Super cute, fun game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/GZJJwwdwpaQ), if you’d like to take a look :)

Extremely cute jellyfish! :D Controls took me a sec to get used to, but after that game was fun! Great work!

Electric Space Jelly for President!

But really, this was adorable. The story was really compelling, the gameplay was tight and polished, and the art/audio was cute. Nice work. This one is a winner.

I loved it! The graphics are super cute, sounds are great, music is cool too. The mechanic is really simple and was able to pick it up really quickly. It would be cool if there was something extra to the gameplay, maybe some food that spawns and can help you regen your attack beam. This would encourage me to take some risk at a payoff of being able to destroy stuff faster.

The art was my favorite

Overall I loved it! Keep at it :)

I Played this on Livestream a bit ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwY1-PtcDqs

I struggled to really find the fun, the core game engine is solid and I had no real issues, but it got a little repetitive and I'd have liked to see shorter levels with more challenge. That said: The art was really good, and I think with some additions it could be highly entertaining.

@occultone Thanks for the play~ I guess stage 1 was a really slow start, and yeah, I really should've rebalanced how long the levels are. I playtested Endless Mode more, so I guess I should put that up in the description for those trying out the game for now. Thanks for the feedback, I'll tinker around with Arcade more post-jam.

Very cool game, it had sweet graphics and the music complimented the game well to create a relaxing atmosphere. I just wish there was a way to set difficulty level in stage 1 atleast and as others have suggested the stages could have been shorter. I did play the arcade version so maybe I should have also tried the endless mode.

Cool game overall, somewhat repetitive but still it was quite fun. Great job!

I really enjoyed this! The humour was charming and the gameplay was a nice take on asteroids. I felt the the opening few levels were too long with not enough going on, and would have been better if shorter as they serve as more of a tutorial and in the beginning I often found myself waiting for another rock to appear for up to 10-15 seconds at a time. The later game did get more challenging and I got quite into it then. All in all, adorable game, fun to play, just a little slow to start. Well done!

Cute game, and a really neat take on an asteroids game. Having to protect something other than the ship made for some extra challenge and shooting out the back of the ship rather than the front really changes how you have to approach things. The music was a good fit and the sounds effects worked well.

I did find myself waiting around a lot for something to happen, at least early on. And the big level ender asteroid took a very long time to chew through. More than a full bar of power.

Also, some power ups would go a long way to making the game more compelling to play. Of course, this being a game jam, you get done what you can.

Congrats on finishing the game. I know I said I'd play it the other day when you responded to my comment, but things came up. Still I kept the post and got around to it now.

I liked the core idea of protecting your planet, and the art was cute. Just needs some balancing to keep the interest going. Also felt the music was a touch on the dark side for the cute visuals and a bit too repetitive.

I love the colours in this game, gives it a spacey feel.
The hand drawn pictures are cool too.
Also the music was unique and set the mood right!

I liked the fact that you can move the planet around, but unfortunately that did not give me alot of tactical advantage haha

The lack of variation is a downside though, and the fact that the asteroids dont hurt the squid is strange, but on the other hand that could make the game really hard.

Overall, a very nice game for a gamejam!

Nice idea for a mechanic! Graphics made for a nice atmosphere. The music could have been a little more varying, especially since the game takes a lot of time. Very well implemented overall.

Nice idea! Simple and good mechanics. Great audio and graphics, that beam was pretty badass! Did the arcade at first which felt kinda slow and a bit dull, then I read your description and did the endless mode which indeed was much better!

Fun take on asteroids with a cute art style (the swimming animation feels great). I tried arcade first and the pacing felt a little slow; endless felt much better. The cutscenes in arcade are a nice touch though.

Minor technical note: For some reason the audio/music didn't work the first time I played it. After seeing other comments I reran the exe and it was working fine, not sure what went wrong the first time.

The idea of protecting a planet is a nice twist on the asteroids formula. Unfortunately your beam is so strong (at least from the runs I tried) that I didn't have to worry about it most of the time. This is a fine line to walk and I'm not sure how you would balance it. On one hand if you make it harder or provide less laser ammo, it could be a frustrating game since moving the planet itself is clunky (this isn't a bad thing). If you can find a way to force the player to have to juggle their ammo with moving the planet around that seems like a good place for the game to be.

As for the entry, nice consistent feel to the game all around; looks, sound, movement. Even though the laser doesn't have any special fx to it, it still feels strong because of the animation and sound. I'm also impressed you had time to implement both arcade and endless. For an LD game that's rare.

