SALVAGE QUEST - an ocean adventure prototype

For Ludum Dare 48 I built a prototype for a deep-sea looter-shooter called "Salvage Quest." 

The goal was to allow the player to dive deeper and deeper into a mysterious, hostile sea in search of treasure. The deeper your diver got, the more you would find valuable loot, but the depths would also host increasingly strange creatures. Fish-monsters that grow interested in your glowing morsel. 

It was a big idea for the three-day jam timeline, but a good start

The jam version had many areas to explore with loot littering the ocean floor. The deepest areas hosted shipwrecks filled with treasure, and odd-looking giant "fish" roaming around in the dark. You could fight back against the monsters by firing torpedoes at them. However, there wasn't much of a game to play.

My focus ended up being on the look-and-feel and the level builder over the gameplay.  I wanted to get the mechanics feeling just right, as well as the visual and gameplay aspects of depth. I also spent a decent chunk of time on having the game build weird fish-monsters for the deepest parts of the ocean.

Lessons learned from the jam

In terms of stuff that I'd do differently next time, the thing that stands out most is the scope and of the game. For a 3-day stretch, the focus should really be on quality over quantity. Instead of a big grid of explorable areas (but not much to find), I would rather have a few curated areas demonstrating the key themes of the game I was going for.

Additionally, in future jams I'll be drafting the whole game first before working on the details. Get a  playable and finishable thing with placeholder art and audio done early. Making architectural decisions towards the end of the jam, when the exhaustion begins to set in, is both very risky and a huge headache.

Overall, I'm happy with how the jam went. I had a lot of fun working on the prototype and the things I did have time for turned out pretty well.

Next steps - addressing feedback from the Ludum Dare release

The gist of the feedback I got was that the look-and-feel of the prototype was good, but that there wasn't much to do; it was more of a tech demo than a game. So that's been my primary focus. Building a game around the prototype and then a rich setting around the game.

The first post-jam release is coming soon, follow close for more details

The game has made major strides since the Ludum Dare version - there's something to play that hits the notes I was aiming for.
Everything from the prototype has been improved, and new game features have been added:

• Goals and objectives!
  Complete contracts from groups of varying shadiness, or set out looking for riches on your own.
  Increase your fame or notoriety to become the planet's leading underwater operations  expert.
• Progression!
  Buy fancier ships and submarines as your wealth grows. Upgrade them and add new devices.
  Torpedoes, railguns and experimental underwater tech!
• The setting!
  Interact with NPCs and explore to unravel the story behind the world around you.
  Find weird underwater stuff, then face the consequences of what you found!

What do you think?

Any project of this scale needs a lot of feedback from the community.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game as well as any ideas you might have. What would you like to see in a game like this?

Thanks for checking in, and have a good one!

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