Parcelmecium by Bokonon

[raw]
made by Bokonon for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

title_ld.gif You’re a little guy on a big journey.

Complete deliveries for Big Mama to progress!

parcelmecium7-min.gif

Experiment with different approaches as you build complex webs of autobattler nodes to stave off an endless onslaught of protozoa. Your weapons are your cargo, so don’t get too attached!

|KEY | Action| |---|---| |W / S | Throttle| |A / D | Rotate| |Right MB | Edit connections / access shop| |Left MB | Select| |K | Screenshake Toggle|

parc<em>screen7</em>cropped.gif

Ratings

Overall 83th 4.167⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 140th 3.967⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 26th 4.33⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 610th 3.9⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 215th 4.244⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Audio 139th 4.011⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Humor 707th 2.888⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 201th 4.011⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Given 68🗳️ 77🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 257438
02. May 2023 · 05:58 UTC
Great game man!!
But I feel like controls can be more good sometimes i want to move left so press A and it is starts rotating
Paul Avallone
02. May 2023 · 05:59 UTC
A little hard to get used to the controls but one you get the hang of it it's pretty fun. I adore the art style. The guy looks so derp. The click and drag slow mo is super well polished. I love that the music slows down too. Fantastic use of visual feedback. Great job!
Holly
02. May 2023 · 05:59 UTC
Awesome game! I really enjoyed playing it. As a small suggestion I would appreciate a bigger challange!
Codexzier
02. May 2023 · 06:05 UTC
Nice idea. I like it to play :)
eieio
02. May 2023 · 06:06 UTC
Cute! The art style and the music really compliment each other and the game / are very nice. I did have some trouble getting used to the and it took me a bit to figure out what I was supposed to be doing - but I enjoyed it once I figured things out.
breadstick
02. May 2023 · 06:10 UTC
A great little vampire-survivors-like game! I love the idea of hot-configuring your cell in the midst of a battle. The audio slowdown as you zoom in is a nice touch. The physics are delightful, and the 'turrets' are easy enough to figure out the function of. Really polished and fun game!
hammerfrenzy
02. May 2023 · 06:13 UTC
The attachment mechanic is pretty cool, and so is the bullet-time when you zoom in to make changes / shop. Is the only place you can find green attachments in the shop? I spent a long time looking for them in the world before buying some purples and noticing they got replaced with green (seems like it might be RNG).

Some health UI would be helpful, as well as some kind of vacuum effect to make picking up exp a bit easier.

I think overall there's a solid core concept here with building your cell.
realwangziyang
02. May 2023 · 06:41 UTC
Cool mechanic, cute art style, exciting gameplay. It's a little bit hard to learn the basic moves at the beginning but relly fun after getting used to it!
ekaktusz
02. May 2023 · 13:57 UTC
Wow! Really had fun with this! :D The art and atmosphere is very good, the core mechanics are pretty well thought out and smooth. I also loved the time slow on right click. As others have mentioned, somehow seeing how much HP i have left would be great. Another thing is that i did need more than 2 tries to really understand the mechanics, maybe a tutorial would have been useful, but I know that not everything fits in the time frame of a jam. Really fun! Thank you and keep up the good work!
Yossarian
02. May 2023 · 14:04 UTC
@ekaktusz @hammerfrenzy Thanks for playing! We've had a couple of people mention that a health indicator would be useful- we actually do have one, it is the little spots on your main guy! They are depleted as you take damage / refilled in the bubble. In the future, we'll definitely make that more clear, because admittedly these things are like 3 pixels wide.
ekaktusz
02. May 2023 · 14:09 UTC
@yossarian Oh I see! It's a very good idea and nice attention to detail, but I didn't noticed it. Yes, maybe making it more visible would make it more clear! :)
dianovvv
02. May 2023 · 15:27 UTC
Wow, like your mechanic and art! Stuck on the game for 20 minutes :)
MisterKeefe
02. May 2023 · 17:03 UTC
Enjoyed this one - it was fun swinging the different weapons around, and I liked the slowed-down audio for bullet time when rebuilding your defences! Very easy to pour a lot of time into!
BonzoChuff
02. May 2023 · 19:41 UTC
Very cool game! I thought the movement mechanics were solid. I got a little confused about how to obtain green orbs, but other than that it's very fun!
McMoody
02. May 2023 · 22:45 UTC
Really enjoyable game! I love the upgrade mechanic. The way you may construct your own armada synergise really well with the upgrades. The theme is great!
LDJam user 142503
03. May 2023 · 08:44 UTC
Cool game.I realy like to play it.

