Goo Glow by Birdwards

[raw]
made by Birdwards for LD 43 (COMPO)

ld43screen2.png

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.

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🗨️

Feedback

anfaas1618
03. Dec 2018 · 05:57 UTC
nice game loved the concept just cant get through the wall try making a gameplay vidio
numeralien
03. Dec 2018 · 06:03 UTC
Super unique and super well-executed! Really nice work!
Sarwin
03. Dec 2018 · 06:17 UTC
Its a nice game its satisfying when the slime explode! really Fun.
🎤 Birdwards
03. Dec 2018 · 06:52 UTC
@anfaas1618 Good idea! Here's a gameplay video for you. [click to play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4hDuEt3kU).
anfaas1618
03. Dec 2018 · 07:01 UTC
@birdwards nice game loved it just see my game too this is my first tyme
Vinay Rao
03. Dec 2018 · 12:29 UTC
Killed it with this one. It's quite a lot of fun. Aesthetically pleasing (for a game largely based upon being in the dark), mechanically appealing and well built around the theme.

Would love to see this one continue with more stages and mechanics. Job well done on this one!
publicidadeba
04. Dec 2018 · 19:15 UTC
Motherfuckers need to play this. 5/5 for fun, theme and Innovation. The only thing that I disliked it was the start, levels were a bit too long and a lot of trial error, the lowest point was the wall jumping level. But after the levels got shorter, I really enjoyed myself. Good job!
Eranot
05. Dec 2018 · 01:58 UTC
I really enjoyed this, it's funny how both of our games are about exploding slimes haha
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!
pkenney
07. Dec 2018 · 05:05 UTC
Excellent compo entry. Charming character, nice touch with the face slowly sliding from one side to the other, rather than flipping the sprite. This made the slime feel rounded in the third dimension as well. The novel mechanic was really compelling, and the way that dying accidentally did NOT yield a splatter was an important strong design choice imo. It created a wonderful risk/reward tradeoff.

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.
cerno-b
09. Dec 2018 · 21:27 UTC
I love your simple, yet effective visuals. I always found it hard to work with a green palette and you pulled if off really well. The blob is quite expressive, and I love the eye transition when turning from left to right. A few more animation phases, especially when jumping would have been a nice touch.

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.
SubtlyDramatic
09. Dec 2018 · 22:33 UTC
Super cute slime! I like the sound effects and color choice too! This is a really interesting take on a platform game :) Super fun to play, really creative!
LeviDSmith
21. Dec 2018 · 08:00 UTC
Nice game. It reminded me of meat boy, except with the explosion mechanic to reveal the pieces of the level. I managed to complete all of the levels, and each of the levels seemed to be unique and nothing seemed repetitive. My only suggestion would be to make the blob explode when hitting a spike, that way you can see what killed you. Having an in-game tutorial was a nice touch and something you don't see too often in LD games.
nander
24. Dec 2018 · 10:54 UTC
Really fun game, really good mechanic. I would have preferred the explode key to be elsewhere on the keyboard. As it is now, I pressed it quite a few times by accident.

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.
Henry Denny
24. Dec 2018 · 11:34 UTC
This game is incredible!! I loved the game mechanic and I found it super addictive. You should definitely make more levels!
static ddq
24. Dec 2018 · 17:38 UTC
really love the idea, the wall jump is also really smooth to control. It's simple but it really follows the theme quite well.
Linus
26. Dec 2018 · 16:29 UTC
This game has a very fun concept. The levels were balanced well and it was fun to try go as far as possible in the dark.

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!
Rosik
29. Dec 2018 · 15:37 UTC
Cute and interesting game, perfect fitting the theme. (Thought me until I got to the wall jump level, first and only level, when I lost because of strange mistiming of those jumps :D)
Belonzik
29. Dec 2018 · 15:52 UTC
One of the best games I've played so far. Theme is executed very well. I had alot of fun going through the levels and figuring out where I should go. Good job!