this game was an incredible beginning to what could be one of the best games I’ve played on itchio. I love the 2.5D platforming and the scares genuinely put me on edge! Looking forward to what comes next!
It's a short but intense experience. The PS1 rendering style is added to the creepiness. The Rail-like player control is a very good choice. I can see it allow you to use various kind of cinematic camera angle and not confused player compared with if it were in traditional tank control.
Hey thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it! Sorry for the slight frustration at the start with door; I've got some ideas for avoiding that, but as you mentioned, a bit of dialogue is probably the best plan, as it's not initially obvious that all of the doors in the game are controlled by switches.
The PS1 holds a dear place in my heart and this game & style reminds me of that 100%! Awesome job on the game, would love to see where/if you take it any further!
You don’t see a lot of blends of horror and platforming outside of base aesthetic themes. Traditionally platformers are fast-paced and action-oriented games. I really liked how you combined the two ideas to make an explorative horror experience, though.
Good environment, nice ambience, some pretty legit spooks, real intrigue. I thought that the door lever puzzle was a bit of a drawback, though. Having to pull one lever, go through a door to pull another level, and then go back to pull the first lever to open the door that it closed felt kind of like busywork.
The back-and-forth between the diver and the controller really sold this one. It’s so nice to play a horror game that has actual characters in it, with actual character dynamics. The voice acting was really solid, too. By the end of this I really wanted to know what would happen to Amy.
Hii, I've made a video about the game and wanted to share some feedback about it, hopefully it is useful to you ^^
-The idea of the game is pretty original and the story on the game is really interesting, I want to know more about it ^^
-The gameplay mechanics are really good and different from what I expected from a game like this, as I expected "tank" controls but I got a very different movement system that ended up feeling really intereting :D
-The visuals of the game are really good and have those nice PS1 vibes that totally fit the theme of the game :)
-The voice acting is pretty amazing, it helped a lot to make the gameplay experience more cohesive.
Hopefully this is useful to you :D, also if you could subscribe that would help me a lot :)
Excited about trying this out, looks terribly interesting. I wonder how you did the dithering effect since I've been having trouble figuring that out. Keep it up!
Sorry, I meant to reply to this last week! If you're using Unity, the Haunted PSX Render Pipeline (HPSXRP) includes the dither filter, along with a number of other PlayStation features. I made this game in UE4 though; the specific post-process material I used is this one: https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/74pz_sk7/. There is also PSXFX for UE4, but that's a bit more expensive.
Thank you very much! And my apologies I didn't respond earlier too haha, I'm not too active on here since I'm quite new on this platform :)
Thank you very much for the response and sources. I'm an Engine Developer so I can't exactly immediately use it, but these sources will definitely help me hopefully create my own one. Again, Apologies and thank you very much!
I don't mind being the millionth person to say this but this game, it's setting, atmosphere, visuals, voice work, and story are all very compelling and work wondrously to create a truly unique and memorable experience! An addition of more scares and puzzles will get people talking about the extended version in no time! Gameplay begins 32:45 **
Incredible game! Setting, Theme, atmosphere. I was invested 100%. The ps1 feel was very welcomed. And overall loved the visuals. The sea is fucking terrifying, and you represented it perfectly. And honestly for a small game the voice acting was really great. I need more of this story. You nailed it! Fantastic job, and I can not wait to see more.
I really enjoyed this one!! I love the take on the playstyle for this game! A lot of games are first person horror games, so I love the fact that this was more of a 3D third person game in the style of a 2D platformer!
I really like the concept, the artstyle is great, the game ran smooth and the audio was good too! There were some parts which were difficult to hear, but it was overall very good! My only problem is that I really wanted it to go on for longer hahaha. I really got into it towards the end so I was really caught off guard when it ended xD
Hey, glad you enjoyed the game! I really liked your commentary on it. I did want to do something a little different to most horror games, and the 2.5D platformer is a style of game I've always really enjoyed, so I'm happy that it worked for you!
And yeah, sorry about the abrupt ending; I definitely could have pulled that off a bit better, but that's game jams for you. Oh, also, I noticed that you were able to jump over that gate in the storage room; that's a bug! I'll see if I can fix that one.
Great game 7/10 only bad parts were the graphics, they don't remind me too much of a ps1 aesthetic mostly because of the characters' shadow and the exaggerated dots on screen. I understand it's hard to replicate the true PS1 look with unreal but yeah, those are the main parts I would improve upon. otherwise the game was great
I like a plot that lets you question reality, and The Sirena Expedition does just that. A short, light psychological horror experience that leaves you wondering "What just happened?" and has decent voice acting to boot.
