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Dédale's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Horror | #3 | 4.150 | 4.150 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #12 | 4.050 | 4.050 |
| Creativity | #12 | 4.375 | 4.375 |
| Sound Design | #15 | 4.050 | 4.050 |
| Aesthetics | #86 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Story | #90 | 3.325 | 3.325 |
Ranked from 40 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What game engine did you make this project in?
Unreal Engine
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Comments
A Fantastic Game, Job Well Done :). The Crawling Mechanic Was Very Creative, Fun, And Well Implemented. The Sounds Were Immersive And Haunting, Setting The Scene Very Nicely. I Think It Would Be Nice For The Camera To Be Less Affected By The Crawl, So I Could See The Horror Elements Slightly More, But I Think Only Being Able To Briefly See Things Also Adds To The Overall Effect. The Visuals For The Game Were Well Executed, Giving The Game A Dark, Closed Look While Being Reminiscent Of Older Games. Overall, Job Well Done.
Holy f*ck that sucked (in a great way). I really don't like caves, and even more-so: flooded and constricted caves. I played with a slightly higher mouse sensitivity than I thought was recommended, but still ended up freakishly yanking my mouse across my desk in pretty much the entire cave. I definitely think I finished near record pace just from ping ponging between fight and flight for 20minutes straight. Would really like to see the player camera affected like 60% less by the vertical mouse movement while crawling, I think that might help a lot with frantic attempts to escape while still being able to like see stuff. The sound design, mwah, excellent, I was immersed, as you can probably tell.
This was really really good. Certainly the scariest and most anxiety inducing game I've played in this jam, or from any game, in a hot minute. I might be biased on that though, caves and all. I still have adrenaline pumping. You mixed what I think was 2d assets really well with the 3d environment. Forgive me if I am inaccurate, I was frantically head bobbing the entire time. The lighting was perfect in the tunnels, crawl sequence executed perfectly, the timing for underwater was great. I made one wrong turn in the final area and coming up out of the water after crawling under for like 20 seconds, coming face to face with a dead end was SO evil. The atmosphere, fantastic. I saw the monster for like 300 combined milliseconds, but from what I saw / heard / experienced, stellar.
The bugs were a tiny bit underwhelming, I was expecting a face full of em each time, but y'all had plenty of other things to be worrying about during the jam. The caves just kept going. I was hoping to be done at the end of the first map, oh was I wrong LOL. I'm too tuckered out from that to like care about formatting this properly so you got stream of thought, sorry. Amazing work. Be proud!
thaaaank you so so much for the review! I'm really happy the atmosphere worked well! To be honest I don't think we used 2D assets, even the notes were in 3D (more specificly its textures placed on planes, so it might be counted as 2D X); The critics are all valid, I agree that we need to find a way to reduce the camera bobbing while keeping the fact that your view is obstructed (The effect don't work really well if you always see in front of you). Yeah the bugs needs more polish, the water section too. If we get a good rating at the end of the jam, we might do a better version. Thank you again for the review!
Pretty well executed concept, the crawl mechanics were very original albeit a little annoying because I don't know about you but I don't have 30 yards of vertical mouse movement room on my desk and you also cant look forward or at whatever you want to look at for that matter while crawling which is again, kind of annoying. But other than that, the rest of the game is really good and I have to give a special mention to the UI design in particular as well as the sound effects for the menus and interactables, they sound and look like their straight out of a triple A title. Great game and fantastic work!
hi! Thank you for the feedbacks. Indeed we should try to set a system to know how long your able to use drag your mouse x) the game is made to be exhausting but if you have a low sensitivity it’s kinda hard. Using the slider to increase the sensitivity is useful but I could make it more optivous.
thank you for the UI and sound design; the sound designer will be really proud to read that!
