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Tour of the Deep's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #2 | 4.316 | 4.316 |
| Audio | #5 | 4.053 | 4.053 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.860 | 3.860 |
| Story | #8 | 3.789 | 3.789 |
| Concept | #10 | 3.895 | 3.895 |
| Enjoyment | #14 | 3.632 | 3.632 |
| Graphics | #22 | 3.474 | 3.474 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did you use any optional theme? If so which one?
Pizza lover
Break the 4th wall
Under da sea
What game engine did you use?
Unity
Did you have fun? :D
Heck yeah we did! Very Challenging + Rewarding!
Discord username
Scoot Speed Sasha, Scoot Speed Kati, and Scoot Speed False Josh
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Comments
Really solid, nice! In particular, the audio was fantastic. The scripted sequences felt polished and the writing was entertaining. The graphics were charming and definitely suited the tone of the game, although I think the anti-aliasing was a bit rough at times.
(Spoilers) I didn't get the hints that the fish were robotic, probably because I either wasn't paying enough attention or I chalked it up to a quirky writing/art style. I also didn't get any hints to the sub being run on human energy. Anyway, this meant that I didn't have a clue as to what nefarious things the narrator was up to. So when the plot twist approximately said "yes, the fish are made of plastic" I felt like it expected me to have suspected that (or thought I should've), which I didn't. I lost some immersion as a result.
But yeah nah definitely a strong experience. I think there was an impressive variety of mechanics for a jam project. Nice job.
Thanks for playing! I agree there's some issues with anti-aliasing we need to work out in the future. Unfortunately the hints for the later game reveal exist dark zone. Since the overly-aggressive anglerfish drive everyone out of there, noone was able to see those. But we've fixed that just now in our post-jam update! That feedback is definitely useful!
- Josh
*happy starfish sounds*
No but seriously this was really good. The pacing of the tone shift was perfect for me; little hints at the start and then all of the sudden shit just hits the fan. I don't know if it was intended but the fact that the giftshop was an angler fish was also such a nice touch to hint to the player that it is a bad place that you don't want to go. Also the game is gorgeous, was easy to forget the feeling of impending dread just peacefully cruising through the environment.
Only criticisms are bug related, got locked talking to the eel in the angler fish section and a couple other dialogue issues others have mentioned. And obviously the crash in the web build.
Great job!
Thanks so much for playing! I'm really happy the pacing went over well! That and creativity/originality are usually the 2 things I strive for when making games. (The angler fish / gift shop design was totally completely intentional :D) We made a little post-jam update fixing those bugs plus devlog in case you're interested.
- Josh
Loved the peaceful feeling of the game (music was really nice!) and the way the tone slowly shifted as you discover things aren't quite as they seem. Unfortunately ran into the eel soft lock and then died in anglerfish land a few too many times, but when I'm done with my workday today I want to finish it up to see how it ends. The atmosphere is great, the art is just right, and the dialogue is cute and funny. I really liked the line about selling urchin plushies in the gift shop haha, caught me off guard. Also bonus, the pacing and subtle hiding of ways to disobey Scubot were done really well and do actually make you feel like you're smart for finding something you're not "supposed" to. Anyways, awesome job on this!
Hey thanks for playing! I'm glad the tonal shift worked out well, that's something we really focused on as a team!
If you don't feel like replaying it all for the ending, a couple streamers played it.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1015071914 (starts at 28:00)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1016373534
Once ratings are over we're going to post an updated version that nerfs the anglerfish adds some more polish. So if you'd like to, you could hold out for that.
- Josh
Or another thing you can do is hold P to skip scubot lines and avoid scanning fishes to get to the place you stopped at! That's a pretty good way to speed run the game and see how it ends, and remember that you can hold R to reswpan any time! The angler fish deffs will be nerfed but until then that makes them easier to deal with.
So, SO happy you are enjoying the game so far and want to see how it ends! I hope you enjoy the ending when you get around to it. Sunken Treasures Tours has many surprises in store >:) Plushie urchins want to give you a big hug!!! xD
Thanks again for playing and willing to play again! Can't wait to see what you think of the ending!!
-Sasha
P.S. Despite the soft lock, did you enjoy scanning the hidden eel? :P
Our updated version is out if you're still interested in retrying! Also a little devlog too!
