As already said, there's not much in terms of gameplay here... Also, for those who have SSD drives like me, the pictures seem to be stored on C drive, which I was _not_ OK. You should change the folder of the images to the same folder where the game is, just to save our precious SSD's. :)
I wandered around aimlessly for a while before realizing that there's a compass; my perception of the game improved immensely after that. Also, the backgrounds are very nice and I love the variety of ocean lifeforms.
LOVE THIS. Expressive creature animations, beautiful effects (especially the distortion as layers move past the portal, and the pulsing gateways), colors colors colors. Sound is haunting, keening brilliance; the gong communicates "underwater" so simply, the tone of your quarry is deliciously unnerving. Ending is marvelous; well done.
The experience was very scary, especially at the end.
The gameplay was good, I mean there was no objective other than go deeper into the next world bit, but I kind of like the not-everything-is-trying-to-kill-you vibe.
One thing I would say is the compass being outside the world distracts the player from the visual feast in the port hole, as I was looking at it more than the creatures. Perhaps some sort of audio compass, or in-world path could be more immersive.
Played it on Linux, so can confirm that worked! Although it seemed to freeze when I hit the screenshot button, but that may be because I'm on Arch Linux.
Very brave of you guys on risking on making an entirely new experience for the players. I'm guessing you thought of the art first then gameplay would follow. Maybe you can add a hook to fetch something important? But I admire you guys for the innovation you put onto your game! :)
Very pretty game, I love all the claymation and the effect when you transition layers is really nice. I wouldn't say it was very fun but still a very cool experience. Good job!
That was incredibly ominous, and the ending actually made me jump a bit haha. Beautiful art, and I think this game had the best 'mood' of anything I've played so far! There wasn't much actual gameplay, but I don't think that's the point of it; it's more about looking at the cool creatures and delving deeper and deeper.
God I love Claymation! I included it in part 10 of my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you'd like to check it out :) http://youtu.be/vjBlRj2wHy8
Gave this my best rating so far! You really need to label the objectives better, so that you know that you need to go in the direction of the compass head, but once I figured that out (from reading the comments) the game became really cool. It's all the visuals. Astounding!
Abstract, unsettling and interesting. Good sound and graphic design, though the gameplay was a little lacking for me. The claymation was unexpected and really cool! :)
Very interesting take. Felt like looking through a microscope more than looking through a porthole, but it was fun to explore and try to figure out what was going on. Doesn't feel very much like a game... more like an exploration but without purpose.
Very beatiful game, though it is more like a work of art. Very soothing trip until the very end.
I've seen your comment on my game, and I want to thank you for it. I've updated the information to make it more understandable. You were right on the basic idea of the mechanics.
$ love porthole.love conf.lua:10: attempt to index field 'window' (a nil value) Error: main.lua:11: attempt to call field 'newShader' (a nil value)
stack traceback: main.lua:11: in main chunk [C]: in function 'require' [string "boot.lua"]:331: in function <[string "boot.lua"]:227> [C]: in function 'xpcall'
Nice atmosphere, graphics and fitting music though.