( spoiler maybe? ) Honesty the game looks amazing.. It reminds me of pst 1.. And in this game.. You can move properly.. And also climb inside the rock.. I love how you can climb to rock part.. Because the way handle.. Basically.. In this game.. You can climb this rock By using your hand.. You can click right mouse to use right hand.. Or left mouse to use left hand.. Or both if you want to move even more faster.. Which I do like about it.. It make me think I play as Vr headset.. Which is amazing.. And story is pretty interesting as well.. I mean I didn't read the note story completely.. Just because I wasn't much interested in the story for this game.. But the way it tell pretty interesting.. Plus.. The only way to know what is going on here.. Is by picking these note around the place.. But here the main thing that I don't like about this game.. The game give you a 2 choice if you inside the rock.. You could either move to the right or left..one them have dead end.. And If you in dead end.. You basically need to restart the game.. Because for some reason.. The characters we play as.. Can't turn around.. You basically stuck in the end.. There noting you can do about unless you restart the game.. And I know this game have map.. Where show you where to go.. But I still feel like they could fix problems by making the players die... Restart the back in check point.. Or make player hold the map in the rock.. Or make player can turn around inside the rock.. Really anything could be better than.. Reststart the game.. Because is really annoying.. Heck.. That was one point I was continue moving to other rock to climb to other place.. But for some reason.. It won't let me.. Know i though I missed something.. So I look around.. Trying to figure out what I missed.. Until I accidentally get to other rock.. And know I have to go this place and to this place again.. Because for some reason.. This character we play as.. Can't turn around or at least not continue inside the rock.. Is very annoying.. The point I rage out because of that..so.. Unless I miss something to fix this problem easily.. This problem need to fix.. But other than that.. You game is pretty good :) .. more polish and more features.. The game would most likely turn to great.. Like maybe add something like where we can play your game in be vr head set.. Would make the game more better and fun this way... But you don't have to.. Really just more polish and features make the game more good than it is.. And I appreciate it if you did same to my game call kill or be killed Mario exe game by giving some feedback and also rank on it.. And have great day :)
hi! Thank you so much for the long reply. I’m glad you like the crawling mechanic. So sorry for the bug you encountered. Actually you can crawl back, you need to look down, grab the floor and then look up to crawl back. There might be a night if you keep moving forward while being in a dead end. In any case, if you have time and want to retry the game, don’t forget that you can look down, grab the floor, and while holding drag your mouse up to crawl backward.
Also you can try to decipher the maps to avoid the dead ends. In any case, thanks again for playing, and also I’ll try to make those point clearer in the past
Absolutely brilliant concept — the crawling mechanic and tightening aspect ratio made me genuinely uncomfortable in the best way possible. The sound and lighting create perfect claustrophobic tension, and it’s insanely polished for a one-week jam. This one really stood out to me among all entries. Rated and commented — amazing work!
thank you so much! all the team is really moved with all these kind feedbacks
glad the claustrophobic effect worked well!
Thanks for the rating, i'll try your game as soon as possible!
Really polished game, the controls are pretty original and the concept alone is enough to make you creeped out for the whole playthrough. Very impressive job to you guys!
thank you! Glad you had fun, and also glad you were a little spooked!
I really liked the design!
thanks! glad you liked it
This was an incredibly immersive experience from start to finish. The crawling mechanic felt both innovative and terrifying, perfectly capturing the tension of being trapped in a narrow space. The sound design, lighting, and the gradual tightening of the aspect ratio all worked together to create a suffocating sense of claustrophobia that few horror games achieve. It’s impressive how polished everything feels for a one-week jam project, absolutely fantastic work! Huge plus!
Wow what a great review! Thank you so much 🙏 I’m glad you had a great time! We indeed worked really hard to polish the game (we didn’t sleep a lot during the week). Looking forward to play your game too!
This is one of my favorite games at this jam. I'm not claustrophobic, but the theme and sound design made me feel afraid. The feeling of being cramped is perfectly conveyed. The movement mechanics are very well implemented.
thank you so much! I’m glad you had a « great time » I’d say x)
And I’m glad the feeling of claustrophobia worked well. Thank you for the comment
The climbing mechanics feel really unique! My fingers hurt a bit, though, but maybe that's actually make it even more realistic! I didn't use the map at all, but still manage to reach the end credit. The sound design and general aesthetic are great. The horror aspect is also well done.
thank you so much! Yeah you can adapt the difficulty by increasing the sensitivity but the game aims to be « exhausting » play.
If the map was unused I guess I should try to make it more useful or mandatory (since you didn’t used it, you might have a missed a spook; but that’s my fault I should have made it make useful)
Thanks again for the review!
