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Within These Depths's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #5 | 4.074 | 4.074 |
| Overall | #17 | 3.556 | 3.556 |
| Use of the Limitation | #21 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Enjoyment | #27 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Concept | #31 | 3.481 | 3.481 |
Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team members
Just me (Rundevourer)
Software used
Godot for the game itself, Pixilart for the sprites and jsfxr for sound effects (except for one which I got from Pixabay)
Use of the limitation
The player's spirit leaves their body and has to get back inside within a time limit if they run out of oxygen and if they fail... well, another life gets taken by the creature.
Cookies eaten
A few, along with a few glasses of Lipton.
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Comments
This game is amazing! I can't believe that you made that by yourself iin such a short time! Great work!
TOP 10 game right here! Amazing! What a vibe. Great art style, great atmosphere! I recorded my first playthrough if you are interested :-)
I've honestly been waiting for this since the moment I found out you were making playthrough videos of the games in the jam.
❤️😁
I wish I had more time but I only have time in the evenings and recording and editing takes so much time. I probably won't get through all of it. But I'm glad I was able to play through your game. It really was great! You are talented
Thanks! I completely understand what you mean by recording and editing taking a lot of time. While not exactly the same, I do record gameplay videos myself for speedruns and still only have to do some simple cutting afterwards, not also record myself speaking and make sure the audio is hearable.
About the game itself: the 'balls' are actually pearls and getting them is how you get the second/good ending. I was planning on adding a dash (because those are a staple of Metroidvanias), but had to settle for just having the speed boost due to not having enough time to add it while also extending the map so there would be an area where you could get it.
You can actually avoid the frog's hand by using the speed boost as it stops following your horizontal position when it lunges up to grab, but you're probably not the only to just let it grab you instead.
This next part might be a bit surprising, but the version you played is actually a bit easier than the original project. The section at the start where you jump from the left onto two blocks and the the larger platform with an air pocket was a section where you needed to make multiple tight jumps back and forth between left and right to go up a staircase of blocks while making sure to not hit your head on one of them in versions 1.0.0 and 1.0.1. I adjusted it yesterday in version 1.0.2 due to it being too frustrating, so you actually got lucky with that. I probably should have adjusted the rest of the platforming as well.
This is a bit of a lengthy reply, but I thought it'd be nice to clarify a few things.
P.S. My pronouns are he/him.
P.P.S. Hope you succeed at playing all the games!
Oooh good tip on the avoiding the hand, had no idea!
I did suspect that you can 100% (by collecting the pearls) to get the good ending.
I know I might have come across as harsh in some of the platforming sections, but please don't misunderstand me, I was just trying to be a bit extra for comedic effect :-) This is still an awesome game you made, and I honestly can't believe you got it this polished in 72 hours. You are one of my top contenders to win this jam.
Apologies if I mispronouned you! I had no idea
And regarding making a video for all games: Not a chance haha :D
Don't worry, you didn't come across as too harsh, you're just not the first person to say that the game is a bit too difficult. And you don't need to apologise for using they, as I only mentioned that to clarify and not because I'm annoyed or anything like that.
OK understood. All good :-)
It's like a tiny metroidvania, there is not much criticism i have for this game as it is very well put together, if i'm trying to be picky maybe would suggest to add a second button to QTEs just for people who can find it difficult keep up spamming a single key.
Very well done game regardless, good job!
Will make sure to add that, maybe as an option in the settings, in the next update. Thanks for playing!
Fun idea for a platformer. The oxygen mechanic was fun on its own, but using it as a resource for speeds is a really nice touch. Love the presentation, the CRT effect works well. I did end up another life taken by the creature, but I had fun while it lasted :)
Such a cool concept for a platformer! Would be nice if you could also press shift to sprint instead of just z.
Thanks for playing! I'll add shift as a button for sprinting later today if I have time.
Shift has now been added as a key for sprinting. Thanks for the suggestion!
Wow fantastic presentation, great job ot the CRT shaders and the pixel art in general. Gamplay was smooth and the concept is really unique
The presentation is so sick, was not expecting an intro cutscene! Seems the arrow key binding for jump is the only reliable one for me in terms of jump height just fyi. Really impressed with the visuals/effects, nicely done! The air bubbles during the sprint mechanic is a nice touch
Thanks for the comment and for informing me about the bug with using W or Space for jumping! That should be fixed now.
