SPERMA by the neon shark
Play as a fleet of brave sperm traveling deeper and deeper to fertilize an egg. Experience a roguelike in a fashion you've never asked for.
How to play: - Up/down/spacebar for menus - Left/Right arrows to control fleet - Spacebar will accelerate and normalize fleet - Collect protein to level up!
Issues: - Sometimes the music doesn't load :/ Try refreshing and pressing some keys. - Music still not loading? Listen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aCAZnJCFrzhsYoGgj2DBgjG68WSacx6X/view - Units zipping around out of control? Try hitting spacebar and arrow keys separately.


| Download Source | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V8MDbX6zVku2aLj2ibJuTQugwKNLDiIL/view |
| Play In Browser | https://editor.p5js.org/arigen/present/hbErMZyXX |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/sperma |
Ratings
| Overall | 195th | 3.765⭐ | 181🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 127th | 3.868⭐ | 180🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 128th | 3.871⭐ | 180🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 108th | 4.12⭐ | 181🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 531th | 3.307⭐ | 181🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 414th | 3.201⭐ | 179🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 25th | 4.081⭐ | 181🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 291th | 3.503⭐ | 178🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 70🗳️ | 129🗨️ |
Try posting it on itch. Not sure if it's your website, but it's displayed in a really small window, on itch you can set resolution manually and there's fullscrin button.
Also it looks like there are some currents, but it's not visualised in one way? Why do they suddenly turnn directions and bust into walls sometimes?
Tried on Firefox first, but had to switch do Chrome.
I made the entire game in 400x400. If I was using a different engine (not just p5js dev env), I'd make something higher resolution. As for the sporadic behaviors, you're totally right! When pressing spacebar+the arrow keys at the same time, things seem to lose control a bit. You can avoid this by pressing spacebar separately than the arrows. Definitely something I need to polish up.
I had trouble playing the game on Firefox, it just slowed down to crawl. Chrome worked better, but I would have wanted to see the game in a larger box or even in full screen.
All in all, excellent job! Gave you very positive review!
I can't wait to see the SL0 runs of this game - if such a thing is even possible!

Top marks on everything
- I appreciate you going for the compo and doing everything yourself, but the music got repetitive very fast. Everything can't be perfect in a compo game jam, but music can make or break a game. Don't misunderstand me, it's not terrible, but also not perfect.
- The start was really annoying with the sperms separating this quick. It would have been nice to get them a little further in from the start, because I always killed off all of them except one so that I could focus on collecting all the "coins". I stayed in the main area the whole time because that's the fastest way to unlock upgrades. I think that's not the main idea behind a roguelike, but it's really crazy that you made a sperm-roguelike game.
- Although, collecting quite a lot of coins each run, the level up process still took a little bit to long for my experience.
- Is there a way to make the game screen bigger? It was really small for me.
To end my comment with some nice words. Congratulations on finishing the game in time for the Ludum Dare. I know how tough it is solo. 👍👍
My only complaint is that it's a bit too hard for Ludum Dare level of games. It required all the upgrades, quite a bit of luck and some grind to finally win.
@morphine <3 <3 <3
@a333 I didn't realize there was an expectation of making games on the easier side, sorry! This is my first jam entry and I was sort of optimizing for maximum play time without becoming obnoxious.
@backurio Thanks for the critique! I'm well aware the music is repetitive :( It's all I could pull off in a bind. The screen is fixed at 400x400 and in a proper build of this game i'd make it full screen and more optimized to enable that. Although not explained, the blue coins/protein are worth more the deeper you go, so it may be faster to have one long run opposed to 6 short ones. The spreading apart is definitely a bit too high early on, but I wanted to make sure players understood that they're expected to fail the first run :)
I find it very impressive to have found physic/fleet parameter that upgrade well ( cohesion in particular ). It's *easy* to have parameter for rogue like that are turn based ( like strength of the attack ). FInding the right balance is amazing in a gameJam.
Music is tricky when the game run long... I'd go for slower mooody music to extend the loop time.
Sadly the game was unplayable on Windows10 Firefox & Chrome. It lagged very hard and the controls did not seem to do anything.
I appreciate you folks trying out the game even though it wasn't performant enough for your machines. I'd appreciate knowing your computer specs (cpu and gpu) if you're willing to share!
@everyone
Thank you ALL for stopped by. I'm so glad to see that you're having a blast with the game :) All of this hype is making me consider porting the game to Unity and optimizing it. This means I can provide:
- Full screen mode
- Runs smoothly on lighter hardware specs
- and closer to 1000 max unit count (instead of 200)
Huge <3 again to everyone who has stopped by, smiled, and given reviews!
A secondary pass on the audio might help as it's a bit too loud, neighbours are now well aware I'm witnessing the miracle of life over and over again.
Guess we weren't so unique as we thought!
Your implementation is way better though!
Very nice and enjoyeable game
Well done
Unfortunately the performance seems to be a problem. It's unplayable on Firefox for me (the simulation goes 10x slower for some reason) and the game, while it runs on chrome, maxes out my CPU. Performance problems aside, genius concept. Well done!
I know some folks have commented on the repetitive nature of the music, but I find it weirdly hypnotic, even if it is repetitive. The upgrade mechanic was a fun addition. Though, it felt a bit to grindy to get enough protein to purchase new upgrades.
That said, I'm quite impressed with what I played. Very well done!