Great little project which definitely nailed the PS1 vibe. Some of the audio was a little too quiet for me in places but otherwise an interesting little tale. Would love to see a follow-up
Ah, yeah, I did worry that some of the audio would be a little quiet. I need to finally start using sound mixing in UE4, I think. Or just switch to something like Fmod for the audio. Thanks for playing!
Yes, it's a possibility! I wasn't sure how much interest there would be at first, but it seems like it could be worth fleshing the game out a bit more and making it into a full thing. Watch this space!
The story and presentation was very interesting, it got my imagination going like crazy! It's a shame the ending was so abrupt, but eh, that's game jams for you I guess.
Btw, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I could only sprint when going right. Pressing shift while walking left didn't do anything.
Oh, whoops, sorry about that! That worked fine in the first version, but I messed around with it for the patch, and ended up breaking it! I also realised that I forgot to turn the underwater screen effects back on, so I've uploaded a new build that fixes both of those things. Thanks for your comment, I probably wouldn't have noticed my own mistake!
Very creepy game. I find the oppressive atmosphere of being under the ocean to be one of the most tense feelings and you replicated that perfectly with this game. Keep up the good work!
Excellent use of the camera! I loved the scares, effective but not too in your face. I wish the ending wasn't so sudden, but that's my only grievance with this fantastic game.
Nice one, what I would change is that the running animation wasn't giving enough feedback to the player (sometimes I didn't knew if Im running or not) and the backtracking if the player forget to do something felt a little frustrating. Still I played it until the end and felt that the ending was a little uneventful (but considering it's a really short game, that's understandable).
Graphics, style and sounds are the things in which this game really shines and I loved the storytelling bit too :)
The game has a nice pace to it and some really interesting jumpscares to it. I kinda wish I could explore a bit more though. But this is a good game nonetheless.
Hey, thanks for playing! I agree that it would be nice to see more of the facility, and generally spend a bit more time walking around and looking at things. I'll keep it in mind for the future!
Hello! I do feel kind of bad that you had to walk all the way down to the first door, and then walk all of the way back to open it, especially with the default walk speed being so slow on keyboard (and the game doesn't tell you you can press Shift to run). My plan was to get rid of the slow movement entirely, and just have the Aquanaut always run when you use the keyboard, but maybe it's nice to let the player move at a slower pace if they want, and I should just tutorialise the Shift key.
Really nice ps1 look! I especially like the mood and lighting in the storage area. Good audio work too, with that setting, voice recordings and some haunting piano, it reminded me of this ambient album series I really like https://www.cryochamberlabel.com/artist/ruptured-world/
Hey Atte, thanks for playing! The storage area did kind of get the most attention when I was making it, because I figured you'd go back and forth a few times. I'd hoped to put more incidental scenery in other areas, but ran out of time!
Listening to Ruptured World now; it's really cool! I did enjoy making the audio for the game, finding weird creepy sounds. The piano (improvised by my partner after we recorded the VO) definitely brings it all together!
Great work on this game! The environment design and voice acting is really polished and a great narrative experience. I posted a review on the jam submission page and did a playthrough video:
Hey, thanks for playing! The ending's intended to be ambiguous, but I think the fact that I was rushing to get everything in makes it feel a bit abrupt. Oops!
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I enjoyed this short game. It was an interesting experience.
this game was an incredible beginning to what could be one of the best games I’ve played on itchio. I love the 2.5D platforming and the scares genuinely put me on edge! Looking forward to what comes next!
I enjoyed this game a lot! The atmosphere was great and it gave an unsettling and creepy experience that I love in games. Please check out my video:
It's a short but intense experience. The PS1 rendering style is added to the creepiness. The Rail-like player control is a very good choice. I can see it allow you to use various kind of cinematic camera angle and not confused player compared with if it were in traditional tank control.
I loved the game!
This game was so much fun, the game mechanics, the style, the scares, all of it was fantastic! Great job, and I look forward to more!
Hey thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it! Sorry for the slight frustration at the start with door; I've got some ideas for avoiding that, but as you mentioned, a bit of dialogue is probably the best plan, as it's not initially obvious that all of the doors in the game are controlled by switches.
No problem, yeah it was a slight hiccup but still, it was a great demo that I can't wait to see fully released!
