Such a beautiful and immersive deep-sea experience! Loved the underwater atmosphere, and solving puzzles together with Mira felt like a wonderful take on the BUDDY theme. Great work and already rated! 🌊✨
Turning "D.I.V.E." into the "Department of Intravascular Virus Elimination" is such a brilliant and creative concept! Diving into the bloodstream instead of the ocean was an awesome twist, and the partner-launching mechanic fit the "BUDDY" jam theme perfectly.
I was really impressed by the depth of content you packed into this—the contract board, the tense O₂ tank management, the upgrade shop, and that humorous onboarding story all gave the game a ton of personality and great pacing.
Had a blast playing and rated! Loved connecting through our shared "DIVE" themes. Keep up the awesome work! 💉🚀✨
Thank you so much for the enthusiastic comment and for loving the penguins! 🐧❤️
Your feedback about the seal's visual design is an eye-opener and such a great point. Because the seal looked a bit too cute/friendly, it created unintended confusion about whether it was a bonus or a hazard!
Visual affordance—making sure a predator immediately reads as dangerous at a single glance (perhaps with sharper expressions, menacing eyes, or red warning auras)—is so important for intuitive gameplay. I really appreciate you pointing that out, and I'll definitely redesign the seal's visual cues in future updates!
Thanks again for playing and for helping make the game better! ✨
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! 🐧✨
Thank you so much for playing and for taking the time to write such thoughtful, structured feedback!
I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed the overall experience and felt the concept came to life well.
Your feedback regarding the in-game explanations is spot on. Clearer onboarding—such as a brief guide on fish types, scoring, and how the EXP system ties into upgrades—would definitely make the initial dive much more intuitive for new players. I really appreciate you pointing that out, and I'll make sure to polish the in-game guides in future updates!
Thanks again for the great advice and kind encouragement! 🐧✨
Thank you so much for playing and for the sweet comment!
Really happy you enjoyed the artwork! The feeding scene was meant to show that warm family bond after a long, cold dive, so I'm thrilled that you liked seeing the two of them eat together.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to play and share your thoughts!
So happy you enjoyed the chill ocean vibe and the penguin twist. Having the little chick act as a lookout buddy was really fun to design, and it means a lot that you noticed that detail. Cheers! ✨
Thank you so much for playing and for the wonderful feedback!
I'm really glad you enjoyed the sonar radar and the family meal loop — connecting the "BUDDY" theme directly to the core progression was one of my main focuses, so hearing that resonates with you means a lot.
Your suggestion about early-game tension is spot on. Adding more immediate hooks or chase-worthy rewards in the very first dive would definitely make the loop much more engaging from the get-go. I’ll definitely take that into account for future updates!
Loved your work on DEEP as well — let's keep building! 🐧✨
