itch.io

So great to hear from you! 

I thought I'd share a few reactions from the peanut gallery.

Sausage

I love the homage, but something about it feels off to me visually. At first I thought they seemed rather large and low, then I saw that they're presented similarly in Das Boot, around 8:45 in the part 2 video. I've seen the movie (and the miniseries!) several times and don't remember ever noticing them in that scene.  They're really subtle in the movie's darkness, with the actors taking your attention, and much less subtle in the empty scene on the Playdate. 

Maybe it's also about the room layout and the perspective you chose? It feels like they're pendulum'ing around in the center of the room, rather than being tucked up or around the edges, out of the way.

Casualty Report / Sinking

The first officer died. The navigator has died.

That felt pretty abrupt and unexplained. Not sure how, but maybe the game could provide a little more detail? (blunt trauma, drowned, ..how does a small number of men die from a depth charge?)

Sinking felt a bit abrupt and anticlimactic, too. I'm trying to remember how other media lend more weight to it, and all I can think of is Wrangel's first boat, a few minutes into a the first episode of Das Boot 2018.  You don't have the same cinematography techniques available 🤔.

On the other hand, sometimes abrupt is nice, like at the premature end of a long run of Spelunky.

Descriptive Text

It's hard to imagine R. Christiansen smiling at his men, he's so stern. 

Have you considered making a few variants of each portrait? I'm sure you don't want to separately illustrate every possible descriptive text, but maybe three or four variants could be used with different situations.

This feels more critical than I want to be. The control room looks great, and that periscope dark storm view is incredible. The sounds feel just right. I'm so excited to play this one day. (with headphones!)

Re: complaints about randomness, here's a classic: http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic

It might not be the juiciest part of the work but I'm glad to see you sweating the details with turn sequence.

TIL WWII radar displays contained detonators!

The control room looks so good. Looks like art from Mac games in the nineties.

How do you create those pixel-perfect charts?

I would totally play a Game & Watch -style spinoff :D

The way you handled the newspaper rasterization looks great, with the clean monochrome and hand-tweaked art.

I’m not sure the crease marks are necessary when they’re scrolling by sideways, perfectly lined up. The animation reminds me of similar effects in movies, where the newspapers are from microfilm or otherwise synthetically clean.

Maybe if they were presented in other contexts, like a diner, newsstand, or somebody’s hands? I’m not sure that would make sense for the game, but a crease wouldn’t feel out of place there.

Or maybe if the newspapers had varying angles and some overlap, so it looked a little more haphazard like a camera panning over a library table.

Love these posts!

It's looking great! You nailed the art yet again.

I'm a real programmer but not bothered by spaghetti.  🍝 😋  Refactoring to clean up the past and prepare for the future is one of my favorite parts of the job. Any particularly exciting directions unlocked by your recent improvements?

You’ve really mastered that monochrome art style. It’s so clear and legible, while also detailed, and portraying the 3D shape. 

Also the smoke looks great!

Safe travels.

The background detail is incredible. You really nailed the gnarly bits and bobs in dim lighting. 

I imagine there will be few opportunities to put that much background in other core scenes (given how much information you have to cram into them), but I hope there are at least a few more chances for zoomed-out views showing more machinery. Maybe for other events? 

I’d love to see similar treatments of some of the other areas of the boat, like the steering wall in the control room, the engines, or even daily-life stuff like the galley and the head.

Or if there are views that don’t fit into the gameplay, perhaps there are other ways to work them in. Gameplay could unlock images in a browsable gallery, sort of like in Forrest Byrnes. Or pack-in art for a collector’s edition.

Like the other commenter, I get excited every time I’m notified of a new post. Thanks for continuing to write these.

Oh, and another thing - it's really cool to see the tactical chart in one giant image. If Atlantic '41 were released in the 90s, a physically printed version would have made  a great pack-in item :D

Maybe in the modern day it could make it into some promotional images.

Fantastic! I resonate so hard with "there’s few things more aggravating to me than suffering long reveal or transition UI animations for nothing".

Also love the meaningful icon behavior, and the idea of using dialogue instead of direct instruction.

One small bit of feedback - the "Naval Gun FIRE" image looks a little out of place to me. Almost everything in the UI is a physical item that exists on the boat, but this looks a little like a movie poster. Is it meant to be a piece of paper that might exist on the boat? Did you consider any other options?

I just noticed this in your new post. (missed notification of your reply) Looks great!

This was quite some time ago now, but do you remember what the trick was, technically? (why didn't you think it would work at first, and what did you learn that allowed it to work?)

Fantastic, as usual. Love these. 

On the dialogue UI, do you think it would be possible to begin displaying text while the animation is still running? (so the player can start reading immediately) 

Not sure if that would be a performance problem, but if possible it feels like it’d be consistent with the player-focused thoughtfulness you’re applying in other areas .

Glad to hear that the hardware doesn't restrict too much how expressive you can be with sound. Love the dolphins, but I think you're right that another variant would help. (it's easy to spot the symmetry)

I look forward to seeing the other events you come up with. I'm trying to think of novel ways to present themes covered in books and movies, without copying them. (although some direct homage might be welcome, too)

Can't wait to play the game, but I hope to read many more blog posts before we get there!

That filename makes a great writing prompt:

"I Was Dead, But source code"

Go, itch commenters!

It's looking great! Long or short, I love the posts. Looking forward to seeing the night shots.

Though I'm into submarine films and books, I've not yet played any games. Where would you recommend to begin? (if I find time to play one before Atlantic '41 comes out, that is ;) )

Would you consider publishing the source? I'd love to see how it works, and folks might contribute.