FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Mr. Money's Phenomenally Soggy Water Removal Romp

Mr. Money's Phenomenally Soggy Water Removal Romp

By bongard22, floppynub and rhoka

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall204.3594
Fun334.2094
Innovation744.0494
Theme1214.1894
Graphics1404.2794
Audio464.1493
Humor194.3694
Mood574.2494

Comments

letmebeme 2025-04-08 16:41

cool idea a mix between an idle game and quests :D i din't get how i can get the third roller blade thingy though. and why can i buy these hands?XD

flinge 2025-04-08 18:28

So far, one of the best games I’ve played in this jam. The game flow is just "pure chill". That feeling of moving toward your goal while the lake literally melts (or dries up) before your eyes — that hits different. Super satisfying. Perfect game to just drop into, unwind, and turn your brain off for a bit. Honestly, I’d even pay for something like this.Also, the humor is spot on — that thimble at the start? Pure gold. Loved it.

celtican 2025-04-08 22:16

This was the first game I rated this jam. It set a high standard!

- The biggest laugh from me was when I opened up the shop and saw the first upgrade was "Your Hands." Good stuff. - The combo of incremental game + exploration game is nice. I think this is a really undersaturated market that is healthy for new games. - The art was nice. It hit the sweet-spot between stylized and easy-to-make. - The progression for obtaining the skateboard was very natural. First, you have to walk around the world to find the items for the roller skates, and then you have to progress in the game a bit before getting the last piece for the skateboard. This was the most natural-feeling progression in the game. - Moving around on the skateboard and roller skates feels good—I'm scooting around while I type this review. - I saw the punchline coming a mile away :)

Feedback: - The trees and background wall/grass texture conflict with the rest of the pixel art. The trees look cozy while everything else looks jank. You could have both, I suppose, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity in there somewhere. - By the end of the game, I kept spamming engine pumps everywhere to get the water ASAP. If there was something very expensive to get (even a vanity item like a party hat or something), I would have valued the chemical upgrade more. I can't tell if the game wants to act like the player has some agency or not (many incremental games don't), but right now it feels like the player does not. - The music was nice, but it always faded out somewhat suddenly, and had long periods of silence. With games like Factorio, the music feels like it naturally fades out. I'd guess it's just a matter of having a smoother transition. - In the middle/late bit of the game, I largely was just standing around watching the water go down while waiting for me to get more money for more pumps. - The central mechanic of scooping water felt under-utilized. At some point, the pumps give way more money, and the path from the water to the nearest deposit point is very long.

Overall, I enjoyed this game a good bit :)

xorfe 2025-04-08 23:43

I watched the game on Twitch. I really like the idea of 2D hands in a 3D world (it's in my game too). I don't know how you managed to do so much in just 3 days, but it seems like a detailed game. The graphics are quite nice. Overall, I liked it!

evilscotsman 2025-04-09 00:40

Love these kinds of games where you're given a goal and all the time in the world to gradually work toward it. Was fully enraptured for the entire length of the game. Not to mention the artstyle is really good, the mix of 2D and 3D, and the pixelated textures work really well. Good job!

oxnh 2025-04-09 04:08

Music and art was a highlight for me. Super chill vibe. Idk if you guys made the music or not but it really reminds me of Uyama Hiroto and Nujabes. That's a high tier complement. Also cool that there's a bit more actual game play associated then your typical clicker game. Don't have much criticism. Nice job.

oxnh 2025-04-09 04:09

Oh yeah linux build works fine if you were wondering

floppynub 2025-04-09 04:27

@oxnh Awesome, glad the linux build worked, thanks for letting us know! And thanks a bunch for the compliments on the music, I did make both of the songs over the weekend! Me and my trusty piano. I am absolutely flattered by your comparisons, Nujabes is one of my all time favorites and has been a huge inspiration for me, so it's rather surreal to see you say that.

