For Brackeys Game Jam 2023 the theme was Diving Deeper  My submission for this jam was Hydromon. In this game you play as a researcher name Lynn who is  diving deeper into researching more about the creatures known as Hydromon and literally diving deeper to find new species of them. The core idea for this project was decided on very early and was kept although very heavily trimmed due to time constrainsts.

Very quickly I came up with my idea like in GMTK 2023. A creature collecting game in the vain of Pokémon but 2D and with a focus on continually diving deeper. You would catch different creatures and battle alongside them as you explored deeper, getting upgrades to dive deeper as you caught more species. Until you come across a huge creature at the end to act as a boss. Battles would be in the overworld and turn based. 

The final product was fairly different but keeps very much to the original idea but with the fat trimmed. This was due to time. If everything had gone to plan this idea would very likely have come to fruition but it didn't. Day 1 was plagued with technical difficulties and I barley got the engine open all day so day 1 ended up with very very little work done. Day 2 I had finished player controls and had moved onto the battle system making a small start on it using a rough Pokémon look to the battle system as placeholder. Day 3 and 4 were all just programming the battle system, it took way longer then planned and this was with removing items, catching  and having battles not take place in overworld. Day 5 was split between finishing off the battle system and starting the art. I managed to complete 2.5 of the Hydromon in the day. Day 6 had more technical difficulties and due to being out part of the day very little progress was made, the remaining Hydromon were completed along with a tile set and some battle sprites and were added into the game. Day 7 and the morning prior to it being due was a long long day and night. Finishing off polish, backgrounds, tile sets, player design and animation, music and sfx all in 1 day was a lot and I only finished just prior to writing this.

Overall while the game doesn't have as much depth as I'd have liked I am happy with the end result considering the loss of 2 days. I am also a huge fan of the Hydromon and happy with how Lynn turned out due to it being my first dealing with a human player character. The animations are very jank but unfortunately I didn't have much time to improve them past what they were.