This is a story of a little boat that got stranded, and with the magic and dream of a child, made it return to the sea. Caution: "Game with a simple appearance, that will challenge you to your limit, will you be able to win this challenge?" Game Created in Construct 2
Really fun, I liked the idea of the water as a tool to move the boat. Because of the water's fluidity, it is more fun than many other games in this genre.
It was a pleasure to play a game made by etrealjunior. A game design with no compulsory common places. The use of a "god hand" as the way the player can interact is a good choice of creativity to practice the "unstable" theme. The traps along the levels could be more matched with the nau art maybe using a naval subtheme including the traps, the level art level as a whole. The sfx of the water/sink does not match too much too. The music loop is short considering the time of the challenges level by level. The layers of that 2D side art are well-fited and well-integrated. In short, the gameplay is the centre of the game. Joyable minutes of the good playability.
This is a challenging entry. But the ambiant sounds and music helps to not rage (too much) against the effective very unstable way of moving the boat. Oh, and I liked the cute graphics. Good job!
I found the boat physics really really difficult to deal with. The way it randomly stuck to surfaces, randomly got stuck, randomly kept velocity, became very difficult to manage in later levels.
Brutally hard game but very very unique and interesting, I kinda wanted to see some more in depth puzzle mechanics maybe moving other things or utilising buoyancy to solve some kind of puzzle. Overall pretty good game, it can be extremely frustrating but mostly it's a fun silly experience.
I played this during my stream earlier today and found it to be very challenging, occasionally frustratingly so. Controlling the water and not the boat was a fresh take on a tried-and-true concept, but the inaccurate controls cased by that killed the fun for me.
Level Design could be improved, lifting the boat through high walls and broad area is painful considering the boat can go very unstable. Great take on the theme and simple yet beautiful art nonetheless!
This is an awesome use of fluid simulation and I really enjoy the whole mood and the work put into the UI and game graphics. The only critique that I have is that the aesthetic of the water does not really match the style of the rest of the game. Apart from that: awesome job!
A really nice game, it's pretty and fun to play! The water physics is very well made too. Sadly I'm too bad to get past a certain panel, but I really enjoyed trying!
This is a very nice and calming game, although a bit difficult. The music and sound effects are calming, and really gives you that beach vibe. Nice game and, good luck.
saw this on 3mpty's stream yesterday and wanted to try it out for myself. it's SO much harder than it looks lmao, the boat physics definitely live up to the theme, at least the checkpoints are close enough that it doesn't become frustrating
the idea is executed really well imo, it's wicked fun and it has so much potential for being expanded into a fully fledged game
the aesthetic and graphics kinda mismatch eachother but it gives me old flash game vibes which i like
relaxing sunset music plays a big factor in sanity conservation
This was really cute. The mechanics were super unique and a good challenge, and the music really tied everything together. I think one thing to work on would be level difficulty scaling, since it seems to ramp up unevenly, but other than that I loved this entry.
Really unique gameplay, I like it! Being able to control the water rather than the boat itself is super clever, and I enjoyed trying to get the boat to float through the air at times to get to objectives. It can be a little unwieldy at times, but I'm guessing that's the point! Well done!
Note to self: come back to this when I have my mouse. Touchpads are for portability, not gaming.
This is breathtaking so far! Definitely interested to know how you made such beautiful water physics, I remember playing around with water physics a few years back (was not very experienced then....) and it took hours just to make a few objects poorly float. Not only are your water physics perfect, it's visually stunning too.
Really cool game, love the mood! Really good idea, but pushing the boat up is a chore. It would be cool to have more puzzles where you can fill pits with water that stays there permanently, or smth like that. The intro and music was also very nice!
Definitely a challenge, but it was fun to try and figure out despite not being a "gamer" myself. Loved the music at the beginning and the way the premise of the game fit in with the theme of the jam. Great work!
wow such a unique gameplay, really likes it and had fun, however, i can't rate you on the audio since you especially said it was royalty music.. When you dont make the assets yourself, plz opt out of the category. taht being said, really nice entry :)
Unique and well executed. I enjoyed the game a lot only thing I would change is going up. It felt a little too tricky at times. Maybe a water spout with the right mouse button would help.