Thanks again, glad you enjoyed!

saryah 2025-04-09 07:17

I played this whole thing on stream and I don't regret a single second. So awesome, well polished, and very fun. As mentioned I would break up the pump and pump upgrade into two tutorial steps.

monado 2025-04-09 07:19

10/10 Never wanted to drain a lake more. image_2025-04-09_001849001.png Honestly had a super fun time with it, fantastic work!!!

un-kirik 2025-04-09 07:22

I am Jesus and I walk on water! A clicker with minor additions – didn't really grab me.

kahztein 2025-04-09 08:12

Really great job with this! It's a huge challenge to make a game with this much gameplay time during a jam, but you managed to pull it off. The pacing was surprisingly good, searching for items gives your pumps time to accumulate money, and then you can see a noticeable boost in income once you spend it all. There wasn't any point I felt too bored, I enjoyed the whole thing.

Lovely music and art too, it gives the game a nice cozy atmosphere. You all did a fantastic job!

virtual-turtle-studio 2025-04-09 08:17

Love the vibe of this game! Everything seems well done and I love that everything is original. It's a cool concept and I'm impressed by how much game there is to this. Lots of things to do! Well done for such a short time!

dandee 2025-04-09 09:17

Cool aesthetics and upgrade system, well done!

skrelevsky 2025-04-09 09:20

Very atmospheric, quiet game for the evening. It's a very nice sound design, it's cool that we managed to implement so many mechanics that we could just stick for a long time! GJ!!!!!!!

byebye 2025-04-09 10:01

One of the best games at the jam! photo_2025-04-09_12-59-13.jpg

rhoka 2025-04-09 10:18

@byebye Haha I see you found the secret jump boost movement tech ;) Thanks for playing!

chrisbeck 2025-04-09 11:35

Really loved this! Not much else to say, this is one of my favourite games from this jam so far, the only gripe I have is that the item you have equipped starts to glitch around as your speed increases. Might be an idea to be able to unequip. Great job!

sharky3188 2025-04-09 13:16

Such a great game! I loved the use of the theme mixed in with a cozy idle game with some fun exploration and humour. You solved all the issues i had early on with the movement feeling slow, and the roller skates/board felt great to zoom around on. Minor graphical glitch with the item i was holding flashing in and out, but game jams hey. Super solid entry.

dywanix 2025-04-09 14:59

fun idea and also very nice graphics!

jetaimais 2025-04-09 15:00

What a fantastic game system! I really loved the rollerblading mechanic — it made the whole experience super relaxing. The music was also really soothing and added to the vibe. Totally loved this game. Big congrats!

jona-scheidig 2025-04-09 15:04

what can I say... prolly the longest I've played a game this jam. Its so fun to watch the water slowly shrink, and seeing your money go through the roof. Also amazing that you added rollerblades and a skateboard to make travelsal alot nicer. Artstyle, music, theme, sounds, whatever. Everything sells, and its great

keely-brown 2025-04-09 15:09

Right off the bat, I love billboarded 3D games. The idea of using a thimble to drain a lake is so good. Great animations for using the items.

Love the concept - great take on the theme. I had to stop playing before I got too engrossed, but I liked how there were so many different aspects of the game that you could interact with and explore. Super cool game - very impressive to have that much done in the time period.

ayuv 2025-04-09 15:09

Simple fantastic! From the goofy visuals to the relaxing bgm, I loved everything about this game. Simple but very addictive concept. Good job!

providence 2025-04-09 15:34

Great spin on clickers! Love the cozy gameplay and tunes. Would have liked some endgame content, but I get it's a jam xP Kept a jug of water cause I thought might as well since it's the last bit of water around. Sad the government found out when I sold it :c

nicso 2025-04-09 15:48

Really good take on the cookie genre

particulary loved the music, but overall everything was on point 👍

nice cat by the way

yossarian 2025-04-09 16:34

I played this on a stream last night, loved it as you saw. Looking through the comments here I totally didn't piece together that I was wasting my time with the bleach upgrades in the late game. At that point I just needed the pump! It was too satisfying to see my money go up.

Movement upgrades rock, very satisfying loop, great job. Can't wait for the third in the Mr. Money trilogy.

sevadusk 2025-04-09 16:47

I really like the art. I also tend to mix 2D and 3D elements, and this game does a great job of combining them to make a relaxing game.

svenerik 2025-04-09 19:11

This one wonderfully pulls you in right away—gotta gather all that water! Hopefully in the expansion I’ll get some oil too, and maybe use the water (or oil?) to clean up the graffiti. Really dug the aesthetics, the humor—honestly, the whole vibe. Jolly good game!

hempuli 2025-04-09 21:30

I'm not hugely into clicker-type games, but the water level being visible measure of your progress (+ there being an actual ending to go for) made this a lot more enjoyable! I liked the visuals a whole bunch, too. Great work!

vegasword 2025-04-09 23:02

FUCK YOU UNCLE I WANT MY MILLION BACK

mascoll 2025-04-09 23:05

This is a Masterpiece!