good job !
(I know we were all thinking this when we heard the theme, didn't think anyone would actually make it)
Music was very catchy. I think my main complaint would be the controls, I didn't even notice the instructions to use the spacebar, and just happened to hit spacebar on accident when playing and realized "oh hey, my tadpoles are cooperating now!", otherwise I never would have won.
Music was spot on!
The only down side of this game was the normalize direction (Space bar) they seem to always turn to the right.
Great colour pallet though and keep up the great work!
that was fun, I liked the power ups, was the vagina procedurally generated?
Strengths :
- Funny gameplay loop and take on the theme
- Well balanced upgrades and progression
- ...Consistent aesthetic
Possible improvements :
- The default audio is a bit loud, but that might just be my setup.
Overall, great game !
Only critques are that the random level design can be hit or miss and the benefits of some of the upgrades aren't very clear.
Not too sure why the game is completely unplayable in Firefox.
Overall a really great jam entry!
Thanks for providing a game that has upgrades! First time I've seen that mechanic for this jam.
Only thing I would like is a full screen option, so I can steer my armada better
Otherwise a very fun and addicting game!
A spectacular idea! I confess that the simplicity and the "reality" of the game trapped me. I'll save this game here for when I need to have "The conversation" with my son.
Really awesome !!
I will tell you that it is very difficult to control group a so that several sperm can reach the egg. It was easier in real life. So much so that I arrived first!
: D
Congratulations
Congrats on making an amazing and well polished game! I can't believe this is a Compo game. You truly know how to impress the ovary.
The only thing that frustrated me a little bit was the controls feeling very delayed.
Great entry!
This was hilarious, and very playable. I felt compelled to fertilise the egg, and couldn't leave until I had. The swarm controls were challenging, but I was definitely getting the hang of it by the end. And the music was absolutely spot on. Well done!
While the gameplay is difficult, everything had an intuitive feel for it. The camera zooming in and out to follow the survivors is well done.
By having the protein transfer into currency to buy upgrades, you increase replayability and incentive for players to keep trying until they reach an end. Even if it's difficult, this system made it seem as if the chance of winning increases by a little each time.
Graphics were simple but clean with a nice contrast to easily distinguish between everything. Music is great, has a nice beat to hype anyone up. Highly recommended
* I liked the controls. Perhaps a bit confusing in the beginning, but easy to get the idea. (You don't often control swarms in games, so I'd expect some time until one gets it.)
* Really good camera control. Very effective and smooth.
* Good sense of humor!
* Perhaps a bit too difficult. Took me almost 30 attempts to fertilize the egg, and by that time it was already starting to feel tiring.
* Ran very smoothly on my desktop (Firefox on Linux).
* Good interpretation of the theme, and overall nice execution. Very polished game.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: