Deep13: a close look, tips and whether it is worth your time

If you enjoy short sessions that are hard to walk away from, give this one a look. Below is everything you need before the first launch: the gist, the controls and some working techniques.

What this game is

Deep13 — a submarine explorer by Javi Agenjo (TAMAT), built for js13kgames 2024. A fully code-generated procedural underwater world: a stone sea-maze, sonar instead of eyes, a giant sea snake gliding along the floor, and a mysterious signal whose source you must find and haul to the surface. It all fits in 13 kilobytes: a hand-written WebGL2 mini-engine, volumetric fog, a spotlight glare, barrel-distortion post-processing, and synthesized sonar and deep-noise sounds.

How to play, in short

1. Deep13 — a submarine explorer by Javi Agenjo (TAMAT), built for js13kgames 2024.

2. A fully code-generated procedural underwater world: a stone sea-maze, sonar instead of eyes, a giant sea snake gliding along the floor, and a mysterious signal whose source you must find and haul to the surface.

3. It all fits in 13 kilobytes: a hand-written WebGL2 mini-engine, volumetric fog, a spotlight glare, barrel-distortion post-processing, and synthesized sonar and deep-noise sounds.

Controls

Controls: W / S — forward / back, E / Q — ascend / dive, A / D — turn, F — spotlight, 1 — sonar, 2 — scanner, R — grab / drop the cargo, G — patch the leak, Space — brake (and after death or victory — restart). On phones an on-screen console drives it all. Score — the deepest you dive, in metres.

A few final tips

• Check out the demo mode on the game page — the AI shows how it is played, and repeating it yourself gets much easier.
• Play in short sessions: the best results come with a warmed-up head.

A perfect way to kill ten minutes — and suddenly an hour is gone. Ready to try? "Deep13"