LudumData

Gel Break by HitchH1k3r

[raw]
made by HitchH1k3r for LD 42 (JAM)

Venture forth into the fabled Jelly Dungeon. Are you brave and clever enough to thwart a bunch of mindless slimes, and steal their treasure?

Sure you are!

Use Bombs bombs.png

Find Treasure tresure.png

Solve Puzzles puzzles.png

Secrets??? secrets.png

Just be sure you don't let the Jellies grow out of hand, or you may find yourself Running Out Of Space!

Use Arrow Keys to move, chop through Jelly Cubes, kick bombs, solve puzzles, and claim treasures!

Tips and Tricks

  • Different Jellies grow at different speeds. If you look closely, you can tell when they're about to spread. You can chop off Jelly-buds by moving into them, or hack away at adjacent Jellies with your sword. Don't get swallowed, or it'll be all over!
  • Bombs can be lit, then kicked into Jellies to clear large areas. Be careful though; the blast will get you too, unless you take cover in water. Also, if you don't want a bomb to explode, try kicking it into the water!
  • There are many tricky traps in the Jelly Dungeon. Color-Coded Jelly Buttons and matching Doors may block your way. These are triggered by Jellies; X-Buttons must be clear of Jellies of that color to open their door, while O-Buttons will open their door when Jellies of that color have grown onto all of them.
  • There are also Locked Doors, which can be opened by collecting a Key. Relic Doors are opened when you have collected enough Gems. Collect all the Gems for a secret ending!
  • Thanks for reading all these tips! Try typing "42" in game, for something dumb and terrible!

Version History

Aug. 13, 2018 :: v1.0 - Jam Release

Aug. 15, 2018 :: v1.0.1-jam - Fixed hallway (late game) where you could get permanently stuck. - Added minimal analytics collection system.

Aug. 15, 2018 :: v1.0.1-postjam - Fixed hallway (late game) where you could get permanently stuck. - Added minimal analytics collection system. - Fixed sequence break using a bomb to get past a one way gate. - Fixed relic in a blue slime budding graphic. - Fixed bombs being red when first entering a room. - Fixed bug where death graphics would not display when at the very bottom of the map. - Fixed splash sound not playing for every movement in water. - Fixed secret room text... - Fixed bug where player could move after they died. - Probably fixed a bug where some slime budding could change behavior if you die in a room. - Took out a hallway that was no longer needed. - Added two secret rooms (where the hallway was).

Aug. 17, 2018 :: v1.0.2-postjam - Fixed collision issue, where you could walk from the first "Tutorial Room" to the extra bonus secret room... whoops! - Moved the first bomb in the game so players will have to kick it. - Updated bomb water tutorial room, to properly teach bomb water mechanics.

Aug. 18, 2018 * Uploaded walkthrough video

Aug. 30, 2018 :: v1.1-postjam * Fixed windows and linux zip files * Locked camera to a multiple of the screen's pixel size * Title screen * Faster startup time * Level editor (THIS IS A HUGE CHANGE!!!) * Online level gallery (SO IS THIS!!) * Added push block (for editor) * Added pressure buttons (for editor) * Added colored doors (for editor) * World now saves your progress * 'R' key now reset the level

Walkthrough

If you feel the puzzles are too hard, or maybe just hate playing games ^^ https://youtu.be/1n-F5Wrh44

HTML5 (web) http://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/webgl/
Windows https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_windows_postjam.zip
macOS https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_macos_postjam.zip
Linux https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_linux_postjam.zip
Windows https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_windows.zip
macOS https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_macos.zip
Linux https://hitchh1k3rsguide.com/ludum_dare/ld42/gelbreak_ld42_linux.zip
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/gel-break

Ratings

Overall 8th 4.352⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 29th 4.114⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 9th 4.205⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 10th 4.489⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 88th 4.341⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 53th 4.024⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 288th 3.2⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 95th 3.86⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Given 74🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

