LudumData

Jelly Jar by Asieke

[raw]
made by Asieke for Ludum Dare 51 (COMPO)

Just your typical jelly fishing experience. Walk around on your quad directional treadmill consisting of floating chunks of earth, using them to scoop out jellies from the depths below and swipe them up in a jar.

Careful, there seems to be a little red imp that is getting upset at you for some reason. Best try to stay away.

Theme Incorporation: Every 10 seconds the Imp gets more aggressive

Controls: - WASD or Arrow Keys: Movement - Shift + WASD or Arrow Keys: Change Facing Direction - E: Toggle Treadmill Mechanic - Space: Swipe with Jelly Jar

Player's Guide:

Jelly Jar is a turn-based puzzle/strategy-esque game.

Goal: Swipe (space) up as many jellies as you can before getting overrun.

Spawning Jellies: - Toggle on the treadmill mechanic (E) - Move in a direction (WASD or Arrows) - The 'treadmilled' tiles will randomly spawn jellies - Note: Spawn rate increases during the course of play

Turn Order: - Player takes an action (Move or Swipe) - Player's turn resolves - NPCs take an action (Move or Pass) - Note: Visually the NPC's appear to act at the same time as the player

Game Over:

The game ends when the player ends their turn on a tile with an NPC, or an NPC ends their turn on the player's tile

Tips:

Jellies have a 50% chance to Move or Pass on their action. When they do Move, it is in a random direction

When tiles get 'treadmilled', they take their occupants with them. This can be used to create space between the player and the Imp.

JellyJarScreenShot.png

Link https://asieke.itch.io/jelly-jar
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/jelly-jar

Ratings

Overall 350th 3.18⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 390th 2.88⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 173th 3.479⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 466th 2.563⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 177th 3.625⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

Jonah_SRG
03. Oct 2022 · 03:28 UTC
An interesting use of movement for grid based tactics here. Turning on/off the treadmill makes from some interesting decision making once the grid is populated with many jellies. The aggression of the imp when it has topped out makes catching more jellies quite difficult, though there may be a method to keep it at bay. It seems like forfeiting a turn for a swing of the jar will always bring the aggressive imp one step closer until it inevitably catches you. Love the art style here, and the jumping and swinging animations are really well done.
dreamscale
03. Oct 2022 · 04:38 UTC
Nice sprites! The treadmill mechanic is really interesting, though it seems like it wasn't quite enough to help outmaneuver the imp. I think I would've enjoyed it more if this was real-time instead of turn-based.
M4ttU
03. Oct 2022 · 22:43 UTC
Pretty interesting concept! I love the art! It's difficult to escape the imp once it's one or two cells away but overall it's a fun game.
Well done!
LDJam user 299879
03. Oct 2022 · 23:10 UTC
Nice artwork, everything fits together nicely, and feels quite polished! The gameplay is fine, and I particularly like the treadmill movement, but I do wish there was a bit more to do to on the map, other than frantically running away from the imp :))
tengusheath
04. Oct 2022 · 00:46 UTC
Really like the art style
JoshuaRabbit
04. Oct 2022 · 19:35 UTC
I love the pixel art!
LoneWolfDev
05. Oct 2022 · 17:48 UTC
Graphics are really cool. And the treadmill mechanics its nice. But I still don't understand how the jellies behave , sometimes they jump on the tile I jump, sometimes not. Rather than, I like it!
mdotedot
05. Oct 2022 · 18:53 UTC
Graphics are nice and menu is cool as well. But I didn't understand how/what to play. sorry.
Geronimo
05. Oct 2022 · 19:37 UTC
Very solid game, although i did really miss the audio and music. I would also change the extremely aggressive imp behaviour, because as soon as he turns red the game is basically over because you can only catch a very small amount of jelly before he catches up to you, and then its either you running away from him for the rest of the game, or you getting caught. also i think it might be more fair if the jellies didn't kill you, since that just adds a lot of squares that you now cant step on, and it also seems strange that such a small blob can kill you. But I think it was a great concept and it followed the theme well!
Aristurtle
05. Oct 2022 · 21:22 UTC
The treadmill mechanic is clever and there were a few times I was able to take advantage of it to push the imp to the opposite side from me. I was never able to actually survive to long though once the imp goes red. At that point it just starts to seem impossible; either he's going to catch you because you have to swipe for a jelly, or there's so many jellies that one of them will jump to the same tile as you.

Would love to see this fully developed out. Good work.

Edit: I completely forgot to add, I really liked the sprite work, they are well done. Graphically the game is great
LDJam user 298498
06. Oct 2022 · 04:28 UTC
This was great! Solid idea, good aesthetic.
CallofAS22
07. Oct 2022 · 13:12 UTC
Nice pixel art
ActuallyTheMoon
07. Oct 2022 · 15:16 UTC
I like the art, but the treadmill mechanic definitelly took a while to get used to. An extended version of this game could probably use a clear tutorial on it. That said it Is a good movement mechanic once i figured it out lol
shimmerscale
07. Oct 2022 · 15:42 UTC
The mechanics were a bit confusing at first, but once I figured out how to play, I quite enjoyed this game. The pixel art is cute, and I liked the strategy/turn-based aspect of it. It was a little strange to me that the jellies can kill you, but I think with a few tweaks this game would be pretty cool if expanded upon.
LDJam user 279507
10. Oct 2022 · 22:23 UTC
I hit a bit of a wall figuring out how to use the treadmill to avoid the imp. After that hurdle it was satisfying to scoop up the little fellas. Art + UI is great. Nice entry overall
Annika
11. Oct 2022 · 10:16 UTC
Fun game! It needs quite some practice to find out how to run away from the imp. I always got caught after a few tries. Very cool characters though. I also love how small the playing field is. It's easy to keep the overview.
valentines
16. Oct 2022 · 13:38 UTC
Interesting game, I like that there's ways of using the treadmill to get away from the imp. However, I encountered a bug when activating the treadmill and moving from the edge of the square towards the outside - it would cause the playing field to move from its original position.
Nice entry overall, graphics were really cute too.
Wuppos
17. Oct 2022 · 10:15 UTC
I found this game quite hard to play. The jellies move in a random direction and you have to be next to them in order to catch them, this means there is always a chance you just lose the game if a jelly decides to jump on the same tile as you. I don't mind a bit of risk taking in games, but here it felt a bit much. Perhaps it would be cool if you could somehow sneak up on a jelly? Or maybe the player could get a bit more information on how the jelly might move? Just some ideas :)

Other than that I think it was a very interesting game idea! The imp was definitely scary and tricky. The art was also super beautiful! I love pixel art like this ^_^ Some sound or music would have been nice, but I am sure you know this already :P The treadmill mechanic was a great touch because you could control the pace of the game yourself. If you are a bit overwhelmed you can turn it off, and when you are ready for more action you can turn it on. This worked really well!

Overall very well done! :D