Zooid Nexus by Benski
Zooid Nexus - Made in 48 hours
Interesting fact: Siphonophores are bizarre deep-sea creatures—long, delicate chains made up of smaller beings called zooids. Though they appear as a single organism, they’re actually colonies of specialized individuals working in perfect harmony.
In Zooid Nexus, you are a newly-formed zooid drifting through the abyss, seeking others to complete your living colony. As you collect zooids, your siphonophore grows—but so does its fragility. Watch out for obstacles, one wrong move could shatte the whole.
Itch page: https://tolinski.itch.io/zooid-nexus X: https://x.com/BenskiGameWorks
https://youtu.be/XbboyDskLl8
| Windows zip, Unreal Engine 5 game | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eKuhaZEVQo4kkEeO7Zqi006Zbqz-qiI1/view?usp=drive_link |
| Link | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D40R--HCmFvZPsrDeqEEh68FoZD_ePRB/view?usp=sharing |
| Itch page | https://tolinski.itch.io/zooid-nexus |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/zooid-nexus |
Ratings
| Overall | 196th | 3.306⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 146th | 3.316⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 154th | 3.289⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 250th | 2.947⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 186th | 3.237⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 223th | 2.2⭐ | 17🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 187th | 3.222⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 8🗳️ | 12🗨️ |
Have a good time and get many positive feedback
Thank you for playing!
To be honest this game doesn't do justice to the Zooids and Siphonaphores. When I was researching for the game idea I had such a grand vision and ended up with a bunch of glowing spheres.
Have a great time and tons of positive feedback too! cheers
Thank you for playing and for the positive feedback!!
Yeah game jams are a bit of a mess for Unreal engine, it's better to use engine that supports playing in the browser in these cases. I think I'll try to learn a bit of Godot just for game jams when I feel I'm knowledgeable enough in UE (which probably will never happen XD).
Haha very sharp!! indded all the sound effects in the game are actually from the UE menu sounds XD (except the music itself I mean).
I was definitely looking to save time, but I'm unfamiliar with rigging. Funny enough I have spent the whole first day animating the sphere to act like a blob with spring and stretch physics.
Thank you for the deep and positive feedback!!!
The abstract shapes hurt the immeresion a bit, and I didn't understand at first those were obstacles. I wonder if the idea of long chain of organism could make a less furstrating game (navigating a long chain in narrow corners is though)
I think there's a good idea here, very interested to see this one explored
Thank you for playing and feedback!
Indeed I forgot/didn't have time to implement the level change, and also add the third level I Originally planned. I think I have overstepped it on the second level, because I realized I won't have time to add a third one and pushed the difficulty too far apart from the first level.
My original plan was not to even make a snake-like but I wanted to have a a chain of different organisms that will do different jobs for the bigger organism resembling the Siphonaphore. But as always, I dream too big for my developing skills at this point hahaha.
About the shapes, I agree, I wish I had the skill and time to make some beautiful models, but that's for next time haha.
Thank you very much, I appreciate the positive feedback!
Indeed my development skills were pushed to their limits, I'm really bad at planning ahead haha.
I believe you already know how I enjoyed your game, I appreciate your feedback very much!
Cheers
With just 2 levels, i see a good potential.
Good job !
Thanks for playing and feedback!
Totally agree, I wish I had more time to make more levels and also add more variety. Unfortunately I got to the level design at the last few hours so the level design was pretty rushed.
Cheers!
also how dare you make that the sound effect for failing a level I hear it too much already xD
Loved the pleasant art style and chill music—it creates a really nice vibe. The gameplay is basically classic Snake, it’s well-executed and super fun to play.
Great job on this one!