Uff. I thought it would never end. 😅 But it didn't seem difficult to me, I think I failed about 3 times only. It just gets a little repetitive. The background music is really good. Nice game. Well done! 👍
This was a great game! The controls were super responsive, and the concept behind it is great. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit. Also, the visuals and sound were really good too. Congratulations on this great game.
The use of water for this indirect-control game made perfect sense, and it gives the player some immediate context on what they need to do. It definitely feels good to fill up a small pool around buzzsaws to use as cushioning, and then have your boat ride around it.
I'm really glad at the use of checkpoints. Some of those levels got so hard that it would've taken super careful play just to clear it. Although by the time I got to the end I was feeling pretty confident about the boat movement.
Overall I thought it was challenging and conveyed unstable without being TOO frustrating. Maybe it was the soothing music that helped with that...
I love the idea but i feel it could be executed a tiny bit better, don't get me wrong, it's brilliant, but i felt that almost all the time i was just clicking and dragging the boat around, just from a bit behind the boat. no penalty for drowning the boat completely, no permanence on the water. I feel this as is is a great platformer and i loved it a lot, but a think with such a cool idea and take on the theme this would work a bit better as a puzzler. Either way this is beautiful and you did a great job, loved this entry, well done!
Great entry. The idea is really cool and the game feels very polished for a LD entry. Especially liked the music and the way the water flows. Thanks for the game.
This is easily one of my favorites from the Jam so far, and I've played a lot. The music is beautiful (is that you singing??) and the art is so peaceful and warm. My only nitpick is the "mixels" - the resolutions matching more consistently between your art would add a lot to it's polished feel. Regardless, your game is both relaxing and challenging, and the mechanic is unique! This game is the whole package of look, feel, level design, and innovation. Fantastic job!
I like it! The music paired with the chill art style makes for an enjoyable experience, and I quite liked the idea of using water to push around a boat. well done :)
Wow! So well done. The water sound was a little ... "toilety"? 😄 Maybe a last minute quick recording? Love the game though, thanks for letting me play!
A very cute game. The mechanics are somewhat reminiscent of a crocodile swampy. I like it. The graphics are nice and the music is nice too. But on the menu, the soundtrack is a bit weird.
Hello again. Your Game has a very innovative and unique proposal. It is certainly one of the best interpretations of the theme.
I liked the graphics, especially the water.
Sound is good too.
And the main thing is the gameplay, which, as I said before, is unique and well-designed.
I had a little trouble getting the hang of it, but then I was able to play. But unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the end due to the high difficulty hahaha.
But no problem, the high difficulty doesn't erase the real value of your game.
Really nice entry! I found the challenges to be fun and fair. Definitely fit the theme, as I was constantly tipping and dropping my boat. Suggestions if you extend this post LD: Try to make the art a little more consistent (like you have very different resolutions for various sprites right now) and add a volume slider with the default volume a bit lower. Really fun, though! That's the important part!
I think this is my favourite game so far this jam!! It's really fun and 'relaxing' :3 The music was amazing, even though it still managed to scare me, I could listen to it all day!
The water mechanic is super cool and really unique, I love how it fits with the theme. I think it would be a really fun game to try and speed run if there were more levels! I wasn't able to beat it myself but given more time I think I could do it!
It feels very polished mechanics wise, and although the boat is simple, I really love it. Overall, really good job on completing this
Heya! I quite liked the concept behind this game. It's a really sweet idea that lends to a nicely fitting mechanic. A boat being tossed about by turbulent water is a great take on "unstable". I think the start of the game felt really nicely paced, but the experience deteriorated for me just a bit as the difficulty ramped up. I appreciate the challenge but I think tonally, in this case, there's something lost as the soothing music and beautiful graphics are contrasted by such fiddly gameplay. Another very small nitpick, I think the saw-blades really could have been something more consistent with the concept (buoys, seagulls, urchins, etc).
Beyond that, I'm glad to have played this one! The style and vibe were wonderful. Thanks for the game!
