LudumData

Sonar Boat Game by Joel Davis

[raw]
made by Joel Davis for Ludum Dare 57 (COMPO)

Use your Sonar to search the ocean floor! Can you find all the things?

Screenshot 2025-04-06 at 4.23.41 PM.png

Control the boat with WASD or Arrows.

Press X to search for items, but searching is precise and you must be directly over something to examine it! To better your chances, press Z to use your sonar to scan the ocean floor. The scanner will scan in a straight line behind your boat, by moving the boat you can get a better picture of the ocean bottom (This is just like the way they do it in the real world!).

This project was kind of a disaster but I came up with the sonar idea the morning of the last day, and that was pretty fun. I wish I had more time to polish and make it a real game but at least it's something.

Build using Bevy, using Skein for a really nice authoring workflow in Blender, check it out!

I don't have desktop (windows/mac) builds but I could add them if requested. The web one should work the same though.

Link https://github.com/joeld42/ldjam/tree/main/ld57_depths
Link https://www.tapnik.com/ldjam/ld57_depths_web/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/sonar-boat-game

Ratings

Overall 271th 2.9⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 279th 2.6⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 24th 4.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 110th 3.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 263th 2.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 220th 2.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 248th 2.875⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 11🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

bubblewandgames
08. Apr 2025 · 03:47 UTC
The sonar idea was suuuper interesting. I did find myself relying more on looking for the items under the water itself than using the sonar but I really loved using it and just the whole concept behind it, especially having to draw it in a line rather than say just, pressing a button and instantly getting a depth map of your surroundings. Great work!!
LDJam user 5243
08. Apr 2025 · 08:05 UTC
As mentioned before, it was more viable to just mash the search button than rely on the sonar, but something tells me that most of the developing time went to building the sonar function, because that was really cool. Really fun to try out! Who knew there was a whole bunch of Atlatises(?) hiding under the surface?
Chuckiee
08. Apr 2025 · 10:48 UTC
I like the general idea I tried to play as intended but then spammed search towards the end. Such a nice idea, would have been even better with a deeper/darker water.
baknik
10. Apr 2025 · 22:43 UTC
The scanning is very impressive, especially for a game jam weekend. I was able to see the items under the water though, so the scanning wasn't strictly necessary. Regardless, great job!
DrSmey
11. Apr 2025 · 22:04 UTC
Very cool implementation for a real scanner. It seems to dip the performance a lot, but that might just be because of the browser.

Great entry, it was fun to search for all the unique items in the water.
CrozzY
12. Apr 2025 · 11:49 UTC
It was pretty fun to play, the very idea of searching for treasure with sonar is cool. The visual part of the game is also good )
Scott R Howell
12. Apr 2025 · 11:51 UTC
Love the way the scanner works, could do with some polish for understandability, but its a really clever way to go about it, really nice work!
Eugenik
14. Apr 2025 · 12:00 UTC
5 out of 5! Just perfect! The idea is amazing
Jeffrey Hwang
16. Apr 2025 · 02:57 UTC
The shader magic is awesome. The idea is fresh. Took me a bit to figure out, but it was definitely awesome tech demo.
oeueGHa
17. Apr 2025 · 00:08 UTC
Great idea, but i don't like that u need to wait until it finished. I'd make sonar to work by holding a button, as long as u need.
Harmadillo
18. Apr 2025 · 16:28 UTC
Nice game. The scanner works well and looks great.
kroltan
18. Apr 2025 · 19:34 UTC
Wonderful idea! And a fellow Bevy jammer!

I really like the sonar charting, and the controls worked smoothly!

Web build did chug quite a bit when scanning, but didn't impact the gameplay much.
ping78
23. Apr 2025 · 07:45 UTC
What an exhilarating concept! I loved using sonar to search for underwater treasure and the boat was fun to drive too. Great job bringing this innovative idea to life.