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Really cool game! I love how you used simple controls to create complex gameplay! Feels like its easy to learn but has a high skill ceiling! Well done.

I really like the realxing nature of this game. You are just a cute jellyfish, eating plankton - And everything is fine in your life :)

It's very simple but the music and art makes the experience very sweet. The music and vibe from the environments reminds me of Stardew Valley and Coral Island. Just chillin' and eating. Not every game has to be some Souls like rogue like action packed thrill. Your game is very nice and I thank you for the experience.

It's Flappy Jellyfish with energy management :D
- Overall the game plays well and handles well. Made it through the first level having picked up everything.
- There's a fundamental tension between two parts of the game - the energy management encourages you to be careful about moving, yet it's a game about exploring unknown spaces. Unless you go in first and then die to low energy and try to remember the layout, which isn't a fun thing to do.
- Feels like a game like this would benefit from more visibility - as in, blindly moving expending energy, not knowing whether the direction you're heading in would have a payout, doesn't feel great. If say, the whole level were smaller (but you and enemies also moved slower, e.g. scale everything down), it could be played more like a puzzle and less like a "maybe there's something there, or not, Idk". Especially when players could forget about having been somewhere before or not, since it would take very clear landmarks in the level design to make it obvious where the player has visited or not. Memory games is not a fun game most of the time.
- Not sure if the holding one direction button to glide is intended, as it feels like it's quite at odds with the rest of the energy mechanic. And it's also feels anti-fun to feel like I should hold a direction to "grind against" a wall so I can move horizontally after I reach the bottom of this wall. Hmmm.
- 2nd level somewhere there was a corner going down and all of a sudden... Gravity stopped working? So I just died because I couldn't head downward. It's weird.

🐙 A charming underwater adventure! Helping a little jellyfish get through underwater caves is a real pleasure! Simple controls create an exciting mechanic where you need to manage energy, collect plankton and avoid enemies. Atmospheric music and beautiful art create a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere that is reminiscent of Stardew Valley. A great game with high potential! 🎮✨

Whao, nice game, It is very cute, and fun/challenging to play!

I like how each move costs you energy, so getting up to gather more food is a very nice risk/reward thing. The movement economy is a very nice dynamic for this game. I would have liked a "take a rest" mechanic, where you slowly recover health when waiting, because I am bad at this kind of game, but this is a very nice entry, well done. (I see that you have used the ludumdare badge on your gitlab :)

Thanks very much for the detailed feedback @tuism, much appreciated and insightful. Didn't quite have time to fix that edge case gravity bug, sorry to hear it ruined your run.

I had your post open before the launch of the game because the art was just to cute!
It's a quite relaxing little game and I enjoyed it pretty much. Quite polished for a jam so grats to you guys!

It's simple, but fun! I definitely don't have it in me to collect all those plankton, but I think it's a really interesting risk/reward system there. Great job!

Cool game! A bit tricky to get the hang of it. Going up doesn't act like i expect so I end up hugging the floor. A nice thing i discovered is holding down the side buttons to go further, i thought i had to tap them originally. That fish is a bastard! :P

art cool, but unfunny bro

It's a cute game you have here! Aesthetics are charming, the music and art fit well together. The floating is charming too. The difficulty is a bit punishing / maybe have less HP taken from the player (double less?) to go with the charming mood.. ? ; )

I like the difficulty progression too, made it to level 3, maybe will try to go further later. Good job overall!

A few ideas that could make it even better:
- (as mentioned) less HP to be taken from player - casual players would appreciate
- maybe there were a few glitches with movement, although one gets used to that
- any way to punish those fish? That would be fun :id: / a stomping mechanic comes to mind
- minor visual tip: I'd apply some kind of anti-aliasing effect to your rendering / a few jaggy edges would be automatically smoothed for an even creamier feel : ))

GL!

Thanks very much for the feedback and ideas @aweskybear glad to hear someone made it to level 3. We'll take your notes on board for the post jam version.

I liked the relaxed atmosphere of the game. The music and underwater theme (achieved through the art style) were a nice fit to the gameplay.

I think it would be a cool addition, if the jellyfish would bounce back when you hit a wall (combined with a little jiggly animation of the animal itself).

Apart from that the controls felt good and I like the character design of the main character. :) Congrats to your finished game!

Cute art, but unconventional movement paired with eat to live mechanic seemed too harsh for me. Also i encountered either a cool feature or a bug after i ran out of energy and eat a plankton it allowed me to continue the game

Thanks @xsil that was a deliberate feature so you could make a miraculously recovery but I can see how it would be confusing. I'll think about fine tuning it in the post jam version.

Thanks @lllarso. I think adding some more jellyfish wiggles and bounce could be a good thing to add post jam. I am looking forward to fleshing out the main character some more too.

What a lovely game this is. Such a nice cute and relaxing vibe, but still with enough challenge in the gameplay to keep it engaging. I especially enjoyed the character design and how well the controls created the feeling of moving through the water as a jellyfish. Only complaint would be that I struggled to collect everything in a level without running out of health/stamina as the level is so maze-like that it requires a lot of backtracking. I'm sure there's a strategy that could be used to make this a bit easier, but for the time I spent playing it, I still had a good time. A really nice game for a jam weekend, no bugs or lack of polish here. Well done!

The art is super cute and the movement feels smooth, but the controls are a little odd. Wish that W was "jump/expend energy" and the A+D just moved side-to-side. There were times I wanted to change direction, but not go up/waste energy.

Great interpretation of 'tiny creatures'! It’s fun to play and looks fantastic. The only thing that could be improved is the itch.io integration of the player.

Great game! The difficulty is a bit high, I couldn't go through level 2, but still, I'm not a very skilled player. The art is cute and there is a fun strategic aspect because of the energy management. Only thing is, I think the music is a bit too relaxing for this kind of gameplay.

This is so relaxing ! I loved the minimalism of the controls, just two button. I think this is a really cool concept that could be developpe even more into a full game (maybe mobile game ?)

I really liked this game! It's awesome!

Very cute game! I quite liked the looping design of the levels - it was interesting trying to collect all food in the correct order so that you have enough to reach the exit. I only wish that the collision of my jellyfish was a bit smaller than the visual sprite so that it's easier to fit in tight passages and more forgiving when dodging fish and those sea-spikes. But other than that a very relaxing little game with nice visuals and mood.

The art and music gave this game an awesome mood! The only gripe I have is that the movement (energy) system felt restricting especially with the environments since I frequently get stuck on ledges on the ground when trying to travel long distances by holding. On level 2, the last fish (at the portal) killed me, but my dead body went through the portal, and it still counted? Also im curious, how many levels are there in total? I gave up at level 3 because I died after getting past that long, vertical, upwards tunnel thinking that the end would probably have been right there. Was I even going the right way?

Thanks @plasmapuffs! There are currently 4 levels, with a cute little pay off at the end. I think playing around with the difficulty level would be good as it ramps up pretty quickly.

Cool and relaxing! Though movement may not be for everyone, I died really fast with my tendency to spam both directions to adjust my position :D

Really cute and polished game! I love the character design. The controls are simple and intuitive but also provide some good challenge when deciding how to navigate the map. The traps are super punishing (especially the sea anemone / spike traps) but nothing felt unfair. Overall, great work!

An interesting exercise in manual dexterity, path-finding and energy management. The music is upbeat and fits the graphics well. I had a lot of trouble with the third level — the algae gave me a hard time. Perhaps a more gradual increase in difficulty level would be an improvement. Regardless, it's a very unusual game, and you get a high score for Innovation, among other things. Nice work.

Very cute and challenging even with minimal controls!