Squeezing this one out within the Jam-timeframe is very impressive! Super cool graphics!

Amazing music!

Good humour!

Plenty of water!

Morally dubious Uncles!

5/5 stars!

eggsscrambled 2025-04-09 23:21

winiwn.png

I think the pixel art, cartoony shaders and 3d textures all clash a little bit but that's obviously such a small critique. Great game totally glad I played through it would love to see what you could've done with more time

bongard22 2025-04-09 23:31

Wow @eggsscrambled I'm really impressed that you beat the game with so little money.

kawair 2025-04-10 03:24

I really like the art style of your game,It’s a little bit similar to the early version of RTCW. The gameplay is also pretty interesting, which is earning money hahhahahah.

cmaks 2025-04-10 03:38

This was such a delightful game! Not sure what it was, but as soon as I tried a few upgrades, I went to spreadsheets to see what was best. I did 2 V8s + 3 chem filters until I realized money wasn't an issue and I should just be upgrading speed.

For the roller blade wheel: I had trouble getting it, and then had a great "aha" moment when I got the rollerblades and realized I could go back for it. Well done!

Two feedback nits: - I think upgrades could have gotten increasingly more expensive- the 1k price for all 5 slots felt to achievable - I noticed some tree textures were missing: missing texture 2.png

The graphics were fun, but I especially loved the trees!

jonathan-vinesar 2025-04-10 05:11

Really concise and well-made game for a game jam. I'm not a huge fan of clickers, but I found it fun to explore to find the items for the upgrades. It's a cool idea to have more to do in a clicker once the production rate is really high. The music was great, sometimes the music would stop for a minute or two before coming back tho. The humor was great too, it added to the overall vibe of the game. Overall, great job guys!

mattpopa 2025-04-10 05:13

Easily the most fun I've had in a game jam yet. It scratched my "Schedule 1" itch haha. I liked the art style and I very much appreciated the fact that this game had exposition as well as a tutorial. You intertwined progression with exploration which was fantastic. I loved the dialogue bits, it added the flair to all the gameplay aspects. I also just love 'clicker' games that have a clear cut goal.

My only nit picks are the music going quiet for minutes at a time and the menu pausing the money making. It made me want to limit the time I was talking to Unc in favor of maximizing the money gains.

Great game guys. It was fun and that in itself is a great success.

bongard22 2025-04-10 05:49

Hey @cmaks I definitely think you're right about the upgrades scaling. We did consider this but not until too late into the jam. We came to the conclusion that the time it'd take to rebalance the game with scaling upgrade costs wasn't worth it at that point. Oh and those weren't missing textures :wink:

@jonathan-vinesar and @mattpopa the music going quite was intended. The idea was to chill with some ambiance so that the songs don't feel too repetitive. But that is good feedback. Oh and yeah pausing everything while the shops are open isn't ideal but I believe there would be potential issues that we didn't have time to fix if those menus didn't pause everything.

sarah-upton 2025-04-10 05:52

all i can say is, WOW! your art style is incredible. a lot of 3D pixel art games feel flat but you have done an amazing job.

therandom 2025-04-10 11:21

Cool game! Near the end I want to buy wacuum cleaner, that sucks the water constantly ahah

fupi 2025-04-10 18:04

Captura de tela 2025-04-10 150153.png

I... spent way too long on this :sweat_smile:

I love incremental games so much, and this one hits the spot perfectly. Even though after some time you mostly are just buying upgrades, the game is always giving you more to do, so you're always on the move, and the quest system adds that little bit of extra character. The graphics, audio and writing are all wonderfully quirky. Honestly masterful!

EDIT: Oh, one small thing. The item I was holding kept flickering position and took up a pretty big space on the screen, which made exploring for items a bit annoying, I'd like it if the held items were smaller and were fixed to the camera.

