The Sirena Expedition
A downloadable game for Windows
"I remember getting the call vividly. I was trying to finish up for the day, but a stack of paperwork was keeping me late. To be honest, I was also looking for reasons not to go home. My phone rang, I answered it, and the director of the institute was talking, albeit disjointedly, about something that had turned up in a recent survey of The Sirena Deep."
Explore a mysterious, abandoned underwater facility at the bottom of the Mariana trench. Who built it? What was it used for? Perhaps you will find answers, or perhaps the answers will find you.
You can play through The Sirena Expedition in about an hour. However, there may be some hidden content, for those willing to look for it.
- A 2.5D platformer with PlayStation1-inspired visuals.
- Tense underwater atmosphere and horror.
- Innovative puzzle mechanics.
- Fully voiced dialogue.
- Original soundtrack by beee girlll & Giraffe Cat.
Originally made for the Haunted PS1 Summer of Shivers game jam. Full game is out now! Find it on Steam, also!
Cast:
Amy Greir: The Aquanaut
David Thatcher: Control
A game by Giraffe Cat.
Controls:
Arrow keys/Analogue Stick/d-pad: Move
Space Bar/Cross/A button: Jump
Z key/Square/X button: Interact
X key/Circle/B Button: Special
Shift: Run (keys only)
Escape/Start: Pause Game
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows |
Rating | Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars (41 total ratings) |
Author | Giraffe Cat |
Genre | Platformer, Puzzle |
Tags | Atmospheric, Horror, Low-poly, playstation, ps1, PSX (PlayStation), Puzzle-Platformer, Retro, underwater |
Links | Steam |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- The Sirena Expedition v1.12 is now live!Jun 25, 2024
- The Sirena Expedition v1.11 is now live!Mar 13, 2024
- The Sirena Expedition v1.10 is now live!Feb 19, 2024
- The Sirena Expedition v1.09 is now live!Feb 01, 2024
- The Sirena Expedition v1.08 is now live!Jan 10, 2024
- The Sirena Expedition v1.07 is now live!Dec 02, 2023
- The Sirena Expedition v1.05 is now live!Nov 24, 2023
- The Sirena Expedition v1.03 is now live!Oct 30, 2023
Comments
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Definitely an experience. This was peaceful compared to other underwater horror games i've played lol.
Was really fun experience, has very light horror.
I usually have zero issues in playing itch games with my PS4 gamepad (using DS4 windows) but in this case I can't get it to work. Anyone that can help? Thanks
As soon as you get a full version ´ll buy it!!
Hello Giraffe Cat, my name is Bruno, I make indie game gameplays on YouTube, here in Brazil, I want to congratulate you for the great project, the game has a lot of potential.
Subscribe to the channel to help.
Gameplay Link:
This game has only one flaw, and that it's too short..
Could you add a "Download- name your price" feature? This is pretty good.
Looking forward to the rest of it.
Neat game, a bit sad at the sudden cliff hanger but not much to say in that regard. I've noticed a strange bug where when I run this game, it'll also run SteamVR, and even quit the game if I turn off SteamVR
This was solid. It really nails the PS1 style; a lot of "PS1" games just add a lot of aliasing to otherwise high-poly objects to simulate the effect, but this really looks like it could be a PS1 game.
It was also spooky and mysterious, and I would buy a full version of this in a heartbeat if I could.
Only really complaint is that there shouldn't be a run key, and her movement should just be run speed by default.
It amazing game and really well-polished demo really looking forward to seeing more of this game. The only thing would be the ending as it seems a little random to finish.
Overall well done.
Played this recently as part of my run-up to Halloween 2021, and I thought it was a decent little experience. Nice visuals, a bit of atmosphere, simple but pleasing gameplay, and decent sound design. The only thing I felt could be added was to flesh out the ending a bit more - perhaps have something in the background (like the shadow of a monster or something), just to heighten the tension even further.
Other than that, enjoyed it and would love to see more!
I really enjoyed it. It does atmosphere very well, and I hope there's more to come from this.
Should add a "coward ending" where when your crew tells you to come back you listen to them and walk back to the submersible you started at. lol
Yeah, a couple of people have mentioned that something should happen if you return to the bathysphere when told to, so I'm going to add something in the final game.
Thanks for playing!
My PS4 gamepad (with DS4 windows) is not working, is it normal? Maybe it's still not active in this demo?
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.