@leyaotang Thanks my friend @leyaotang , your remarks have been noted, after the end of Jam, I will be implementing improvements based on feedback, a big hug
@euler-moises Não tenho como agradecer palavras tão gentis vindas de alguem o qual admiro tanto, o maximo que posso fazer é dizer "obrigado" "obrigado" e muito obrigado meu amigo! um grande abraço.
@3mpty After the jam I will be implementing new mechanics, such as water-driven objects among others, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you liked it, a big hug
@rein After a few more attempts you will soon be mastering the power of the waters, managing to post the image I will be happy to see you thank you for the feedback, a big hug
@scratch Thank you very much for playing, play with a few more attempts you dominate the waters, if you post the image you got I will be very happy to see, thanks for the affection, a big hug
@velaachlorine This game brings a little of the love and hate feeling, but with a taste of want more lol, very grateful, thanks for the feedback, glad you liked it, a big hug
@simonchik He will soon post the photo that ended the game and mastered the power of the waters, I believe you will also make it with a few more attempts, I want to see your image too, I'm glad you liked it, a big hug
@peace-of-cake-games Thank you, I'm evolving little by little, studies and trial and error until I reach a result, but knowing that it can improve, thanks for the kindness, a big hug
@mysticgames I'm sure that with a little more attempts it will soon reach the end, being able to come back here and post it, the image will be happy to know that you did it, very grateful, a big hug
@guimoliveira Congratulations on your achievement, you've arrived where many have already got lost along the way, thanks for the feedback, very happy you had fun, a big hug
@vphyre Thanks for the words, there's very little left for you to finish, who knows in a few attempts already master the waters, being able to come back here and post the image or let me know I'll be very happy to know that you surpassed yourself, big hug
@sarah Thank you for playing and also bringing me minutes of happiness and fun lol, I know that with a few more attempts you will become the woman ruler of the waters, achieving this feat and finishing the game come back here and let me know, I will be very happy to hear from you victory, a big hug
Cute little hardcore game, haha! Thanks you for submitting it to my stream! Here's a link in case you want to rewatch/refer to it later: https://youtu.be/cXpAExWjwSw
I'm gonna wright down some of the feedback I gave you during my play: - Really great music and setting! - Nice idea and take on the theme! - Difficulty curve could be a bit smoother in my opinion. Maybe teach a player how to climb first without additional difficulty of having obstacles (saws). - Try to unify visual style of the game, currently it's quite a mix: low-res pixel art boat, a bit higher-res pixel-art background, high-res water
Great game! Gave it 5/5 in innovation, mood and actually in overall :) I think this game has great innovative mechanics and gives right mood for the player. Music is also very nice. Graphics could be improved a bit, mostly the background image. This is a great submission! I hope you would decide to make a postjam version and put into some game store, because it has great potential!
The music was veery relaxing - it made the game feel chilled. As people have already pointed out, the main critique is the mixture of different artstyles. I really liked the way the water looked and interacted - it is a very interesting and quite well executed concept. Good job!
Your main mechanic with the water physics is fun to play around with, and it _feels_ like water. Struggling against gravity to keep your boat on the right course got to be a lot of fun once more obstacles appeared.
My only main concern is that the game played very differently depending on whether I had the game in fullscreen or not. I think the game's physics may be tied to your framerate, and this could potentially cause some problems where systems may have the game slower or faster than you intend.
That aside, you made a fun little jam with an interesting game mechanic, pleasant graphics/music, and a whole lot of content. Excellent work!
The water physics are a great entry to the unstable theme of this jam. Overall I had a very smooth experience playing it, really liked the trap placement in that it is actually challenging to use the water physic so I can guide the boat away from the traps! Good job.
It was very nice to play The physics of the water is a little tricky but very fun to play GG! Learning curve was very nice for me the saws come right when I start to understand the physics and make the challenge right when I needed it
This is a cool idea, and I love how the water feels when you get into the flow and have the boat riding along properly! If you expand this into a full game, one thing that I think would help the feel of the game a lot is to allow the player to move the camera freely and get a sense of the level around them. For example, I had a really hard time at this section, because I was making a blind drop off of this ledge, and often snagged a saw as I was coming to rest down below - If I knew where the saws were as I was dropping off the ledge, it would have made it feel more fair to die to them.
