Drooplets! by tukisboolukis

Your surface probe has returned with samples of an unknown life form. Your scientists have dubbed them "drooplets." Experiment with each color of drooplet to learn their quirks and complete trials in different environmental conditions.
Play: https://tukisboolukis.itch.io/drooplets

CONTROLS:
Right click & drag to pan camera
Left click to drop drooplets
Select drooplet colors by clicking their vial, or cycle through them all with scroll wheel
All levels are unlocked, so have fun. Hover your mouse over the progress meter in the top left to get reminders of your objective.

Specimen Log:
Purple Drooplet
Creates a trail of symbiotic nutrient slime. Self sustaining and ignored by other drooplets. Wanders randomly and does not naturally reproduce.
Green Drooplet 
Multiplies rapidly and can also spread its slime on sterile spaces. Eats purple slime and grows larger before bursting into two immature drooplets and a puddle of slime. Starves without nutrients.
Red Drooplet 
Aggressive. Hunts green drooplets and consumes them in order to reproduce. Spreads red slime when it absorbs prey. Starves without nutrients.
Yellow Drooplet 
Alarming. Drives purple drooplets away when flailing. Inflates over time until it bursts. Does not eat.
CREDITS:
Tukisboolukis: Code, design
TheSmellofOxygen: Art, music
Pixabay & user Floraphonics: SFX
TOOLS:
Godot 3.6
Aseprite
Bitdragon
Tilesetter
Post Submission Additions:
Added much needed UI text, a return to menu button, and more feedback and tips on mouse-over. Added expiration to yellow drooplets.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/drooplets |
Ratings
| Overall | 779th | 3.314⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 861th | 2.988⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 164th | 3.798⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 121th | 4.202⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 652th | 3.5⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 552th | 3.083⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 804th | 2.5⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 911th | 3.012⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 48🗳️ | 64🗨️ |
I also love the lil sprites of the drooplets, they're very cute
However, I will say that given how limited your control over the drooplets is it can sometimes boil down to a waiting game of just hoping that they do what you need them to do. Having some additional mechanics to help instigate their actions would help to speed up the game a bit.
But all in all, good job!
It would be nice to have more control over them and add some timing mechanics or something to make more difficult.
Right now it's a very relaxing experience, well done!
For me it was pretty unclear what do. I know its part of the game to find out how the dropplets behave and interact with each other. But some basic instructions would be helpful. It took me while to find out that you can hover over the graphic in the top left corner to get some further instructions (which actually helped). For the future i would suggest to add at least one training level to explain the basics to the player. (if you ran out of time to do it ingame. you could give some more instructions on the game page)
Feedback for possible improvements:
- i would prefer if the camera automatically moves if you reach one of the borders with the cursor or at least that you can use the arrow/wasd keys to move it. Would be a nice addition to the panning mechanic and feels more natural (at least for me).
- cycling through the different colors with the mouse wheel should only select colors that are actually available in that level
- For the syringe i would add a circular drop shadow below, that indicates where the drooplets will drop exactly
- The progress indicator in the top left corner has transparency. That leads to some confusion if the graphic is on top off dropplets because it shows as if it is filled with that color.
Overall a pretty solid entry with an innovative and interesting concept.
More levels, goo variety interactions, and a different type of dispensable liquid were planned, but we ran out of time. It's true that there aren't very many failure states, unless you unbalance the food chain and use up all your slime without success on the red and green challenges, or let your purple drooplets burn in the yellow challenge!
Also, as an aside, I totally managed to lag out the game in the 3rd level. I love exponential growth!

Well done !
I like that you can try different strategies, however it feels like the best one is just the most obvious one - spamming everything in small area. I think this game could improve a lot if it would be little less random and if more tactical approach would be more rewarding. I wasn't sure how to beat level 4, but overall I like the idea a lot and had fun trying different strategies.
I like little detail that reset button wasn't just a simple reset but created immersion of burning all creatures in the lab environment. I can still feel the smell of smoke after level 2 so very immersive indeed (or maybe it is my.. wait..).
Time speed button was really helpful addition. I didn't notice it at first but after that the game became much more fun to play.