eelBay by Peco
Controls:
- Move: W/A/S/D or Arrow Keys
- Select/Deselect: SPACE
- Reset: R or ESC
How to Play:
In eelbay, your goal is to manage a changing supply of three colors of eels, and deliver the right eels to the right boats in the right formation.
The eels are sticky- eels that are next to each other fuse into larger eels, and move together. However, if an eel is pushed onto an eel of a different color, it will move it instead of fusing. You can break fused eels this way. Boats come in regularly, delivering new eels, and requesting a certain formation of eels to leave. Deliver as many eels to as many boats as you can in the time limit!
Backstory:
Welcome to eelbay!
The sticky eels of eelBay need your help! They lead busy lives across the ocean, doing a variety of jobs- eelectricians, eelconomists, reel estate agents, you name it!
However, the commute always proves to be a challenge, since they're all so darn sticky! Help deeliver the eels to their 9-to-5s before it's too late!!!
Ratings
| Overall | 121th | 4.096⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 180th | 3.904⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 28th | 4.319⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 676th | 3.83⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 193th | 4.277⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 148th | 3.989⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 414th | 3.393⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 222th | 3.978⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 40🗳️ | 74🗨️ |
Incredible game, it made me flex my brain in ways that my brain absolutely was not ready for, and I had a ton of fun with it! I also really liked the way that you used the eels as a mask over an underlying pattern - It was a really charming effect!
Very clear overall game!
Pros
- visuals and ambient music
- very good puzzle mechanic
Cons
- controls could be polished more, selecting and moving eels were 100% smooth
The only thing I would add is that the pattern you need to add to the boats gets recognize even if it's down by one line for example. Since you need to go fast it's not always the quickest to match it exactly and end up having to move everything up.
It does make the check for matches a bit more complex to code so I get why it was done like this with the time constraint of a game jam.
Either way amazing job!
Gamewise: Wonderful idea for a puzzle game and graphically very appealing. I love that the textures move independently from the eels, reminds me of Keepvogel movies from my childhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQQ_cFTn2ug
The music fits very well too. Great job, keep it up!
I did 6 boats on my second try.
Good game!
I wish there was no timer tbh. But I understand it could be infinite otherwise, and that could be a problem.
Fantastic job! Very well done :smile:
The one thing I would suggest is that the timer only start with the arrival of the first boat, as it's not fair to the player to take away their time when they literally can't do anything.
It is a bit frustrating in a timed game when you have to spend the first few seconds waiting for the first boat to arrive, but i suppose it gives you time to organise your starting eels if necessary.
I think you could also add some tension to the end of the round by adding a ticking clock or some other kind of warning that time is about to run out.
Otherwise, this is a pretty good game.
I could imagine feedback for players would have been nice in the end, I think I saw the time shrinking evenly, a cool thing would be to get extra time whenever a ship has got its stock (reloaded). Therefore one could play to get a score and to challange oneself and there would be a reward: to play as long as one pleases (and is fast enough) unless time runs out ;D
Also a "You got a score of [...], press r to restart" option would be nice
I'm amaized by the management of the size of the game which is acutally small but comes with much input and replay-wishes.
You've very well done :D
edit: oh god guys, I just got the pun, earlier I just thought the colors were google related or so... you are genius...
Twitch vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1810045623?t=04h11m33s