Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Murder Mitosis
By ArcticMattekar and for-science
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 40 | 4.11 | 148 | |
| Fun | 34 | 4.02 | 147 | |
| Innovation | 31 | 4.04 | 148 | |
| Theme | 67 | 4.07 | 149 | |
| Graphics | 160 | 4.12 | 150 | |
| Audio | 4.42 | 9 | ||
| Humor | 221 | 3.08 | 139 | |
| Mood | 241 | 3.52 | 142 |
It says don't forget to eat, but I have no idea HOW to eat or WHAT to eat. Heck, I didn't know how to even move around until I started mashing keys on the keyboard, lol. Maybe I'm slow...? Anyway, it was super fun other than the fact that I lost every time because I starved to death! Nicely crafted. :)
@SheepTree Thanks for pointing that out :) I added a section regarding controls to the description. The little gray dots are food.
EDIT: I have just uploaded a slightly modified version that (hopefully) explains stuff in game :D
Really fun and polished game, great theme and execution. There's not really a reason not to hold attack and mash convert constantly though. Maybe adding more of an energy penalty for those abilities and make it more about timing your push or boosting the force of nearby units.
Ah! It makes sense now. I thought the dots were just part of the style of the game, lol. Oops. That's probably on me more than a design issue, ha ha.
This is ace!! Challenging and fun, with a really nice style & sound to backup solid gameplay. Only played solo but could happily sit and play this for ages. Well done!
Just watched the video... Very nice...
Played at 2 players, really fun :D It's tricky to figure out what is the goal at the beginning (especially the health bar), but after 2~3 games it's super cool! And the look of the game is simply awesome, I love the blackboard design :smile:
Just tried it, I really like your idea for the theme! It is a really cool concept and I am happy to see some multiplayer games to come out of this jam! I had to play just with the AI for now, but I bet the fun multiplies just as those creatures do when you have some friends around. :wink:
My only questionmark was that I was constantly asking myself why my (health?) bar gets filled up. How does this starving system actually work and why does it refill even if I do almost nothing (like right when you start) ?
@togimaro @samurai-spark I just added a little more explanation on the energy bar, since this has been an issue that has been coming up the last few days. You have to keep up your energy, you lose it if you attack or touch an enemy creature. You regain energy by eating this little gray food pellets. So as the game progresses and the board becomes more crowded, the game is supposed to become more about strategic positioning and better field control.
Thank you for playing and your great feedback!
The game was really easy to get into. We will definitely play this whenever we have some friends over. Something we really loved was the basic game idea, it was original and fun. The art/ graphics was on point. We loved how the cells kinda meshed into each other. It made it feel organic. Have an awesome day!
*(We'll be back again on Sunday when the judging starts)*
// Rasmus & Isak ([LiquidBrain](https://ldjam.com/users/liquidbrain/))
A very fun little game and it is really beautiful.
Fun, fast, beautiful, inventive, well designed... What else is there to say?
It would be amusing to see the kind of strategies a vivid multiplayer scene would come up with for something like this. Especially in a 2 vs. 2 match.
At least against the AI it always ends up in the smartest player (me!) using the secondary action at the right time to smother everyone else amidst their own minions. Those merry blobs are adorable and deadly at the same time!
Outright splendid work!
Super cool!
This is a really nicely put together game--original, colorful, interesting, and fun. It's smart how the pressure builds naturally as a mechanic of the gameplay.
The characters, overall graphics and animations/tweening are awesome. The soundtrack fits the rest of the game really well and the game fits the theme perfectly. Really fun game, I'd love to try the multiplayer - if only I were in my previous school's lab right now... I suppose you aren't planning to implement an online multiplayer. :cry:
I played the WebGL version - it didn't work in Safari (menu was OK, but after starting the game, the screen remained black, only the music+SFX played). Strange... However, it did work in Firefox. Thanks for making such a nice game!
I can corroborate the Safari woes of @m-1 - and I found this error in the console. Can provide more info if needed: ``` TextureFormat 17 is not supported on this platform ```
Other than that, this is a great game! Very simple, solid idea, executed well. Graphics are perfect for this, and lucky you to find music that fits! I second the comments above about making your abilities cost a little more to make the game a tiny bit more strategic than it currently is.
