MEOWDIVER
OVERVIEW
A cat in a home-made sub cleans the sea, one haul at a time.
Crank to dive, tilt to steer, hover over ocean trash and let the intake pull it in. Sell the haul for parts, upgrade the sub, and unlock deeper, richer seas.
Gallery
DESIGN DETAILS
1. The Loop
The core tension: one more piece of trash, or head home now? Greed risks running out of air — and the co-op only pays half for a rescue.
2. Incremental Design: Three Layers
Incremental games run on "numbers going up" — but once the curve is smooth, nothing feels new. Meowdiver splits growth into three layers, each answering a different question:
Four seas, each with new trash, hazards, rock texture and music. A new sea resets the player's comfort.
Four branches around the sub: air, engine, intake, cargo. Each new sea grows a whole new outer ring.
Each sea is worth ×10–25 per piece and burns air ×3–8 faster. One sea = one order of magnitude.
rank 0
rank 18
rank 68
rank 128
Seconds of air on arrival vs. on leaving, from the pacing model. Each new sea knocks the player back down; a few hauls buy them back up.
The rule that ties it together: a new sea and a new ring of the tree open at the same moment, priced in the same magnitude. The gate only asks for about a third of the new ring — so the player moves on while it still feels fresh.
3. The Workshop Tree
| Ring | Air ↑ | Engine → | Intake ↓ | Cargo ← |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ~2.5K | Air Tank Rebreather | Propeller Float Bladder | Suction ★ Chain Zap | Cargo Hold Haggle |
| 2 ~77K | Twin Tanks Vent Valve | Twin Screws Rise Jets | Twin Nozzle ★ Bubble Bomb | Cargo Pods ★ Hot Streak |
| 3 ~2.9M | Pressure Tanks Emergency Tank | Hydrojet Current Fins | Big Boom ★ Buddy Turret | Freight Bay Lucky Paw |
| 4 ~89M | Abyss Lung Headlamp | Fusion Drive | Quad Nozzle Buddy Squad | Mega Hold Black Market |
Branches keep their role in every ring, so the player learns the tree once. Prices follow base × growth^level, rounded to two significant figures. ★ Skills are spread one per ring so each sea brings a new toy.
4. Every Dive Is a Decision
Streak
Catch again within 2.5 s for +10% value per level. Rewards planning a route, not just collecting.
Jellyfish
A sting costs 10% air and knocks the sub away. In the Abyss they glow — dodge early.
Vents that dry up
Refill air, but each holds only 40% of a tank per run. No more infinite camping.
Seeded landmarks
Chests, currents and canisters sit in fixed spots, so routes can be learned and optimised.
Chain Zap → Bubble Bomb → Buddy Turret
Late game turns collecting from "one piece at a time" into "clear the whole area" — the incremental fantasy, felt in the hands.
5. Tuned With a Simulation
A greedy model — always dive the most profitable sea, buy the cheapest node — estimates how many runs each sea takes. Paired with a full playtest, it drove v0.4:
- ▶Sea gates 30 / 85 / 145 → 18 / 68 / 128 to cut repetition early on.
- ▶Chain Zap moved to ring 1 so the first seas have a power spike too.
- ▶Late-game air glut fixed: vents now dry up, canisters and air upgrades trimmed.
- ▶Passages widened so trash is always reachable.
6. Made for Playdate
Crank to rise and dive, tilt to steer, with water inertia — it feels like piloting a tiny sub. Collection is automatic, so hands focus on movement. Calibration, reversed crank and a d-pad fallback included.
A small Python renderer I wrote shades shapes into 5 levels of 2×2 dither with outlines, giving sprites volume on a black-and-white screen.
No audio files. All SFX and music use the SDK synth on a C-major pentatonic scale — pickups climb the scale as the streak grows.
