Cells by Gaming Night


For this Ludum Dare entry, we propose a turn-based management game. The purpose is to create, manipulate, and keep cybernetic organs alive.

POST-JAM UPDATE
Given the unanimous feedbacks we got on the game, we brought a post-jam version that now displays the upcoming level of virus (+ minor modifications with the camera zoom and movement).
Thanks for playing!

Made by: Julian & Thibaud & Julien & Leønaaard
Music credits: Signals by Brian Eno

| Youtube | https://gamingnight.itch.io/cells |
| Youtube | https://gamingnight.itch.io/cells |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/cells |
Ratings
| Overall | 212th | 4⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 466th | 3.718⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 63th | 4.154⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 86th | 4.295⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 163th | 4.425⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 334th | 3.91⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
However I found it hard to know how the next wave would impact my heart, but maybe it's intended. I was buying organs but had no idea of what to put next and if I would survive or not!
Anyway, good job and nice take on the theme!
@anoushcat and @lairinlair The next attack level is intentionnaly not displayed. To be honest this point has been very discussed in our team and we do not all agree. I personally thought that keeping it hidden would add more tension. might not be the good choice. I'm glad you liked the game anyway.
Congratulations, this game is a pretty cool jam entry.
I had a good time playing. It took me a few tries to figure out whats going on but the sheer prettyness and intrigue kept me motivated to keep going.
Fairly early I figured my goal would be to gather enough resources to release the heart ... but I was confused about that was required to pass the next "level" test. It seemed kinda arbitrary and then suddenly I'd fail a test and lose. I think this could be quite easily resolved by showing players how much immunity is required to pass the next test. That gives me a clear indication of what's required and let's me make interesting choices about how to spend my resources to get there.
Besides the immunity requirement above, I thought the game was quite intuitive and managed to play through without doing the tutorial.
Great job team!
Greato Jobu! :smile:
I like this game, it has a nice atmosphere and solid gameplay. I like that I can take the time I need to plan ahead and manage my resources. At first I thought the blue resource (I don't remember the names) was the only resource I need to focus on in the beginning so each turn I created more of those organs, however I didn't realize the quick growth of the cost for each immunity level. It is well balanced for this short amount of time.
Nice that you had a tutorial, I appreciate games that has ones but I'm not very good at that myself. It wasn't obvious to me that I could create organs my left clicking and then selecting from the menu even after going through the tutorial.
Very nice entry overall, quite dynamic gameplay.
Fun to play and figure out the optimal strategy. I liked how the organs were placed on a physical board, forcing you to think about the layout. I think this idea has a lot of potential for more in depth puzzles if you pursue it further.
This game is graphically stunning and has a nice atmospheric soundtrack. On my final playthrough I was able to release the system at virus level 9. Great entry!
The strategic gameplay was really interesting. The balancing of short term and long term game is really well done.
I got to level 9 but I had no reason to make any of the green resource, and I only needed a few orange ones. It feels like there is something missing.
I can also imagine that getting to the later levels you would have to micromanage a lot of blue resources.
A very nice put together game that is visually pleasing and creates a great atmosphere!
I would like to see a restar button from the Pause, I had to quit the game every time I made a mistake. Like, if you don't star with a blue cube you are fucked :/
Also also, I would like to know whats the next level, some times I was like "yeah, i got 3 points and next is 3 points" *clicks* *appears a number 4* - "no no no no noooooooo fuuuuack"
Overall a super grat game, really good job congrats :)
Apart from minor things that could improve the experience such as a restart button or minor things that are a bit confusing, especially at the beginning, everything else was perfect!
I want a full version of that... Great job!! Congratulations!
Excuse me while I have no actual constructive feedback on this one ^^
Stunning job all around. Thank you!
My main issues were the slow camera movement and the fact that the game didn't tell the level of the upcoming virus (which was specially punishing when, out of nowhere, it started incrementing by 2). But that were postjam version, so it was fine.
The sounds were good! But not perfect. At first they were cool, but after a while they got kinda tiring, specially the high pitched heart sounds. But that's a minor nitpick, don't worry :)
I still haven't managed to beat it yet, but my best was getting to virus level 12, with 30+ orange nutrients and 1 green nutrient. Really close to winning, so I might try again later!
This was a really cool and innovative take on the concept of using the human body as the "it" for the "Keep It Alive" theme. I also made a game about organs, but it was much less strategy sci fi than this, haha!
Overall, awesome entry! Best of luck!!
The only thing I am still confused about is how do I know what level of virulence will attack me next?
I can't plan properly without knowing that.
Maybe that was a design decision, but it causes sudden game overs, which can get frustrating.
It would have felt a lot smoother if you implemented a way to drag yourself around the game rather than using the edges of the screen.
I you added a few more parts of the body and resources you could implement a complete body management simulator, I would love to play that! Maybe have some random events occurring to mix it up a little bit.
Really great and unique game (it is very hard to come up with something unique!).
Thanks for the entry, I really enjoyed playing!
I was blown away by the polish you made in such a short amount of time. It looks so complete and high quality for a game jam. Fun game, a solid addition to the resource management genre.
Well done! ^_^
Where it comes to actual game i thought that it was pretty simple at the beginning and that all i need to do is to remember what to do and when. And well it still comes down to it, but it's certainly not that simple. A failure-repeat process where you constantly need to remember to save some 'resources' and 'build' new ones suited the game topic so well. It certainly felt like iw as running test all over and over again, trying new things and new in order to succeed