Gramlins by LDJam user 399892

[raw]
made by LDJam user 399892 for Ludum Dare 56 (EXTRA)

More caffeine!!

A simple clicker where you have to take care of tiny addicted-to-caffeine creatures that reproduce like amoebas when happy but kill you if you deprive them of caffeine for too long.

Mini lore (story)

You crashed on a mysterious planet. It's so dark, you didn't see it until it was too late! There are tiny creatures that look hungry, and only your coffee machine has survived. They seem to love it! Oh wait, they're addicted now! Well, at least they work while they're happy. You might be able to get them to repair your ship so you can go back home.


⚠️Important Notes

  • Strongly recommended to preview and play on itch.io
  • Astronaut on the corner doesn't have any implemented functions yet~
  • New update, which very possibly means new bugs! Please report anything you might notice :)

🪧Details

  • Original music, no SFX for now.
  • Original graphics, except for fonts.
  • Last Update 04:10, October 23, 2024 (UTC+02:00) + Fix 01:30, October 24.

📜How to play

Main objective: escape the mysterious dark planet you crashed on.

Optional objective: survive as long as you can. Can you survive for 10 minutes?

  • Coffee machine:

    • Can be upgraded: the jar will hold more cups of coffee.
    • Fill the jar by clicking on it or the machine when empty.
    • Grab a coffee the same way. Then just click on a gramlin to use it.
  • Gramlins:

    • Have 4 levels of happiness: 4 (round eyes) is happy, and it goes down to 1. After that (0), they will kill you.
    • When they complete one happy round, they grow. When they grow enough, they divide, like amoebas! You can play with that to survive longer.
    • If the gramlin is already happy when you give it a coffee, it will grow.
  • Gramlin activities: The bottom bars tell you how many happy gramlins you need to do these, and which happiness level they will have after finishing.

    • Coffee machine upgrades: direct,no time for now.
    • "Any work":
    • Expeditions: these get you 1 resource every time, but sent gramlins will disappear for 10 seconds.
    • Repairs: you will need gramlins plus resources. No time for now.
  • Rocket: it needs 4 repairs to fully condition it to go back home. The last would be fueling it (lights turn on) but it isn't distinguished yet.

The game "pauses" while you're not in its tab/window.

Ratings

Given 25🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

brdyy
09. Oct 2024 · 16:32 UTC
Fun game with cute art.
Gaalsien
09. Oct 2024 · 16:39 UTC
It's a fun game, but I find the gameplay too simple for my taste.
MABIRUS
10. Oct 2024 · 17:33 UTC
The toy is cool, but it seems like you want a little more variety. These gremlins remind me of me without my morning coffee.
Jonathan Vinesar
11. Oct 2024 · 22:34 UTC
Art and music do a lot for this game, it definitely puts you in a certain mood when you play it. The problem I see with the game is that there's not really much incentive to make the little creatures multiply. It adds more work without much reward if your goal is to just last a long time. Overall though, the mood of the game was great, and with more work I could definitely see this as a mindless game to sink some time into if there was progression.
Alexascher
11. Oct 2024 · 22:39 UTC
Very cool art style, but the bug with sudden death unfortunately ruins the experience. I also couldn’t figure out which resource to use for upgrades or how it affects the monsters. But overall, everything is very cute and the idea is great. I’ll come back to play more if you fix the bug!
martonel
13. Oct 2024 · 13:51 UTC
It is a funny little game, with a good mechanism. Good job!
🎤 LDJam user 399892
14. Oct 2024 · 20:14 UTC
@alexascher The bug shouldn't happen anymore, if you try it again, please tell me if everything works fine for you! I also added some more info in the description, since for now I didn't have time to make extra improvements in-game, but I plan to soon, hopefully, some while the jam extras are still going on.
Ang Parodi
16. Oct 2024 · 00:30 UTC
I really liked the concept of the game, I just wished there were a better feedback of the current resources.
Wenyu Bao
16. Oct 2024 · 13:38 UTC
"I love the atmosphere! The original music is impressive. It’s a survival game, and every time I upgrade my coffee, my creatures get angrier. By the end, I can hardly keep up with them—so funny!
🎤 LDJam user 399892
18. Oct 2024 · 09:48 UTC
@wenyu-bao Thanks for your kind comment! Please come back to check for updates, I'm planning on adding some more gameplay😃 I might add more music/SFX too.
🎤 LDJam user 399892
18. Oct 2024 · 09:52 UTC
@ang-parodi Hi! Thanks for *your* feedback. Working on that too. Do you mean like SFX, different VFX for different interactions...? I would really appreciate further feedback🙌
Tetracold
22. Oct 2024 · 20:51 UTC
this is just like me fr, always needing caffeine
it's a simple game but it is nice for what it is, I liked the art and the music was good too, it would've be cool if there was at least one more mechanic to shake things up a bit, I saw you are preparing an update so I will look forward to playing that
WeirdBitGames
22. Oct 2024 · 20:55 UTC
Those are definitely some tiny creatures! Right on theme! I love their design and cute yellow eyes and teeth too!
🎤 LDJam user 399892
23. Oct 2024 · 07:12 UTC
@tetracold @weirdbitgames Thank you for your nice comments! You truly cheer me up to keep improving the game😊 I already updated it btw~!
Urfoex
23. Oct 2024 · 13:30 UTC
![Gramlins by matchaberi.png](///raw/dc/z/690b4.png)

Coffeeeeeeeee!!!
Those addicted little creatures...

Nice entry!
Plasmak
23. Oct 2024 · 13:48 UTC
Cool concept! Wish there were more UI and audio cues for clicking on things though—was a little confused at first!
🎤 LDJam user 399892
23. Oct 2024 · 14:36 UTC
@plasmak Thank you for your feedback! I'll keep it in mind :) Adding SFX was one of the other things I wanted to do, but I didn't have time. I want to try more games so I won't be able to do much more before the event finishes, but I'll definitely do it when I can. About UI cues, do you have any specific recommendation? Thx again😊
Plasmak
23. Oct 2024 · 14:56 UTC
@matchaberi I was thinking of a little animation when the "tool" number increases, and also more animations after clicking on objects in general. But your game concept is good, and still congrats for finishing it! :)
🎤 LDJam user 399892
23. Oct 2024 · 18:04 UTC
@plasmak Thank you x1000! I really appreciate you took the time to come back and detail the feedback, it helps a lot!! 🎉👏🏻🫶🏻