Worm Protect Egg by Gunturtle
WORM PROTECT EGG
Play as a worm, protect your egg.
Enemies that collide with your tail will be stunned, eat them to increase your length.
New segments for your tail can be dropped with Z, these will block enemies too!
The longer the tail, the slower you move.
Eat lots of enemies in a row to rack up a combo and get more points!

| Youtube | https://gunturtle.itch.io/worm-protect-egg |
| Youtube | https://gunturtle.itch.io/worm-protect-egg |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/worm-protect-egg |
Ratings
| Overall | 303th | 3.659⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 517th | 3.295⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 256th | 3.636⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 147th | 4.068⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 58th | 4.273⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 66th | 3.929⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 550th | 2.682⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 299th | 3.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 16🗳️ | 9🗨️ |
You made a really good game!
Otherwise, an overall great game. Sound effects and graphics feel well-polished.
Gameplay has potential, but I do want to echo the issues some are having with learning curve. Maybe a couple less enemies at the beginning and ramp it up as the player gets 5-10 points?
The difficulty curve was the biggest issue I had with the game, as many other comments have mentioned. It's pretty steep, especially for new players who do not fully have a grasp on the responsiveness of the controls. I'm also not really sure what the pink creatures do in the game. I thought they were additional pickups you could use to gain segments, but wouldn't harm the egg, but it seems inconsistent as eating one at the beginning does give me an extra tail, but another one in succession of that does not. Do you have to eat a certain amount of small bugs to gain a segment?
The game is quite fun, and I think the other elements like graphics and audio are great (although the sound effect with the worm at the menu - I think it was a sound effect but it was...bloopier - anyway, it was kind of annoying but that was the only thing), particularly the sound design. The idea in itself is quite fun, but the steep difficulty curve makes it hard to get into, especially with that tutorial screen popping up every time you replay. *I already know how to play after my 5th attempt, dangit!* :laughing:
I would decrease the enemy count at the beggining to let the player get used to the mechanics in a safer environment
My one issue with it is the difficulty - it takes a lot of attempts to survive more than a few seconds. A more gradual buildup would probably serve the game well. Also, I don't think having to stun your enemies before eating them works really well here. The tail-stunning mechanic works fine, I just wish the worm could simply eat anything that came near his mouth. Sometimes you will miss an enemy by a very small amount and you have to maneuver quite a lot to try and stun them again, wasting precious time. Which almost certainly means you'll lose, since the blue bugs need only one touch of the egg to destroy it.
Overall, it's a great compo entry. I've enjoyed playing it. ;)
The game needs a slower difficulty spike, it's too fast and too frantic to start to develop strategies and understanding of how you should handle it if it's game over within 10 to 20 seconds.
There's definitely a huge amount of potential here, using the PICO-8 fantasy console it's allowed you to create a very well polished game very quickly and I am itching to play it more but would need to be able to ease into it. I will keep an eye out for future developments if you make them.