FATHOM

What’s the tree for? Am I even supposed to be underwater? What’re all these fish for? Why didn’t the game give me instructions when I clicked for instructions? :(

sheesh.. that’s it? i figured you’d give us something nice for wandering around for ages…

You can go underwater by dropping down the first pit, no need for the boss battle I think. But once I got deeper into the water and it got darker I freaked out so I can’t play it any more. To scared of underwater stages. :(

Is there more than one ending? Cause that was pretty dark.

A splendid tiny section of a good game. I’d have preferred the game though.

Awesome!!

I wish I knew how to get Adam to do cool art for me. :< Will leave feedback in the thread once I've tried it out completely.

Meh. Skip liquid form and go all the way to icepunk.

I think an ending that would have allowed you to finish off the boss after getting behind him or something would have been more satisfying, but overall I like :)

@raigan: I didn’t think it was so disguised… as soon as I hit the water I realized the game was something else. (Though, I’m sure the misdirection of the first part sets up some players to be frustrated by the second?) But I thought I hinted at this well enough of in my post. :

That sprite just looks like the cave story one with crap drawn on top

@AdamAtomic: Did you read “Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge” recently?

Very clever.

I also liked how the last section of underwater was a flashback of sorts. I had to play through it again to ‘get’ it.

Kudos, and a job well done, sir.

That was hilarious. I think people will be a little put off by the sudden change in theme after falling into the water, simply because the first part of the game sets up expectations for something else. Both parts were nicely done though.

Well… that was something.

I guess I would appreciate it more if I knew what the heck was going on. Would it spoil anything to ask, what exactly do the fish do?

I didn’t like this.

The underwater part is just too incoherent. The green thing didn’t strike me as something that would cause a tree to grow, the sand (or whatever) did not look like a place to grow anything, and growing a tree should not remotely open a gate (note- I didn’t know of the gate until I read about it here). Even if all this were less ambiguous, the whole part would still be a directionless wander within dull, homogenous, impossible to navigate environments.

I understood why the flashlight’s direction is incorrect. Problem is, it doesn’t contribute to the gameplay. I found it ended up being faster to “see” by observing myself hitting into walls, rather than rotating around to use the flashlight.

Also, it took me longer than it should’ve to think that perhaps the fish point the way, and the thought didn’t arise so much from observation as pure guesswork. Some more cues would be useful- it’s likely that many people won’t notice before their patience runs out. I’ve definitely seen an inexplicit directional indicator done before, though ATM I can’t recall where, it was definitely easier to figure out.

The music and visuals are enjoyable.

@ngajoe

Yeah, if I read that ending properly, they were going for that style of ending. May not be satisfying, and it’s kinda confusing without any kind of text narrative.

Hm. If the underwater part was fleshed out into something of “Ecco”‘s length…With more abilities, and an exploration element.

Hm, that might be pretty cool. Especially if it was mixed up with above water stuff every so often.

I promise that I am not laughing at anyone for playing this game!! That is a massively dick move and NOT what this game is about. Genuinely I thank you for playing it and providing honest feedback :)

The underwater part was too frustrating for me (no idea what to do or where to go, couldn’t see ahead of me, it all looked the same, controls were a bit too touchy).

But the start was really cool and the presentation was top notch.

@Cliftor: That kind of ruins it? You could have played through it in the time you spent wondering if you should play it. :P

The nature of the game is polarizing for sure. I will say this: it’s a thoughtful kind of game. Try to roll with it.

Hrm… I just tried playing it but the bar loads up and…. nothing happens. I tried in firefox, cleared my cookies, tried it again, tried it in Internet Explorer… And still nothing. Bah

This is one of those times it should be okay to say “Cave Story”… yet only one person has mentioned it thus far.

Anyway, I can’t get it to start. The bar goes to 100% but then nothing happens.

I really liked it a lot.
Firstly, other considerations aside, it was beautiful, the music was very nice and the art was fantastic.
After that, however, there’s a lot you could draw from the game and its mechanics themselves.
The fish for instance, love, community, it’s harder alone. The flashlight, stop to think and look and live, etc., you can’t power ahead as you must take the time to observe your environment.
The beginning and the transition to water, all structure falls away. It is linear, reward traditional based gameplay. Jump these hurdles and you get this ring, *bling*. But at the end, if you did not foresee it, you find for yourself that there is nothing but destruction and death.
You could draw the conclusion that there is nothing but death as a release. Or you could see it as hopeful. He jumps into the pit, or is killed, and deconstructs the bonds placed upon him, and creates a meaningful life. That’s my view of it anyhow.

Ok I finally got the new build FTP’d up, very sorry to all who couldn’t get past the damn load bar!

i didnt say anything! you cant just not talk about the alt ending.. someone was going to post about it eventually

Once you get past that first part and start getting to the space travel go to the Lava planet first to get the plasma gun upgrade, it is awesome.

Looking forward to the framework :D