The PS1 holds a dear place in my heart and this game & style reminds me of that 100%! Awesome job on the game, would love to see where/if you take it any further!
If you wish to see some gameplay;
Reminds me of Half Life, somehow.
You don’t see a lot of blends of horror and platforming outside of base aesthetic themes. Traditionally platformers are fast-paced and action-oriented games. I really liked how you combined the two ideas to make an explorative horror experience, though.
Good environment, nice ambience, some pretty legit spooks, real intrigue. I thought that the door lever puzzle was a bit of a drawback, though. Having to pull one lever, go through a door to pull another level, and then go back to pull the first lever to open the door that it closed felt kind of like busywork.
The back-and-forth between the diver and the controller really sold this one. It’s so nice to play a horror game that has actual characters in it, with actual character dynamics. The voice acting was really solid, too. By the end of this I really wanted to know what would happen to Amy.
Absolutely awesome. Short but complete in so many ways. Excellent voice acting, solid atmospheric drones. I dug it a lot.
Nice little underwater stroll :)
Full Playthrough No Commentary
Hii, I've made a video about the game and wanted to share some feedback about it, hopefully it is useful to you ^^
-The idea of the game is pretty original and the story on the game is really interesting, I want to know more about it ^^-The gameplay mechanics are really good and different from what I expected from a game like this, as I expected "tank" controls but I got a very different movement system that ended up feeling really intereting :D
-The visuals of the game are really good and have those nice PS1 vibes that totally fit the theme of the game :)
-The voice acting is pretty amazing, it helped a lot to make the gameplay experience more cohesive.
Hopefully this is useful to you :D, also if you could subscribe that would help me a lot :)
Regards
Made a video
Excited about trying this out, looks terribly interesting. I wonder how you did the dithering effect since I've been having trouble figuring that out. Keep it up!
Sorry, I meant to reply to this last week! If you're using Unity, the Haunted PSX Render Pipeline (HPSXRP) includes the dither filter, along with a number of other PlayStation features. I made this game in UE4 though; the specific post-process material I used is this one: https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/74pz_sk7/. There is also PSXFX for UE4, but that's a bit more expensive.
Thank you very much! And my apologies I didn't respond earlier too haha, I'm not too active on here since I'm quite new on this platform :)
Thank you very much for the response and sources. I'm an Engine Developer so I can't exactly immediately use it, but these sources will definitely help me hopefully create my own one. Again, Apologies and thank you very much!
Ahh, in that case, maybe this will help: https://gist.github.com/ompuco/3209f1b32213cec5b7bccf0e67caf3e9
It's the shader code that's used in the Haunted PSX Render Pipeline; perhaps you can make use of it!
I don't mind being the millionth person to say this but this game, it's setting, atmosphere, visuals, voice work, and story are all very compelling and work wondrously to create a truly unique and memorable experience! An addition of more scares and puzzles will get people talking about the extended version in no time! Gameplay begins 32:45 **
Hey, thanks for playing; I really enjoyed your commentary, and I'm glad you enjoyed what's there so far!
Incredible game! Setting, Theme, atmosphere. I was invested 100%. The ps1 feel was very welcomed. And overall loved the visuals. The sea is fucking terrifying, and you represented it perfectly. And honestly for a small game the voice acting was really great. I need more of this story. You nailed it! Fantastic job, and I can not wait to see more.
Thanks for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to fleshing it out a bit more.
i really loved this game, in fact i love most of the psx games that i've played. keep up the good work!
I really like the concept, the artstyle is great, the game ran smooth and the audio was good too! There were some parts which were difficult to hear, but it was overall very good! My only problem is that I really wanted it to go on for longer hahaha. I really got into it towards the end so I was really caught off guard when it ended xD
Overall a great game!! ;D
Hey, glad you enjoyed the game! I really liked your commentary on it. I did want to do something a little different to most horror games, and the 2.5D platformer is a style of game I've always really enjoyed, so I'm happy that it worked for you!
And yeah, sorry about the abrupt ending; I definitely could have pulled that off a bit better, but that's game jams for you. Oh, also, I noticed that you were able to jump over that gate in the storage room; that's a bug! I'll see if I can fix that one.
Thanks for playing!