I also didn't quite understand what made the boat flip rightside-up - It seemed like whenever it touched the ground it would *usually* flip upright, but it didn't feel consistent, and I think I would have preferred if the ship either didn't right itself, or had clearer rules for when it rights itself. For example, if the ship rights itself after some amount of time, maybe that could be conveyed visually somehow.
Overall though, great job! :) This is a really innovative idea that I haven't seen before!
Edited to add - You kept me hooked for long enough to beat the game, which is always a good thing! :)
This game was pretty neat! It used a solid mechanic which could be built upon quite a lot! I feel like in the last level part 2 and 3 could be switched around for a better difficulty curve, but a solid game nontheless!
This is awesome! Really really well done. Echoing a lot of the other comments, there was just a little bit of punishing difficulty, especially that vertical climb (you know the one lol). Outside of that, flawless! The death sound was a fantastic reminder that it's a cute little game and not to get mad at repeated deaths haha.
Very cool and nicely laid out, even if it's a simple puzzle platformer. I like the water mechanic and the toilet flush noise that comes with it 😄 I wish some of the terrain collisions were a bit smoother, and that I could try it out as a desktop (Linux) build to prevent some web browser hiccups.
I really really enjoyed this, the music and mood were perfect. The only piece of feedback I have to offer is volume controls somewhere. Everyone makes at different sound levels, so we sometimes have to change the speakers volume. An ingame volume controls helps. :)
Deceptively hard for as cute as the graphics are. I think it was jut a hair too "unstable" for me to continue playing but what I did play I enjoyed. Definitely a unique take and pretty well executed!
Cool idea! Neat to see another entry that incorporates fluid physics. I'd be curious to hear how you built it you'd like to sharing.
The music was relaxing and the spritework looks great! I found myself frustrated by the boat always flipping over, since it controls better while upright. Would be nice if it had a greater tendency to stay upright.
Simple but challenging gameplay! I wish there was a timer that kept track of your run :D The tiles could use some work to fit together a little better, but the overall art style is great, I especially love the title screen arts!
I really liked the music! You might want to credit the music on your about page or the main page instead of the end screen. I liked the music but couldn't find the source, until I saw a screenshot of it on the end screen. Gameplay wise, it's very unique! A little frustrating at times though, I had difficulty with one of the stages.
so we meet again. Overall, pretty fun game. I like the water physics, they look very nice and the graphics look good as well. The boat is VERY unstable which is the point anyways but made going up a bit annoying, i would make it a tad bit more stable when going up. The difficulty starts of easy as expected and then it turns to hard, but thats the common game jam syndrome of difficulty so i get that. The music is very calming, i might listen to it when i go to sleep. Didnt encounter any bugs which is a plus. And i have to give credit for the creative idea and not just "unbalanced platforms" so good job on the idea. Overall a pretty good game that is fun to play and bug free :)
I enjoyed playing your game. The water interaction was a really cool idea! Making a single input game fun and challenging is tough, but you nailed it. The audio was way too loud and no way to change from in the game. The music and sfx did sound nice once turned down though, and created a nice mood. Well done!
Alright, props for innovation points here. Using water physics as a form of traversal is certainly not what I was expecting, and despite the complexity of such soft-body physics object, both the behavior and the visuals were convincing enough to feel like water. I've found that while the water behavior is pretty unpredictable, I've still manage to at least *feel* like I was in-control of the situation. Which is probably a good thing because I was very frustrated while playing through the later levels.
Some of the flaws I've seen in the game includes the fact that, as of the medium I was playing in, there was only one source possible for water to flow. On certain parts of the game, such as lifting the boat upwards between two saw blades, I felt like having a multi-touch interface would have been beneficial. That way, there would be two or more sources of water to lift the boat (but would that make the game too easy? Hmmm...) I also found that even leaving the boat idle, it had a rather erratic and unpredictable behavior, such as moving completely on its own. I also disliked that the last stretch of the final level requires rotating the boat, which is already very difficult to do, and there seems to be a behavior-of-sorts that corrects its orientation from the first place, making the task even harder.
Still, there's a lot of potential with this idea, and I certainly would like to see more puzzle elements added in to more heavily emphasize the physics-playground nature of the game. Despite all my gripes above, for the most part, I did think the game was fair.
Amazing mechanic and a very creative take on the theme. Leads to some very precarious positions but the game still feels doable despite having a steep difficulty curve and a high skill ceiling. The fluid mechanics themselves were nothing short of awesome. Loved how the boat flows and moves on the water. The water itself was awesome to look at. Reminded me a lot of lava lamps. However, it did lead to a lot of situations where the boat ended up being rather hard to control. Those sawblades are killer lol. Great idea and execution, just a little hard as a by-product of the main mechanic
Very cool and unique idea. I saw streamers playing this, and thought it looked cool. I said in a few streams I wish the water was used for more than just moving the boat. It could be used to fill a tank, or lift a platform, or wash a key down a drain pipe, etc. There's so many different things you can do with this water mechanic! Good job keeping the level design interesting with so few elements, even it lifting the boat upward is a little difficult.
Really original idea here, and water physics in a jam game?! Amazing!
Once I got the hang of moving upwards, I figured I was all set, but then it only got more difficult from there 😅 I enjoyed my time with this game, but by the time I got to the end I was glad there wasn't *another* stage afterwards because that one had pushed me enough already.
Hey Ethreal! As you know from discord, I came back to your game the day after our stream with Bu and played it to the end! The place we got stuck during the stream was really the hardest for me. The next hardest was the last 2 saw before the end where you have to squeeze between the roof and the saw.
I really loved Boat History, it's a great game, a great mix between relaxation and stress. Great entry overall!
Thanks for joining us live and proposing us this amazing watery gem!
I finally had the time to come back and rate everything I played so far!
Haha, the water physics are really satisfying and I love the overall style of the game. The gameplay felt challenging but not unfair and worked really well. Not much negative to say about it but a really good entry into the jam!
Finally finished editing all the videos I made for this LDjam, I really enjoyed your entry, although there were a couple of places I got stuck! I've put my playthrough on YouTube if you wanted to check it out
I really liked the inclusion of the theme here, and the gameplay within this one is very unique for the jam. It almost feels like a mobile game in how it was designed to have very simple and easy to understand mechanics. I enjoyed the music and cute art here. The water physics made the game challenging, but they worked well. Whenever I lost it was due to my own faults rather than the water physics not working how I expected them to. Nice entry, overall.
Comments171
A game design with no compulsory common places.
The use of a "god hand" as the way the player can interact is a good choice of creativity to practice the "unstable" theme.
The traps along the levels could be more matched with the nau art maybe using a naval subtheme including the traps, the level art level as a whole.
The sfx of the water/sink does not match too much too.
The music loop is short considering the time of the challenges level by level.
The layers of that 2D side art are well-fited and well-integrated.
In short, the gameplay is the centre of the game. Joyable minutes of the good playability.
Parabéns pela ideia. Um jogo bem original!
Overall pretty good game, it can be extremely frustrating but mostly it's a fun silly experience.
the idea is executed really well imo, it's wicked fun and it has so much potential for being expanded into a fully fledged game
the aesthetic and graphics kinda mismatch eachother but it gives me old flash game vibes which i like
relaxing sunset music plays a big factor in sanity conservation
This is breathtaking so far! Definitely interested to know how you made such beautiful water physics, I remember playing around with water physics a few years back (was not very experienced then....) and it took hours just to make a few objects poorly float. Not only are your water physics perfect, it's visually stunning too.
But it didn't seem difficult to me, I think I failed about 3 times only. It just gets a little repetitive.
The background music is really good. Nice game. Well done! 👍
I'm really glad at the use of checkpoints. Some of those levels got so hard that it would've taken super careful play just to clear it. Although by the time I got to the end I was feeling pretty confident about the boat movement.
Overall I thought it was challenging and conveyed unstable without being TOO frustrating. Maybe it was the soothing music that helped with that...