Ethan Nachreiner
14. Aug 2018 · 06:44 UTC
This is the best puzzle game I've played so far (for this Ludum Dare)! I really love everything about it! It's a bit too difficult (I spent a long time trying to beat that one puzzle with 3 green blocks on one row and a square of 4 spaces), but maybe I'm just too tired 😅! Oh and I tried out typing "42".... it certainly was a thing 😐. By the way, make sure you play and rate other people's games so your game appears higher in the searches! (That's probably why I'm the first one to rate the game!)
yayapipi
17. Aug 2018 · 09:26 UTC
I like this puzzle game , but it is too difficult to me , but this game is cool
Odin
17. Aug 2018 · 09:33 UTC
I had fun with this puzzle game, the puzzles are sometimes hard, that's what I like! Good work !
Heidi
18. Aug 2018 · 18:04 UTC
Could definitely tell you put thought into the puzzles, and the graphics were cool! Great job! :)
Akuirako
18. Aug 2018 · 18:08 UTC
Interesting game, seems to have a lot of smart puzzles but I think I was too dumb to play as I had trouble figuring out how to play. The graphics are cute, I liked the sound design too, good work !
Wesxdz
18. Aug 2018 · 18:36 UTC
I'm not particularly a fan of puzzle games in general, but I did play through a few rooms here. Your game was really polished and has a clean pixel look that I like a lot. The slime expansion is a cool mechanic, especially how it's divided into different types. I feel like story elements might have aided gameplay motivation.
Phlip45
19. Aug 2018 · 05:04 UTC
Game is very polished. Graphics, Music, and SFX are all ace. The puzzles themselves are clearly well thought out but as others have said they are very difficult. I don't think you needed a tutorial but having some rooms where you slowly introduce problems and the ways a player can deal with them would have been nice. I felt like I had to go in knowing the ins and outs of the entire system in order to be able to look at a puzzle from the beginning and even have a chance of knowing what to do. I got to a particular puzzle early on where it had two racing red lines that led to some blue gel in the center. Everything I tried didn't work and I spent a good 10 minutes on the room. I don't know if you get power ups eventually but I assume you do as I couldn't think of another way to get through. So I decided to back track but got killed by a puzzle on the way back. I was a bit frustrated so that is where I gave up.

The puzzles are too difficult for me and that is fine as I'm not very bright and didn't have the willpower to brute force my way through them. Just thought it might be helpful to let you know exactly where I gave up and why. Still getting a good rating from me.

Have fun out there!
digital bacon
19. Aug 2018 · 05:19 UTC
Nice puzzler! Excellent graphics, and good mechanics around the jelly spreading. Simple controls mean no struggling with weird key combos. Good sound, especially the "squawk" when you die (which for me was often!).
Mammabouter
19. Aug 2018 · 11:15 UTC
A very polished little puzzle game. The puzzles were a bit hard though, but had a blast playing it none-the-less. It has that "just-one-more-attempt" pull that kept me trying a lot longer that I probably should have :) Very well done.
Zeusx212
19. Aug 2018 · 12:54 UTC
great effort
stevenjmiller
19. Aug 2018 · 14:41 UTC
Amazing game, I got all 6 gems and my score ended up being 15400. My only suggestion would be having a way to reset the room with R or some other key instead of having to die or go back through the exit.
Balance686
19. Aug 2018 · 17:36 UTC
I tried to extract the windows jam version and got the error:
gelbreak_ld42_windows.zip: Checksum error in Gel Break\Gel Break_Data\globalgamemanagers.assets.resS. The file is corrupt
gelbreak_ld42_windows.zip: The archive is corrupt
Redownloaded, same error
Astralore
19. Aug 2018 · 18:11 UTC
This was very fun! My score was 15500. I really appreciated the complexity of the applications of a bunch of simple mechanics, and the huge amount of thought that went into each puzzle and the arrangement of them to teach the mechanics. Great work!
🎤 HitchH1k3r
20. Aug 2018 · 02:39 UTC
**Thank you everyone for the valuable feedback!**

@stevenjmiller **Nice score!** There was a reset key (in fact 'R'), but it's disabled in the public release... I thought it wouldn't be needed with most of the levels that made it into the final game, but I'm thinking I was wrong. ^_^

@astralore (Don't tell anyone, but you got the 100% score! Good job, and **thanks for playing!** ^_^)

