I like the feel of the swimming! the mechanic is compelling too.
I feel like you should be able to kill fish even if you can't collect them, and they just float up dead. I kept not realising I couldn't hurt them because I had collected too many.
Also was confused that you can exit from the top of any level. knowing that makes it a lot easier. but also i was assuming i was dieing when my oxygen ran out, but actually i was failing because I didn't collect enough at first.
the movement was punishingly slow at the start too then after the first upgrade it was quite fast. maybe start closer to the first upgrade speed?
Thanks for playing! A lot of these issues stem from the jam deadline unfortunately. However the limited fish is an intentional decision. You're a researcher not a warior, you're there to interfere as little as possible with the ecosystem. That said I had to scrap a mechanic that would allow you to scare away fish due to time constraints and I think that would have helped a lot along with a better indication of when you can no longer catch a fish and better communication of the health/oxygen mechanic.
The game was heavily inspired by There's Something Beneath The Surface At Coral Cove wich I made for a Ludum Dare over a decade ago, having to return all the way to the surface in that game just wasn't fun and running out of oxygen as the fail state never felt entirely right, so this time around I decided to make the fail state something researchers actually have to worry about, money, I imagine the diver just gets teleported out when the oxygen runs out, it's at least 50,000 years into the future after all hehe.
There's plenty of things I can hopefully communicate better about the mechanics that resulted from this direction once I find time for an updated version. I also had a bunch of extra room designs done but was making them in the last half hour of the jam and couldn't place all the spawners in quickly enough to put them to use, and I really didn't have time to properly balance the stats. As I say hopefully I can make a nicer updated version soon.
ahhhh! that makes a lot of sense. the fish were attacking me and I think I assumed collision with the fish would hurt. and "attacking" (which is how it looks) is so easy right now.
a little teleportation animation would be rad!
yeah, lots of ways to solve it if you come back to it. a little playable intro could communicate it all really easily. like you don't have the camera yet and you're swimming past all the fish, and maybe you see something super rare and when you leave no one believes you.
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Nice!!!
I like the feel of the swimming! the mechanic is compelling too.
I feel like you should be able to kill fish even if you can't collect them, and they just float up dead. I kept not realising I couldn't hurt them because I had collected too many.
Also was confused that you can exit from the top of any level. knowing that makes it a lot easier. but also i was assuming i was dieing when my oxygen ran out, but actually i was failing because I didn't collect enough at first.
the movement was punishingly slow at the start too then after the first upgrade it was quite fast. maybe start closer to the first upgrade speed?
love the game. will be great with a few tweaks!
Thanks for playing! A lot of these issues stem from the jam deadline unfortunately. However the limited fish is an intentional decision. You're a researcher not a warior, you're there to interfere as little as possible with the ecosystem. That said I had to scrap a mechanic that would allow you to scare away fish due to time constraints and I think that would have helped a lot along with a better indication of when you can no longer catch a fish and better communication of the health/oxygen mechanic.
The game was heavily inspired by There's Something Beneath The Surface At Coral Cove wich I made for a Ludum Dare over a decade ago, having to return all the way to the surface in that game just wasn't fun and running out of oxygen as the fail state never felt entirely right, so this time around I decided to make the fail state something researchers actually have to worry about, money, I imagine the diver just gets teleported out when the oxygen runs out, it's at least 50,000 years into the future after all hehe.
There's plenty of things I can hopefully communicate better about the mechanics that resulted from this direction once I find time for an updated version. I also had a bunch of extra room designs done but was making them in the last half hour of the jam and couldn't place all the spawners in quickly enough to put them to use, and I really didn't have time to properly balance the stats. As I say hopefully I can make a nicer updated version soon.
ahhhh! that makes a lot of sense. the fish were attacking me and I think I assumed collision with the fish would hurt. and "attacking" (which is how it looks) is so easy right now.
a little teleportation animation would be rad!
yeah, lots of ways to solve it if you come back to it. a little playable intro could communicate it all really easily. like you don't have the camera yet and you're swimming past all the fish, and maybe you see something super rare and when you leave no one believes you.