Escape Into the Darkness by Linky439

[raw]
made by Linky439 for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

Escape the fishing net!

Dive deep into the darkness of the depths to try to save your life!

ld57_screen0.png

Move around the trash filling out the ocean to survive. If you manage to collect 5 batteries, your light bulb will illuminate the surroundings!

ld57_screen1.png

Ratings

Overall 610th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 575th 3.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 692th 2.833⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 285th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 466th 3.595⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

Garywiss
07. Apr 2025 · 23:09 UTC
The atmosphere of the game is really well done, we can feel the fear of escaping the net
The fact that you can't move diagonally is a little irritating at first, but it adds to the challenge
The feeling of being deep down with no visibility and finally finding the 5th bulb to light up the whole screen is really satisfying

A pretty strong entry, well done!
dzr118
08. Apr 2025 · 04:24 UTC
Great game! The music made it so eerie. I love the light shards mechanic to get my sight back. And excellent game mechanics, they were pretty intuitive!
mahc
09. Apr 2025 · 21:03 UTC
nice one!
DeadCode
09. Apr 2025 · 21:05 UTC
Nice entry! Really like the music and the whole vibe of the game. And the art is very nice as well. Great work!
MajoMirez
09. Apr 2025 · 21:07 UTC
Good entry, the gameplay is simple, yet it goes well with the theme. Also, I loved the pixel art
Houmgaor
09. Apr 2025 · 21:11 UTC
I like the art, and the idea of the 5 light bulbs is really good.
Civ92
09. Apr 2025 · 22:09 UTC
Nice little game. Controls are responsive, the light mechanics is challenging and art is quite cool.
Batisdark
10. Apr 2025 · 20:58 UTC
Is the game speed somehow depends on the cpu speed? For me game runs so fast I cannot react to anything - just hit first pile of trash as soon as the game starts :(
Soul Grinder
10. Apr 2025 · 21:02 UTC
Nice atmospheric music and I liked the green fish animation and the other graphics too. Fun and challenging once it starts getting darker, good stuff!
LDJam user 395340
10. Apr 2025 · 21:02 UTC
I found the game super challenging in Firefox, it went too fast, but when I switched to Safari the speed was just right and I had fun getting to the end. Perhaps a bug that movement is faster in Firefox?

The field of vision dimming worked very well with the sound. It felt claustrophobic and hunted. Great choice. I also enjoyed the fizzy sound of the light coming back and became a bit pavloved to that sound.

The setting works well with the theme and I like that it gives a bit of an uncomfortable feeling: all that trash and that net is coming from us, but now we're the ones being caught by it.


The difficulty level in Safari could be higher. It only took me two tries to make it to the end. Additionally, it might be fun if the field of vision shrinks more slowly (and even farther). Make it feel yet more creepy.

That said, this is a jam game and I understand there simply isn't time for such finetuning. I had fun with what was made :)
🎤 Linky439
10. Apr 2025 · 21:03 UTC
@batisdark Sorry to hear that, yeah, we didn't take the delta time into account when it came to moving around :( I'll check to see if I can adapt it !
TomKnocker44
12. Apr 2025 · 19:19 UTC
Nice graphics and presentation! I liked the feeling of pressure as the light closes in around you. I did find the controls a bit clunky not having diagonal movement though.
winniehell
12. Apr 2025 · 20:55 UTC
nice and easy game! it was a bit difficult to recharge my bulb though. I feel like if the garbage would wiggle a bit, it would feel more oceanic but that's just a tiny aesthetic improvement and definitely not something I would prioritize during a jam. :-)
toilari
12. Apr 2025 · 21:39 UTC
A solid entry, quite hard but that's fine for a jam game! Great visuals and nice eerie atmosphere. The batteries were slightly annoyingly hard to pick up, maybe the pickup radius could have been slightly bigger.

Great work, enjoyed it! <3
AgrMayank
16. Apr 2025 · 14:11 UTC
Managed to get only up to 88m in second try, lol. I'd love to play with better controls, like WASD and more dynamic movement controls. Also, since touching anything made the fish stop immediately the game became MUCH more challenging to play, which made me wonder if this is an infinite runner or is there an end to beat! Great job tho!
knarf
19. Apr 2025 · 12:30 UTC
Well done ! cute pixel art and cool use of the theme ! The concept to feed on batteries for that lighting fish sounds legit :) And also it's always a good point have somehow a message about pollution and excessive fishing IMO. Nice execution, on the end of the run it becomes oppressive, and just seing the net gave me a little of tachycardia especially when things when getting darker: that was not a good XD I enjoyed the concentration it requires without being too punitive and allowing the fish to go in small cracks between human wastes.

One thing I observed is that I couldn't go diagonals when pressing multiple arrows ; that somehow make things a little more difficult and entertaining but maybe that's a quick win in term of gamefeel to allow multiple direction at the same time.
Music was also contributing to the oppressive atmosphere ! Good job !