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[increpare]

I have several about this. 

Firstly, it seemed like a really worthwhile game to me, and I'm happy to have played it. 

The control mechanic, as other people commented, wasn't particularly conductive to the mood it seemed that you might want to be presenting. 

Also the physics of controlling the boat seemed a bit weird.  It felt occasionally, when I was pointing diagonally, that my boat was sliding a little? (not moving in the direction it was pointed). 

The music was a bit piercing (though I do play this on a trebley macbook).  I can't but imagine that it must have driven you mad when you were testing it (either that, or you wrote it right at the end). 

That said, the ending really caught me off guard...it was pretty-darnedly effective...

[agj]

Thanks! I'm glad it wasn't wasted time.

I don't think that the music is that bad, though the triangle wave was probably not the best option for the high pitched instrument. I believe it does depend on your speakers, as well. But eh, I'm a terrible music composer. The mechanics are SUPER BOAT ROWING SIMULATION! The boat skids around because that's what boats do, kind of. Do you think that instead of tapping, just holding would have been better? I mean holding left and right, not up and down.

[increpare]

I don't think that the music is that bad, though the triangle wave was probably not the best option for the high pitched instrument.

Cool.  I completely respect your right to stick with whatever music you think sounds best.

Do you think that instead of tapping, just holding would have been better? I mean holding left and right, not up and down.

Holding left/right for continued rowing action?  I think it would be worth testing out, for sure.

[Widget]

Also the physics of controlling the boat seemed a bit weird.  It felt occasionally, when I was pointing diagonally, that my boat was sliding a little? (not moving in the direction it was pointed).

The impression I got of the movement was that there were more possible facings for the boat than were represented by sprites. Once I cottoned on that you could be pointing in one of about 3 different directions without appearing to turn, thus producing the 'skidding' effect, I started to get the hang of it.

As for feedback, I got quite carried away with the exploration of the lake so the conclusion of the game really caught me out and left me feeling pretty spooked. Very eerie as a whole, and I think a resounding success. Not sure if I would've felt as involved with a different control mechanism but then there's already a pretty solid consensus on that front 

[Drakkar]

I pretty much echo all of the movement comments, it didn't really help the pace but all in all it was completely fantastic.

[nihilocrat]

Congrats on getting a mention on Rock, Paper, Shotgun!

[deadeye]

Good game.  It's short and sweet, and the end made me grin like an idiot because it was pretty clever.

I think the rowing mechanic was pretty good overall, but it was a little too easy to get stuck on things. 

I didn't mind the music either, I thought it was nice and creepy.  Though I can see what some people are saying about the high-pitched instrument.

Also, good to see another Construct entry .  It's nice to see people starting to use it.

[Introversity]

Spoiler:

I swear I saw a horse in the middle somewhere. Maybe I'm just going crazy.

[agj]

Wow, this is the first time something I made got linked by, you know, places that actually get visited. So happy!

Thanks for the heads-up, nihilocrat!

[shrapnel]

In Wine: "You need the August 2008 DirectX update in order to run this application."

Ah, well.

[Bob le Moche]

I'm glad I played through twice because the first time spoiler.
I had no problem with the controls or physics, they were perfect for this.

[Loren Schmidt]

Hi agj, I hate to trouble you. I wanted to play The Lake, which looks really neat, but I'm getting a blank screen on startup. There's no DirectX error message.

Windows XP, 1.8 Ghz Athlon, 1 GB RAM, nVidia 6800.

[agj]

Dammit. There's not much I can do myself, except for directing you to the latest DirectX runtimes. Since I'm using Construct, I don't have much control over this, but if you do install them and it doesn't work, let me know so I can tell people over at the Scirra boards.

[Loren Schmidt]

If I open the game without pressing any keys, it sits in the blank, black screen forever.

But I was frantically mashing keys, hoping to be able to play the game, and I discovered that if I hit return there's a fade from the black screen into the title. The game works fine after that, though there is no sound.

Other than that one hitch, I really like the game. The rowing physics felt really good, and the pixel art was tasteful. The end was tingly and exciting.

Congratulations on getting mentioned on Rock, Paper, Shotgun! You're also in the CPB video on the TIGS main page, which got featured on the IndieGames blog as well.
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/12/commonplace_book_competition_e.html

[brog]

Nice little game you made there.  (Or gayme or entertainment executable or whatever people decided to call art-games-that-aren't-really-games-in-the-traditional-sense.)

I found it pretty interesting to see the different ways we'd handled the mechanic of rowing (my entry was Death Lights Dancing, the mouse rowing one).  I think it's cool how we had kind of the same idea but completely different takes on it.