It's an impressive work to be your first Ludum Dare!
I liked a lot the art and the music is on point. Actually I can't belive that there's a multiplayer mode included.
One of the best entries that I've played!
I'll play it with my little brothers!
This is great. Feels really tight for a jam game, strategic depth was emerging after just one play too! Well done!
Nice game. It was a little bit frustrating to figure out how to play but it quickly came together. Nice that you did both - PvP and AI. Music is pure awesome. Note that web version has unreadable text near the energy bars because of the resolution.
This is seriously a blast. I'm amazed how much polish you were able to add in 72 hours. Gameplay made sense after one round. One thing I did run into is an AI "stalemate" that lasted around two minutes, so something to prevent that might be nice. Fantastic job.
Sweet game. The aesthetic is superb and the game overall comes across as very polished... can't even think of anything useful to say that isnt praise... good job :D
Great game!!! Man how did you manage to pull off such polish in such a short time!!! Well done :)
A really fun game with charming graphics! Didn't really get the game at first, so I kept starving due to not eating the grey bubbles, but once I figured it out, it made way more sense. Also, is there any penalty for just holding down the hunt button? A surprising amount of strategy in a 72 hour game, with great complimenting audios and visuals and a pretty good AI. Had a lot of fun playing your game!
Wow, I'm always impressed by what certain teams can accomplish in 72 hours! This was really polished and really fun to play!
Simple mechanics, great fun and AI, epic music and graphics! Though I'm not exactly sure what Hunt Mode does other than making your cells go away.
The game is extremally well polished, graphic and audio are on a really high level, gameplay is smooth and addictive :D, great game!
I have now also rated your game.
I also rated the game and just noticed that I could rate audio, which wasn't made during the jam. You may want to update the Opt-Outs to avoid confusion. :)
@m-1 You're right. It should be fixed now. Thanks!
Awesome idea :) I love it, graphics is so cute and nice :) I think you pick TOP 50 position :)
Man it was fun overwhelming the other guys with my little red armies! I liked this enough to give it a good bunch of attempts.
I found myself wishing that my little army would convert other blobs over time if they outnumbered them, because that yellow jerk just buried himself in his army and I couldn't get to him - lol
Really cool concept though, and I wish I had someone to play it with (looks like it's multiplayer?). Impressive for 3 days of work!
Good audio choice too, even if it's not your original work.
We needed a little time to understand all the rules and mechanisms involved. The help page helped a lot, but at first we were unsure about the meaning of the stars, and what "aggressive" behaviour meant.
The game has flawless and very cute graphics! \*u* The AI was impressively good and beat us for many of our first rounds. We also really like the hand-drawn instructions and menus!
Very innovative interpretation of the theme, and adorable use of Voronoi diagrams (?).
The controls had a rather high delay on older machines.
The best strategy game with the most awkwards control I played so far :)
This game is cute as hell and very nice to play. Gathering resources, collecting allies and sending them to eat your opponents!
I understand the control scheme as it allows for multiple players to play locally. The music is really fitting the game.
(You can see me playing this game for the first time on the vod https://youtu.be/lXUmif8KKxM?t=1h40m16s )
The game looks and sounds great! You could make the controls a little easier by making the "go-aggressive" button a toggle instead of a hold. I'm impressed that you got in AI opponents.
Really good entry, was really fun playing it :)
Took some minutes to figure it out how the game works but when i did it was a really fun experience. The mechanics are really great, the art and music are well made and fits well with the game.
Great job on the game, keep working on it!
Awesome game! Really liked the mechanics and the graphics!
I can't even win against the AI :(
Very creative and very fun! Everything with the music, gameplay, and graphics all go together really well! The movement feels a little difficult and slidey and you tend to get buried under a lot of cells and become unable to move anywhere. Otherwise, really great!
interesting idea. looking forward to seeing this expanded upon.
Very nice game... graphics and sounds are awesome. Looks very polished. I did have a little difficulty finding the gray dots to eat... seems like they didn't' stand out so I forgot about them.
