LudumData

Cell Clicker by Floonace

[raw]
made by Floonace for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Gather energy from the sun to keep cells alive and transition from single-celled to multicellular. Warn cells of dangers with chemical signals!

⚠️ You need to click the sun to generate energy and keep the cells alive.

⚠️ PERFORMANCE WARNING: There is a performance issue in the web version, and playing with your device muted largely resolves the problem.

Controls:

  • WASD: Move camera
  • Ctrl + Wheel Up/Down: Zoom In/Out
  • Left Click: Collect Energy / Emit Signals
  • Z: Free 100000 Energy (Use it if you want.)

Signals (Tutorial):

  • VEGF: Kills cancer cells in the area and protects healthy ones from mutating.

  • Glucagon: All cells in the affected area generate 5 Energy.

  • Interferon: Blocks 1 virus infection when an adjacent cell bursts.

  • Histamine: Prevents viruses and toxins from entering cells near a wound.

  • TNFA: Auto-destroys toxic cells safely (0% cancer risk).

  • Insulin: Instantly replaces dead cells with fresh new ones.

Tools Used

Graphics:

  • Aseprite

Sounds:

  • Audacity
  • My mouth
  • A piece of paper
  • A random toy car

Gameplay UI

Source Code https://github.com/Floonace/cell-clicker/
Itch.io (HTML5) https://floonace.itch.io/cell-clicker
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/cell-clicker

Ratings

Overall 281th 2.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 262th 2.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 235th 2.926⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 263th 2.643⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 260th 2.75⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 213th 2.635⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 192th 2.038⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 264th 2.519⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

tenthousandfireants
Apr 20th · 03:06 UTC
Interesting! I enjoyed this but it was hard to get the hang of and read the stuff
Umaiit
Apr 20th · 07:28 UTC
I love the idea and enjoy the game!
GideonGriebenow
Apr 20th · 08:55 UTC
Hi. I can't interact / move anything other than clicking the first little circle. Am I missing something. Camera doesn't pan, etc.
TermiGht
Apr 20th · 09:32 UTC
Nice concept. However i don't know if its a my machine thing or not but after playing for about 5 minutes the game just froze for a minute then started going again but it was very laggy.
Alex Mulkerrin
Apr 20th · 09:48 UTC
The little animated cells are very nice. It requires a lot of clicking not to die and the energy requirements increase with the number of cells so I found myself stuck with lots of cells appearing and dying.

The concept is interesting and could be developed further with some balance. Sound effects were nice. I also had the game start to lag after awhile.
TasakaSama
Apr 20th · 20:31 UTC
There's clearly a memory leak; after a few seconds of use, my RAM usage drops from 220MB to 3GB.
🎤 Floonace
Apr 20th · 23:04 UTC
@gideongriebenow Hi. What do you mean by the first little circle? You have to click on sun, not cells.
🎤 Floonace
Apr 20th · 23:25 UTC
@tasakasama Hello. I'd like to know when the problem occurred. Did it happen after the wounds appeared?
zj798164639
Apr 21st · 07:44 UTC
Blackscreened in HTML5, no loading content
GideonGriebenow
Apr 21st · 10:41 UTC
@floonace Nothing happened when I click or tried to move the camera, including clicking on the sun. There was no impact.
🎤 Floonace
Apr 21st · 11:07 UTC
@zj798164639 Can you try on itch io?
🎤 Floonace
Apr 21st · 11:28 UTC
@gideongriebenow The game ends if all the cells on the screen have already died. That might be why the sun didn't respond when you clicked it. Also, you could try clicking inside the game window first to make sure your browser has focus. If neither of those works, could you try the version on itch.io?
GideonGriebenow
Apr 21st · 11:38 UTC
@floonace Ah, I think I didn't click the sun fast enough at the start. But the camera also didn't pan originally. Either way, the itch.io version worked when I went straight to clicking the sun. I progressed for a bit, but then it started to lag very badly, with long pauses now and then, and low FPS in-between.
🎤 Floonace
Apr 21st · 11:50 UTC
@gideongriebenow I could have explained everything much better if the tutorial hadn't been such a last-minute rush... As for the lag, unfortunately, the web version has that issue, but it usually runs smoother with the sound turned off.
Paroxysmal
Apr 25th · 02:28 UTC
Not sure what is happening, the first cell disappears after a few seconds and the whole game freezes.
🎤 Floonace
Apr 25th · 13:19 UTC
@paroxysmal Hello. Cells need energy to survive. You need to click on the sun to collect energy.
Asieke
Apr 26th · 04:24 UTC
Running into the same issue others have mentioned. The very first circle thing after the instruction screen is there for a couple seconds and I can move around and scroll the shop on the right and zoom in and out, then the circle thing disappears after a couple seconds and the whole game freezes up and stops accepting any inputs. Happening on both Ludum Dare and Itch with Chrome and Firefox.

I saw your message to try playing muted, but no muting had any effect for me.
Constance
Apr 26th · 06:46 UTC
I also encountered similar issue as others, the small cell appeared on screen for a few seconds and the game was fine, I was able to move around and stuff. But as soon as the cell disappeared, the game froze and didn't receive any inputs. I also tried to mute my machine but sadly to no avails.
McBaker
Apr 26th · 19:51 UTC
I've had exactly same experience as @constance
nosoy
Apr 26th · 20:11 UTC
something wrong with your game, after i click on first circle, it freeze
🎤 Floonace
Apr 27th · 00:38 UTC
@asieke @constance @mcbaker @nosoy Hello. You can keep the cell/circle alive by clicking on the sun. The game doesn't freeze when the cell disappears; it ends.
McBaker
Apr 27th · 09:00 UTC
OK, so the first cell dies very quickly and you have to click the sun pretty much immediately. It would be nice to have some indication that I lost, as it looked as if the game froze.

once the cells take like half of the screen, the performance starts being very bad - the game keeps freezing for a few seconds at a time. Then, when (I guess cancer cells) eat/turn my cells, I lose all currency? So with the performance freezes, the game pretty much is unplayable, since I cannot buy anything, as after each freeze I'm out of money :(
darkshadow
Apr 28th · 20:08 UTC
Cool idea for a clicker game, took me a while to work out how to play the first cell dies far too quickly and there is no game over nor hint to click the sun rather than the buttons under it.
Theogen
May 02nd · 05:21 UTC
I love the idea of cell signals as a theme, this seems like a very cool educational concept! But unfortunately the game feels unbalanced. It took a few speedrun attempts to get 10000 to buy the VEGF formula, and by the time I got it I was already overwhelmed with red (what I assume cancer) cells, while the VEGF signal itself only eliminates a small area.

Also I didn't immediately realize that you had to actually drag the groups to craft the signal, which I found a bit tedious - I suggest switching it to autocrafting.

I feel like with some balancing and UX polish this would be a really cool idler!
ruthiepee
May 02nd · 11:31 UTC
A very ambitious incremental game. Definitely had some issues with the game freezing/lagging (I think after the wound disappeared?). Based on my experience and the other comments here I think you just need to write more explicitly on this page "click on the SUN to generate power" because otherwise it just looks like part of the interface / not interactive.
Flightless
May 03rd · 14:41 UTC
Clicker games are always satisfying :slight_smile: I did not fully grasp the concept, but it is an interesting take to combine idle games with fail conditions
mathemagics
May 06th · 16:25 UTC
Excellent concept, the idea of the cells is super. Good incremental game. Thank you for the game!