The Turgenev Study by benjamin
Harvest DNA and assimilate new samples for your utmost important study. Your laboratory is located in a warzone resulting in a limited access to any energy sources. Your agent can only launch an harvest phase every 10 seconds. Do your best despite theses harsh conditions.

GAMEPLAY
- Harvest happens every 10 seconds. All cells in your harvest zone will be converted to fresh DNA
- Reach the DNA treshold to activate assimilation mode
- Assimilation let you collide any cells to add it to your samples
- Each cells has a specific effect on your agent. Right clic and roll over cells to check these effects
CONTROL
- left clic burn a catalyst to repel cells
- right clic pause the game. useful to analyse cell properties
SCORE BONUS
- collect same type cells : 100/200 pts for 3/5 same type cells
- collect all cell types : 300pts for each fullset
| Link | https://punkcake.itch.io/turgenev |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/the-turgenev-study |
Ratings
| Overall | 19th | 4.345⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 29th | 4.238⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 20th | 4.31⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 65th | 4.298⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 21th | 4.614⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 26th | 4.357⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 847th | 2.344⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 53th | 4.256⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 16🗨️ |
The tradeoff that is fundamental to this game -- getting closer to cells to harvest more overall -- works very well. The risk/reward is obvious and leads to some very tense moments. Also, a harvest when you're getting completely swarmed just feels great :)
The upgrades also make sense; none feel useless and the difference they make is always clear. I found it a bit difficult to choose a cell to assimilate on a densely populated playing field, but I suppose that's why you're supposed to harvest.
I was worried that pausing the game to read the cell descriptions was going to break the flow, but it was actually fine. The number of different cells quickly got overwhelming, but I could usually focus only on the ones close by. Still, I had difficulties quickly telling apart some of the more similar-looking cells, but again, not a huge issue.
I sometimes got hit immediately after assimilating a cell. That was a little annoying. Perhaps you could repel nearby cells to prevent this?
Having a settings menu like that in a jam entry is also just a total flex :)
I think I'm going to play this one for a while!
It reminds me Transistor game with this cells. And each one has it's uniqe fitchures. And uniqe buffs for you.
Maybe it's become too easy in late game (it is possible to become literaly immortal), but anyway. I love this game so much.
I don't know how you did it in 72 hours. Just brilliant.!
[Screenshot4.png](///raw/2cb/1/z/52314.png)

I agree with the earlier comments around visibility and noise; at a certain point I simply don't have the mental capacity to be aware of everything on the screen, and certain cell types can snipe you from afar with their charges. A stronger tell might be useful here; I know you're limiting your palette but some kind of pink flash could do a lot to help direct the player's attention to oncoming threats; audio cues could help too.
Even then it might be worth reducing the number of enemies and focusing on giving them interesting behaviors vs going for quantity. At least early on anyway. perhaps the issue is more just about pacing.
Overall I really love this entry. It looks fantastic, has solid mechanics, and is weird in all the best ways. Fantastic work!
I'd love to have an "easy mode" of this for postjam. :)
It's so polished, and stylish, with the music matching perfectly. Amazing!
Not even sure when to start, the visuals and music are really nice, simple and clean with everything being clearly readable. Everything has that nice and smooth flow to it too making it really pleasant to look at.
It's both an relaxing and intensely challenging experience especially on later stages.
Everything has a purpose here and the risk/reward factor of not only trying to get as many cells as possible but also choosing the right one for current situation makes the game incredibly engaging.
The only minus is something that others mentioned beforehand, it can get a little bit overwhelming on later stages due to sheer amount of things on screen so either reducing the amount of cells present at once or having some way to at least partially clear the screen would be great.
Overall an incredible, well polished game that I can't get enough of and I most likely will find myself playing it from time to time long after the Jam will be over. Amazing Work!
It's always great to see a jam submission that not only plays great but also works as a completed game from start to finish.
Pretty satisfied with this score, honnestly I dont know how I could have much more the screen was 100% crowded with cells haha
Aside of that ... WOW. Everything is soooo polished that's insane, the particles, the movements, the theme, and it's actually super fun to play. Well done !
Gameplay wise, it's super interesting. I've never played anything like this. the dynamic between running from enemies most of the time to then trying to get as close to as many as possible is really interesting, it has a very cool intrinsic risk reward system. discovering what all the creatures did was very fun, I could totally see this expanded basically infinitely, with any number of new enemies and abilities. The set you've ended up with here fits really well. I think it's just barely on the threshold of needing another mechanic, the blasting is neat and i like the current gameplay dynamics (moving to dodge, blasting when you're in a pickle) but it feels lacking, at least compared to how many different elements were given just for the enemies. The lure mechanic feels largely useless to me, but I may just be misusing it.
After about 4 runs of dying in a few rounds while i was learning the mechanics and enemies, I ended up with a run that became basically invincible, as how @amolker mentioned is possible. because of the damage invincibility time, once you get 5 medibots and refillers, it's impossible to get hit enough in a round to lose more health than you gain. I'm not sure what the best solution to that would be, other than just limiting the max number of medibots. Regardless, it was fun to play around in effectively a sandbox mode after that moment. I wrapped the circle with catalysts and medibots and stopped once I realized they circle forever:

fantastic work guys.
GG !
But as I said, that's the only thing. Everything about this game is awesome. Like, top notch for a jam game :)
As always, your game is super polished and fun to play.
I love how everything connects together very nicely.
The assimilation mechanic for upgrade is smart, it changes from classic roguelite / vampire survivor games where you have to chose between 2-3 upgrades on a static screen when you level up.
Great job, that's quite a perfect jam entry ✨