510 2025-04-10 21:49

I can't believe I played this until the end... Well played!

The movement upgrades were oddly satisfying, just moving around so fast was great. The level design is pretty clever, fully utilizing the movement speed. This is the first game of the jam that I play that takes the humor aspect very seriously, so have my upvote! And there is even attention to the details as I had to use the "unstuck" button while derping with the skateboard.

katastudios 2025-04-10 23:04

Fun gameplay, good movement, genuinely funny, great entry! My one nitpick is the skateboard makes me want better ramp physics

floppynub 2025-04-10 23:44

@katasudios lol I completely agree, we are genuinely considering adding proper skateboarding into the game because it's so sad not being able to use the ramp and grind on the rails correctly.

bongard22 2025-04-10 23:58

Hey @fupi thanks for playing and thanks for the review! BTW I'm streaming on VaguelyDampGames again right now and would love for you show up so I can play yoru game

fupi 2025-04-11 00:28

@bongard22 Thank you for telling me! I'd love to join but I'm at school right now! ;w; It's gonna be another hour so I'll see if you're still streaming then.

noodlehoof 2025-04-11 03:51

such a cool game! i'm a sucker for idle/incremental games so this is right up my alley. it does feel like the gap between completing the upper layer of pumps and draining the level enough to access the next layer is a little large, but other than that i had a lot of fun!

rincs 2025-04-11 09:27

I only wish that I could grind the rails better. xD Such a fun and silly time!! In the end, the biggest treasure was all the little guys we befriended along the way...

rhoka 2025-04-11 09:44

@rincs The lil' guys really are the truest treasure. I appreciate your appreciation for them <3

jag 2025-04-12 07:59

This was a fantastic game jam entry, definitely one of the best ones I've played! I'm not sure why but it got me hooked and I just wanted to get to the bottom of the depths. I ended up playing this a whole hour!

0x-void-x0 2025-04-12 08:18

I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU MADE ME SPEND HOURS DRAINING A STUPID LAKE. 11/10!

If there was a rating for "I want a full release of this" I'd give you 5/5. This game triggers a deep primal ooga booga instinct within me, the same instinct that make us want to dig a hole at the beach, or grab a stick that looks like a sword. I was there for hours just draining and purchasing and draining more and more AND MOOOORE...

This is the highest ratings I've given a game this jam and I'd give you 6/5 if I could. Actually 7/5 for the added comfort of controller support. The pixelated art style is awesome and the music is top notch without being repetitive (I appreciate the cooldown between music). You guys totally cooked, with such an ambitious game for 3 days and somehow managed to finish it!

The humor was also just perfect, I noticed those trees with purple textures and thought "aw man must be an issue with textures" and then it turned out to be a feature!

I can yap on and on and on about how much I enjoyed this game but you get the idea by now, best game I played this jam :100:

t.PNG

conduit 2025-04-12 09:10

Absolute vibe machine. Would love to see this as a full release potentially with a few different maps and maybe a few more songs. Played this to completion and enjoyed every second of it. 5/5 across the board, amazing vibe, simple but fun gameplay loop, just great! Also, lil' guy was my most favorite ever. Hands down. No questions asked.

7uc4s 2025-04-12 14:28

Jesus christ this was good, the graphics are weird, but the rest compensate so much... very well done :ok_hand:

At some point, I just enjoyed staying there watching the lake drain, felt so good...

With a few fixes, this is perfect, a solid 5/7

coleslaughter 2025-04-13 00:50

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2430455310?t=00h35m21s)

This game was ridiculous in scope. I honestly can't believe y'all were able to pull this off in such a short time frame. Y'all really have that Godot pipeline down, this was an awesome job :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

nomus 2025-04-13 19:36

Bleach city fell to the governement, we will now target another lake. sadge.png

Thank you so much for the unstuck button, i glitched into a glitched tree and was pumping out tears but this saved my life

That game was super enjoyable, the mood is so good, the art direction is very cool and making up for the space by creating speed upgrade is smart, I just wished I could ride the half pipe or any vertical surface with the skateboard, would have made the money loss okay because you created a giant lakeless skatepark.

