Fathomere

Diver Nell's bathyscaphe snapped its cable and sank into a trench the sun never reaches. Slip through an underwater city of glowing creatures, blind armoured wardens with your lamp and, with Oko the little octopus mechanic, find your way back to the light.

A wordless cinematic platformer. Nell jumps, grabs ledges and pulls herself up, crawls through low tunnels, climbs kelp ropes and dives through flooded halls while watching the oxygen in her suit. Every room is its own trial: a lever-and-door puzzle, slipping past a warden or fleeing an eel — after a fall you start again at the room's entrance.

On the way Nell finds a lamp: its flash blinds the crab-like wardens, scares off eels, drives back the anglerfish and opens closed anemones. Freed from his cage, Oko follows her every step and squeezes through pipes to open doors from the other side. There are also valves that change the water level, floating crates, pressure plates, lifts, steam vents, crushers and anemones that shoot.

Ten chapters: the wreck, the wardens' cages, the jelly garden, the forges, the flooded archive, the city of lights, the angler's trench, the pearl mines, the citadel and the climb to the surface. Every chapter hides three pearls. The art is 3D shapes projected onto 2D with dynamic lighting: the lamp casts shadows, caustics shimmer in the water and glowing creatures light up the dark.

The game runs in the browser on phones (in landscape) and computers, with nothing to install. Your progress is saved in the browser.

How to play

  • Phone: the pad under your left thumb — walk, ▼ crouch, ▲ rope and swim up. Under your right thumb: jump, hand (levers, valves, Oko) and the lamp flash.
  • Computer: arrow keys or WASD, Space — jump, E — hand, F — flash, P — pause.
  • Nell jumps up steps of up to two tiles and grabs taller edges if she jumps while holding the direction. A long fall is dangerous, and underwater the oxygen runs out — surface or swim into the bubbles.

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