Spermy the Whale Goes Deeper and Deeper

by flying-dog-fish

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.19

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.18

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.19

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.04

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.43

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.88

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.29

Spermy the Whale Goes Deeper and Deeper is a game about a lazy sperm whale of the species Physeter macrocephalus that wants to swim deeper and deeper, as deep as possible. The poor whale doesn't even now how to swim so you have to help him by blowing air bubbles near it. You need to press down the mouse key and don't let it go to release air bubbles and push the whale around with them. You can even do it with your finger on your phone or tablet, but you won't be able to see what you are doing very well. The whale has only a limited amount of air and the game will end if it runs out and your score will be the depth reached. If you actually reach the bottom, your score will be your time. The current world record is 53.9s by yours truly. If you can do better, please post a screenshot in the comments.

Tools used:
- whiteboard & color markers for brainstorming, planning and *creating art*!
- Nikon Z6 + Nikkor 50/18 S to take photos of the said art with
- Lightroom Classic to edit the said photos in
- GIMP to convert the resulting images to transparent pngs and to make images used for the background gradients
- Unity and Microsoft Visual Studio to make the actual game in

The music was created especially for this game during the event by my friend Aziraphal, everything else was created from scratch by myself during the event.

Tools: GIMP, Unity

Comments30

IdinaKloppstock27 Apr 2021, 11:26

Right away, unfortunately my Spermy didn't get deep enough (377m!). Although I grabbed a dolphin, but was hit by a submarine. Spermy unfortunately did not survive and now joins the dried up corpse on land.

ditam27 Apr 2021, 11:34

A very frustrating game! I am a majestic whale and I shall not be pushed around by clownfish and penguins! I couldn't get deeper than 545m :(

Still had fun though.

felixmreeve27 Apr 2021, 11:35

Cute game, congrats! The difficulty is pretty nice I think, I tried and failed the first time but on the second go I got to the bottom at 73.1s, which was cool! Charming little game, enjoyed the way it feels hand-crafted.

Edit: and congrats to your friend, the music is really good on this one.

Doot27 Apr 2021, 11:47

Haha this game is a lot of fun. The movement and collisions are very clunky in a good way, and the drawings all look nice!

There are a lot of things in this sea 🦈🐟🐙🦑

gamefive27 Apr 2021, 13:15

I love the picture I drew with a pen. The music is so good. The game is a little difficult but fun.

LDJam user 23791327 Apr 2021, 17:54

Loved the look and feel of this ... as I passed the Yellow Submarines I was expecting something about "Didn't we all used to live here?" :smile:

Thanks for making this!

Zypo27 Apr 2021, 17:58

679.7! Took a while to figure out how it worked, but then got the hang of it! Great job creating a game by yourself!

Flying Dog Fishauthor27 Apr 2021, 21:31

@doc-kaos Thanks, I even had the submarines shooting strawberries planned, but run out of time to do that.

zhi28 Apr 2021, 07:05

Hahahahahahaha, very cute whale, the game music makes people comfortable. My understanding: maybe you want to express some environmental awareness. If it's true, the game is cool in that respect.

simon.parzer28 Apr 2021, 21:27

I love the cute hand-drawn graphics, overall style and I also really dig the music. Gameplay-wise it's a simple physics-based arcade type game. It can get frustrating at times because Spermy tends to get stuck on enemies with no easy way to navigate out.

Labete29 Apr 2021, 08:25

Well done :) Took me some time but I finally reached the bottom. I really liked the hand drawn sea life, and the music.

Wheffle30 Apr 2021, 00:24

Dang, this is deceptively hard. The art is really charming and I appreciate that you did it on a whiteboard... that is just amazing.

Lorwon30 Apr 2021, 09:39

The arts and the music are great, the gameplay is quite simple but it's fun :) I feel like the game is a little bit slow. Good job :)

MinThaMie30 Apr 2021, 09:47

loved your art work, it looked consistent and fun! The music was great, and the game play was quite a challenge at first. I liked it once I got the hang of it!

PSiv30 Apr 2021, 14:00

A lot of fun and humour in this, and I really like the hand drawn felt tip pen style, nice one! It's like an aquatic Frogger. I think I need to get myself a whiteboard.I would like to claim the new world record, thank you.

Flying Dog Fishauthor30 Apr 2021, 18:12

@psiv Thanks and good job, I think even my best result was around 67 seconds.

Whiteboards are cool, but there's a very limited selection of colors available and you can't mix them. Here are some examples of my whiteboard drawings

tanis1 May 2021, 15:37

LOL how did you come up with that name?? :) It's actually fun to play and the graphics kind of fit the game. Very good music, too!

Flying Dog Fishauthor1 May 2021, 19:05

@tanis Easily, I just took the first part of the animal name and stuck a Y behind it :smirk: Anyway, I always found these whales fascinating and I used to draw them everywhere.

Thanks for the review.

luddegodofpain3 May 2021, 21:01

Great attempt, good use of the theme, excellent music, proper innuendo in the title

Frank Gevaerts3 May 2021, 22:02

A really nice concept! I enjoyed playing this, although I didn't manage to get past those pesky submarines :)

timon6 May 2021, 15:25

beautiful clouds :)

I adore the whiteboard art and yellow submarines will from this day on trigger some PTSD in me. Awesome game!

YuriKun7 May 2021, 04:10

Although simple, I liked the drawings of the animals, it fitted with the game and its theme, as well as the music. I found the gameplay a little difficult, the animals have an irregular border, and sometimes there is a bug that the whale gets stuck. But it is still a good game.

Mykola8 May 2021, 17:19

Good game! It was pretty challenging, I barely managed to get to the bottom before the time ran out. Needs some practicing for sure. Great job!!
Screenshot 2021-05-08 201515.png

zoarfy10 May 2021, 22:21

Ah I kept getting so close to the bottom but couldn't get past the last clown fish!
I really liked your art, I love when art is taken from physical medium and scanned/photographed into a game, it looks really nice. It would have been very cool if you could have done the background as a whiteboard-colored texture too!
I found the controls a bit finnicky - which I think is the point haha. I do wish I was able to get just a little more power/speed though, as I found the best strategy ended up being going along the left wall and sliding as best I could.
Really enjoyed it, congrats on finishing!

Flying Dog Fishauthor11 May 2021, 19:19

@zoarfy Thanks for the thorough review. There was a plan to draw a pretty background, but there just wasn't enough time to do that. The controls are a bit awkward on purpose, so the game is funnier and isn't too easy so you get more satisfaction playing it.

monninen12 May 2021, 14:37

This game feels at the same time very confusing and very fun. Art is weird but good, gameplay is weird but fun and the music. The music is wonderful.

exilegl12 May 2021, 15:36

Love the art, and the yellow submarines :yellow_heart: The music is good too and fits really well. It's pretty difficult so unfortunately I haven't been able to get to the bottom so far over my attempts, but I've managed a depth of 745 :)

Flying Dog Fishauthor12 May 2021, 22:10

@exilegl Thanks, you did good, only 5 more meters to the bottom :)

Flying Dog Fishauthor12 May 2021, 22:12

@monninen Thanks for the totally not weird but fun comment :wink:

Seb_degraff17 May 2021, 21:41

I found it a bit annoying that the other fishes (and submarines) were only blocking the way. Might have been more fun if they were more spaced out and made you loose (or lose life points) on touch. Very cute art style! Cool music :)

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