Mitosis by MediocreMonty

made by MediocreMonty for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

In Mitosis you play as a cell. Move your cell around and click on the food to collect it. Use the food you've collected to make different organelles for your cell! Don't let your energy drop below -1 or it's a game over!

Controls

WASD = Movement

Left Click = Select

Right Click = Go back to map view

M = Mute(you may have to click it a few times for some reason)

Upgrades

Cytoplasm: The body of your cell, lets you place other organelles in your cell

Mitochondria: The "powerhouse of the cell", this organelle is an Energy factory

Endoplasmic Reticulum: The networks of the cell, connects the organelles to the Nucleus (the brain) of the cell so they work

Ribosomes: The Protein factories of the cell, these bad boys turn your energy into Protein

Cell Membrane: The defense of the cell, protects you from bad Food trying to hurt your cell

Vaculoes: The storage of the cell, allows you to hold more Food, Energy, and Protein

Falgella: The transportation of the cell, allows your cell to move faster

Youtube	https://mediocremonty.itch.io/mitosis
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/mitosis

Ratings

Overall	530^th	3.481⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Fun	544^th	3.288⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	93^th	3.962⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Theme	211^th	3.808⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	808^th	3.058⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Audio	488^th	3.135⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Humor	626^th	2.568⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Mood	693^th	3.18⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Given		37🗳️	0🗨️

Feedback

bobemv

08. Oct 2019 · 22:41 UTC

Neat idea and game! I think the "progress" screen buying parts to your cell is pretty good paced (although I found some bugs trying to buy my second mitochondria). The only thing I'd change to gameplay is movement speed and spawning of food and bad food to make more dynamic. But I really like the rest of the game design! Nice job!!

🎤 MediocreMonty

09. Oct 2019 · 20:22 UTC

@bobemv What were the bugs you ran into? I'd like to fix them for a post-jam version! The movement speed is so slow to motivate the player to get the movement upgrade :) Thanks for the feedback!

bobemv

10. Oct 2019 · 16:03 UTC

@mediocremonty I can't replicate the bug now! Pretty weird. I've played normally now :). However, I found a couple of issues:
- When buying a link, if you can't connect it to anything, it doesn't let you to buy anything else.
- When I bought the Falgella powerup to move faster, it prompted me with a "Game Over" window.

loveapplegames

14. Oct 2019 · 21:33 UTC

The cell biology concept is very interesting and good interpreation of the theme. Playing the game teaches you some science in a cool way too! Nice music.

A few remarks: the cell movement is very slow moving. I didn't manage to get any speedup success with flagellae, as I hit a similar problem with bugs as mentioned above, specifically getting GAME OVER because the game just stops responding to user inputs at some point. Possibly the real time tutorial (which is a nice idea BTW) is livelocking the game. Sadly the bugs make the game unplayable at the moment. A pity, I would like to play on!

The escape key didn't exit the game for me, I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL.

It would be good to explain the gameplay and the controls a bit in the intro.

Overall, great idea, and a good attempt that simply ran out of time? Hope you can iron out the bugs!

🎤 MediocreMonty

21. Oct 2019 · 20:07 UTC

@loveapplegames The GAME OVER isn't a bug, if your energy drops to -2 then the game ends. I should've explained that better. I've been trying to replicate the bugs mentioned for 2 hours now and haven't ran into any bugs...I didn't program the escape key to exit the game, I'll be sure to add that in a post-jam version! Thanks for the in depth feedback! :)

AFestiveDolphin

21. Oct 2019 · 22:36 UTC

This game is really interesting! As you've read above, I also had a glitch where I couldn't buy an ER upgrade. This only happened once and after trying it a few times I haven't been able to replicate it. Also the tutorial on how to play is really well done! Made learning the game a lot easier than just reading instructions. The music is pretty nice too! The game ties into the theme really well btw! I loved that :) Definitely

Wubbl

22. Oct 2019 · 01:01 UTC

I accidentally placed a Cytoplasm on a Cytoplasm, which blocks it forever.
But i like the game it was fun =)

Cydouzo

22. Oct 2019 · 03:35 UTC

Great job! I especially love the tutorial. Im sad I couldnt finish the game cause I ran out of food...
Also had a bug where the game considered I had one less open spot than what I actually had

Bungalow

22. Oct 2019 · 06:21 UTC

Awesome take on the theme with cute little art. Great job!

Pedro Miranda

25. Oct 2019 · 17:46 UTC

Really interesting idea and pretty wwell executed. I like the upgrade mecanic. Great entry!

Toadwolf

25. Oct 2019 · 20:36 UTC

A very nice game, quite contemplative, although the music was a little bit too hectic to really sustain that mood. Unfortunately, I ran into a bug where I bought an E.R. without having a cell to connect to, and I couldn't get rid of it anymore. Apart from that, it's well polished.

Darkmax14

25. Oct 2019 · 21:04 UTC

Really enjoyable game, love the interpretation of the theme

Anion_Z

26. Oct 2019 · 00:00 UTC

Concept is innovative, I myself study AS biology and enjoyed this game a lot. As others stated there are few bugs with the game, but if you fix them the game will be very interesting

sigod

26. Oct 2019 · 07:33 UTC

I enjoyed this game quite a bit. Really good entry.

I bought Mitosis without any slot to put it in. Which blocked any further upgrades.

SoKette

26. Oct 2019 · 09:39 UTC

Super nice and educative :D
I just end up being alone with no food around and had to wait a very long time, but nothing spawned so I wuit the game :(

SleepyStudios

26. Oct 2019 · 13:09 UTC

I liked the mechanics of the game and I think with a lot more polish and slower pacing you would've room to explain everything but understandably in such a short amount of development time there was just so much going on it became a bit confusing.

erikkire

26. Oct 2019 · 13:45 UTC

Very nice game! Well balanced, but my problem is that the food runs out. Should new food not appear over time?

Wolf_Neon

26. Oct 2019 · 14:43 UTC

The game was a fantastic use of the theme, and a good use of your biological knowledge, my overall experience was decent though I felt like was running into bugs where i could not produce protein and buy other items.

Positives;

-The Idea was fantastic and if you had a bit more time you could produce a pretty good game though under time limitations i can understand

-I like the buy and improvement system, it felt like you could make yourself more powerful and grow stronger

Negatives;

-The implementation was somewhat poor as the game felt like it had no purpose, other than to eat and get stronger,
perhaps if you were to compete with another organism to reach dominance over the environment the game would have more purpose.

-Audio designed seemed simple and the music was easily glossed over.

Overall a decent entry and a great concept.

Zinkler

26. Oct 2019 · 15:58 UTC

Loved it! Great concept, solid entry, totally enjoyed it. I'm kind of curious about how it happened that I caught exactly one last peace of food on screen to complete the mitosis, that's some nice balancing, if it was one. Didn't understand the concept of bad food, didn't see any drawbacks from eating eat. Great game!