Nice concept ! You manage to capture the claustrophobia but my arm hurts hahah
i made it to third map and i stopped bc i was very scared 5/5
i had fun i am never going cave diving in real life or in video game
This is a great concept and you guys delivered it well. I think even the bravest of people would still find this unsettling, and the visuals really captured the claustrophobia. Reminded me of The Descent and the urge to get free was very strong. Well made! <3
Fantastic submission! I love when controls are unique. I've watched a lot of videos about cave diving disasters. You'll never catch me crawling like this in a cave! Great sound design and everything really. Polished! Good submission and good luck in the juding
That game is great, it's pretty simple but very clever at the same time. All mechanics work together very well creating very responsive and cohesive project. I like how it all gets claustrophobic with those black margins which cover screen on tight parts. Crawling work really well and all those simple changes to how to interact with this mechanics makes for really good feedback. I only have but, monster is too happy :D but I jumped when it ran at me after I put down a map, good jump scare ;) Overall 5/5 :) and can't believe you made it all in a week!
Overall very clean polished experience for just one week of development! The black bands are a very clever and effective way of conveying a sense of claustrophobia, really great idea. Also the crawling mechanics are simple but really clean and they all make immediate sense, so that's very cool. Maybe it would have been cool to also play with the FOV when going in/out tunnels or when entering/exiting tight sections. The map were intuitive and easy to understand, maybe except the last one, where I didn't immediately get the correct sequence of turns that I had to do, so I went a bit trial and error in that case (but maybe it's just me). I'm not a big fan of jumpscares but at least you made them sparse and kinda justified, so they served their purpose. Overall very nice creepy experience, exploring caves is something that I find deeply terrifying and your game made a great job in immersing me in that situation!
thanks for the review! I'm glad it worked well for the feeling of claustrophobia. Indeed the FOV would have been a good way to keep this feeling. But we had some trouble with the 3C and especially with the camera, so maybe for an update. Hmm yeah the third map is less clear, it's funny cause some people figure it on their first try, and some have a really hard time figuring it out; so I might make it a little easier. For the jumpscares, we tried to do a lot to justify them, so I guess it's not that bad, it's our first horror game, so it's kinda hard to not rely on this cheap technique x) glad you had a great experience (and your game is really cool too!)
When I used to read creepypastas about cave exploration online, I could never understand why people would go into caves in the first place.
And after playing this game, I understand it even less.
I’m never going into a cave — ever.
All the sound effects are placed perfectly, the UI feels polished, and the controls are unique.
Most of all, I loved how the change in screen ratio effectively conveyed the sense of claustrophobia you’d feel while exploring a cave!
If I had one small note, it’s that although the graphics are low-poly, the game somehow puts a noticeable load on my computer.
Anyway, I’ve come to a conclusion:
The best happy ending in this game… is to never enter the cave at all.
hi! Thank you so so much for taking the time to play the game! Indeed since the game is on Unreal Engine (only engine I really know how to use) it is quite consuming indeed; but I’m glad at least it worked. Thank you for the review 🙏 it was quite funny to read
Creative control scheme and very clever use of changing aspect ratio. I really liked the environmental storytelling. I have mixed feelings about the camera going up and down while crawling, it was annoying but also added to the claustrophobia in a way. Also, I’m not sure I fully understood how to properly alternate hands, but that might just be me. Anyway, a really solid entry! Side note - this would be truly terrifying in VR
thank you so much taking the time to play the game! Yeah there’s a big discussion about the camera. On one hand, it’s annoying and a little nausea inducing to always looking down and up, plus the feeling is not the best. On the other hand, like you said it creates the feeling of claustrophobia, it desorient the player and leave place for some spooky sequence. I don’t really know what is the best solution for this. And I saw a version of it in VR, but the gameplay was quite different
Nailed the concept in the most important ways. Forcing the player to drag themselves through every inch of a tight cave is a brilliant use of the mouse- You get so much dread just by having the POV bob down, as the player drags themselves forward. Love the soundscape and the aspect ratio closing in on you. Well done.
very juicy game, 10/10 and made in 1 week! just spectacular behavior from these group of ppl, glad i was able to play this
thank you so much! I’m glad you had a great time! Thank you for taking some of your time to play it!