Sunken Engine

The concept of the game drew me in but the gameplay itself is a let down. Started the game and stumbled into a bug in the settings menu (reported), then was overwhelmed with numerous tutorials, none of which were concise enough to understand (the tutorial for the market popped up while I was inside leaving me scrambling to find it). Got stuck in the ui for fishing. And where is the renovation table? It has potential but right now isn't worth it.

Filled with bugs for me. Freezes at the market and crashes at the pub. Playing on steam deck.

I'd love to recommend this game. It's oozing with atmosphere and an interesting art style. However, I bought after 1.0 release, and I can't recommend. TL;DR: it's buggy and shallow I don't think many of my fellow job simulator enthusiasts would argue with me if I said that the bar for polish and quality isn't -particularly- high in the genre. It's disappointing when even that low bar isn't met. And I almost wish I could say it's because this is a lazy asset flip game, but clearly it's not, some work went into it. However, it just feels unpolished and unfinished. Some examples: Every minigame around repairing feels like a placeholder, with a couple of exceptions they're all accomplished by holding down left click with barely any other input. Sometimes you let go of the mouse between holding it down, or hold it down in a few separate areas. There's little design consistency. Most of the beginning jobs require you to purchase and stock replacement parts - light bulbs, planks, nails, tape etc., but then you unlock large repair jobs and you just replace entire propellers and ship wheels using 0 resources. It doesn't feel consistent or thoughtful It's lazy about its visuals: Wires have giant gaps as they wind around ships, sails/netting are sometimes single-sided planes (in most engines this is as easy to fix as a simple dropdown in the material menu). Some textures are muddy and poorly scaled. The flashlight is one of the worst I see in games, it's more like a blob that turns the texture brightness in a vague shape in front of you higher, rather than a flashlight, so the colors end up sort of washed out when they're lit up. There are big gaps in the world that are unfilled. There's an entire area you can visit that has no apparent purpose but to contain a single NPC, he never gets new dialogue from what I could tell. There's dialogue about the mayor, but he's never introduced. There's a minigame in the carnival that's "coming soon" but I completed the entire story before it ever arrived, assuming it exists at all. Furthermore, the implication of a storyline around the carnival that doesn't really evolve. Bad/buggy sound design: 0 sound effects for the fishing minigame. Extremely inconsistent underwater sound muffling effects. Radio distance volume is inconsistent. Radio sometimes just stops and starts playing.

Quite janky at the moment, good bones, but not flushed out. Still gave me a good spook a couple times, and boat clean up is soothing I suppose. My save didn't save, or got corrupted or something. Probably won't play again until some hot fixes to flush out some bugs.

Nice art style and good atmospheric design. The visuals feel well-crafted and fit the mood nicely. Solid game.

Dredge asset rip and blatantly AI generated characters

Sunken Engine operates in this delightful space between a job simulator and a horror game. Your main job is to operate a shipyard, cleaning and repairing ships for cash and experience/skill points. You then spend that cash and skill points to expand the range and difficulty of servicing operations you can perform, the quality of the tools you use, and the materials required to fully mend every vessel you can. Some of the things you collect, namely shells and starfish, can be sold at your market, along with any fish you catch from fishing. Over time, the economy starts to grow as wealthier customers offer greater gain, and larger or more urgent jobs offer even more. Underpinning this already satisfying gameplay loop, is a sinister Lovecraftian tale of horror, betrayal, and meddling with unknown powers. Figures begin appearing out of the corner of your eyes. Glowing red eyes stare at you from the tops of buildings. Your heart beats faster and your skin begins to crawl. Strangers knock on your door, hinting at mysteries beyond the veil. Strange fish begin appearing on your hook. By this point, you're already in too deep. They have found you. They are watching you. As an Early Access title, I reserve final judgement for the full release, but so far there is a lot to discuss about this game (SPOILERS AHEAD). For an indie title, this game shows a lot of completion. There's plenty to do, plenty to work towards, and most progress feels satisfying. The horror feels well-integrated, and when things really start to get creepy, they deliver. During the day, parts of the town are open to explore, while at night, things begin to change. Occasionally, the circus comes to town, offering yet another unsettling venue and gameplay loop. Some nights you'll even be visited by haunted ships that hide dark secrets. The art is very pleasant, albeit overly cartoonish at times. I found myself gripped by this game, losing large blocks of time making progress towards the current end of build. I have enjoyed the time spent, and I believe a wide array of people would enjoy this game. I can tell that there is a tremendous amount of inspiration from Dredge, but it feels more of an homage in the service of familiarizing players, rather than outright theft, and comparing the two is a tad reductive. Naturally, however, I have some complaints. As I mentioned before, there is an overly cartoonish quality at times, that detracts from the general feel. The NPCs are all 2D drawings with lots of detail, but the shadow figures are 3D and very geometric. Those two clash at times and detract a little from the horror element. I also feel like the horror part is a little too forgiving? While I appreciate the ability to regain sanity easily, and that true horror comes from the unexpected and random, I feel like some of the sanity-breaking events and creature interactions were minor or infrequent enough to not really count sanity as a well-managed resource. This is most prominent when you get to the ghost liner. It is marketed as a horror venue where you're stalked by an unseen monster - wherein I never encountered a single scare. I'm not sure if it was because I managed sanity well with the pipe, or if I was never able to spend a LONG enough time on the ship because the Blue Prince-style room generation locked me out constantly. I also struggled with the material economy at times, because repairing deckboards never seemed to cost the same twice. I would run out of either wood or nails randomly, despite having purchased amounts I would've imagined were satisfactory. Lastly, I struggled with the haunted ships that come in certain nights. Supposedly, there are 4 types of artefact to be obtained from them, although I only ever got the same 3 over and over again. Maybe it's not integrated yet, but my completionist mind says - if you're going to show it's possible, it better be possible. Overall I think this is a really impressive title, worthy of the time and money I have invested so far. I am extremely eager for the next installment. I encourage anyone who has read this far to give it a try!