Tip of the Iceberg
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Game Summary
Tip and Mama Jo have lived together on their iceberg for Tip’s whole life, but it’s finally time for Tip to find his own waddle. Mama Jo isn’t happy about Tip’s leaving, but she wants to take him hunting one last time to show him parts of their ocean he’s never seen closely before. What will they find once they dive deep below the tip of the iceberg?
Objective
Journey around the underbelly of the iceberg and find Mama Jo's 4 hidden oysters. Hint: There are two on each side!
Genre
Point-and-click narrative adventure.
Controls
On Ice:
- Point and click to move
- Spacebar to advance dialogue
- ESC to Quit application
Underwater:
- Move with mouse (Tip follows cursor position)
- ESC to Quit application
Meet the Team!
Qianning Tang - Project Manager, Artist & Animator
Twitter: @QianningTatum Email: qianning@berkeley.edu
Shay Yano - Game Design, Programming, & Sound Design
Twitter: @shaynanigansEXE Email: yanoshay.exe@gmail.com
Casey Ramos - Narrative Design & Sound Design
Twitter: @caseydovar Email: cgaramos@bu.edu
Words from the Creators
We created “Tip of the Iceberg” after a team heart-to-heart about motherhood that boiled down to… “Wow. What we grew up knowing about our mothers was really just the tip of the iceberg.”
Our team was especially drawn to the concept of unconventional motherhood, and how completely human mothers are behind the mask of table-setting and finger-wagging. We wanted to tell a story about a mother who feels closer to the mxthers we may be one day; one whose stories from childhood to adulthood swell with turbulence, apprehension, and doubt.
We asked ourselves, if we were to write a letter to our future child today, what would it sound like? And we started there.
The topics explored in our point-and-click narrative adventure game are childhood, coming out and rejection, depression and isolation, and finally, the finding of one's own home/community.
We hope you enjoy our game, and huge thanks to Side Quest + Sledgehammer’s Women in Games Game Jam for inspiring us to bring this story to life!
Download
Install instructions
Currently only available for download on PC.
Development log
- Fixed scroll/movement bugSep 16, 2020
Comments
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I liked the art style of the game. I thought it worked really well for the gameplay.
For gameplay, I felt like there was a story, but it didn't mesh well with the gameplay of eating the fish and avoiding the jellyfish. Maybe if you tied it in somehow, like make the player find so many fish before being rewarded with the next dialog or letter.
The story is an interesting subversion of the usual my parent's not my parent. I thought the reveal twisted it pretty dark, though, and the ending didn't leave enough breathing room for the player to process. This is probably because it's a jam game, but if the story were to be stretched out longer, the player would definitely need some time to anticipate, process, and decide whether they agree with the actions of Jo and the reaction of Tip.
My favorite part of the game would have to be jumping up out of the water. For some reason, I did that for quite a bit of time. Maybe you can "follow the fun" there and expand on that mechanic if you were to take it further.
Overall, I love to see a story-based game in a game jam! Most of the time you see a pretty standard prototype, light on art and story, focusing only on the core element. This game, however, has more story than most. That was pretty neat!
Very cute story! I couldn't move after the letter about finding her, but I got the jist of the game and I love it. I like the sound effects, and the penguins are cute too.