LudumData

Inbetween the Depths by Keith Wang

[raw]
made by Keith Wang for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYPlsY60S_4 ITD0.PNG ITD1.PNG

Well, no time for a save system, I guess.

Fight evil explosive fishes, gather coins, and upgrade your equipment!

Your equipment has two modes: In FLOATING MODE, you can ASCEND quickly and fire DOWNWARD with a heavy harpoon gun. In SINKING MODE, you can DESCEND swiftly and fire UPWARD with a rapid energy bubble gun. Switch between modes to fight and gather!

Control: WASD to move, mouse to aim, left mouse key to fire/click buttons(of course), and space to switch between modes.

Credits:

Audio:

Harpoon fire https://freesound.org/people/BennettFilmTeacher/sounds/486234/

Harpoon Hit https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/713315/

Bubble https://freesound.org/people/Abacagi/sounds/497198/

Explosion https://freesound.org/people/usernamenumber/sounds/331369/

Coin https://freesound.org/people/Valenspire/sounds/699530/

Thrust https://freesound.org/people/nathanshadow/sounds/22455/

Music:

Music track: Forest Bathing by Piki Source: https://freetouse.com/music Background Music for Videos (Free)

Font:

https://managore.itch.io/m6x11

Rest:

Me

Link https://keithwang.itch.io/inbetween-the-depths
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/inbetween-the-depths

Ratings

Overall 577th 3.356⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Fun 353th 3.481⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 545th 3.098⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Theme 464th 3.654⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 673th 3.087⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Humor 495th 2.663⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Mood 601th 3.308⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Given 41🗳️ 88🗨️

Feedback

pavlov36
08. Apr 2025 · 03:58 UTC
Relax and simple) Like the game atmosphere
dzr118
08. Apr 2025 · 03:58 UTC
A cute premise for the game, the sharks are adorable! I wasn't very good at controlling my harpoon though, I wish the fall off was a little lower to make aiming while moving a little easier.
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 09:24 UTC
@dzr118 Thank you so much for the feedback! Sorry about the harpoon, the idea was to give it high gravity fall so it is only good when firing downward. Didn't turn out too well though, I have to admit.
zjuWindKing
08. Apr 2025 · 10:11 UTC
Interesting game! But the gravity of the harpoon is a bit high~hhh
LDJam user 399564
08. Apr 2025 · 10:15 UTC
lovely graphic,like the vibe, good job!
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 10:40 UTC
@zjuwindking Thanks for the feedback! The idea is to make it only useful when firing downward at the beginning, and it can be later upgraded to have a high speed and less fall.
But that part did turn out to be a little confusing.
Placeholders
08. Apr 2025 · 11:44 UTC
really fun little game! all the mechanics really worked with each other, and it made the gameplay fresh and intresting!
osh.studio
08. Apr 2025 · 12:07 UTC
Nice ambient sounds and cute sprites! found a bit hard to get the hang of the controls, but loved the look and feel!
Soul Grinder
08. Apr 2025 · 12:10 UTC
Really fun relaxing game, the upgrades were nice and plenty too. I know you probably didn't have time to add more, but I think it would of been nice to be able to spend gold to unlock the next level with new background and enemies with increased hit points or a boss shark or something. I played it until all the upgrades where maxed and would of kept playing it if there was more to spend on or unlock lol, great stuff
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 12:14 UTC
@soul-grinder Really glad that someone maxed out the upgrades. Yeah, I would definitely add more upgrades and enemies if I got the time. Thank you so much.
ZedGame
08. Apr 2025 · 13:02 UTC
While brutal at first, it quickly becomes satisfying, nice work!
VerttiXPertti
08. Apr 2025 · 13:13 UTC
First I didn't think I would play the game for long but then I ended up maxing everything out. I love these games where your character gets stronger throughout. There were some design decision I didn't think were great though and I would have hoped for the game to be more difficult, because you could just float at the top and shoot the fish without much danger.
cRoxx
08. Apr 2025 · 13:20 UTC
cool dynamic game with character progression
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 13:26 UTC
@verttixpertti Thanks for maxing things out. Yeah I realized the floating issue. I tried several things to resolve the issue like increasing the difficulty by a bit and have coins falling to the bottom. But still nothing really prevents you from floating and shooting. Thanks for the feedback.
Genesis
08. Apr 2025 · 15:40 UTC
The core loop is very fun. I didn't really understand the sinking versus floating mechanic.
AlbieG
08. Apr 2025 · 18:26 UTC
so much fun! really intense having to flip back and forth beween sinking and floating, especially when theres lots of fish about!
JackOfCups
08. Apr 2025 · 18:44 UTC
Once I grasped the central gameplay loop it was quite fun! I'm dumb so I didn't understand immediately that I was drowning to death. Once I knew that, bobbing up and down was strategic, fast, and enjoyable.
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 18:59 UTC
@jackofcups Thanks for the feedback! I myself found it was easy to forget about the oxygen and just drawn myself. Added flashing red at low oxygen, but didn't work too well.
Senkoso
08. Apr 2025 · 19:43 UTC
I like pumping games and designing fish 💗
Zenorke
08. Apr 2025 · 19:45 UTC
I struggled a bit with the controller but its was cool! Great work!
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 19:50 UTC
@zenorke Oh, sorry I didn't make support for controllers. I used input axis for movement so that part should work.
SiilicaC
08. Apr 2025 · 22:23 UTC
the idea is cool! it took me a second to realize the harpoon would reload itself in a second but once i did things went pretty well, the sound and art made it really satisfying to take down the fish (they look like piranha's to me lol)! good job!
bene-labs
08. Apr 2025 · 22:24 UTC
Fun game with a nice game loop!

