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It's cold down here, even while close to the surface. 

I can't hear anything, but the depths calling to me.


Am I destined to die, below?


"The Bends" is a Haunted PS1 Summer Jam entry( HPS1 Summer of Shivers - itch.io ), made in unreal engine 4 and meant to be played with a xbox one controller, and headphones. 

Use your best judgement to guide yourself out of the depths and raise above the grip of the unknown.

Music and sound effects in the game were made by @LarksBreath, please be sure to follow her and I on twitter for future updates on games, and or her fantastic music.

Dev note: In order still meet my promise of the 31st, I was not able to resolve three main issues about the game I feel a need to point out. There is a lack of subtitles, No options yet, and that you MUST use your mouse to select "PLAY GAME" in the main menu. But to be clear the game itself should be played with a controller that reads as a Xbox controller. 

If you like the game please let me know, if the game does well, I will consider a more complex and adventurous version of the game for steam later on. THE BENDS: IRON LUNG. ;)

Thank you for checking this out! 

EDIT: The game does not feature a respawn system, you are meant to play this carefully and vibe with it(Permadeath). You can get out, if you make the right choices, Godspeed fam.

Phantom Sloth Games
StatusReleased
Publisher
Release date Aug 31, 2021
Rating
Rated 4.1 out of 5 stars
(18 total ratings)
AuthorPhantom Sloth
GenreSurvival
Made withUnreal Engine, Substance Painter & designer, Blender
TagsAtmospheric, diving, Exploration, First-Person, Horror, hps1, Psychological Horror, Survival Horror, underwater, Unreal Engine
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse, Xbox controller
LinksLinks!

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TheBends.7z 1 GB

Development log

Comments

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Here's the Problem, Apparently It's one of those Unreal Engine Games that does not work with OBS as it freezes everything except the capture, is there a workaround?

I've talked to a few other UE4 devs about this before, but it always seems to circle back to "Is their OBS outdated?" which also feels like blaming the user rather than a in engine solution. I continue to look for ways to fix this, however I recently jumped to UE5, so here's to hoping that nonsense isn't a forward issue. :) 

Otherwise, if you do update your OBS and it suddenly runs clean, let me know! I hope you have a good day fam, thanks for checking out The Bends.

(+1)

Great atmosphere, loved it!

(+1)

Hello, I played this game and I really enjoyed it, the visuals, sound effects and concept was great, the only thing I wish was that there were a few save points but aside that it was fun!

(+1)

GAME IS ACTUALLY GOOD I LIKE IT BUT WHEN I FIRST STARTED I WAS SO CONFUSE ON WHAT WAS HAPPENING BUT NEAR THE END I STARTED TO KNOW THINGS ABOUT THE GAME BUT OTHER THAN THAT THE GAME WAS AWESOME FULL GANEPLAY WALKTHROUGH
(+1)

After playing INTERIM as part of the Dread X Collection I have decided this is a must play. 

(+1)

What an interesting horror game, it really is easy to get lost under the ocean and there are so many ways that you can become trapped. Just the idea of being in such a state is scary, let alone if your line gets trapped.

Happy to see you found your way out! :D You managed to avoid three other deaths before your escape. <3

Thanks for playing!

(+2)



Really interesting game and love the narration. I enjoyed this and the visuals of being deep underwater was breathtaking while also being terrifying as the oxygen started to deplete. Only gripe I would say is, the lack of checkpoints as it starts all the way over after any misstep. That would of added to the experience. Overall I enjoyed it, and so everyone should check it out. 
(+2)

Ay, thanks for checking it out fam!

Sorry about the checkpoint thing, it was planned, but I ran out of time during the jam to add it in. I've thought a lot about doing an extended edition that would add other death events, more to explore, a small battle with the spider beast, and of course the highly requested respawn system. 

I am currently working on a different game called "The Ancient Ones Hate Me" but after I finish that I may return to this and work on the above mentioned changes. If that happens it would be a stand alone title which I will call "The Bends: Iron Lung".  <3

oooooooh lwt me know if you do. In the mean time I'll keep an eye out for your next one. I'm looking forward to it :)

(+1)

Really interesting game, The Helmet reminded me of a Rumbler from BioShock 2 and was very atmospheric and interesting game. Finally found the good side to itch.io

(+2)

I did my best with the subtitles, but was one of those poems about guys who went insane after hearing their shipmates drowning as they scratched at a bulkhead door?

(+1)

The game is showing as installable in the itch desktop client but does not show any builds to pick from in the installer window.

I'll have to look into this and find out why it's like that, I downloaded the Itch client to test it and got the same issue. Downloads fine on the main site though. 

Sorry for the issue fam. 

(+1)

Yup I grabbed the regular DL last night thanks.
Hope you get the config for the upload sorted as it means players will log time playing, although not sure if you get access to that statistic.

I notice it does not support Direct Input but only XInput.
If you can add DInput that would be great, but in the meantime I suggest you add a note (at the same time you add the KB+Mouse keys) to the game page suggesting an Xbox controller emulator such as "x360ce". 

BUGS:
It didn't take me too long to get stuck in the scenery on the front of a rock-face so when I hit ESC assuming I would go back to the menu, I was surprised to see the game close.

Going back to the menu needs to be prioritised over the options menu content, but hopefully any update see both.

As a multimonitor user I had big problems using mouse and KB as the mouse is not bound to the screen so keeps ending up opening or activating things on my other monitor.

(+2)

Hey! I did a big roundup on a bunch of games in the jam (including yours) with some thoughts on each. Figured I'd share it here for anyone interested!

(+1)

Can I play using a keyboard?

(1 edit) (+2)

Yes, just "feels better" on a controller IMHO.

WASD for movement, F for flashlight, Spacebar for Jumping, Q for Walkie-Talkie, and Shift to run. ESC exits the game and TAB pauses it.

I hope you enjoy it! :) 

(+2)

Impressive content. I did check out the game, although there was a problem with options and the recording program kind of gave up on me, which was sad, because I really wanted to post the game's playthrough. 

Neat looking environment. Definitely, better to be played on big screen using joypad and I highly recommend everyone to check out this masterpiece. Good Look on future development. 

(+1)

gimme

(+1)

Gonna send out some test builds soon Potato, hit me up in my discord and I'll make sure to give you the chance for early playthroughs. 

(+2)

scream of joy

(+2)

hype