Watery Graves
Controls:
Camera controls are linked to numbers 1-4
1: Main
2: Map Screen
3: Radio Feed
4: Journal
WASD- Map Navigation
Arrow keys - Crew Movement
[ & ] Brackets - Message Scroll
Watery Graves was created for the March 2021 Screamortality Game Jam.
On a hazy night at sea in the late 20th century, six hardy spelunkers dive down to the wreckage of an old German U-Boat to scrap what they can of the remains. Above the surface, you are in control of the job. Navigate the crew through the wreckage as they relay the sight and findings to you, but be wary of dangers that lie below.
Credits
Chase Harlan - Modeling, Texturing, Audio
BoisterousNatur - UI Elements, 2D Art, Writing
ReapTheBlackSheep - Programming, Design, Writing
Textures sourced from Textures.com
Made with "Haunted PSX Render Pipeline"
SFX created with sources from: -ERH (freesound.org/people/ERH/) -JustinBW (freesound.org/people/JustinBW/) CC Attribution License 3.0
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Comments
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4/10
I wanted to write a long review of this game. But to be honest there isn't anything that I can write that others haven't touched. Basically it all boils down to needing a comprehensive story to help guide the player.
The music was okay, the art left more to be desired, and gameplay was simple.
That being said, it can be better but I doubt that there will be any 'updates' to this game any time soon.
(may make the monster a smarmy blue bear. No one will see that coming.)
I adore the concept and the art style, but it does feel a bit purposeless, like others have said. Congrats on making a very nicely polished game! I'm definitely intrigued, and I would love to see more with this sort of style, though maybe with a bit more story or goals put in.
Thanks for the feedback! I completely agree. We were a one-time team and unfortunately, our programmer had some prior commitments during the game jam that prevented him from getting the win/fail state completely implemented. Definitely would love to tie a nice bow on it later if I can get the three of us to commit to spending more time on it.
Loved the presentation and the atmosphere. Music was awesome and I loved how it changed once I had just two people left; it felt like it dynamically represented the tension really well. The exploration felt nice too with things like the iron beating heart that made me want to look for more lovecraftian things. I should also mention how the writing got me quite engaged.
I feel like it was a bit unfair to have no warning for when a monster sits in an unexplored room though it does add a good deal of dread to every step. Maybe sound cues could do the trick? Controls felt a little clunky too. I would've loved to play this game with just the keyboard or without having to move my hands between the mouse and keyboard too much. I wanted to read every log but kind of stopped later because I had to move my hand from the arrow keys to the mouse to turn to it everytime I changed the camera. By the time I got to the third iteration I played the game just flipping between the screen and journal. Goals and payoffs were needed but I think that was more because of time constraints.
In the end though I loved it! Would love to see this concept fleshed out!
Hey I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thank you a ton for the feedback. We've talked before about polishing up the mechanics and fleshing out the ending now that the jam is over, and hearing about your experiences is super helpful for figuring out where our focus should be going forward either on this or future projects. Thanks again for trying it out!
Liked the game! Nice art and design overall. Really smart way to include roguelike game into the horror theme and the ambience worked well for me, the sounds and music was really fitting.
Took me time to get used to the inputs, maybe there was some way to not need the mouse at all, just to keep more focus on the keyboard, dunno.
I had a nice experience anyway, congrats!
The visuals of this game attracted me inmediately.
I would love to use this visual style in one of my games in the future.
Did you use this camera trick with the resolution right?.. It reminds me alot of this game A Short Hike and excelent game though.
Pros : This is the only game that engaged me on reading, like seriously i cannot stand reading long texts. But this game just has an amazing way to present the information, just keep me concentrated and focused in the flow!.
Cons : Lack of propuse is the only issue ... If you could just tell me : Find Something or Escape or Find this items... Like a wise person once said a game is a succession of little but meaningfull choices. I felt it didnt have any impact no matter where i go.
Anyways : You are in the right track i can tell.
Congratulations!
Thank you for the feedback! We used a PSX shader/ unity configuration... Thing? Cnharlan knows more about how we set that up and could tell you more! But it was a thing we applied to unity to lower the resolution.
I'm glad the reading engaged you! It was something we were worried people would try to skip past or ignore so I'm glad it landed for you!
The lack of expressed purpose was definitely something we noticed a little late into development and we didn't have time to build a solution for. Definitely a note we are gonna keep in mind for future projects!
Thanks so much for playing! :D
it unsettled me
I'm glad you were unsettled! It was intentional. As weird as that kinda is to say.
i am also glad i was unsettled
Man, I haven't been this excited for a game since Tony Hawk 2!