I always like the aquatic base thriller type setting, both isolated and surrounded by water. The puzzles are varied and cool, my favorite part was how the cipher was used. It was easy figuring it out as Scotty, then the password threw me for a loop. I really liked the distraction puzzle too, tying an earlier part of the narrative to a later solution. So many good ideas here, great job!
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Under the Sea's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mental Engagement | #2 | 4.400 | 4.400 |
| Overall | #3 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Overall | #4 | 4.047 | 4.047 |
| Lasting Impression | #9 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Characterization | #11 | 4.020 | 4.020 |
| Atmosphere | #13 | 4.280 | 4.280 |
| Emotional Engagement | #18 | 3.480 | 3.480 |
Ranked from 50 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Excellent submission, I enjoyed it all the way through. Absolutely great, congratulations !!!
Submitted
Dark Light (Game Jam)Your team always delivers, but this has been my fav so far! That exterior art is really evocative, the puzzles were varied, interesting and didn't feel contrived, and they helped build the characters, which is rare to see, but super important to me. (though I think the ah... reversal thing was a bit mean, I had to look that up :P) Would have loved more moody lighting in the interior, like the exterior shot (and when the lights are out) to make it more atmospheric, but hard to think of anything to improve on this one! Really amazing job!
Submitted
The Telwynium: Book Threehe he he - I really didn't expect that final twist .-) - one last great thing for a gorgeous game - I loved the characters and the story.
btw I tried the game before you added the "swimthrough" and then I didn't understand the move-torch thing - after then everything was (almost) smooth
Congratulations
Submitted
Twisted Times in TwinsmouthReally?
No seriously, are you for real?
I knew I was going to get a good game from you, but this is incredible, even beyond my expectations. Wow.
Submitted
No Rest for the WickedThis was a pleasant surprise! I really really enjoyed this.
Well done!!
Adding voice over to this and you more or less have a commercial product! <3
Submitted
Shadows Of SerenityThank you very much. That's high praise.
We also would love to have voice over in our games. But it's the same story every year: we start writing our texts too late. The last lines were added only a couple of hours (or was it minutes?) before the deadline. (ek)
(FYI: Your comment was posted twice, I deleted the second one.)
What a polished game! And it's quite long too! Some puzzles had me stumped (parts of me because I was stupid with the second part of the code and because I didn't know you could swap objects between characters). I think I had the biggest problems with the code because I never knew which letters were already substituted and which needed changing. This confused me a bit.
The setting initially didn't click for me as I think I've seen enough underwater stations in videogames but the writing and interesting twists made it grow on me A LOT. I think some things came off as a bit flippant seeing that they just lost an "esteemed" colleague but overall the writing was really solid.
Submitted
Subject Of ObservationSorry if this came off as too negative, I tend to talk too much about what I think can be made better. But I really have to give kudos to you for making me care so much about a setting that I just personally don't like (but that's just taste). It really shows that the gameplay and story DO work very well.
Maybe it's because I can't help to compare to last years entry. And since I studied archaeology that REALLY vibed with me :)
Don't worry, I didn't consider your comment as too negative. And even if it was, it would have been a valuable feedback. For me (and I think my team-mates would agree), the comments we get are better feedback than any ratings. So we appreciate any comment - be it positive or negative or indifferent (that doesn't mean people should stop rating).
Sorry we didn't go for underwater archaeology this year. Atlantis is still good for another adventure, I guess ... ;-) (ek)
Don't worry. Personally I don't mind harsh criticism because learning from mistakes is important. Developers can't be swayed by every single negative impression of play testers or players, but need to adjust their vision of the game (or future games) with the feedback gained from players. Some points may be there on purpose - like having a few puzzles that are not solved at a glance - while others are not like bad telegraphing of what the player is supposed to do, pixel hunting or unbelievable reactions of characters.
Jam games are inherently more flawed than "complete" releases, so I understand why people don't like to criticize too much and that's okay, too.
Loved it! Really nicely put together. The initial conversation to get the flashlight was a bit tough to figure out and then the dark room was a bit off putting but overall it was great! I wonder if it would have been better to make the dark experience a bit later in the game somehow, so that the player gets to experience the awesome atmosphere a bit more? But that's just my subjective thoughts.
Submitted
Cabin PressureI tried it on German language, to see if my high-school days German studies would finally pay off. I didn't understand anything. Switched to English and finally got to see the excellent story. Really good game!
Submitted
SpaceshipWreckedWell polished, well executed. Got stuck but I feel its more a me problem than the game's problem.
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Office of the ReturnedI really liked the atmosphere, great music and writing. Puzzles were a bit difficult for my taste, but overall a great game :)
Submitted
Interstellar InterruptionThe puzzles in this were remarkably well designed. You struck just the right balance providing a sense of accomplishment when solving them and a minimum of frustration. I particularly liked solving the substitution cypher.
Submitted
Saure Gurken: AudiospawnI've grown to expect a that a game from the Argonauts will have gorgeous graphics, great attention to detail, good sensible puzzles, and more polish than we have any right to hope for in a jam game. Under the Sea did not disappoint. Fantastic work, folks!
Submitted
a Royal Midnight SnackWhen the Argonauts team releases a new project, we can expect a game as rich as it is original, while offering particularly successful moments of reflection. Under the Sea is no exception to the rule, offering a very well-designed adventure, with several characters including two playable ones, successful dialogues, object management, puzzles, ... All served with worthy handmade graphics professional comics. A new adventure that will entertain players for a few hours, and which joins the panel of Argonauts successes. Congratulation for this game which honors the adventure game genre (specifically Point & Click) !
I really liked playing this. just saw at the end that I could have used to set the continue text setting to manually.but thats an user error.
nice atmosphere and mechanics. I think that was really a lot of work to cover all possible situations , combinations and permutations of character-item-usage, and a lot dialog writing and conception.
also nice menus with a lot of settings.
kudos
Submitted
The Gem Color of MagicReally no need to feel dumb. We knew that wouldn't be everyone's favourite puzzle. ;-)
I guess you have probably figured out that you can swap two characters by pressing two buttons successively (e.g. pressing A then B swaps all As and Bs in the text). Start with the word at the top - seeing that this is a diary page, it should be obvious what it's supposed to be. And only one of the thinkable words fits. The second line may not be so obvious yet but is also a phrase frequently found in a diary. Maybe try the first word in the third line first (the one with the apostrophe). If you got this, too, you have almost all the vowels identified. Then try to identify words throughout the text. (ek)
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