Amoebros by Spinaljack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXYgg0kP8N4
I wanted to make something with an incremental / generational aspect and the small world theme kinda lends itself to microbes and so Amoebros were born. This is the kind of game that only really comes together right at the end so I wasn't even sure if the game was going to be any good until it was done. Hopefully someone will enjoy it ;)
The game features something like 20 different patterns and you can affect the look and colour of your creatures by selecting which ones to breed. I put in the odd wild mutation that looks totally different so players can pick a new look easier, it also shows which Amoebros express more varied traits as well.
The story is that you are a lab technician who is breeding stronger microbes for totally non-nefarious reasons.
- Can you make Amoebros strong enough to escape the lab?
- Gather DNA from yellow orbs and rival organisms
- Evolve and reach for the edge of the map!
- Zoom with the mouse wheel, scroll with the arrow keys.
- Carefully pick which Ameobro to breed for desired traits.
Tips: * Focus on life, speed and eat first. * Then focus on strength, agi and aggro. * When you're ready go for the travel stat. * Always select the strongest creature to breed from.
Windows / Mac / Linux Download here:
https://mechabit.itch.io/amebros
Made with Unity, Garage Band, Procreate, Audacity.
EDIT: Fixed a bug with the DNA editor.
Sorry for the small text size, you can view a larger version if you open the image in a new tab or zoom in with your browser.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/amoebros |
Ratings
| Overall | 395th | 3.353⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 456th | 3.029⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 75th | 3.866⭐ | 69🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 164th | 3.824⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 472th | 3.279⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 324th | 3.065⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 325th | 2.767⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 469th | 3.065⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 118🗳️ | 159🗨️ |
How do you get DNA, what are the golden blobs, how do I make them escape, did they escape when they left the screen? By the way, it took me forever to realize that you could actually zoom out
If you can get to the edge of the map there's a nice reward at the end.
Visually I really appreciate the shading effect which makes the screen look like the microscope view.
And I'm really surprised you could pull off the mechanics behind DNA combinations in this amount of time :)
Cheers!
It might be that progression is slower than I expected it to, but it was the fact that I didn't know wether I was progressing or not that made me give up.
I liked the design of the little amoebas, tough I felt a little sad that they all died so fast
:frowning:
As a tip start with the highest life stat creature from the list (or mouse over the last one alive to read it's name)
After you get them to last a few seconds you should focus on speed then agi then the eat behaviour. That should get them to hunt for food.
Then focus on strength and speed and aggro behaviour and they should be able to take out the larger mobs.
When you've got a strong group bump up the travel stat to get them to reach for the edge.
Always select the strongest creature to breed as the default one might not be the best choice.
Or you could just mess around with the colour and pattern to see how different you can make them look lol.
I put the image on the ich.io page
It's also worth noting that reducing behaviour traits below default will have the opposite effect. e.g. Reducing aggro make them flee from combat, reducing grouping will make each Amoebro avoid other Amoebro etc.
EDIT: Continued playing, much better when I knew what was going on, but it crashed again. Windows 10 btw.
[1] I like the blur effect but it would be nicer if, after zooming out, the focus changes so that everything becomes clear again.
[2] The music fits the game well but it could do with being a longer loop
I love the Space Invaders! :grinning:
But it took me a lot to realize how everything works, maybe including some kind of tutorial would be good.
Cool game!
I love the post-processing effects you have going on here. It makes me feel like I'm actually looking into a microscope.
The speed and travel traits are somewhat annoying in that while they make the little critters faster, they also make their targeting skills really bad. Many a generation was lost to those amoebros circling around food, unable to steer into it due to the high speed.
Selecting the best specimen is also tedious due to there being 21 samples to choose from. Less choices or better tools for sorting samples based on favored criteria, please.
I would also change the *Terminate Batch* button to a *Speed up* button.
I was very proud of my bacterial minions when they managed to off a :space_invader: for the first time. Good work!
I had great fun playing it and only a few things on my mind:
- A fullscreen or a maximised window mode would be great
- Maybe change the walls ingame. I, for myself found them somehow distracting.
- Also maybe tune the microscope effect a little bit down.
- Please name your zip file (and the game folder) after your game-title. Gametitle_Linux.zip for example.
