Mutant Ocean

by boaheck-artgent

co-authored: @idkay, @tetraminose

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.82

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.87

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.45

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.87

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.13

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.97

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.73

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.44

Welcome to the Mutant Ocean research programme,

you have been selected as an Operator for the Automated Diver unit.
50,000 years ago humanity seeded the oceans of Almenic IV to research mutations in non earth oceanic environments. Now it is time to take samples of the mutated life forms and retrieve the three Autonomous P.E.A.R.L monitors which contain a mineral and nutient dense physical record of the oceans.

To control the Automated Diver:

Use WASD Arrow Keys or the Left Analog Stick to move
Press Space or the Right Action Button to swing the sample net
Press Shift or the Bottom Action Button to Dash

Objectives:

Your role as an operator will be terminated should you fail to reach the profit target for a dive. Your role will be apsred should you succeed in collecting the P.E.A.R.L monitor for the area.

Collect samples of fish, rarer fish will spawn lower, scans indicate abnormal biologies with the deepest dwelling fish absorbing environmental metals and integrating them into their biology.

You have a limited number of sample jars but may purchase some more in the Overview Screen.

Collect samples of seaweed and coral, these are less valuable but do not have limited storage

By collecting the pearl for an area you will be able to progress to the next dive site, each dive is deeper and spawns rarer and more dangerous fish.

Credits

Made for Ludum Dare 57 with the theme of "Depths" in 72 hours.

Game designed and programmed by Hyphinett
Background Music by Hyphinett

Art by Tetraminose

SFX & Additional Music by Kaitlyn "IDKAY" Cooper

Font: Salty by Somepx

Tags: #2d, #atmospheric, #godot, #non violent, #pixel art, #roguelite, #sci-fi, #singleplayer, #underwater

Genres: action

Comments17

slow chaz8 Apr 2025, 15:58

Wow I really love this. Love the swimming animation for the main character and the gameplay loop.

xoudz8 Apr 2025, 16:04

swimming animation very cool

C0SMIC8 Apr 2025, 16:09

Swimming animation was brilliant, music was brilliant, art looked brilliant. Solid entry :)

BnWCreator8 Apr 2025, 16:21

The vibe of diving to the bottom is conveyed well, collecting seaweed is really exciting, the music is more appropriate than ever.

ludokai8 Apr 2025, 16:30

Just beautiful pixel art, sound design and music were really good. i was confused which fish could attack me, and also which specimen i was carrying in that run currently, but overall really great entry!

LeTabouret8 Apr 2025, 16:36

Nice graphics and vibes but I think a couple of things could be tweaked :

- Going down might need a better sense of depth, with maybe the light getting darker as we go down

- Not losing the run when running out of oxygen feels a bit counter intuitive

- Same for ending the run when going up, even if we are a few screens down already

Still, no bugs to report, and pretty fun overall !

LDJam user 2851978 Apr 2025, 16:36

This a very well polished game! The art, music, gameplay loop, etc. is amazing! My ONLY complaint has to be then when I fail even one of my operations it resets all of my money and upgrades... I worked hard to upgrade my stats so it just sucks losing that and puts more pressure than needed on the operations. Other than that fantastic job!

Fullbuff8 Apr 2025, 16:38

Never thought I would say this but: It feels great to harvest all life from the depths of the ocean 😂

LDJam user 08 Apr 2025, 16:41

Treating sample net as an approach to both defending and farming is surprisingly good idea, making it worthy to think whether to use a jar to capture dangerous target or to leave it with possible high-value target.
I have to say that it's kind of strange seeing the character rotating its body while keeping its head fixed. Also, I am not pretty sure that the fail condition of not gaining enough money during one round can be a good idea. It may come from games like LETHAL COMPANY, but doesn't works well with such a jam-game.

Jaxrud8 Apr 2025, 16:48

Very fun game, it took me a sec before I realized I could dash through enemies, would be nice if it was clearer what fish that is aggressive and which is peaceful. It was fun to build up the economy and add upgrades, some more visual differences with the stages are welcome, but I know it's pressing with time. Solid start of a great game you should continue with here :)

Local Minimum9 Apr 2025, 16:14

I very much enjoyed playing this. The controls felt nice, and it was very interesting mechanics of collecting and also avoiding to collect specimens while trying to harvest all plant matter. I failed one run and then realized I could cheese it a bit on my second attempt by repeating the first level more times than what might have been intended.

I had a bit of initial confusion since diving mechanics and a bar going down usually means oxygen is running out and you have to go back to the surface. The "end run" mechanic of going up did have a bit large hitbox too because I accidentally triggered it a few times. Which would not have been too bad if I wasn't playing on controller and the menu interactions only worked with mouse.

I'd also would have liked stronger visual feedback on the connection between getting hurt and loosing time as well as the game clearly telling you with sound and visually when you've reached the required target.

It could have been cool if getting hit also damaged your haul a bit, because right now, as soon as you did hit the required $$$ it didn't matter too much taking hits.

Here's me playing and commenting a bit while doing so:

LDJam user 41075010 Apr 2025, 13:49

Losing the whole run in just one bad mission felt kinda bad (maybe too pusnishing giving the vibe of the rest of the game), but the it got me hooked almost instantly, the gameplay loop is really well constructed, and the art is BEAUTIFUL. Fantastic work, good job!! :)

torcado10 Apr 2025, 20:08

ah this is great! the music is great, and the art is incredible. i really enjoyed exploring deeper and discovering new fish and creatures. I also really enjoyed learning fish values by collecting them, as a direct contrast to the limited carry size. That mechanic is nice, it really changes how i play through the game, focusing more on evading than collecting. The discovery that dashing actually goes through attacks helped with that a ton. I think if there's any change I would make it would be to make it more obvious that you're invulnerable during a dash, but discovering that was fun anyway.
Great stuff!!

apt_prose711 Apr 2025, 01:44

reminds me of some mobile game. Everything was done very well, thank you