I liked the game a lot! I wish I could have explored more! But it was also fun the way it was and the ending was very fitting with the 4th wall break. Great story and concept! I thought that what was fun about it the most was the gameplay. I enjoyed navigating my little submarine around the ocean. The only part that was a bit annoying was with the anglerfishes. I think there might be a bug because after they spotted me they would still attack during dialogues and when they defeated me my submarine stayed see-through and I had a very hard time shaking the anglerfishes off. I don't know if that was intentional or if I was just unlucky. But I enjoyed it nevertheless! And I also liked talking to all the cute little fishes. It might not have been a long game but it still felt like a lot of stuff happened due to the many different fishes (characters) and how the ocean changed. (spoiler) I wish I could somehow have survived, it made me feel sorry for the human. Great game!
Thanks so much for playing! I'm glad you liked it. (especially the gameplay)!
The anglerfish are for sure bugged since they're not supposed to move during dialogue. I also tweaked them in the last hour because I thought they were too easy, but unfortunately didn't get the time to fully test them.
Thanks again!
- Josh
I loved all the aspects of this (art, music, level design, etc.) but the writing was so so so enjoyable! Best $1245.50 I ever spent.
Really though, it was impressive how simple mechanics and still assets could be used so effectively to tell such an entertaining story. Great job y'all!
**melts into a puddle of gratitude**
From all of us, thank you so much! to see the art, music, level design... all our contributions mentioned here as brining the whole thing together absolutely means the world to us.
And I'm sooooo so so so SO happy you liked the writing!! <3 For this glowing review, Sunken Treasure Tours would like to award you a special appreciation discount... ONE PERCENT OFF ANYTHING AT THE GIFT SHOP, and as a bonus, we'll drop the price of your next tour to 1244$ ... and 50 cents xD
By the way, during the stream where you scanned the baby octopus and got kinda confused and was like "I thought I had this game pegged but I guess not," no you're absolutely right!
!!! Spoilers ahead for anyone just comment scrolling !!!
So yes, most of the fish aren't real. They're plastic battery things with their thoughts encoded. A ploy by Sunken Treasure Tours for creating an "ideal" ecosystem by destroying the real one. But there's also a few real fish hidden throughout (The baby octopus, the hatchet fish... and also a hidden Sea Turtle which is a little easy to miss, and... hehehe... a crab which is currently impossible to reach without being mauled by angler fish. THis will be fixed as soon as the jam is done), but yeah! Their muted color and traumatized dialog hint at what's truly going on :D So there's a blend of real and fake fish going on... but Scubot doesn't want you findin out about that >:)
Thanks again so much for playing!!!
-Sasha
I really liked the game, and had a fun time disobeying the narrator however i could.
So glad you enjoyed!!
Scubot does not approve of people disobeying him. On behalf of Sunken Treasure Tours, please turn back or be forced to enter the gift shop >:)
Jk jk jk! For real tho, I'm so glad you disobeyed the narrator because that was EXACTLY what I was hoping people would do!! So, were you able to find the hidden secret eel, octopus and turtle? :D
-Sasha
I really enjoyed the game.
The beginning is very relaxing and i love how it become darker as you go deep until the chase scene that is really on poin :D
I got a harlock after the chase but overall it was nice !
Thanks so much for playing! I'm glad you liked it! Was the hardlock the crash at the end of the chase, or was there a different issue?
- Josh
Played it through with two different people and all of us enjoyed it. Bugs are a bummer with a longer game like this, but there is alooot of swell content in this deep dive, storywise and gameplaywise! (Quite a lot for a game jam! Bravo!!!)
My fav parts:
-the music!!!!! (And the prompt stopping of music before darker ocean)
-the camera zooms and intro sequence
-the ending (giftshop and after that) sequence was mmm very satisfying from a story build up perspective and from a gameplay perspective.
-FishChiesa | artist | Box of Mushrooms
Squuueeee!!! Omi... seeing the music be one of your fave parts means the world to me. I'm so so happy you liked it!! It was such a fun challenge to capture the atmosphere of each biome, and I'm glad to hear it paid off.
Yeeeeh, bugs are a bummer indeed but good to hear that they didn't get in the way of enjoying the game!! We're deffs keeping notes of encoutered bugs to fix as soon as the jam is over tho to make it even better!! :D
Thank you for the kind words!! **A non-scam sunken treasure brand stuffed urchin hugs you**
-Sasha
this so well done, and really enjoyable !!
i love the little details like the way the music just stops when you scan the fish right before going into the dark depths, and then the soft lullaby music that plays while being pummeled repeatedly by the anglers lmao. the artwork is really nice too, i love how much the simplicity can convey tone, and i really love the jellyfish design :]]
i had a fun time playing, and the ending is really cool ! :] <3
Thanks so much for your nice comments!! The jellyfish was my favorite design I made too, actually :D
-Kati
THE PIZZA IS A LIE!! loved it <3 <3 <3
Thanks!! <3 We had so much fun with this jam's theme!!!