This is very fun. And hard. I played about 5 or 6 times vs AI, lost every time. In the web player at least, the bottom of the instructions panel is cut off. I feel like I was missing a control or something. Maybe not. Either way Great Job.
This is a very fun game and challenging, I wish I had more people to play with me. I never won the the concept is really great, good job!
Just played the game- and thoroughly enjoyed it! :D
If anything- the controls did feel a bit difficult to go around with especially since there was this weird "float" feel. I'm not sure if it were entirely intended.
As for the art- I liked it. :D It would definitely be a fun game if it had a lot more power ups and features- but right now, it's strong enough as it stands as game.
Wish I had more people to play the game with- as playing Solo felt a bit too easy and I won my 4 rounds. :P
Solo felt really easy because you could simply eat (the gray dots are too invisible, make them white?) and the enemies were surrounded by their armys and starve. Even without the agressive-button. But the graphics and controls are very nice, very polished game overall for a first entry and only two team members!
Really enjoyed this one, would make for a really good competitive party game or something. Great would on getting AI players in there, it's usually the one thing you see lacking in multiplayer gamejam titles.
Fun game and really neat that you included some AI in there too, looks polished for a ld game including the promotional material
Thank you all for playing and the great feedback so far :heart_eyes:
@brainy-beard Glad to hear that 72 hours without sleep paid off. :sleeping:
@blinry It's not Voronoi directly (well it is in a way), but we used some shader magic to approximate it and add some random noise for the wobble.
this game is such a cool concept i loved playing it and will be playing it some more. It was really easy to pick up. I try all games without reading instructions first just to see if i get it and i got it after the second attempt. Good work.
Fun local multiplayer game with interesting game mechanics! Title and title name is really good too! I played this one solo and still had a good time competing against the AI. The UI and grey energy pellets might need some adjustments to stand out, some people might have a hard time seeing them clearly.
Pretty solid gameplay. I think this could be a popular websocket .io game with a bigger world and more players (like agario, diepio, paperio and etc.)
Could you also please describe the implementation part? That squishy faces physics especially.
Here is my playtest: https://youtu.be/K3bMrIsmMWk Thank you! It was fun to play.
Really good game. at first, I did not read correctly the instructions, but once I've read them, I easily won the match.
The game was really well made and really polished. Although, I would somewhat tweak the UI or the color of the food, because it was not obvious that you have to eat it. It looked like a dirt at first.
But aside from that, really well made :)
Graphics look really nice. Had fun playing it but it's kinda hard to do all the stuff at once. I think it would be easier if attacking was shooting-like and controlled by mouse. and also if aggressive thing was like a toggle so you could focus on attacking and eating.
Great job overall:thumbsup:
Super cute and unique. Never seen a game like this! Took a while to know the rules and then is easy and fun~
A pretty fun party game! Reminds me of move-or-die. I like the overall polish the game has, from the menu/HUD to the actual gameplay.
I also like the art choices quite a lot(The notepad style with simplistic shapes made it feel really elegant). It took me a few rounds to finally understand the mechanic, but I really enjoyed how the game pushes towards ending with the petri dish being filled up.
Overall, great work! One of the best multiplayer games in this jam.
Good gameplay and graphics; I'm glad you addressed the 'how to play' aspect already, as that's really important for these quick little jam games. I think the food pellets could stand out a little more; the grey on grey isn't the best. Perhaps a different color or maybe a gold/shiny aura around them.
The grey dots weren't very visible at first, but after figuring the game out it became clear that this is a great gem amongst many of the submissions. The design is superb in both gameplay and UI, and overall the feeling is fantastic.
The game plays nicely, the music, sound effects and visuals are all awesome, and most importantly it's a lot of fun! Good job on making all of this in time - even multiplayer and a controller support! The AI is very well made too, although I was able to win without shift and later without using spacebar.
This was great, a really entertaining multiplayer experience. I only wish I had more than just myself to play it against. The more I played the more I got the sense of strategy behind the gameplay. It was a really interesting, Great work!
Pretty cool multiplayer game. After some quick rounds I got the rules and it was really funny and challenging. Great work!
Yay for web games! I could only play it single player but it was fun nonetheless. Good job!
I'm really impressed with this. Great mechanic - was really entertaining. Im was a little slow getting started but found my way in the end.
