the dark.

Will you reach the mysterious light waiting 100 meters below?

Instructions

  • Move: WASD or Arrow Keys to float left and right, up and down
  • Boost: Press Spacebar to boost slightly
  • Survive: Avoid predators, collect krill to keep glowing, and descend carefully

Your goal? Reach 100 meters deep without running out of light!

Tools

  • Unity
  • Procreate
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Logic
  • JetBrains Rider
  • Fork

Screenshots

Screenshot<em>1560.png Screenshot</em>1563.png


Changelog

v1.1

  • Overhauled player movement
  • Capped player velocity
  • Added X axis randomization and direction to enemy spawns
  • Added balanced randomization of krill spawns
  • Increased glow drain rate from 1/s to 5/s
  • Fixed overlapping audio when game ends
  • Lights added to NPC jellyfish

v1.2

  • Added instructions to main menu
  • Fixed bug with krill spawning outside of bounds
  • Decreased glow drain rate from 5/s to 4/s
  • Added easter egg

v1.3

  • Increased starting glow from 20 to 25
  • Decreased sound effect volume by 25%

Ratings

Overall 454th 3.534⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 550th 3.207⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 755th 2.69⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 379th 3.793⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 294th 3.948⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 312th 3.5⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 416th 2.854⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 434th 3.571⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

inavtr
08. Apr 2025 · 07:19 UTC
I really like the graphics. It's funny that the other fish push you away. Maybe it would be possible that you don't fall so fast or float up faster? I found the delay a bit too extreme. Thanks for the game 🙂
🎤 Steven Garberg
09. Apr 2025 · 02:33 UTC
@inavtr Thanks so much! Glad you liked the art 😊 We overhauled the movement in an update we made this evening and it feels much better to play now. Appreciate the feedback!
apt_prose7
09. Apr 2025 · 02:53 UTC
Great game but there is some work to be done
Mutilated Sauce
09. Apr 2025 · 02:55 UTC
It's a cute game with nice gameplay! I like all the creature art.
The first time I started I was surrounded by two other jellyfish so I had no idea what character I was lol.
I actually quiet liked it that the other fish just pushed you or blocked you instead of it being a game over event.
One thing I found was that the sound played when eating krill was a little to loud/annoying.
smilewood
09. Apr 2025 · 02:55 UTC
Clean and simple, an overall well executed game. The controls really felt like I would imagine a jellyfish would, pulses of movement and a lot of drifting. Having to doge the creatures made it an interesting descent, although I did wish that my glow faded slower in the light circle that the other jellys cast, it would have given spaces to catch my breath. Your graphics were a lot of fun, and the bubbles in the background lent a lot to the sense of depth. Overall a great game jam entry, well done!
Teist
09. Apr 2025 · 02:57 UTC
This game could be really cool if it wasnt so hard, maybe with starting with more energy for example: I didn't even get the time to acknowledge the area that I was dead, even in the 7th try
Awesome art thouhg, from what I've seen
Defrag
09. Apr 2025 · 02:59 UTC
I appreciated the simplicity of the game. The art was great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the different aquatic life change as I went deeper (angler fish). I died pretty early on the first two runs after getting stuck on an eel. If I could change one thing, it might be to start out with a higher glow amount, and then increasing the glow decrease rate as I went deeper (if you think you'd want an increasing difficulty challenge as the game progresses). Nice work getting a complete game out there!
bravelytyped
09. Apr 2025 · 03:10 UTC
simple, but cute! it's a little bit hard, especially if no krill spawn near the start.
bartholomheow
09. Apr 2025 · 12:10 UTC
Cute game, a bit difficult at the start, but once you adjust it's not so bad.
Sam Gorman
09. Apr 2025 · 15:10 UTC
Really cute game! I love the variety of sea creatures you drew, the ocean feels super alive.

I personally found the game a bit short and easy - it could do with some more threatening hazards near the end! I did die once at the beginning, but it was only because I missed the small light meter at the top - I assumed the light effect around the player/screen would dim or flicker over time. I think that might make the mechanic feel more integrated into the world, and it would make it feel more dangerous descending into the darkness.
LDJam user 379094
09. Apr 2025 · 20:58 UTC
Great game, movement was very fun with a lot of thought put into it. Art was fantastic, music cool.

Just wish there was more of it.
Wuppos
09. Apr 2025 · 21:00 UTC
This was a really cute little game! I liked the bright colors and the fitting music. The gameplay was also fun, especially trying to judge wether to descend slowly to collect more light. The hostile creatures did not really seem to bother me though? I feel like I bumped into some quite a few times, but they didnt seem to mind :/ I think making those predators more dangerous could add a lot more tension to the game :)

Anyway, I think you did a really great job! Very solid submission! :D
vegasword
09. Apr 2025 · 21:35 UTC
69 is art
deformhead
11. Apr 2025 · 21:44 UTC
Really peaceful game!.. if you don't take into account that an army of Nemos want you dead! :joy:

Great job for the mood!

Made it to the bottom!

