Fathom (music by Danny Baranowsky)

[Dhsu]

http://adamatomic.com/fathom/

It's like Cave Story meets flOw or something.

I've played this for like an hour and I have no idea what to do next, but that's okay because the music is all relaxing and stuff.

[sauce] (http://thasauce.net/morenews.php?s=878)

[JJT]

yeah, if the instructions worked that would help

[anosou]

Danny Baranowsky is made of sex. I wish I was his friend...

[SoulinEther]

That is some damn nice relaxing music... ruined by those horribly loud sound effects due to game activity. Seriously, I'm zoning out and I hear this thunderous boom? nooo

..and I have no idea what to do either.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Spoilers, I guess...


Got to the end of the starting level... doesn't seem to have any possible way of winning against that enemy before you end up underwater. Where I subsequently found something, brought it to the light, then made it to the next "level", which was also underwater and seemed oddly similar to the first "level". Then I went up, up, up into the bright light and... game over? What?!


tl;dr, I don't get it.

[Jarvi]

Spoilers, I guess...


Got to the end of the starting level... doesn't seem to have any possible way of winning against that enemy before you end up underwater. Where I subsequently found something, brought it to the light, then made it to the next "level", which was also underwater and seemed oddly similar to the first "level". Then I went up, up, up into the bright light and... game over? What?!


tl;dr, I don't get it.


Yea, that's where I got to. um. what?

[SoulinEther]

Spoilers, I guess...


Got to the end of the starting level... doesn't seem to have any possible way of winning against that enemy before you end up underwater. Where I subsequently found something, brought it to the light, then made it to the next "level", which was also underwater and seemed oddly similar to the first "level". Then I went up, up, up into the bright light and... game over? What?!


tl;dr, I don't get it.

Yes. Both of those events had very loud sound effects associated with them.

[cobaltstarfire]

yeah, if the instructions worked that would help

Push Z and X at the same time.

[Dhsu]

Ah, I finally finished it...turns out it glitched out on me the first time so that the C.P.U. didn't do anything. :P

So yeah, a couple theories I've read so far are

SPOILERS
either he dies of suffocation before reaching the surface, or he was actually dead the entire time (notice his life bar is empty after falling into the water)
END SPOILERS

[spongerman1]

i played it and was confused like everyone else. searching the web and seeing what others are saying, it's not so much a game as it is a short story told through in game format.

spoilers

the comments by 'a rob amongst many' and nocturnal kinda explain it:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/19/deeper-gaming-fathom/

another comment:
http://gaygamer.net/2009/05/fathom_free_indie_flash_platfo.html#comment-146052

there's also other things nifty things like the green cpu on the start screen showing water = death. also there's probably some meaning to the fact that bad guys pretty much don't do anything unless you touch them (ex: the sprinklers cant hurt you, maybe the robot perceives them as bad guys even though they are harmless?).

[cobaltstarfire]

I guess it's a "game" they made for the soul purpose of confounding people. hehe, Fun little thing kind of creeps me out.