Very nice entry!
It feels like a complete game, the mechanics all work fine, and the graphics look great! The controls were easy to grasp and felt very fluid and properly tweaked. I can't really think of many things to critique with this game, because it does exactly what it tries to do and it does it well.
Wow this game was incredibly well polished. The mechanic was interesting and well adapted to the theme, it was a very pleasant gaming experience. The music and sound effects worked well and made me focus on the game.
Not sure how many different strategies there are but the game has a surprising amount of replay value.
The rules were explained well but it took me some time to understand how to win but it quickly became obvious.
It would be really cool if you had online multiplayer but that is something that can be added in a post-jam version.
Also it would be helpful to have a restart option in the menu so that you can retry without having to wait for the match to end or go back to main menu.
Overall it was a really cool game that impressed me on how well polished it was. Magnificent work
Overall a great game. I love the party feel and that you can play with multiple people. Well done! :)
Played this one in 2 player mode. Loved every second. The concept was really original and seemed incredibly polished. Being able to choose your avatar was a nice touch. The mechanics were incredible as well. Very elegant design. And then there's the art and music... They really work well together. My only wish is to be able to disable the AI for 2 or 3 player games. Nice work. This is something I'd play beyond judging.
Easily one of the better submissions I've rated so far. Very polished, excellent production value, I dig the video! :D
Looks nice and very polished. Good job!
What a great game! Very fresh and creative concept. Very polished in all his aspects. I play it alone :cry: but it has still been entertaining. Congrats!!
Very complete entry. Lots of great polish like the expressions and the camera panning around. I wish I had 3 friends around me to play against something other than the AI. Well done guys :)
The game looks great! The text is a little hard to read if the game is not full screen.
Really fun game. I was so much better than all the other players (bots). I had a great time playing it and winning! Keep up the great work. Nice look at multiplayer and AI!
I was confused first, it's hard to keep an eye on your energy and understand the influence you have on it. But after that, it became a fun and innovative game!
In my opinion, the fact I can be killed by other creatures isn't necessary. I prefer the idea that we have to block and starve others by having the most creatures...
Wow! The level of polish in this game is impressive! I love the art style that you guys went for. This is definitely an impressive entry and in my top 10 for sure!
Excellent fun game. Well coded, no bugs found (other than the ones in the petri dish). Played with my wife and both enjoyed it competitive feel, though they do seem to aim more for the players than the AI ;)
Fantastic work
Highly rated by us
The game is really fun and very well polished. I'm a doofus so I didn't read the description and jumped right into it and I admit it was not clear at first how I could gain energy back. Then I read the description and realised how it works. The thing is that these grey pellets blend really well with the background and I didn't hear any sound or see any effect that signaled the action "me ate pellet". As to the "attack", even after playing I'm still not very sure how it exactly works, all I did was mash the A button and it worked out okay.
I've said a lot about my complaints but this game is legitimately good, nice job on pumping that out during the jam :D
Really interesting game. mashing A until there is a large group, then pressing B seemed to be the win condition (while moving around and keeping from getting surrounded).
One small improvement would be to have '
Excellent, innovative game. Impressive polish for just 3 days! Picking an unconventional gameplay form was a risky bet, but it seems to have paid off pretty well.
Very interesting game! It's not very intuitive at start, but after one fail I understood how to survive.
- wow the games feels so awesome with the music - control initially was a bit confusing , but then when i understood then i enjoyed a lot - that tutorial page was very good
Very polished game! Great job!
Fantastic game, the whole mechanics of it are completely innovative and fun.
The learning curve is kinda hard but not really steep, in a couple of round you get the whole gist of it and from then on it's only fun and competitiveness.
Implementation, controls, effects, visuals, music, UI and pretty much everything is on point. One of my favorites from this Jam, definitely!
Congratulations, great effort!
very impressive to get multiplayer in a jam and the AI is good too! Loved it, well done!
Its a fun game!the music and the graphics are really good! Its dificult to know wen you are dying.
I have so fun playing it ^^
Very great entry! I didn't realize the little pellets were there at first, since they blend in a little too well haha. Graphics were super polished and I like how the music would change. The AI was kinda easy once I got the hang of it... is green supposed to be the best AI? Great job making this I wish I had someone to play multiplayer with!
