Silkworm: Keeping the Game Alive by Roey_Shap
[POST-JAM EDIT: There has been a post-Jam version uploaded since then and this was hidden, but this still links to the original, accessible with the code "SILK".]
A 10-minute epic about a bug trying to save its game.
WASD to move, jump to interact - two buttons added later in the story. Read the text!
Play as Silkworm, an ambitious bug trying to stop the AI that they're a part of that some programmers ignorantly tried to use to help in development... Little did they know of the havoc that that AI would wreak upon their RPG!!
[EDIT: I know that this game was a bit hard. As my first Jam entry (and my first story-driven experience) ever, I was a bit overwhelmed. As such, after having fairly voted with the original version in mind, please look forward to a "hotfix" that'll be linked to on the itch.io page somewhere down the line. That version will keep the spirit and limitations of the Jam in place while being more in-line with my original intentions and being more accessible. I don't want to mess the voting system, so please only play the hotfix after having voted on what I actually managed to make in that time.]
| Youtube | https://roey-shap.itch.io/silkworm-keeping-a-game-alive |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/silkworm-keeping-the-game-alive |
Ratings
| Overall | 1204th | 3.5⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 848th | 3.5⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 844th | 3.471⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 2016th | 3.212⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1750th | 3.2⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 1368th | 2.813⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 196th | 3.894⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 908th | 3.559⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 40🗨️ |


(Why the heck did it send so many messasges.)
But for some reason I can't understand the pong minigame where you move the mole. Why do I keep losing?
I tried to press spacebar when I hit the ball, tried to press it endlessly, and tried not to press it at all and I lost anyway. :sob:
Great entry!
The story is really funny, the metajokes and gameplay are just brilliant. I love the sounds, the cute animations, the dialogues, the effort you put into the lo-fi joke.
The only thing that I think you could improve is playtest of the minigames that I found a little bit too hard. But at the same time we were two, eyes riveted to my screen, groaning when our ball hit a wall and exclaiming when I finally hit the last brick. So it's a bit too difficult but still playable.
It could use some music but with all the things you put in there I can see that you didn't have the time to do so.
And all this all by yourself ! Incredible work, really :clap:
Despite many attempts, I didn't managed to pass the brick breaker game. At first I didn't notice the blue ball getting bigger in front of you. When you hit spacebar you can't always make it smaller, maybe it's not working like it should? At some point I destroyed all the bricks but still lost.
It's hard to make everything work in the small period of the jam, but it can become a great game!
Overall, the game is good, I just had some trouble with some minor things throughout. By the way, thank you for commenting on my game, I went through it and realized most of your gripes were results of small coding errors (and are now fixed). Thank you for your feedback, best of luck with the rest of the jam, nice work!
Personally, I found the dialogue starting to feel like it's dragging on a bit just past the mid way point, around the Chameleon part. I also feel like the Chameleon mini game and eventually its end game ability was quite lacking. It was not as interesting as the mole mini game and I didn't notice what the ability did in the end sequence, I just spammed P and went on my way.
I felt like the mole mini game had a decent amount of challenge, which was nice to find in what felt like a mostly narrative game. Also the tying together of the mechanic at the end was a really nice touch. Good job overall!

Thanks in advance!
A lot of content, and good graphical consistency.
The last platform phase was funny.
To be honest, I didn't read the text at all in the second half of the game. Too many meta-jokes and references for me.
It cruelly lacks of sound too.
It was a really fun experience to play this game, however what could have made it a bit better was some sound during the game itself aside from the dialogue but that is a minor complaint.
Like I said before, I really enjoyed it
I feel like the pacing of the game was good overall while I prefer bigger gameplay parts inbetween the long dialogues. Especially at the start I usually just want to jump into the game so that I get curious about this world that I am in. Regardless, the story was really interesting!
The gameplay part with the mole I didnt really get, in the end I just held spacebar constantly and that worked somehow. I first thoguht its a rhythm thing, based on the animations on the side. I thought I have to press spacebar when the circle from the diamonds animation is in the middle. Hence I failed multiple times at that point while the rest was easy for me.
Combining the mechanics in the end for the final was well done. I enjoyed running away while pushing a ball into a block to make it disappear which was Challenging as well!
I found the sfx for the text coming in funny somehow, generally just a really pleasant sound. Meanwhile I couldn't hear the music. Was there any and it was just super soft?
I enjoyed it a lot and it was something different that got me inspired. Well done!
I love the graphics honestly, it's super stylized, some of the character designs are really weird in a GOOD way. It also looks better in motion and I like little touches like the animated dialogue portraits which add a lot of polish.
Most of the game sadly lacks sound but I like the dialogue sounds which make the game feel a lot less quiet than otherwise.
Gameplay continuously switches things up and while there were some frustrating parts, the checkpoints are very forgiving. The end gauntlet was also a pretty neat way to tie together the different mechanics.
Congrats on your first jam! You set a high bar going forward. Impressive!
simple yet attractive and funny and enjoying
it proves that u not need high end graphics to make a nc game
u r a nc programmer
the style of game was excellent
and the sound type is catching
I loved the story, and the bug and all those meta-jokes. A great entry!
The green flickering in the beginning was a bit hard on the eyes and some parts of the game felt awkwardly quiet and could have benefitted from music (e.g. the shooter-part). Overall a nice entry though!