On a side note, thanks for your review of our game. I was surprised at the level of effort to put not just into the review, but editing the video to keep it concise for the audience. I'll definitely be checking out further work from you.

Edit: Site screwed up and double posted, can't seem to delete post.

Nice work! I love the graphics, the jellyfish looks so adorable! As far as gameplay goes, as others already pointed out, the arcade mode starts of really slow, and the stages are too long. One thing that I found a bit frustrating is when I pushed the planet of the side of the screen and an asteroid spawned and cracked my planet(at least I think that's what happened... might just have overlooked one and my frustration might be misplaced). A small timer when asteroids spawn that stops them from hurting your planet after spawning would be nice. I also think that turning when swimming could be a little faster or the drag a bit higher, but it wasn't a major problem. Another thing I didn't like was that the asteroids that are spawned by the two-shaped-asteroids go off in completely random direction, which makes destroying one that goes close but off to the side of the planet a big gamble, since you might just get hit by one of the smaller asteroids.

Apart from that, endless mode was a lot more fun than career mode, and the game had a really nice atmosphere. Firing the laser also felt very satisfying. Good job!

It's so cute!
I love the graphics and the concept, but the gameplay is, you guessed it, too slow. Otherwise I thought it was a very complete game and looked great (even if the audio did tend to grate).
I did notice a couple of bugs. First, when you run out of laser the sound doesn't stop until you let go of the spacebar, even if you are not firing. Second, some asteroids would spawn at the edges and fly offscreen.
Good job, though!

A fun, well polished LDJam game.
It's a nice twist on an old classic.
I really liked the visuals, and sound effects. Jellyfish was cute! :D
I thought the little cut scenes were awesome! Would love to see them fleshed out and animated.

Good job!

This was very cute, I enjoyed the story. The laser was pretty satisfying. I think the first level either should have been harder, or shorter, because it dragged a little. Overall, nice job!

Thanks for the feedback from everyone who commented! The biggest takeaways that I'll be sure to implement in a post-LD patch would be to rebalance the length of Arcade levels/the spawn timers, and increase the turning speed of ESJ. I'm glad so many enjoyed the game though, so thank you for your support!

I enjoyed this a lot, and it was a take on the theme I hadn't seen. I _really_ like the main character sprite. Something you might want to consider is reversing the "left" and "right" controls when you're going backwards, like how most games do for driving a car in reverse. Right now, you can pretty easily and effectively just go "backwards" the entire time, which feels like probably not how you intended for people to play.

Also, thanks for that awesome LP footage and feedback on Booster's Day Out, I really appreciate it!

Nice! Solid gameplay & the graphics and audio are good too, I like the music. The acceleration of the movement was a bit slow (as well as the rotation to some extent), so trying to move the planet out of the way of things felt a bit difficult & counterproductive. I mostly just tried to shoot things down because of that. One time the planet got stuck to me which made a horrendous noise but was actually kind of helpful! Some kind of intentional mechanic like that (toggle to tow the planet but the laser is weaker?) would be cool. Enemies were a bit sparse at times in endless mode but it was still fun, I made it to 3:45. Nice work!

Loved it. Adorable art and graphics, and you incorporated a nice little story, too. I also appreciate that I can shoot through my planet and not hurt it. Very well done!

very cool game, if a bit easy. I liked the mechanics and thought it was a cool take on asteroids. My only real complaint is that it's too easy, I never had to move my planet, I just acted like a turret and shot asteroids, I feel like the planet pushing mechanic gets left out.

It's a great game. I don't know which game engine did you use (maybe GameMaker?), but I think it was a hard work. I have two little remarks for your game:
1, I think the levels are too long
2, The beginning of the game is too easy (I think it's a nightmare when I have to play in a boring level with time limit)

Great work!

I like the similarities (inspiration? :wink:) to the old arcade game Asteroids by Atari: splitting of asteroids, cyclic space (whatever crosses one side of the screen, appears on the other side) and controls. The differences from Asteroids are nice touches: not just trying to survive, but protecting your small planet, having a laser and knowing enemy's health by color, ...

The graphics and animations are great and ESJ is super cute!

Hey, very cute graphic and sound, but gameplay is kind a boring, thou it has interesting concept.

I also included your game in an article of my favorites here: http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/jam-favorites-ludum-dare-38-vepwgamy