The Dive

by raptor851

co-authored: @neeki

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.65

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.07

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.38

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.21

An atmospheric game, explore and maintain your vessel, everything might not be what it seems. Let us know if you find the ending.

Arrow keys to move, Z to interact, X to use items, also supports all standard controllers.

Gameplay Tips:
* The upper left room contains all the tools required, you can only carry one at a time
* The upper right room has a screen highlighting where the next damage is at.
* There IS progression, and an ending, in all the game takes around 5-10 minutes.

Unfinished portions:
* unfortunately didn't have time to polish up an endscreen or main menu so they've been cut, the game does support video options so I can at least upload some alternate config files if anyone has any issues.
* The Wrench is also unused, some rooms were cut from the game due to time but the item was left in.
* Only the control room music is a track we actually made, all others are CC0 or CC Attribution, which will be listed with links in the source package, wasn't planned but the temp sounds got left in due to time.

Tech Used:
* Artwork was all hand drawn by neeki and clipped together with clip studio and gimp
* Program was from scratch using only SDL2 with SDL2_mixer and SDL2_image, C++ (requires 14+) in CLion on linux.

Attribitions: The following CC Licensed sounds were used
* gilly11 - https://freesound.org/people/gilly11/sounds/143582/
* tymorafarr - https://freesound.org/people/tymorafarr/sounds/249666/
* Iamgiorgio - https://freesound.org/people/Iamgiorgio/sounds/371839/
* andersmmg - https://freesound.org/people/andersmmg/sounds/517883/
* florianreichelt - https://freesound.org/people/florianreichelt/sounds/563766/
* gecop - https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/568860/

The Webassembly version may or may not work properly depending on your browser, it's a straight port of a SDL2 linux game using emscripten, so if you run into any issues please use the download versions instead.

Tools: GIMP, SDL

Comments26

Yamzho26 Apr 2021, 20:28

Weird experience. Darker than what I thought before playing the game ! Good job.

Cruise Elroy26 Apr 2021, 23:22

Very neat short experience! I found the control scheme a bit clunky, particularly with picking up and using items, and I wish there were a bit more interactability, but overall the presentation was very solid. Fantastic job with nailing the unsettling tone with the graphics and sound design!

Lighty_the_Light27 Apr 2021, 04:11

Quite spocky!

Like the gameplay design but not the guidance.

I would like to have more info from the top right room, so that I don't have to check the problem and run back for correct tool... But maybe that's just how this game works.

5 stars!

LDJam user 120213author27 Apr 2021, 04:17

It was actually planned to have the light colors change as an indicator of what tool you'd need on the screen but in my rush to get it published and polish the art/sound and test the level layout's it was forgotten. I didn't even notice at first...I playtested so many times to make sure the rooms linked properly I had the damage memorized.

ErkaNec27 Apr 2021, 06:53

The graphics are out of place, but in good way. It was very good short experience!

jk500027 Apr 2021, 06:54

I did not really found anything to do, but drawings was pretty great.

Bogurodzica27 Apr 2021, 09:25

I love that drawings. I have just stand there and look at them :D

LaserHydra27 Apr 2021, 18:36

I really liked the hand-drawn visual style, being quite different than what I expected to see.
Theme seems to fit relatively well, both in the sense of the submarine as well as the game progression.

It would have been nice to have an indicator on what you can interact with, as I ran around trying to interact with all sorts of things in the beginning. Perhaps also some sort of indication on what should be done, but with the description on here, it wasn't a problem.
Music could have surely helped to set the mood, though you can't have everything, can you? :)

G_Kobu27 Apr 2021, 22:43

It'll be great to finish this game! An interesting concept, design and idea in general, beautiful graphic

David U28 Apr 2021, 11:46

I think the hand-drawn style really adds to the experience. Very atmospheric with some unexpected twists. I agree that picking up items is kind of clunky and it gets a bit repetitive. I got to the end, wasn't sure what to make of the ending. I found navigating the sub quite intuitive. I could have done with some atmospheric music playing all the time, that would have made the experience better.

Overall, a very cool experience.

John Chapman29 Apr 2021, 00:46

Really love the art style and overall mood of this piece. I think you all did a great job with it. I would have liked to be able to find the tools around the ship(?) and carry them all around, I'm not sure backtracking after checking the problems was helpful for the experience. But the awesome work with the ending sequence. I thought I had somehow broke the game at first.

TheBlondeBass29 Apr 2021, 00:48

Very spooky game. You definitely feel like you're playing through a downward spiral!

LDJam user 24278729 Apr 2021, 00:52

I loved the hard drawn style of this game. I felt the it fit well with the direction and theme of the game. Good job

Alex the Bear29 Apr 2021, 01:05

Got a spook out of me when I wasn't expecting it. Good job :thumbsup:

No Grapes Games29 Apr 2021, 08:56

Nice work. This could have been really awesome if time wasn't an issue, but hey, it's a challenge. It's cool that it had an ending. The art was good too. The only thing I can say is if there was an indicator like a sound, an exclamation point, or something red on the useable objects so the player can figure out what to do easier that would help.

Mayzhy29 Apr 2021, 11:53

I really enjoyed the style! Nice game.

xpoho29 Apr 2021, 12:28

Многое является не тем, чем кажется. Ты просто ходишь, чинишь подводную лодку, а оказывается, что ты не лодку чинишь, а делаешь что-то еще? Вот это поворот.
Атмосферная лодка, глубокая игра, гнетущее впечатление. Спасибо ^_^

Heiach30 Apr 2021, 02:57

It really enjoyed this! It was surprising, atmospheric and a little spooky.. ok very spooky!

1minatur30 Apr 2021, 06:12

Thanks for submitting it! Exactly the style of game I like, similar in a way to the Cube Escape games. I want more!

Tanner Shelton30 Apr 2021, 06:16

I really enjoyed the art style. I think it could do with some more music or ambient noise to help really sell the ambience.

Link27030 Apr 2021, 06:17

Very cool! I enjoy the art a lot. I wish there was a little more music and such, but when it was there it added a lot. You could add onto this a bit more and make it even more eerie if you wanted, I loved how everything was changing around you. Super good job!

JormaRysky2 May 2021, 16:34

Loving the graphics. They are crude, but it is better to be crude than default Unity graphics.

dry-squid4 May 2021, 05:44

Well done game. I felt like you created a great atmosphere. All the art, sounds, and gameplay mechnaics came together super well. The pencil art is amazing! I love how you wrote this from scratch. Super huge props to you all. And thank you for the flaming toilet haha

Hobzone10 May 2021, 16:12

Really cool idea for the Art style ! It was really helping the global mood of the game.

zubspace15 May 2021, 20:43

Nice one! I actually like the hand drawn style. You're a great artist! The lighting works really well. Also like the small bits of terror on the submarine combined with the background music. The tool mechanic is a bit simplistic, but the experience of being alone on a nightmare submarine balances this out. Good job!

blubberquark16 May 2021, 09:01

Were you raptor85 on the old site?

Other games by @raptor851

★3.00

★3.40