Explodin' Slimes Maze by Eranot
Go through a maze with help of yours exploding slimes - poor guys.
You can download the source code at https://github.com/Eranot/LudumDare43 (made with Godot Engine)


| HTML5 (web) | https://fakeon.itch.io/exploding-slimes-maze |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/explodin-slimes-maze |
Ratings
| Given | 16🗳️ | 1🗨️ |
- The level design is excellent. It gradually introduces the mechanics to the player (as it should), the puzzles make some nice use of red herrings, and the later levels have genuinely clever solutions. I'd love to play a version of this with more levels if you two were planning on expanding on this.
- The use of innocent bystanders that need to be left unharmed was a nice touch- though, given the theme of this jam, I was wondering if at some point I'd be forced to kill one of them.
- It's a shame there's no audio, but as someone who also struggles to make time for audio in game jams, I feel your pain.
- Since you can exit the first level without a key, I feel like when the key is introduced, there should be a separate block right in front of the exit with a keyhole that you unlock. Otherwise, it feels kinda inconsistent (at first, I thought the key might unlock a hidden room or something rather than the exit). If you don't want to alter the existing levels, maybe you could have the exit be gray when the level begins, but then turn red when the player grabs the key to signify that it can now be entered.
- The instructions should mention that clicking also chooses which square to explode (for green slimes, anyway). I tried repeatedly tapping space at first, expecting it to explode in all directions like the pink slimes eventually did. Then, of course, i was surprised when the first pink slime *did* explode in all directions, but I guess that's partially my fault for not paying attention to the fact that *all* the red squares highlighted on mouseover rather than just one.
I agree with @birdwards that the function of the key was a little bit unclear at first - It felt like, I just walked through the same "end of level" warp without a key, why do I need one now?
The puzzles were well designed and smart - I never felt like the answer was too obvious, but it also never felt like I was beating my head against a wall. Good job!
I have one gripe though - The fact that restarting brings you all the way back to the first puzzle felt needlessly brutal, especially when later puzzles are very easy to accidentally make unwinnable. I got through quite a bit before I needed to reset a level, and ended up putting the game down when I realized that I'd need to slog through all the puzzles that I'd already solved, just to get one more attempt at the puzzle I wanted to be solving. :(
That said, was fun. Could have used some music to give it more of an ambience, but it was pretty cleverly done.