The Puzzle Of The Fantastic Fungus by Jahwffrey

[raw]
made by Jahwffrey for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

A Sandbox Game With A Unique Challenge!

Can you keep a fantastical, amorphous alien creature alive while it's own biology consumes it from the inside? Place different materials that react to the fungus and to each other in different ways - use these interactions to devise a strategy that will keep just enough fungus alive for just long enough in this fast-paced sandbox survival challenge! Inspired by years of playing Powder Game: https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust2/

naturalscene1.png Screen2.png story.png moregameplay.png

Ratings

Overall 729th 3.696⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 614th 3.63⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 65th 4.152⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 37th 4.391⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1886th 3.071⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 909th 3.333⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1828th 2.237⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1152th 3.432⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

AryanJumani
20. Apr 2020 · 15:52 UTC
Loved the gameplay a lot!! Will surely see what the powder game is now.
Fedora
20. Apr 2020 · 18:43 UTC
Really original. Kind of hard, I can't get past the 3 minute mark!
puntocom
20. Apr 2020 · 18:49 UTC
Interesting gameplay, and cool implementation of the theme!
🎤 Jahwffrey
20. Apr 2020 · 18:52 UTC
@fedora Thanks! Are you using fire and acid to destroy sections that are getting too large? Find a way to use your most dangerous tools in a safe and controlled way!
Mattchoo
20. Apr 2020 · 18:58 UTC
What a fun game! I never expected to see a powder game be anything more than just a sandbox.
Fedora
20. Apr 2020 · 19:04 UTC
@jahwffrey Oh, I was always trying to get it to grow as much as possible. I get it now.
AstroLabe
20. Apr 2020 · 19:12 UTC
Hard game but very good concept!
🎤 Jahwffrey
20. Apr 2020 · 19:46 UTC
@astrolabe Thanks! If you want to try again, notice that the reaction spreads much faster than it starts. Try to cut off healthy sections from unhealthy ones - the unhealthy fungus will react away and the timer will effectively restart on the section you saved!
Fireshake
21. Apr 2020 · 14:19 UTC
It is hard but very cool and addictive. The only thing that broke my immersion was the font. I think something more futuristic or pixel-style would have been better than Arial^^
Scharma
21. Apr 2020 · 15:10 UTC
Really cool concept, had a lot of fun, kept wanting to get better. But boy I couldn't, darn thing is so hard! Congrats, and trying tuning down the difficulty maybe? haha
🎤 Jahwffrey
21. Apr 2020 · 15:25 UTC
@scharma Thanks! If you want to try again there are some advice hints on the main itch page, but really it all comes down to only keeping alive the healthiest, most edge part of the fungus! Try aggressively destroying (with fire and wax!) everything you dont need so that it doesnt end up infecting the important parts.
RomaRogov
22. Apr 2020 · 09:14 UTC
Cool game, liked the concept, it was fun to quickly decide what to do with sandbox :)
It's pretty hard, though. Maybe levelling may help!
ZEZEL
22. Apr 2020 · 16:21 UTC
I loved this game, very much ! Very clever, the idea was there ! The tutorial was perfect and I managed to finish the game 5 stars !
Sciman101
22. Apr 2020 · 19:02 UTC
I used to _love_ powder game, this really brings me back. I think it's a really interesting, unique idea! I found that a lot of the substances seemed kind of useless at first, but maybe I just need to play for longer. I'll definitely be coming back to this one!
🎤 Jahwffrey
22. Apr 2020 · 23:51 UTC
@ZEZEL Thanks, and Bravo! It's not an easy one.
@sciman101 Thanks! I can assure you that everything has it's place. To really do well you need to actively destroy sections you don't need anymore, but that said I do feel I could have done better with Water and Sawdust.
Gabe Lane
24. Apr 2020 · 20:43 UTC
Really enjoyable! It was a lot of fun to play a game reminiscent of the Dan-Ball powder game but with a win condition!
rodel77
24. Apr 2020 · 23:47 UTC
Its was hard to catch the idea but I've got it and won the game. Its a pretty cool concept!
Kszaku
25. Apr 2020 · 14:08 UTC
It was super fun! Especially the final moments, as the timer was nearing completion, and I tried to save at least one cell of fungus. The music was cool too, I'm all for dynamic soundtracks.
BoxedMeatRevolution
25. Apr 2020 · 15:50 UTC
Really cool game! Gamifying cellular automata is a really cool idea, and I think this is a great way to do it. The soundtrack was great too: really added to the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, near the end of my playthrough I discovered that a valid strategy is to simply "overwrite" the purple cells by clicking furiously, not even paying attention to the type of material. You could prevent this boring strategy by adding a cooldown between clicks.

I also think it would be nice if you could "paint" the materials onto the board, rather than having predefined shapes. For example, let the player add 10 water tiles where ever they want before the material runs out.

Overall I had a blast playing this game. At one point I had a stable system where the fungus was growing upwards while being consumed by fire at the perfect speed from below! Really fun to play with the systems and explore the game.

Great entry :smile:
BoxedMeatRevolution
25. Apr 2020 · 15:50 UTC
(sorry, ludum dare glitched and double posted my comment)
🎤 Jahwffrey
25. Apr 2020 · 16:01 UTC
@boxedmeatrevolution Yep, I do know about that strategy. I didn't wan't to limit when people could place powders becomes it becomes vital to click quickly and carefully when things get really desperate, so instead I made it have different ending text based on score. That is indeed a good survival strategy, but it's not a good score strategy, so if you want to win with 400,000+ points you need to risk it!
daria-toni
26. Apr 2020 · 14:08 UTC
I can say a lot of good things about this game! I finished tutorial and made some serious attempts (but still haven't won yet!). Pros: training, interesting mechanics, sounds, simple and clear design. I would add: music on the menu, a more attractive font (but this is not very serious). I enjoyed this game a lot, very cool and individual!
Adam Clayden
09. May 2020 · 18:55 UTC
Quite interesting and pretty technical. It's one of those games that takes a while to fully understand how the fungus reacts to each effect, but it's quite fun to see it spread everywhere. I especially like the fire burning everything
Space_man
12. May 2020 · 02:29 UTC
It's fun playing around with the different materials and seeing their effects on the fungus. I managed to survive for around 3 minutes leading a small growth of fungus around the area and blocking off stuff behind it, I may have to come back to it and see if I can survive the full 5 minutes (I probably need to place materials more aggressively). Overall I enjoyed it, a fun take on this type of game.