Your Game has a very innovative and unique proposal. It is certainly one of the best interpretations of the theme.
I liked the graphics, especially the water.
Sound is good too.
And the main thing is the gameplay, which, as I said before, is unique and well-designed.
I had a little trouble getting the hang of it, but then I was able to play. But unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the end due to the high difficulty hahaha.
But no problem, the high difficulty doesn't erase the real value of your game.
Good job!
The water mechanic is super cool and really unique, I love how it fits with the theme. I think it would be a really fun game to try and speed run if there were more levels! I wasn't able to beat it myself but given more time I think I could do it!
It feels very polished mechanics wise, and although the boat is simple, I really love it. Overall, really good job on completing this
Beyond that, I'm glad to have played this one! The style and vibe were wonderful. Thanks for the game!
I'm gonna wright down some of the feedback I gave you during my play:
- Really great music and setting!
- Nice idea and take on the theme!
- Difficulty curve could be a bit smoother in my opinion. Maybe teach a player how to climb first without additional difficulty of having obstacles (saws).
- Try to unify visual style of the game, currently it's quite a mix: low-res pixel art boat, a bit higher-res pixel-art background, high-res water
Quite good difficulty curve, good amount of content. Very solid submission!
Your main mechanic with the water physics is fun to play around with, and it _feels_ like water. Struggling against gravity to keep your boat on the right course got to be a lot of fun once more obstacles appeared.
My only main concern is that the game played very differently depending on whether I had the game in fullscreen or not. I think the game's physics may be tied to your framerate, and this could potentially cause some problems where systems may have the game slower or faster than you intend.
That aside, you made a fun little jam with an interesting game mechanic, pleasant graphics/music, and a whole lot of content. Excellent work!
The physics of the water is a little tricky but very fun to play GG!
Learning curve was very nice for me the saws come right when I start to understand the physics and make the challenge right when I needed it
I also didn't quite understand what made the boat flip rightside-up - It seemed like whenever it touched the ground it would *usually* flip upright, but it didn't feel consistent, and I think I would have preferred if the ship either didn't right itself, or had clearer rules for when it rights itself. For example, if the ship rights itself after some amount of time, maybe that could be conveyed visually somehow.
Overall though, great job! :) This is a really innovative idea that I haven't seen before!
Edited to add - You kept me hooked for long enough to beat the game, which is always a good thing! :)
The music was relaxing and the spritework looks great! I found myself frustrated by the boat always flipping over, since it controls better while upright. Would be nice if it had a greater tendency to stay upright.
Thanks for the entry!
You have some really neat tech behind this one. 🙂 Would love to see this expanded (and maybe made a bit easier for people like me 😅 )
The tiles could use some work to fit together a little better, but the overall art style is great, I especially love the title screen arts!
Some of the flaws I've seen in the game includes the fact that, as of the medium I was playing in, there was only one source possible for water to flow. On certain parts of the game, such as lifting the boat upwards between two saw blades, I felt like having a multi-touch interface would have been beneficial. That way, there would be two or more sources of water to lift the boat (but would that make the game too easy? Hmmm...) I also found that even leaving the boat idle, it had a rather erratic and unpredictable behavior, such as moving completely on its own. I also disliked that the last stretch of the final level requires rotating the boat, which is already very difficult to do, and there seems to be a behavior-of-sorts that corrects its orientation from the first place, making the task even harder.
Still, there's a lot of potential with this idea, and I certainly would like to see more puzzle elements added in to more heavily emphasize the physics-playground nature of the game. Despite all my gripes above, for the most part, I did think the game was fair.
Good job overall!
Once I got the hang of moving upwards, I figured I was all set, but then it only got more difficult from there 😅 I enjoyed my time with this game, but by the time I got to the end I was glad there wasn't *another* stage afterwards because that one had pushed me enough already.
Great level design, and great entry all around!
I really loved Boat History, it's a great game, a great mix between relaxation and stress. Great entry overall!
Thanks for joining us live and proposing us this amazing watery gem!
I finally had the time to come back and rate everything I played so far!
Here is a link to the vod of the review if you wish to see it again: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=AiVWayIqffU&t=15733s