I think this is the first multiplayer LD entry I have really enjoyed. It is fast, enjoyable and fun. I hope you will get at least somewhere in the first 25 best games in any of the category. Great job! :)
Well that is incredibly fun and polished, well done!
This was super fun! It is a bit confusing at first specially the Shift key aggressiveness, but it worked out in the end! Great stuff with the visuals too - fit the lighthearted approach perfectly! There was one round where I got swamped almost instantly, that was no fun hahah. Great stuff overall!
Neat concept. The animations and sounds were good. I wish there was more to do when you die, you're kind of left just watching the AIs play it out.
The game is super fun, i will get a friend or 2 to try it with , the sound fits the game perfectly and the graphics are cool, maybe add some powerups or things that will help you mess with your opponent and then see friendships going to the grave. A great job with this one would love to see an online option for this game in the future.
Hah this game is awesome! I wish I have friend to play it with someone else. But I haven't. I doomed to play alone. But that doesn't make game less fun (instead of my life)! Special thanks for gamepad support! I think this game could be even better if you add some bonus stuff. Like item that increases speed or distance of that... I don't know, attack? All in all it's a great stuff!
Cool concept. I think more games need multiplay. This is well executed.
The only thing I didn't get is what the point is of having many cells of your color. It seemed to me that the only important thing is eating. So it was the winning strategy for me.
Well done.
This game is fantastic, when can I play it couch co-op with friends? I honestly have like nothing to suggest here.
Really awesome game, wish I had the chance to play it with some of my friends! Love the idea; it's incredibly unique and provides plenty of different strategies for winning a match. The graphics are nice and the little nanobots have lots of character to them. The gameplay is also spot-on and the controls are tight.
All in all I really can't find any criticisms here... I think you have the potential to make #1 this Ludum Dare ;) **Keep up the good work!**
I played this on Livestream Today at the request of the Developer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCqO_O0iIo
I had a bit of trouble understanding what to do with the game, the grey dots weren't immediately apparent (I got it into my head that I was supposed to eat the other cells). I may revisit this tomorrow if you want to drop by the stream and resubmit it.
@occultone thank you for playing it :) I just resubmitted it and would love if you gave it another try.
Don't eat them, creatures that are not your own color are your enemies and will drain your energy badly if you touch them! :rofl:
Yeah, we have noticed that the gray pellets are easy to miss and we will definitely change that in a post-jam version (didn't feel right to doctor with it after the jam deadline). The keyboard controls are designed with 2 people in mind, so that anyone can play with a friend, even if you don't have gamepads. Playing with a gamepad is a little more comfortable though. :wink:
Also don't worry about the non-readable text on the energy bars too much, it is mostly decoration.
I'll get myself some caffeine this time, so I can stay up till the end! (Germany here)
Cool Game!!! Here is mine if u want to check it: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ghost-cat !!! :D
This was great fun! I played with my partner and I kicked his ass haha. I always appreciate a multiplayer jam game that can be played on the same keyboard.
We both missed the energy dots at first whoops, thought they were part of the background with all the mayhem. Just a smidge too subtle. Caught the text on the second go though, perhaps a bit of a delay and/or a countdown before the match starts might give the player some time to take in the details/descriptions? Though we didn't read the instructions that thoroughly so that's on us really!
This is so polished it looks fantastic, everything fits together nicely. I can really see it as a full on release. Really nice way to tackle the theme too.
Great job!!
Oh Wow.... That is a fun game! Great job, I loved the music and unlike mine I think the music can appeal to everyone. The game mechanics were spot on and the control felt great. GOOD JOB!
I Played this in Stream again Today at Request of the Developer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekGMbpHGKUE
I replayed this today and actually figured it out. Great job! I really enjoyed this a lot and spent another 30 minutes post-stream playing it.