I think displaying a high-score of the most enemies you killed in one run would go a long way, but buying upgrades was fun regardless
She Wrote
08. Apr 2025 · 22:25 UTC
The audio’s nice and the way the fish mouths move is funny. Timing the shots and landing them feels great. Well done!
MajoMirez
08. Apr 2025 · 22:36 UTC
Loved the game! it's simple and fun, I specially liked the upgrades between runs. The cyan background color may be a bit too saturated and it took me a while to understand the health bar is the oxygen tank, but overall it's pretty good! Good job
Jordanfb
08. Apr 2025 · 22:37 UTC
very fun! I maxed out all the purchases, eventually I got to the point where I was faster than all the fish and could just swim past them holding right then entire time spamming the OP air bubble gun. I enjoyed aiming the harpoon, I just A) rarely used it during early game since the bubble gun was faster and B) had difficulty switching back to the bubble gun if I missed a shot. Maybe with some higher level enemies that require both weapons to kill them it would force me to use the harpoon more. It's a shame I had to be forced to because there's something really nice about aiming it at a far away fish and hitting (or missing, having it wrap around the screen, and then hit them on the way down). Nice work!

EDit: I used the bubble gun mostly because it was easy to just stay at the bottom and shoot it off to the sides, and the reload was much faster than the harpoon so if I missed a shot it wasn't such a problem.
JohnCoffee
08. Apr 2025 · 22:55 UTC
i think this is the most fun i had this rating season. very well done. Sometimes the controlls glitch out when fast turning and the diver swims backward, but thats ok in the timeframe.
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 23:53 UTC
@johncoffee Thank you so much for liking it and for the feedback! Will test that out later.
🎤 Keith Wang
08. Apr 2025 · 23:54 UTC
@jordanfb Thanks for the detailed feedback! Having high level enemies that require both weapons to kill is a great idea. Might add that in the future development.
apt_prose7
09. Apr 2025 · 03:41 UTC
For a beginner the game is very good
GwendalG
09. Apr 2025 · 10:45 UTC
Very addictive game, nice concept, well played
Aynu
09. Apr 2025 · 10:46 UTC
A master piece!
FancyReckless
09. Apr 2025 · 11:00 UTC
Pretty fun, reminiscent of incremental games. love the upgrades. Sinking down felt a bit tedious at first, but coins falling to the bottom and disapearing after a while motivated me to move down. Sometimes it felt like I died without shark touching me. maybe I ran out of oxygen, not sure.
D0vid
09. Apr 2025 · 11:23 UTC
Very fun, nice controls, switching from one mode to the other feels very natural and the two weapons are both satisfying to use

I died often due to not noticing my oxygen was low :D
Skosnowich
09. Apr 2025 · 15:34 UTC
Nice game, the harpoon felt pretty useless to me, so I just stuck to the ocean floor and bubbled around. After all I needed to be there anyway to collect the coins, so no use in floating at the surface. As there was no real penalty for drowning, I just stayed there until I died and could upgrade my stuff. Felt hilarious with all the upgrades on max level, especially after I found out that the map loops around. :smile:
Tunasandwich
09. Apr 2025 · 15:35 UTC
I almost gave up at the beginning because the control of the harpoon and the fact it doesn't reload very fast were frustrating to me. But I am glad I pushed a little bit because once some of the upgrades were done it was fun and relaxing to play !
Goiaba Games
09. Apr 2025 · 22:54 UTC
Very cool concept, with the harpoon and the bubbles making you descend or ascend. I feel like the gameplay of fighting the fish could be a little more satisfying, but the meta-progression is fun and keeps you hooked on playing. Good work!
Gaspar
10. Apr 2025 · 07:47 UTC
The bubbles feel overpowered compared to the harpoon. Also, movement gets a bit jittery at max upgrade level. Otherwise, it's a great game that makes you want to max out all your upgrades!
ScoobySnacks
11. Apr 2025 · 10:25 UTC
i think it would be better to hold to raise than switching. I like how you hp bar is oxigen tank and you can heal just going up, good design.
toreskovic
12. Apr 2025 · 22:20 UTC
Super solid entry. Loved the two modes / weapons, metaprogression felt nice. I had quite a bit of fun and ended up playing for quite a bit longer than I thought I would.
Natalia2208
13. Apr 2025 · 08:10 UTC
It was intense, but engaging! :D
thegrottman
16. Apr 2025 · 20:10 UTC
Really chill, perfect for some timekilling, and yet engaging enough so that you WANT to continue playing. Awesome!
OldDog
17. Apr 2025 · 10:12 UTC
20 mins to get all upgrades !!!!! really interesting game ,I really wish for more content to play!!