Microbial Menace by tetrapteryx

[raw]
made by tetrapteryx for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Screenshot from 2024-10-07 20-00-09.png

You operate the decontamination room on a penal colony. Hose down the workers before they infest the whole prison with alien parasites.

Note: you can hold down the spray button for a sustained spray.

I'm sorry I ran out of time to add keyboard shortcuts.

Tools: * Engine: Godot * Art: Aseprite * Sound: jsfxr * Music: Beepbox

Ratings

Overall 450th 3.643⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 668th 3.25⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 204th 3.732⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 573th 3.643⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 368th 3.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 120th 3.923⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 664th 2.82⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 122th 4.089⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

slay a stone
09. Oct 2024 · 19:34 UTC
It was nice that new mechanics kept being added. It kept going, not sure if there is an ending?

P.S small bug: the sound keeps on playing when the spray button was pressed the moment in the perfomance review opened :-)
LDJam user 340465
09. Oct 2024 · 19:35 UTC
Really all around super vibes from this! Gives me very much Papers Please vibes :D Great work!
Verbante
09. Oct 2024 · 19:37 UTC
![ss.png](///raw/f79/31/z/68579.png)
I killed everyone and got a promotion! Immaculate vibes especially like the visual effects while contaminated. Also nice sounds fellow beepBox user :))
diomont
09. Oct 2024 · 21:10 UTC
The mood in this game is really nice, and the balancing act of properly spraying people and or meeting the time limit at the cost of making mistakes is good. Very reminiscent of Papers Please.

I may have "rejected" one too many people to make quota...
bacontree
24. Oct 2024 · 15:56 UTC
I really like the mood and darkness in this game! I was surprised when I started burning people. Great job!
Hare Software
24. Oct 2024 · 17:21 UTC
I really like this concept, for some reason the idea of performing a seemingly mundane task in a bigger world really charms me. Reminded me slightly of 'Papers please', which is a good thing in my books. Everything feels polished and the game teaches you the mechanics as you play, which is great. Great work!
lindote
24. Oct 2024 · 17:49 UTC
I found the concept very good. It did remind me of Papers please in a way. As @hare-software had mentioned previously. I liked the effect of everything becoming blured like we are becoming numb nearly fainting due the intoxication. Nice work!
Kateryna
24. Oct 2024 · 17:54 UTC
A really cool twist on Papers Please. At first I tried to spray and accept everyone but the shifts were so mundane, I started letting people in as is. I loved the system malfunctioning from high contamination levels! Really awesome effects. And I had to reject a bunch of people before getting a promotion.
![Screenshot 2024-10-24 195134.png](///raw/e36/e5/z/69123.png)
euske
24. Oct 2024 · 18:02 UTC
The visual effect of system malfunctioning is very good. Actually I was wondering (hoping?) if too much of malfunctioning causes it game over but the system was usable even after a lot of contamination.
Yanato
24. Oct 2024 · 18:23 UTC
I wanted a dead end screamer on 100% contamination T_T

![Screenshot_5.png](///raw/e67/e5/z/69129.png)
Andriana Mantidfly
24. Oct 2024 · 18:43 UTC
The most underrated game actually of all that I've been through in this jam
Big Cyckos
24. Oct 2024 · 19:19 UTC
I like the concept! It's simple and really original at the same time. The main problem is the game is not as precise as it could be in some areas. I'm not sure how long should I spray the workers, why should I spray the workers more if just one-tapping the spray button clears them. I don't quite understand the purpose of spray-meter, should I spray as much as possible, or should I aim to retain most of the fluid. The visuals are superb! Thanks!

~ Jacko
🎤 tetrapteryx
24. Oct 2024 · 20:01 UTC
@euske @yanato I wish I'd had time to add the bad ending :disappointed: I had a whole gory chestburster animation planned

@andriana-mantidfly Thank you!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :heart:

@big-cyckos I appreciate the feedback! Sorry about the lack of clarity. I wanted it to be difficult to assess at a glance, but not to the point of not making sense. There's a particle effect to show the contamination level on the workers. Even a mild case needs at least a few seconds of spraying to clear completely. I hope that helps?
designernap
25. Oct 2024 · 07:44 UTC
I REALLY loved the mood and feel of this one. Great use of minimal audio to set the tone. The effects when things start to go wrong are wonderful. Nice work.
Plasmak
25. Oct 2024 · 09:07 UTC
Really cool concept, and it's really polished and cohesive! Reminds me of Papers Please, but this game has it's own identity. It's one of the better games I've played from the jam!
F1Krazy
25. Oct 2024 · 13:00 UTC
Very nice! Love the gradual introduction of new mechanics, and the eerie visual effects when things start to go wrong (which they will, given how the number of workers will invariably exceed your ability to process them in a timely fashion). There were a couple of occasions where a worker would immediately zoom into the middle of the decontamination room and just stay there for the entire shift, not letting me actually process them while still letting me process everyone else who came in. I'm not sure if this was intentional or some kind of glitch?

As others have stated, it's also not entirely clear what you have to do to progress. I notice that everyone who's "won" the game actually failed more shifts than they completed, which doesn't make intuitive sense to me.

Overall, though, this is a very well-polished and cohesive game. Well done!
Pigeons_everywhere
25. Oct 2024 · 15:04 UTC
Actually genius, everything works so well together, the sound, writing, mechanics and the art! Great job:))
CataclysmicKnight
25. Oct 2024 · 20:32 UTC
I really liked how the little "creatures" would flutter around the bottom of the screen after letting some in by accident (or at least it happened during the last level for me). This is clever, and I got super stressed with the time limits as sometimes it just took a LOT of spray! And then the final ability, ummmm.... I felt awful using it lol but sometimes it had to be done!