Really great graphics and theme, really difficult though. I tried ~10 times on the first staircase-esque jumps and was never able to make it. I also ran into a small issue where pressing "w" or "space" would barely jump, while pressing the up arrow would jump way higher
Thanks for informing me about the jump issue, it should be fixed now.
I also made the part you were stuck on easier, so you can try it again if you want.
Best looking game I've seen so far! Not easy to advance though!
Yeah, I realise now that I might have made it a bit too difficult, though it does get easier once you start getting abilities.
Cool game, the graphics are amazing, and the story is also good! How did you make QTEs on Godot?
I made an integer that increases when you press the Z key while decreasing automatically at a slightly slower rate, forcing you to press the key rapidly to outpace the decrease. Meanwhile, there is a timer running in the background with it's remaining time being displayed above the player. If it ends, its timeout signal is received by the player's and frog hand's scripts, causing the QTE to end and you losing oxygen if it's the grab QTE or getting a game over if it's the ghost QTE. If the integer reaches its required value, the timer is stopped and you succeed at the QTE.
thanks, got it
i think this game is good but i just don't know how to don'T die always in games
Amazing game, the cutscene before the actual game starts is cherry on the cake. Like it :D
Awesome atmosphere and graphics. Like Blitzo below me, I think some music would have amplified it even more, but still really cool! That's a big frog
The original plan did include adding music, but I had to cut that due to:
1. Barely having any experience with making music.
2. It beign too time consuming to learn to make good music for the game within the time limit.
And I was also going to show the frog's entire body, which would have been even bigger, at the end, but that didn't end up being possible.
totally fair and understandable. great job either way!
I laughed, I cried, I screamed, and I sighed ( because I kept falling ). Absolutely wonderful rage platformer. I would really love to come back and get 100%, but I don't want to break my computer.
5/5, and I hope your game wins.
My one critique is that your game doesn't have any music. Some creepy music would push this game's atmosphere to the next level.
Thanks for playing! Music sadly wasn't possible due to a lack of experience in making it and the time it would have taken to learn to do so within the time limit (I could have perhaps found music on the internet, but I wanted to try to make everything myself for this jam, which ended up being the case with the exception of the frog's scream during cutscenes). I might try to make some post jam.
That makes a lot of sense. I could make some music for you if you want because I have some experience, but if you don’t want to change your game it’s completely okay to decline.
Thank you for the proposal, but I sadly need to decline as I prefer making music for the game myself for a post jam update so I can learn how to make my own music.
Okay, good luck!
Thanks!
Very nice game, man! Too hard for me, but that's a quite unique idea you have here hehe
Great presentation!
Too hard for me, but from second 1 of the game I was really pulled into your world!
Really impressive! Love the shaders you added to make it look like a cathode ray TV. The animations, concept, art are all super cool.
TBH I had a hard time with the level and could only make it about half way up. Super cool game nonetheless.
Cool game. First of all I have to say the visuals are super polished and probably the most polished I've seen so far. I love that VHS tape aesthetic.
This definitely feels like a Foddian game, an interesting mechanic but it makes you rage😅, and from that perspective it's very well done. The oxygen mechanic is interesting and the level design does feel like a Foddian game. I do feel the player moves a bit too slow and the speed could be bumped up.
Here's some post jam feedback I have:
I think your game will really benefit from music and sfx, but due to the given constraints its understandable you couldn't add that.
Maybe WASD and space support would also be nice because me personally I'm more used to that but I could still play fine with arrow keys
Overall, its a great game :D
Thanks for playing! I get what you mean about the movement speed. I did that to create the feeling of moving underwater, but I do have to agree that it might make things a bit too sluggish, even if the boost ability you get later on does improve things a bit, though altering it would mean reworking the entire map and some of the mechanics to balance things out.
As for adding WASD and space support, I am currently working on a patch to fix a few bugs I found just now, so I will do that as well!
EDIT: Just uploaded the patch, so there is WASD and Space support now!