Thank you so much for organizing such a great game jam, and especially for playing the game so thoroughly!
Hearing that you tried a pure Stamina build to explore the Abyss as long as possible made me so happy—tuna is indeed an elusive Abyss-exclusive catch with high EXP, so your strategy was spot on!
Regarding the upgrade points, you’ve highlighted a crucial UX flaw: the EXP accumulation from catching fish wasn't visually clear enough, which made strategizing difficult. Making the EXP gauge and gain feedback much more prominent in the HUD is a major lesson I'll carry forward into future updates. Thanks to the advice from game jam participants, I also realized just how crucial the initial explanation is. I took to heart how important it is to clearly convey a character's objective and the conditions for victory—factors that determine whether or not a player will enjoy the game once they start playing.
Building penguin DIVE! with the TinCLE engine was an absolute blast. It's wonderfully lightweight and intuitive to work with in pure C, and I'm really excited to see volume control integrated into future engine releases!
Thank you again for your guidance, the fantastic engine, and your warm encouragement! 🐧✨