Just a little less inertia will be better for me.
WeirdBitGames
03. May 2023 · 10:48 UTC
This game is refreshingly delightful!
I think I wasted a few of the powerups by just clicking the left menu instead of dragging them onto my character. I added like a flail/mace tail and hoped it would let me destroy the orange blobs. Sadly not. They just kept coming in bigger and bigger numbers with no way I could find to destroy them, except letting them hit you.. which hurts you! I did manage to work out to deliber the purple blobs to the big mamma blog though.
I liked the music a lot, the way it slows down when you slow down time too! Also the movement sound of your character is really good, I like it!
Iqoribou
03. May 2023 · 16:40 UTC
Very cool game and good idea, the visual style is just lovely! Took me a minute to understand how to make connection but once I did it was really a blast, hope this see more of this!
AndyGates01
04. May 2023 · 04:16 UTC
Really nice, cohesive art style and the mechanic of joining the different attachments together was great. Took a little bit to understand what was going on at first but then it was fairly intuitive. Great!
yumykon
04. May 2023 · 04:19 UTC
I loved the game! The art is very good and the colors are very soft, the sound feedbacks of the SFX are pleasant, the gameplay is very fun and challenging! When I first saw the game it immediately reminded me of Spore~ Congratulations on the great work and wonderful game! (*´▽`*)
chompdev
04. May 2023 · 04:40 UTC
I love the polish and style display here! There are fun little animations and juicy effects all over the place, and the gameplay is solid and intuitive. It's amazing you guys were able to do all this in a single weekend. Congrats on a very cool jam entry!
Gmstochetto
04. May 2023 · 04:54 UTC
I liked the game, it has a high replay value, I really liked the art and the colors used, and I also appreciated the white outline around interactive objects. I missed knowing what each thing does, but I also enjoyed this aspect because it makes you want to buy each upgrade to see what they do. Good job! :D
Cheaptoads
05. May 2023 · 04:15 UTC
this game is dope! i love time dilation effect. the art work is terrific and once i'd figured out the store, it got really fun. it is a little hard to control, but would be interesting to see someone who's good at this game wield these controls. nice work.
Aymeric Le Moal
05. May 2023 · 15:00 UTC
Damn. Very solid game. Probably my favorite so far this edition. Everything just works.
vantos3001
06. May 2023 · 10:02 UTC
Hard and nice graphics!
Agrimes
06. May 2023 · 18:53 UTC
This one is actually pretty cool. Took a minute to figure out what I was doing, but made it to the fifth or sixth delivery before I lost.
Sauski
07. May 2023 · 13:25 UTC
I just kept spinning in circles and it just kept working! Maybe not the most engaging way to play the game but damn it was mesmerizing, good work.
Kiti-Dev
08. May 2023 · 01:13 UTC
very stylised look I love the concept but felt like something was missing
Conduit
08. May 2023 · 01:27 UTC
Loved the mechanics, graphics, and audio! The sfx were really gross but fit the game really well! Would be an interesting mobile experience if you took it all the way!
Francis
08. May 2023 · 05:00 UTC
Cool idea for a game! Would like if you could select which cells were going to get consumed. I figured I could detach outside the bubble to pick, but it'd be a lot nicer to just have the ability to choose. Do get currency equal to the cargo you delivered or is it less? I didn't really like that my little colony gets smaller every time I went back to deliver. It would've been more interesting to me to let it build up more and more (quickly).
Martin183
09. May 2023 · 21:14 UTC
A bit hard to get into the controls, but super cool graphics and music that made the mood really nice!
civmaniac
14. May 2023 · 15:02 UTC
Really enjoyed discovering the mechanics and figuring out how things work. Setting is really nice! I like that you don't throw too much guidance and allow me to experiment with things. Pretty cool entry!
NoNiMad
18. May 2023 · 00:59 UTC
Impressive game! Mechanics are quite complex to get a full grasp on but it quickly gets addictive. Graphics are super cute and the overall mood is super pleasing. Great job!