Loved this experience, thank you for that game !

dxk2294 2025-04-13 19:54

Wow, this game was a masterpiece. I love how you added little exploratory elements to an incremental game that were completely unnecessary but totally enhanced the experience. I lost track of time playing, I think this may be the most time I've spent on an entry this jam :smile: Great work, folks!

bongard22 2025-04-13 20:05

@nomus damn that's gotta be the highest final amount I've seen! Did you just spam bleach or something? We do want to add some actual skating mechanics

nomus 2025-04-13 20:10

@bongard22 yeah 1 speed 4 bleach on every one of them

haoro 2025-04-13 23:59

Really nice chill game, love bein an ecologist terrorist ❤

deadroach 2025-04-14 06:22

https://www.youtube.com/live/SCbuh9WZHdA?si=s_HeEIrm8JmC9QWC&t=8520

This is my favorite game of the entire jam thus far. Bar none. Such a fun concept and the fact that your movement becomes quicker as you play the game is perfect for my attention span, not that I was getting bored by any means. The idea of draining a lake is not only a super fun interpretation of the theme, but also a goal that I immediately felt compelled to chase. That drive was aided by the graphics which are super nice on the eyes and smooth, lag-free, satisfying movement. I love the machines and their many moving doodads, and it's incredible how well this game runs given just how many doodads are moving around. As was pointed out to me this is because of there being no shadows, which just led me to wonder why on earth this style isn't more common. The music is really nice and it's overall just a super relaxing experience that feels 100% complete. Nothing but praise for this. I had 43 games to get through on stream and I still spent 50 minutes playing this game all the way to completion. Fantastic work

rubixnoob13 2025-04-14 10:23

- Downloaded Linux build as I run Linux. - Made the .sh file executable - ./MMPSWRR.sh: 5: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string - Line 2 of the .sh file: echo -ne '\033c\033]0;Mr. Money's Phenomenally Soggy Water Removal\a' Because your game name has an apostrophe in it, the echo statement is broken. You can change the quotes around the string to normal double quotes like "" and that should fix it.

Afterwards, I tried just allowing the .x86_64 file to run as a program and that let me at least play the game :)

I enjoyed this a lot. Cutesy programmer art with some jokes built in, fun gameplay loop, and upgrades that felt meaningful. Music was catchy as heck as well!

The main thing I didn't like was that I wasn't able to change out upgrades once I placed them, but that did make it fun to try to min/max which upgrade combinations would be better than others.

Great game and especially for a game jam! I'm impressed!

morepixels 2025-04-14 15:13

Ayyy pretty fun game! Had an interesting artstyle and a fun gameplay loop! Got a bit same-y towards the end, but apart from that, awesome game!

floppynub 2025-04-14 15:15

@rubixnoob13 omg, thank you so much for figuring that out. I can't believe it was something so simple lol. Glad you were still able to play, and greatly appreciate the QA work :P

empyreans 2025-04-14 17:11

https://youtu.be/QF50EkahrLU

From the stream :)

A perfectly chill time killer with a sweet balance. Who knew draining water would be such an addictive fun?!

I WANT MORE! Don't stop at the lake. Let us drain the whole damn planet!

~Xp

euler-moises 2025-04-15 00:16

An interesting background for a game.

Your art is very well done and the game is complex to be done in 3 days.

Unfortunately I didn't get to the end. Even with all the bombs and all the power ups it was taking too long.

But that doesn't make it any less.

Congratulations on the game.

idos 2025-04-15 09:02

photo_2025-04-15_14-00-35.jpg Your game is so cool, I hope you will win this jam, and thanks for your feedback on my game it helped me.

bob152 2025-04-15 12:17

Perfect jam game to chill out after work with :D. Vibes so good I didn't realise I spent so long playing - thanks for the laughs!

braeden 2025-04-15 14:46

I KNEW THE KEYS WOULD BE AT THE BOTTOM I hope you know I started playing this on my lunch and accidently went over time :laughing: Super great game guys, perfect for the jam! Every gripe I had about it went away the longer I played. I don't even know what feedback to give lol, I think you nailed what you were trying to make.

mikemikemakes 2025-04-15 20:00

Incredible work for a jam game. So many different mechanics all working in harmony.

Excellent use of humor and foreshadowing. All in all, a fun take on incremental games.

