Laying Pipe by C0SMIC
In Laying Pipe, you play as a deep-sea diver who repairs pipelines. One of your colleagues has gone missing and your job is to find him, repairing the pipeline along the way. As you descend deeper you uncover more about the mystery behind the pipeline.
Controls: WASD - Movement SHIFT - Sprint SPACE - Swim Up CTRL - Swim Down LEFT CLICK - Use Repair Tool

Basic Oxygen Tank: The player’s oxygen will slowly tick down. Some fish may attack the player, which will make the oxygen deplete faster. If the player’s oxygen reaches 0, they die.
Basic Flippers: Allows the player to swim slowly through the water.
Basic Tool: Allows the player to repair the pipes but consumes energy.
Basic Flashlight: Allows the player to see what is immediately in front of them.

As the player dives deeper, they will need to repair broken parts of the pipe, as well as pick up lost debris from previous divers to earn money (holding LEFT CLICK on broken parts). They will need to do this while avoiding enemy fish who will attack the player.


Every so often as the player descends, they will find a button that can call a chamber, that can call the “dive chamber.” The dive chamber acts as a checkpoint where the player can refill their oxygen and energy, as well as purchase gear upgrades from the shop.

These upgrades are as follows:
Upgraded Oxygen Tank: Extends oxygen duration.
Upgraded Flippers: Increases players movement speed.
Upgraded Tool: Speeds up the time taken to repair pipes.
Upgraded Flashlight: Allows the player to see further and unlock a flashbang (clicking Q) to scare away fish.
The player will need these upgrades to descend deeper.

| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/laying-pipe |
Ratings
| Overall | 415th | 3.583⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 499th | 3.292⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 363th | 3.354⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 94th | 4.229⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 352th | 3.854⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 446th | 3.146⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 354th | 3.023⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 196th | 3.957⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 26🗨️ |
That being said: awesome game with an amazing atmosphere!
I think the difficulty could be increased a bit, as reaching the next checkpoint was always very easy and I barely got attacked. I really loved the upgrade system and the creepy vibe of the environment tough and that ending certainly caught me off guard :D
I found the checkpoints (the red buttons) to be really generous; especially with the oxygen upgrade I never really needed to go back up again, could just keep going and hit the next button. Point-filtered pixel art always looks nice. Cool entry.