I've found a bug pretty early that one could exploit:
One just needs to add a point to a trait and remove it and add again. Repeat that and the overall cost will be lowered every time. I am pretty sure it has something to do with float value rounding.
Oh and the ending was fun :grinning:
PS: Thanks for the Linux build!
I did lose track of what my microbes were doing. They spread out a bit and there were sound effects, but more visual feedback would have helped me. I found I turned my eyes to my DNA counter instead, which is not where the player's eyes should go as things unfold.
The in-game graphics are nicely stylized (love the lone eyeballs), but the menu and the in-game visuals don't feel like they belong together very well. The music is well made, but I am not sure it's the right vibe for this game. It's a little more high-energy than what I expect for a game in which you essentially look into a petri dish. The sound effects are nice and... _moist._ :D
Overall a very creative entry, very nice work!
Couple of suggestions: it's sometimes difficult to keep track of where your amoebros are when you've scrolled around - something like arrows around the outside of the screen pointing to where they are would be good. Also, the ability to click and drag to scroll around would be good (I kept finding myself trying to right mouse drag for some reason - must be a behaviour I've learnt from another game (C&C?)).
Oh, and the momentary defocus effect when zooming is a nice touch :-)
@breadmower Click dragging is another thing that I would have liked to add
@bunnery I can't find your game, maybe link to it in your profile
I liked almost everything, sound effects, the environment, models, etc. But, there are some problems: getting the point of what to do at the beginning and lost the track of your amoebros.
The graphics are truly fantastic. They fit the game perfectly. I was very pleasantly surprised with the blur effect. It's feels like looking into an actual microscope. Awesome!
The sounds are not quite as impressive, but the sound effects do their job and the sound track is also beneficial to the mood (but it gets repetitive quite quickly).
Overall, I really liked this entry. It was a lot of fun to breed my own horde of super bacteria.
maybe weening me into the gameplay with less options to start out with would make me feel even warmer and fuzzier than I already am :smile:
great take on the theme, our team wanted to start out similarly, kinda a Spore but with mushrooms feel... but it just turned into a mushroom pizza game :pizza:
A better Tutorial or Explanation would be really helpfull.
There's not enough feedback to the user to tell them what they're doing and how it affects gameplay. If I might suggest (As I do in the video), looking to cut the sliders down to 4 sliders, and having a series of "Traits" like "Venomous" or "Aggressive" that affect their behavior and are a little easier to understand. Solid simulation game.
I had a crash with it, I dunno what caused it.
(Also, maybe a "Speed Up" Button.)
Anyway:
Maybe part of the whole 'tutorial' problem is that the initial text suggest that you can 'help them eat'.. which is true... *indirectly*. Once I understood I could only take any meaningful action during the period the 'edit' menu is shown, I got used to it quickly. And it aquired the aforementioned addictive (albeit repetitive) qualities. :grin:
Also, I know you can select them after a strain's died out and *then* see their names, but I had a rather hard time of keeping track of who was who during the whole 'fighting and eating' phase (maybe since I lucked out and Agility was high right of the bat?) This could perhaps be remedied by adding a :pause_button: button (and then still have their 'names' shown on mouse-over of course)?
I have no idea what you mean by "ennemy" in this game, "aggro" and many other terms.
After a while almost all the amoebros disappeared out of the screen. I have no idea how. And it seems like they were fighting out of the screen.
Even while playing randomly it was fun to watch though so the system is well done and entertaining. After a while I had the surprise to discover amoebros with very différent shapes and color. That was surprisiong and fun. I guess those were mine but I don't really know. :thinking:
Even if I didn't know what I was doing the amoebros escaped anyway so I guess I won :wink: :innocent:
I think the game should show a location where glass got broken at the end, because it was a bit unexpected and I just won.
For a better tutorial some tooltips near each stat/slider would be very helpful. Also I'd like to see my best species by life time and DNA collected (e.g TOP-3 with names and stats). You could add some glowing to food blobs, because they are hardly noticeable with the current color scheme, especially on max zoom out.
By the way, is there any way to lose here?
Thank you! It was fun to play and invader is a good Easter Egg.
Here is my playthrough: https://youtu.be/sbHenMdY5s0
The only problem I could find was that the music's loop point could be heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDPVuoHG3u8