A small gripe with the gameplay (as has been pointed out already) is that the manual moving of water becomes pointless towards the end. Maybe there is more profit to be gained there by giving the manual aspect some twist.

Additionally, I'd personally enjoy it if the item quests were more than just fetch quests. They're funny and they encouraged me to explore, but that exploration didn't lead me anywhere new. I'd enjoy them more if they felt like more than an arbitrary obstacle towards the next upgrade.

That said, having those obstacles towards the next upgrade do work in a mechanical sense; it forced me to do more than collect water and it made the water collection feel less tedious as a result. I just feel there's a greater potential in these quests somewhere.

Despite my two gripes, I enjoyed this game a lot.

foursay 2025-04-16 03:53

Very, very incredible job, I really wish I can spent my own day into this, can't imagine this is a 3-people jam entry, if uncle can return my $203,092 that would be better but you know this is not a perfect world Now I just wanna drink more water. Great game guys!

librory 2025-04-16 05:50

Very food game! I love all the jokes, and for sure it take me a while to drain the lake. Absolutely brilliant "clicker" or something. Music and art are nice too. Great job, guys!

pickens-inc 2025-04-16 15:37

Even for a three person team I'm so impressed with the amount of content, heart, nad polish you guys managed to squeeze into this. I was not planning to play this for as long as I did, but whilst I normally dislike most idle games, this one had the unique twist of having a number go up to spend on an actual, visible progression! And the natural loop of the lake draining and uncovering more things is just brilliant. Plus, I didn't have to just wait around, I had actual incentive to explore! And exploring to unlock the 'vehicles' made it eeeeven more fun to explore. This is going to do very well I'm quite sure.

I'd just have loved more to unlock and upgrade besides the regular pump. It quickly felt like I didn't have to manually do things for long at all, nor did I ever need the middle ground. With a tiny bit of waiting, I was buying all the pumps and going for max profit, then max progress, alternatingly, never having to use my manual draining.

I'd also like to especially highlight the sound design and music. I thought it was perfect, zero criticism. It really adds to the amtosphere, particularly the fading in and out of the music. Well done guys, a top entry.

maximevincent 2025-04-17 03:15

10/10 would empty a lake again. This was a certified bop in all aspects. Amazing work for a 3 person team!

oeuegha 2025-04-17 07:46

Genious idea! I just didn't like a balance in mid game, and a bit too long final. But, except that - great job!

inavtr 2025-04-17 09:25

This is a solid game jam with a creative idea. I liked the game mechanics and it makes interesting interactions. The atmosphere of the game is pleasant, and the humor fits well with the overall concept. There were a few small hurdles, and at times the game felt a little repetitive, but overall it was fun to fight my way through the challenges. I can definitely recommend it for a jam game! Thank you for your game :smiley:

atsh 2025-04-18 17:44

What a classic idle game, with a great touch of humor. Starting with a small thumb thing, needing to buy the hands, the uncle throwing things into the water..

I liked the tutorial, and that you can explore this wonderful lake why you're waiting for the pumps to do their thing. Really appriciated the wheels, as without them you move too slowly

Like all idle games, this one one can be beat by just putting the game running, which is what I did some of the time, but very fun nontheless

hexstart 2025-04-19 20:58

Wanted to play it since I saw it on stream, finally got to it. All 5s, no notes. The primordial need to drain the lake.

Appreciated movement upgrades very much, I was only missing being able to do quake-style strafe jumping :smile:

The only things to improve would be imo: - not pausing time while in menus, - being able to swap already bought upgrades.

But that's minor. Awesome game, with a lot of little touches that make it pretty funny too. Congrats!

lake.png

autotrophian 2025-04-20 01:37

I love cookie clicker so this one hooked me immediately

sarah 2025-04-24 20:35

Interesting game idea, it kinda reminds me of the movie Holes haha, but back when the lake had water. You never realize how much fun it can be to do manual labour, well done! It's super silly, and the graphics are a bit rough looking, but creative!

re-markable 2025-04-26 19:38

What an absolute banger of a gamejam entry! Feels like a fully finished game honestly. I'm curious to see how you would continue this game if you had more time? Maybe a whole ocean??? Love the ending btw ;)