-Kati
Really enjoyed the game! I got a little frustrated with the anglerfish, as they could push you out of bounds and attack during text. The story does a good job of building tension toward a somewhat expected but satisfying end. Honestly, the WebGL error at the very end is kind of on theme! lol
Great work!
Aaah thankyouuuuu!! So glad you enjoyed this and felt the builllddddd of Scubot's tension!! On behalf of Sunken Treasure's Tours, we'd like to offer you a slice of free pizza from the GIFT SHOP for your kind review! xD xD
And yeah I agree 100% that the anglerfish need to be nerfed difficulty wise. And I think them attacking during text is a bug because in the earlier part, the eels freeze on dialog so I think the angler fish were supposed to do the same thing. Rest assured, both those things are top priority on our post jam fix list! Thanks for bringing them to our attention!
Errors are no fun, but the timing of this one was just perfect haha xD Scubot's at it again somewhere in the code. Get back behind the 4th wall Scubot!
Thanks again for playing! I can't wait to check out your game too!
-Sasha
Intriguing story, altough I got stuck 2 times and didn't feel like driving the whole course again... First time dialogue got stuck, second time anglerfish attacked in time of dialogue and I couldn't move any more... But text is well written and game looks nice. Also I liked some details like camera that zooms in and out in different contexts :)
Hey thanks so much for playing! The camera zooms took longer than I thought it would, so I'm glad it was worth it!
Do you know roughly which dialogue got stuck? I think there might be a general bug that happens when trying to speed through dialogue with space, but it might be specific to a couple lines.
- Josh
I got stuck after dialogue with eel which is off-limits (through tunnel of kelp). Second time I talked to it dialogue wouldn't close.
Yeah, dialogue systems aren't always easy to make robust. I too had my share of problems with dialogues on my submission :D
Gotcha, thanks! Yeah, I was hoping we'd had it tuned with Locks and Lillies, but there's still some more work to be done! I'll be sure to checkout your submission!
- Josh
We fixed the problem! And a bunch of others listed in this devlog
(also congrats on #1 in concept! totally deserved!)
Thanks! I completed the game now, and wasn't disappointed. Funny fourth wall break you added there with the fixed eel ;)
There was still one bug, I got to the end but the anglerfish caught me (I thought that on the right was a dead end and tried to go up where I came)... after respawning the "press space to respawn" text was left on screen, leaving me unable to interact with the dialog options. And by the way, I recommend adding a way to choose option with keyboard, as the game is from start to finish played with kb, requiring to reach the mouse for one sec is a bit funny :)
I very much enjoyed it! And congrats on ranking well :)
Ooh good bug find! I haven’t seen that one before. Thanks for playing it again!
You should be able to use the menu with the keyboard, but Unity seems to default to the mouse if it’s on the game. But good point about that. I’ll look into it for next time.
- Josh
Really, really nice idea and implementation!!
Thank you so much!! :D
-Kati
Really charming game so far, I enjoyed the music in particular. However, I came across a bug in the WebGL version that prevented me from continuing. When the very first anglerfish attacked the submarine I couldn't move anymore, and it was able to keep pummeling me right through a rocky barrier until we got stuck on a ceiling. It continued attacking me even when I paused the game, and when I did so I couldn't resume. (Also when it was idle it was swimming backwards for some reason.)
I get the impression that the WebGL version might be the buggier one, so I'll probably download the Windows version and play through it later.
Thanks for playing! Too bad about the bugs, but thanks for the report! I forgot to add in the instructions you can respawn with Space so I'll add that in the description.
- Josh
Hiiii! I just want to add that I'm SO HAPPY you liked the music!! I too am super pleased with how this soundtrack came out! It was a ton of fun to write.
I actually just tested out the windows build for the first time myself and can confirm it's a lot less buggy. And even when the anglerfish do get over angrey, thankfully like Josh mentioned, you can use Space or R to respawn so you don't have to do the whole thing over.
Thank you so much for expressing willingness to give the windows build a try! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the ending (and the surprisingly intense soundtrack that accompanies it. But why intense? ... Scubot will never reveal his secrets >:)
-Sasha
Congrats DreamCartographer! You reported the most bugs! We made a post-jam update fixing the bugs and a devlog to go with it if you'd like to check them out.
I loved this game so much very cool and relaxing at first but, also thrilling! Was it a gift shop tho?
Live rate here https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1015071914 Gameplay at: 28:00
Rate at: 49:00
Thanks so much for playing it on stream! We love seeing live reactions since there's so much more feedback we can get just from watching someone else play! You can probably post in jam's discord if you're going to stream even more games from this jam.
Perhaps you should enter the gift shop to find out :)
- Josh