@occultone thanks for playing it again :upside_down: To see someone playing the game (and enjoying it) is extremely helpful (and motivating)
Very polished game that would be great on consoles. You definitely get the best experience out of this with real players, as the AI gets stuck rather fast. Controls are tight, graphics are crisp and the gameplay is simple, yet hard to perfect. :thumbsup:
You can check out our playthough of the game over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTCEiFkkoI
wow, this game is really creative and, with a good multiplayer touch in it! its could be really fun to play it with 4 players there, keep up the work in this one! Really found it enjoyable! Good Job!
Glad I finally got around to playing this, it's great fun once you get the hang of it. I imagine even better with human opponents, but the AI did a pretty good job.
Really nice idea! Love the concept and the gameplay is Fun. :) Nice entry
I loved the graphics! I enjoyed a lot playing it! congratulations!
I remember the game caught my attention on the feed soon after the jam was finished, then again after you rated my own entry, and I just had to wait until the last day to finally get to try it. Shame on me!
This is a really solid entry, with a simple but engaging crowd control core mechanic and polished graphics and sound. I've only played single, unfortunately, but it's easy to see how this could be more fun with friends.
Great job!
Nice gameplay concept, I enjoyed playing it. Good job!
Very solid, so nice reviews xD
Very well designed game, with an interesting mechanic. Love the soundtrack and the game - both very polished for the short time period. Good job :D
This is a very polished entry with excellent graphics and the music fits very well. If I had to be critical...and lets be honest, I do...when the space was running out I didn't feel like there was anything I could do about it - I didn't feel like there was skill involved and that it was more luck as to whether I would win. Of course, it could just be me being a bit rubbish at the game!
Good game and interesting!
This is a very interesting concept! I think the main twist of is that I can make all the cells converted to my colour aggresive. I'd like to have seen this take more focus but as it is it is a unique idea. The theme and graphics fit very well together with the concept, I find it natural that us cells would do combat like this in this small world. You've nailed the theme and graphics. I'm also impressed at the level of challenging AI in a game built over a weekend. Well done!
Some points of improvement (there's not many, it's very solid!) Perhaps combine the 'converting' with the 'aggresive behaviour' into one function. When I convert cells they could be automatically aggresive. It may lose some of the strategy but this game doesn't feel like a strategic fight to begin with, it's more like a lightening landgrab. Secondly, and this is a really small thing, when I'm playing single player and I die, the match should end immediately. The AI are pretty compitent and fighting eachother, which means I am waiting for a good while for the match to end.
All in all a really solid, unique entry. Well done!
This is very well done! I like the color war aspect!
I'm wondering what intelligence you gave the AI, it looks pretty good, or I'm bad :p
Such a great idea, really innovative and impressive for a first entry! Great work :)
If you wouldn't mind having a quick go of my entry and letting me know what you think I would be grateful. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/space-pow-collins
I played the game first, and then read the postmortem. I was going to say that the AI felt pretty solid, so I guess all the work it demanded payed off. Other aspects in the game are all great and the game is fun. good job!
BEST GAME I'VE PLAYED YET. tho i mastered the game after 30 minutes of playing so it would be nice if there was a difficult setting for solo mode. also if you could rate my game i'd really appreciate it https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/whats-left
Very well themed, art execution was ace. Fun concept too, if not a little difficult to grok due to ambiguous and greyscale UI.
Nice short game!I whished there were a little bit more content. Something like power ups would be cool. I really like the idea. It's something different. Had a lot of fun.
Very neat idea, and excellent execution. Would like to be able to restart game early if I die in a bot-only game.
@sebastian-lague you can restart the game by pressing Escape (or Backspace, or Start on a gamepad) and going back to the main menu. But yes, one of the first features we'll add in a post-jam version is that the game speeds up, once it's all bots.
@rahtainka there was unfortunately no time to balance power-ups, but we have a few in mind that we would like to add in a post-jam version. Anything in particular you would like to see added?
Woah, great job for your first entry in Ludum Dare! I was impressed playing against the AI, that alone was a great use of your time. Game is polished and fun to play, what more could you ask for? Well done!
Great game!!! Very original concept perfectly executed. This is something I would play alone or with friends in every ocasion.
That's great! Very cute art and great sound! But i don't understand how to play in it. Great job!
Very cool game! Graphics are cool and music is amazing. Mostly good job on helping rating so many games. Congrats!
Really cute, fun game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKbr96NdjUs