Swim Shady by hajpappan
Try to survive the harsh reality of being the smallest creature in the very large ocean. Control your school of krill and keep them away from hungry predators and environmental hazards. Remember, there is safety in numbers.
Can you help your krill survive and thrive in the deep blue sea?

| Link | https://tredagens.itch.io/swim-shady |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/swim-shady |
Ratings
| Overall | 685th | 3.409⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 665th | 3.258⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 690th | 3.109⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 456th | 3.788⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 903th | 2.875⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 914th | 2.1⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 906th | 3.034⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 42🗨️ |
A graphic's overall could make it really eye-catching while keeping the minimalist style (which i dig)...with better colors and shapes (like snkrx)
Another cool aspect is how having a small swarm also makes it harder to hit, so when you're down to few krill you can dodge more easily and make a comeback.
I really like the split mechanic conceptually, but found it really situational to use as most enemies chase you from behind rather than coming at you from the front.
I was expecting this to an endless game, where you see how long you can survive or how much score you can get before you die, I was surprised to see a "You Win!" message.
The music and visuals are also a vibe.
Finally, playing the game at a higher resolution messes with the vignette effect, and I'm guessing might reveal more of the play area than was intended (going by the size of the effect), which makes the game easier.
>
> -the krill, probably
I had fun running those little guys around collecting food and avoiding the unpredictable enemies. Although, as others have pointed out, the level transitions are a little dicey. I must of had half my boys isekai'ed by those damn hexagons. It would probably ease things if the stationary enemies were to fade in at first.

*GAMEPLAY*
I think that the gameplay itself is simple and easy to understand. The different shapes contrast well to the player and makes it easy to see at a glance what is an enemy and what is food. I do wish that the player could be prevented to go out of bounds, because that was a big source of confusion as the gameplay is very dependent on visual feedback.
*ARTSTYLE*
I think that the geometric art style complements the gameplay very well, but it does not relate to the stated theme very much. If given more time, the simple geometric shapes could be molded into fish-like enemies. In general, the sea-like theme is not very necessary for the game itself.
In conclusion, I think the game is well done and the difficulty is nicely balanced!
One thing that definitely bit me on my first playthrough was the fact that the large hexagons looked friendly/non-harmful (to me at least) - Because they were a cool blueish purple that echoed the player's cool color palette (unlike the warm colors of the other enemies), I assumed they were some bonus that I ought to try and stay inside of, which was catastrophic for my swarm
Enemies spawning in front of you or directly "inside" you when changing the level is suboptimal though.
The music was a bit stressfull for my taste, for that rather relaxing gaming experience.
In Level 3 It seems the Krill was not updating the count size accordingly or delayed
I went from 30 to 12 and it didnt change then I went up again but I had only 3 krills.

one has sucked me in ;) Controls are simple, and the
gameplay mechanic is also easy to grasp. I like the dynamic and the
challenge, the choice to enable the player to go to another level
either by waiting a certain amount of time or collecting enough points
was right, because it prevents "feeding on earlier levels, where the
enemies are not difficult. I've encountered some bugs, points spawn in
the purple octagons where it's impossible to grab them, and also
sometimes area detection did not worked right, but it's expected in a
game jam :) Seeing as you've opted out of rating the music I'll just
say that it's alright. The graphics could be better, but they are
simple and do not affect the gameplay negatively. The split mechanic
is nice, although I didn't use it as much in the beginning as I forgot
about it :) but I used it on further playthroughs and had some fun
with it, although i find it tricky to use properly. The game could
certainly be improved by adding more types of enemies or at least
changing their pattern of movement. Thanks for a great game :)
The most I scored was 105330!