TRENCH

by dirkinz

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.58

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.85

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.17

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.35

Jump in your bathysphere and explore the depths of the great trench in search of ancient gold!

Encounter dangerous flora and fauna in a series of puzzling chambers.

Use the arrow keys to move and the R key to restart the current chamber.

Only supported on windows for the moment. I'm working on a hosted web version but it's being stubborn.

Version 2 adds two bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug that crashed the game if the player moved while on the final level.
- Fixed a bug that prevented a minor fade to black effect from triggering when restarting a level.

Genres: puzzle

Comments23

coyotethursday26 Apr 2021, 04:03

The puzzles in this game were super engaging! All of them definitely made me think, but not to the point where I got super frustrated. I especially liked the spikes mechanic, something about the way they blew up after you hit them was super satisfying.

Dr_V26 Apr 2021, 04:05

At first it looked like a fairly generic puzzle game but i really liked the interactions between the various objects. Each level really took thinking to clear and each interaction was unique. Note I got an error when finishing level 6? (single spiky thing, and single falling stone, with cracked stone) so I could not progress further.

LakshyaIsAGod26 Apr 2021, 04:06

TODO: review game

dirkinzauthor26 Apr 2021, 05:00

@dninosores Thanks. I'm really glad to hear that. I was worried the puzzles would get frustrating.

@dr-v Aww dang. I'm sorry about that, that was the last level too. You are now an honorary winner anyways.

@lakshyaisagod ThAnKs MaTe!

Purebe26 Apr 2021, 05:01

That was pretty cool, beating the game crashed with an error but hey that's called going out in style! I loved the challenging puzzles, and it was nice the way that you taught the player how the mechanics worked by showing us the mechanics without needing to say anything. The puzzles definitely felt impossible at first but quickly that gave way to an "aha!" moment which was really enjoyable, great game!

dirkinzauthor26 Apr 2021, 05:20

@purebe Thanks! I think the one thing I wish I could improve is telegraphing interactions to remove some of that impossible feeling to try and get to that Aha! moment faster.

Attala26 Apr 2021, 06:01

Kudos on the well thought out puzzle mechanics. I enjoyed this. I really missed some sounds/music because that would have done wonders to this game. Anyway, good job. Nice entry. Thumbs up from me.

IndigoWolf26 Apr 2021, 15:57

These were some great puzzles which is not something that is easy to create so great job with this.

Craig26 Apr 2021, 16:01

Nice job, puzzles are interesting and just hard enough. Fits the theme well.

Ran into one issue though:
ERROR in action number 1 of Key Press Event for Key for object obj_player:
invalid with reference at gml_Script_endPlayerTurn

japes27 Apr 2021, 17:40

Great puzzle mechanic, I reckon there's scope here for a bigger game if you ever feel like working on it some more.
Also got that same crash at the end, and of course some sounds would've been nice :)

I might be the only one, but I found the second room very difficult? could've maybe moved that one a bit later, I thought it was a bit harsh as the 2nd room.

I love the intro screen and how it transitions into the game.

dirkinzauthor27 Apr 2021, 18:48

@craig
I think I've fixed the issue that was causing the crash at the end. Thanks for the feedback.

@japes
If I had time for more play testing I wish I would have switched the first and last puzzle.

The way I got the intro screen to work is so jank, haha. I had to make the boat larger just to hide some transitions I had to do in the background.

jj2oo227 Apr 2021, 20:57

Start screen is nice, engaging and challenging puzzles. and thought out how the player will meet mechanics for the first time is good. Would be nice if movement was quicker and responsive for quit repeats of levels when fail. Great job, thanks

jamr27 Apr 2021, 21:02

Deceptively simple game. Definitely had to think about some of the puzzles. The game can feel a little unresponsive/sluggish at times, especially when doing things like moving in a straight line.

Timbertoes27 Apr 2021, 21:08

Well done! Making a puzzle game for a LD jam is always hard because you have to design fun challenges--but this game delivers. The 2nd level took me a few attempts to solve and it was rewarding to get passed that obstacle. Very cool concept and definitely nailed the theme. Keep it up!

AronIngi27 Apr 2021, 21:09

Great game. Most of the art was very well done and I really liked the kind of turn based mechanic. The puzzles were challenging and satisfying to figure out, but simple so it was pretty easy to see what had to be done.

I had a lot of fun while playing and I don't really have any issues with it, except for the bug that crashed the game but I saw that had already been taken care of.

Kirbloid27 Apr 2021, 21:19

Clever and held my attention through to the end! I think as a puzzle game its biggest success is learning through playing, down the nuance stuff of how to get through the levels. Great sign of good level design.

dirkinzauthor27 Apr 2021, 23:03

@jj2oo2 @jamr The slugish controlls are unfortunately due to some issues in how I made the pseudo turn based system. By the time I realized the controls were sluggish it was too late to fix those issues without a rewrite of huge swaths of the code. :expressionless:

LittleGamer28 Apr 2021, 09:23

Really good puzzles and progression ! Bravo !
I love how you made every gameplay mechanics emerge one by one, like hidden tutorials. It is clever and really well done. The only problem I found was that if you spam on the spike fishes you can throw them two cases far while not moving.

It might just be a bit too slow, but really a nice experience. The puzzles were very good and there is definitely something to dig with the interaction between the different elements. Very good work !

LDJam user 24016829 Apr 2021, 16:51

A very cool puzzle game! The mechanic is super interesting, loved it. Would be nice to have some music & sound effects to improve immersion. Sadly, couldn't make it past the 3rd level (admittedly I am pretty bad at puzzles). Great job!

JudgeClark29 Apr 2021, 20:16

Great puzzler and well designed tutorials.

room6063 May 2021, 18:44

Played your game - very cool mix of Socoban, Roguelike and Underwater theme! Smart and fresh puzzle mechanics with very interesting setting. I played on Linux via WINE, so I did not hear any sounds (not sure whether they present in the game); maybe playing via WINE in Linux was the reason of no sounds playing in game. Some underwater theme and juicy sounds can make this game more winning and cool; nice submission anyway, very good job!

fueelin7 May 2021, 23:57

Cool game! The mechanics were interesting, though I don't know that I fully understand the spikey guys. Was able to beat it though! Nice work!

Feel free to check out my game, which is also a diving-on-a-hose puzzle game!

jk500016 May 2021, 09:42

A hard but also a fun little puzzle game. Well done.

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