The Deepest Tentacle (WEB) by Baturinsky

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

Game about dodging the tentacles. They take time to extend and retract, and can't cross each other, so use it to your advantage.

Move around with WASD/arrow. You can move diagonally (and will have to to pass some levels). Reset level with R. You also can jump to levels with number keys.

As it often happens, game has drifted a bit from the original concept, which was "Enemy reach is limited, so you have to hide deep from them". In final game enemies are inside the field, so you have to be less "deep" and more "far" from them.

Ratings

Overall 157th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 147th 3.313⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 16th 4.146⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 245th 2.958⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 188th 3.229⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 204th 2.771⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 13th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 165th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 5243
07. Apr 2025 · 08:49 UTC
Oh... my... I do like the concept and it felt quite much like a puzzle game after a while. At many points I found myself in situations where I couldn't do much more than accept my fate and try again. Fun game, keep it up!
NTMalichi
07. Apr 2025 · 09:03 UTC
I'm ashamed to admit level 2 defeated me :O
Loved the concept!
ThatSommeS
07. Apr 2025 · 09:15 UTC
Wow, very original!
I did not enjoy get SAd by a tentacle monster.
It's been a while since I played a puzzle game with a mechanic I've not seen before, thank you
🎤 Baturinsky
07. Apr 2025 · 16:34 UTC
@ntmalichi True, some levels are a bit too hard and have too small time windows to squeeze in.

@thatsommes I'm not that good in the art, or level design, or making things fast, so I usually go for the "innovation" category.
baknik
07. Apr 2025 · 19:52 UTC
A unique idea, and the censored text makes each death that much more disturbing. Thanks for the game!
Xwilarg
07. Apr 2025 · 20:03 UTC
Took me a bit to understand how things work but was quite fun once I got it, really interesting puzzle mechanisms!
Frib
07. Apr 2025 · 20:17 UTC
I can't get past level 2 and I can't see a viable way to get there without getting censored, so either I'm missing something or I'm just bad, lol

That death animation sure is one of the most unique ones I've seen, it fits perfectly for a tentacle game I suppose :D
hubol
08. Apr 2025 · 05:12 UTC
Pretty good. Moving diagonally is the secret weapon!

I like the "death" animation.
knarf
08. Apr 2025 · 15:56 UTC
Awesome idea :) I had a good laught with that one, well done finding a such funny interpretation ... I reached lvl 7, Concept is very clever but i sometime felt like i was more bruteforcing where there is a room for some kind of very interesting puzzle game concept ; this result in the difficulty curve being a little bit flatten once understood how tentacle behaves (in term of speed and path) ; I can definitely imagine great puzzles using these doors, or maybe adding some boxes to push, throw something to distract tentacles, some different tentacle behaviour (not sure color was only a matter of size ? ) ... ? There is a wall missing in 2nd or 3rd level that can cause the game to crash.
Great job, the idea was smart and a funny take on the theme.
marudziik
10. Apr 2025 · 09:03 UTC
What a sick idea, I feel positively violated! :octopus: Love the humor, but I must say the difficulty is quite high, and that starts right with level 2. The HTML version works fine, but on the one embedded in LD page if I hold "down" for a while, the page starts to scroll, and obviously I get `[[censored]]`. But yeah, I like the consistent look & feel, the death animation (including sounds and the look on the monster's face...) absolutely made my day.
LDJam user 280624
10. Apr 2025 · 18:43 UTC
Very brutal!
LDJam user 357656
11. Apr 2025 · 03:48 UTC
Wow that was a very creative way of making obstacles in mazes
🎤 Baturinsky
11. Apr 2025 · 08:05 UTC
@knarf Very true, level design is lacking. I love coming up with new game mechanics, but designing the levels is hard to me, especially in the Compo time frame.
DiscoFish
11. Apr 2025 · 13:36 UTC
Awesome idea! Great work!
gbegreg
11. Apr 2025 · 13:47 UTC
Very good idea : I love the message "censored" ;)
LLlarsO
14. Apr 2025 · 11:01 UTC
Interesting concept. The "censored" message is indeed a funny detail. :)

The difficulty curve ramps up pretty fast for my taste. Having some easier levels at the beginning would be nice.

The animation of the enemies give the game a very creepy mood, which is great. The "death sound" adds also to the mood.
Eugenik
14. Apr 2025 · 13:36 UTC
Nice game and cute graphics :) Great entry!.
Phlip45
14. Apr 2025 · 18:11 UTC
Really fun mechanic. I don't know if I've seen it before. I only got to level 4, but that level did give me an idea for something you could play with if you were looking to add to this game at all. If you could flip the switches again to close doorways and their tentacle was caught in the doorway, then it could kill that enemy, or chop off that bit of the enemy. I like the latter, cause then you could have levels that involve one or two mega long bois, and you have to chop em up bit by bit to reduce their max range. That would give more tools for level building.

Anyways I really like it!
someone
14. Apr 2025 · 22:38 UTC
That was... interesting. Really neat mechanic. Goof job.
I appreciated being able to skip levels because I could not figure out level 2. All the others were fairly straight forward.
The cheeky grin and censored bar when you lose was a fun detail.
The performance was fairly poor and it would have been nicer if the speeds were a bit faster as it felt somewhat sluggish when you have quite far to move.

Going back afterwards I finally managed to beat level 2. Yay.
I_POTS
17. Apr 2025 · 12:09 UTC
I like this game! With a hint of terror. Very interesting design!
HolySparks
17. Apr 2025 · 12:57 UTC
Very unique puzzle design
TheSmellofOxygen
19. Apr 2025 · 16:12 UTC
Interesting puzzle. Looks like the red tentacles are longer than green, and the purple are longer than red, but slower? I almost quit on level two until I read the comments and someone suggested diagonal movement. That was absolutely necessary to proceed. Funny, if disturbing concept, down to the enemies happy face when they... get you.
The footstep sounds were a bit loud and annoying, but I was pleased there was enough sound elements. I got to level 6.
Roroto Sic
21. Apr 2025 · 15:11 UTC
The winner is almost me (i skipped lvl 5).
Interesting mechanics and fun puzzles ! :)