![Capture d'écran 2025-04-11 234132.png](///raw/e6f/81/z/6c076.png)
Jag
12. Apr 2025 · 04:24 UTC
I really loved the art and music of this! It was really calm and chill. The menu graphics were beautiful too. It was a nice simple game and I made it quite easily to the bottom. I think I would have liked to have a bit more challenge and a bit of gameplay variety, because it was quite effortless to make it to the bottom. Great entry, and thank you for the game!
dhim
12. Apr 2025 · 06:20 UTC
Beautiful game, with a nice mood and music ambiance!

I lost my first game because I didn't see the light meter, and I was trying to collect everything on the screen instead of going down. I won the second by doing only left-right and capturing only a few of the "light" food, bumping on top of the "enemy." Were some of the fish nice and some bad? I don't know.

A nice entry but some elements could be improved to make it greater
- Lack of feedback on nice/bad entities or on damage, I didn't really understand who I should avoid and when I was not avoiding thing was that bad.
- the food/light elements feel disconnected. It still fills like collected dots before the meter gets to 0. And if enemies take away your light, it becomes a "life" meter. So is it more like "air" or more like "life"? (edit: I went again, and it seems to drain faster when you touch an enemy) To make it more like a light meter, maybe it should integrate more into the overall render of the scene (making it darker). The Food should be more connected to light (have a glow effect maybe).
- the controls are a bit slow/unresponsive (normal to an extent as we are underwater), but I didn't feel I could really do something but gently float away; I don't think I understood the effect of pressing space. That's fine for a chill, nice experience, but less so if the goal is to make it challenging.

---
It's nice to have used git for collaborating on your entry; I like to dive into the commit history of LD entries.

I have starred your repository and added your game to my [github list of ld57 entries](https://github.com/stars/dhmmasson/lists/ludum-dare-57-compo). Go check the list and share some ⭐love⭐ for the repositories.

Don't forget to *add the link to your entry* to your readme so people visiting the repo can come back to jam. You can also use some of the badges I have created some shields for Ludumdare.

```md
![Ludum Dare](https://img.shields.io/badge/LudumDare-57-f79122?labelColor=ee5533&link=https%3A%2F%2Fldjam.com%2Fevents%2Fludum-dare%2F57)
![Ludum Dare](https://img.shields.io/badge/LudumDare57-Jam-ee5533?labelColor=6f7984&link=https%3A%2F%2Fldjam.com%2Fevents%2Fludum-dare%2F57%2Fgames%2Foverall%2Fjam)
```

Consider using these **topics** to make your Ludum Dare entry more discoverable:
- `game`
- `game-development`
- `ludum-dare`
- `ludumdare`
- `ludumdare57`
- `ludum-dare-57`
- `ld57`

[see my post on preping your repo](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/focus-hunt/preparing-your-github-repository-for-ludum-dare-57) for more tips.

Good luck!
dxk2294
12. Apr 2025 · 06:37 UTC
Very chill game! I would have liked some more variety in the gameplay, but a nice fun little experience. ![Screenshot 2025-04-11 233628.png](///raw/f35/6/z/6c0ae.png)
Miku
12. Apr 2025 · 07:30 UTC
Aww, the jellyfishies are so cute! It was an absolute delight to float downwards and looking at these really cute sprites. With the promise of mystery though, I was hoping to see a bit more at the end (like something glowing!) :up:

I like the audiovisual elements of this game a lot! They all come together to make the feeling of comfy and chill in the depths. The title screen is actually just nice to idle to (I'm listening to it as I type this).
Borabee
12. Apr 2025 · 16:51 UTC
A simple but very cute and entertaining game! You managed to feature a nice variety of sea life artwork into the game, making the environment feel very alive. I liked that the game was very forgiving, with the fish not killing you and beign able to go back up, which you usually don't see in games of this genre, making for a casual and relaxing experience.
librory
12. Apr 2025 · 17:32 UTC
sooo cute) i played once and for that first time i get to the bottom, and didn't have any problems with predators, not sure if it works right, but i like the game, art and sound) thanks!
silvi_heidelbeer
13. Apr 2025 · 12:01 UTC
Cute game, I liked the graphics and simple but engaging gameplay.

I only noticed the light bar at my third try though, and was very confused at first :D Maybe a fix could be to attach the meter to the character or make it more noticable.

The music is very atmospheric and fits the underwater theme. Good job 😊
Clear Voiz
13. Apr 2025 · 14:11 UTC
The art style is really cute and the music is very chill and relaxing, with a touch of hope and melancholy at the same time, it really matches!
I'm not sure if the boost that was supposed to come from pressing the space bar is so small it is not really noticeable or it is me that was doing something wrong, but I made it to the bottom regardless:P
Good job!!!
JohneyD
13. Apr 2025 · 18:07 UTC
In this charming game, you control an adorable glowing jellyfish determined to reach the ocean floor. Your survival depends on collecting bioluminescent krill to fuel your light—if your glow fades, the abyss will consume you! Schools of fish aggressively disrupt your descent, turning your journey into a tense race against time. The game balances urgency with beauty, pairing a surreal art style with an ethereal soundtrack that pulls you deeper into its world. Well done to the developer for crafting such a creative and heartwarming experience!
LDJam user 383510
13. Apr 2025 · 20:33 UTC
cute and simple, loved it absolutely
Fakan
19. Apr 2025 · 14:44 UTC
Great game! Simple and efficient!