Goo Glow by Birdwards

A group of 20 slimes are attempting to navigate through a mysterious building. There's only one problem... they can't see a thing except for each other! In order to make your way to the exit, you'll need to explode some of your slimes, so the others can see where they're going. Don't explode them all, though- you'll need some slimes to actually complete the level!
I also provided the source for my fork of the HaxeFlixel library (and its addons), because I used some features that are currently only available in the development version of HaxeFlixel and haven't yet been added to the official release.
| Windows | https://birdwards.itch.io/goo-glow |
| Source code | https://github.com/Birdwards/GooGlow |
| Source code | https://github.com/Birdwards/flixel |
| Source code | https://github.com/Birdwards/flixel-addons |
| macOS | https://birdwards.itch.io/goo-glow |
| Linux | https://birdwards.itch.io/goo-glow |
| Other (web) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4hDuEt3kU |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/goo-glow |
Ratings
| Overall | 47th | 3.944⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 44th | 3.917⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 22th | 4.028⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 5th | 4.417⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 119th | 3.75⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 183th | 3.222⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 14🗳️ | 17🗨️ |
Would love to see this one continue with more stages and mechanics. Job well done on this one!
The tutorial was really good, I wonder how you had the time to make all of this. The innovation aspect is the peak of the game, the theme relation is also really good. Having a version for linux also saved a lot of time for me, points for that!
So I was on board right away. But my regard for the game went up again once I got to a couple of the later levels where you subverted my expectations by having... well, I don't want to give spoilers but let me just say the non-static elements involved. I didn't anticipate that was coming, but once I saw it I felt like it was an essential evolution of the core.
There was only one thing I really struggled with, and that was the controls for the wall jump. The way I have I to hold rightthenimmediatelysiwithfsioto shit I fucked up and I'm dead again. And again. And again.
I immediately noticed I was struggling with walljump-then-away, but I figured it wasn't important. Then I came to that climb up the shaft in the center of the level in the middle of the game, and I just kept falling and falling and then overcompensating and dying, and back all over again.
I'm not quite sure what the fix is, as walljumps always seem a bit awkward to me. Must I hold the direction into the wall?
That was my one and only stumbling block in this game. The only other tiny thing I could even suggest was the the sound effect for me exploding was like a failure sound. Couple of times my brain said "dammit we made a mistake" and then a moment later "oh wait I meant to do that."
Anyway, this was a really strong entry, I liked it a lot.
Bane to all slimekind, indeed.
I've seen the premise in games like The Unfinished Swan, but you tied it very well into the Sacrifice theme. What I particularly enjoyed is how you folded a quasi-tutorial into the game without explaining too much. Just let the player die once and unintrusively explain why. This was really great! I found the length of the game to be perfect for the material you had. Any more levels would have required new mechanics and I enjoyed that you didn't outstay your welcome.
The controls are pretty tight, which is very important for a game like this. I would have enjoyed it even more if the wall-jump would have been polished a bit more, like for instance allowing the player to push away from the wall and then jumping so they wouldn't have to switch direction after the jump which I feel is always a bit clunky.
The sound effects, although sparse, were well picked, but unfortunately music was missing which might have added to the atmosphere more.
I really really dig the mechanic though, it's awesome. I also disagree with showing the level when you die, I think you're right in not doing that. Otherwise, the punishment for dieing isn't big enough. Now it's risk vs reward: if you run far, but die before you see anything, you don't get anything for it. However, since you get information only when you explode yourself, it's a risk vs reward thing. If I know I can go straight somewhere, I won't really care about the part above me.
My only problem with the game is that I find the double-jump to be annoying to execute.
Some music would have been nice but it's not a requirement. It was also interesting to see that the velocity of the player had an effect on how much the slime spread.
Good gameplay with polished levels. Great job!