@balance686 I think my Build and Deployment script might have a bug (the builds were made on macOS). I was able to confirm this issue on both Windows and Linux, but it looks like the game runs without the files (I'm not sure if there will be any glitches, but I got the game to start okay on Windows by **clicking "skip"**). I will try to figure out the root cause and fix it soon. **Thank you so much for finding this! ^_^**
devharts
21. Aug 2018 · 02:30 UTC
Interesting puzzle mechanics and very well polished! Nice use of the theme as well :)
SuperEndeg
21. Aug 2018 · 10:34 UTC
Very nice game. Reminded me about DROD series. Definitely as hard as DROD too. Stuck at the puzzle with blue slimes in the middle, and have to use walkthrought.
What might help to ease frustration is maybe some indication showing that next step might be dangerous. Or maybe undo button.
Michael Wingfield
21. Aug 2018 · 18:34 UTC
Really neat game. I loved the graphics. The music was a good fit. But damn... those sound effects were really rough. They were just way too sharp. Made it a bit tough to not cringe after a while since every time you walk in the water or attack a slime it would make this screeching sound effect. But really a great game. Thank you, and well done!
g12345
22. Aug 2018 · 10:05 UTC
One of the games I still haven't finished, but I still want to write a comment about it.

Yay, I finally found a good, tough puzzle game to play! :wink:

What i would improve on this is, that you don't do one-way roads with red blobs. I guess I took the wrong exit several times with one way roads that leads back to the beginning. Also a 'R' key would be nice too :tongue:
Repusv
26. Aug 2018 · 09:01 UTC
This was too hard for me so I had to watch the walkthrough. Very very good puzzle game though!
mosaic
26. Aug 2018 · 14:46 UTC
This is one of my favourite games so far. Well done!
Cosdots_HM
26. Aug 2018 · 15:49 UTC
This is so addictive... Great game!
piscythe
26. Aug 2018 · 20:21 UTC
It's not that often I see an LD puzzle game that really pushes what can be done with the puzzle mechanics and expects the player to think. I think players would have an easier time learning the mechanics with stronger visual indicators - for example, have the jelly somehow indicate how many turns it is away from expansion and have a visible countdown timer on the bombs. I stumbled my way to the end (8400 points / 3 gems), but that still meant missing half the content. Good work!
Karai17
27. Aug 2018 · 06:04 UTC
This comment intentionally left blank.
DDRKirbyISQ
29. Aug 2018 · 06:00 UTC
Amazing job! This is very well done and the puzzles really have a lot of depth to them. Great job building various different types of puzzles around the core mechanic. I really have no idea how you can come up with such great puzzle designs in a jam setting; it's super impressing. I do think the bomb puzzles were the trickiest to really get the hang of, as there are a lot of rules that weren't completely obvious at first (how long until the bomb explodes? what is the radius of the bomb? is the bomb still ticking down while inside slime? etc.) Those issues could probably be addressed with some minor additional UI tweaks and/or notifications or such.

Amazing job overall!
rjhelms
30. Aug 2018 · 03:36 UTC
Ooh, now this is a challenge - don't have the time to really puzzle through it all right now, but I'll definitely be coming back for more. Great work!
Local Minimum
01. Sep 2018 · 16:12 UTC
The puzzles were a bit challenging but at last I managed to get 3 crystals. In general very well made and structured game. Not really much to complain about, except perhaps that it was punishing sometimes, that if you explored down one alley you had to loop back and redo some old puzzle again before reaching the fork in the road where you accidentally took a wrong turn.
kaynato
02. Sep 2018 · 04:37 UTC
Lovely puzzle game!! I really enjoyed the humor and the balance of the puzzles. They definitely felt tricky, but still doable - that when I was able to finish them, it was a sense of accomplishment instead of relief that I got.
There were some places where my curiosity made me lose time wading in what turned out to be one-way tunnels, but this was in the Post-Jam version after all.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/322934569093431296/485667242051371010/unknown.png was pretty fun once I had gotten all the gems (Soli told me to share this with you)
BoopsGames
04. Sep 2018 · 20:01 UTC
AWESOME GAME!!! So solid!!