Great game 7/10 only bad parts were the graphics, they don't remind me too much of a ps1 aesthetic mostly because of the characters' shadow and the exaggerated dots on screen. I understand it's hard to replicate the true PS1 look with unreal but yeah, those are the main parts I would improve upon. otherwise the game was great
I like a plot that lets you question reality, and The Sirena Expedition does just that. A short, light psychological horror experience that leaves you wondering "What just happened?" and has decent voice acting to boot.
Good job, dev.Great little project which definitely nailed the PS1 vibe. Some of the audio was a little too quiet for me in places but otherwise an interesting little tale. Would love to see a follow-up
Ah, yeah, I did worry that some of the audio would be a little quiet. I need to finally start using sound mixing in UE4, I think. Or just switch to something like Fmod for the audio. Thanks for playing!
Would you guys do an extended version at all?
Yes, it's a possibility! I wasn't sure how much interest there would be at first, but it seems like it could be worth fleshing the game out a bit more and making it into a full thing. Watch this space!
I would certainly love to see an extended edition! The story was right up my alley, and I'd be excited to see what happens next.
really cool so far havent really played a game like this on my channel
i hope lots of people check this game out cause its pretty cool
check out my vid if you feel like it :)
The story and presentation was very interesting, it got my imagination going like crazy! It's a shame the ending was so abrupt, but eh, that's game jams for you I guess.
Btw, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I could only sprint when going right. Pressing shift while walking left didn't do anything.
Oh, whoops, sorry about that! That worked fine in the first version, but I messed around with it for the patch, and ended up breaking it! I also realised that I forgot to turn the underwater screen effects back on, so I've uploaded a new build that fixes both of those things. Thanks for your comment, I probably wouldn't have noticed my own mistake!
Very creepy game. I find the oppressive atmosphere of being under the ocean to be one of the most tense feelings and you replicated that perfectly with this game. Keep up the good work!
Hey, thanks; that's exactly what I was going for, so that means a lot!
Excellent use of the camera! I loved the scares, effective but not too in your face. I wish the ending wasn't so sudden, but that's my only grievance with this fantastic game.
Nice one, what I would change is that the running animation wasn't giving enough feedback to the player (sometimes I didn't knew if Im running or not) and the backtracking if the player forget to do something felt a little frustrating. Still I played it until the end and felt that the ending was a little uneventful (but considering it's a really short game, that's understandable).
Graphics, style and sounds are the things in which this game really shines and I loved the storytelling bit too :)
The game has a nice pace to it and some really interesting jumpscares to it. I kinda wish I could explore a bit more though. But this is a good game nonetheless.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. https://www.youtube.com/c/Levont
Hey, thanks for playing! I agree that it would be nice to see more of the facility, and generally spend a bit more time walking around and looking at things. I'll keep it in mind for the future!
Show post...
REALLY AMAZING GAME DEV
Super cool art style and an interesting platforming mechanic having the vertical levels being the branching paths! My WASD fingers are sad though.
Hey, thanks for playing! Sorry about the lack of WASD; I can add that in the next version, not sure why I left it out in the first place!
Amazing! ❤️
Show post...
nice short storyHello, I played this game and I really enjoyed it, it was a very fun little game, good work :)
Hello! I do feel kind of bad that you had to walk all the way down to the first door, and then walk all of the way back to open it, especially with the default walk speed being so slow on keyboard (and the game doesn't tell you you can press Shift to run). My plan was to get rid of the slow movement entirely, and just have the Aquanaut always run when you use the keyboard, but maybe it's nice to let the player move at a slower pace if they want, and I should just tutorialise the Shift key.
Thanks for playing!
Really nice ps1 look! I especially like the mood and lighting in the storage area. Good audio work too, with that setting, voice recordings and some haunting piano, it reminded me of this ambient album series I really like https://www.cryochamberlabel.com/artist/ruptured-world/
Hey Atte, thanks for playing! The storage area did kind of get the most attention when I was making it, because I figured you'd go back and forth a few times. I'd hoped to put more incidental scenery in other areas, but ran out of time!
Listening to Ruptured World now; it's really cool! I did enjoy making the audio for the game, finding weird creepy sounds. The piano (improvised by my partner after we recorded the VO) definitely brings it all together!
Amazing work! It was short, but really cool. The voice acting was polished.
Watch video here:
Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it!
Great work on this game! The environment design and voice acting is really polished and a great narrative experience. I posted a review on the jam submission page and did a playthrough video:
Good game, but it have a ending?
Hey, thanks for playing! The ending's intended to be ambiguous, but I think the fact that I was rushing to get everything in makes it feel a bit abrupt. Oops!