Shrink & Slime by Xwilarg

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

A hapless scientist and his slimy companion are testing his shrink ray when suddenly they have to deal with his messy room from a new angle. Tiny creatures who were previously just nuisances are now a big problem. Help our scientist get to the growth gun on the table to restore order and size.

Controls: - WASD: Move - Left click (maintained): Shoot - Right click: Send slime - Double right click: Recall slime - Spacebar: Jump - Shift: Run

Ratings

Overall 695th 3.389⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 815th 3.054⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 424th 3.444⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 150th 4.161⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 746th 3.315⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 625th 2.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 248th 3.577⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 593th 3.464⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 33🗳️ 33🗨️

Feedback

Tori
07. Oct 2024 · 22:32 UTC
This is a very cool entry, i love the graphism and the view on the theme, remind me of others game but i still like it. I think overall it work very well, great job to all the team !
Rodgems
07. Oct 2024 · 22:35 UTC
Love the setting of this. Big PS1 Toy Story vibes
SteD
07. Oct 2024 · 22:37 UTC
Setting is so creative, great job! I really like the mechanic that you did. Goes so well with the theme of the Game Jam.
Frostbeak
07. Oct 2024 · 22:39 UTC
This was a dope gameplay concept that suits the theme really well. Nicely done.
Gametrodon
07. Oct 2024 · 23:03 UTC
Neat idea!

One small thing, I had an issue where I my controller was constantly drifting left. Not sure if anyone else had something similar, this was while playing in a web browser.
imberny
07. Oct 2024 · 23:29 UTC
That's cool! It's hard to tell what's going on without sound effects, but there's a lot of charm! I didn't know I wanted Rick Sanchez cross Toy Story!
pomidor_carry
08. Oct 2024 · 12:23 UTC
That's such an interesting idea! Cool mechanics, even though audio and art are simple enough.
Was kind of hard to make slime follow me. I got it that it can teleport but it's still not perfect.
Great game! I'd like to see it grow and blushing rats are a nice touch!
game dynasty
08. Oct 2024 · 12:27 UTC
![3.PNG](///raw/8c7/42/z/67e29.png)
The goal of the game is to find a mouse?
I guess I had to make the slime eat all the sheep, but he couldn't get up on the bed :(
Anyway, this is a very interesting idea and a great interpretation of the theme. By the way, how did you even think of making a mouse that shoots rockets?
Surfa
08. Oct 2024 · 13:35 UTC
Interesting gameplay and design but I felt like it suffered from the time limit of the Jam as a few things felt a little under-cooked. I also had an issue with the embed whereby the intro panel was not scaled correctly and could only just press the play button. I am running an ultra-wide monitor so when fullscreen it was even worse in this regard.

Things I liked:
* Novel gameplay idea with shrinking enemies so the slime can gobble them up
* Design of the animals
* Design of the setting with everything being large

Things I wish were improved / different:
* I felt like if I shrink enemies enough I should be able to stomp them without taking damage.
* Not sure if it bugged but were the rockets suppose to do damage or push you back or something? They felt under utilized.
* Slime got stuck and the recall sometimes did not seem to work.
* Difficulty - it felt a little too simple/easy
* Mouse aiming felt too sensitive with no options to change.
* Also wished there was volume slider for the music it was a little too loud initially and had to use the windows volume slide to adjust.

Overall a solid entry and I really like the gameplay ideas that were put out. As well as the general feel of the world in which you play.
Kirass
08. Oct 2024 · 18:25 UTC
Cool game idea! I liked it! Good job!
🎤 Xwilarg
08. Oct 2024 · 18:46 UTC
Thanks everyone for your amazing comments!

@game-dynasty The goal is to make your slime eat the mouse, it's quite glitchy but if you try to get as close as you can eventually it'll work

For the mouse itself, I think it was the idea of our game designer so I can't say too much on my side, but when I saw the model I was like "wow I need to make so this thing is shooting missiles like crazy"

@surfa You have a lot of great points that we sure would have loved to improved! For the missiles themselves, they should damage you if you collide with them
Cisco
08. Oct 2024 · 20:36 UTC
I really like the concept and scale of the game. Also, the surprise of the rat launching the missiles made me laugh. Good job!
PlasmaPuffs
09. Oct 2024 · 01:10 UTC
Cool story and art! The only problem I had was that it took me a long time to figure out how to proceed in the "cutscene" since the button that says "next" can't be seen unless you went into fullscreen mode. But still, good job!
LarryV
09. Oct 2024 · 21:04 UTC
I think you depicted the scale of things really well, not just by making everything big, but by adding a lot of small details you can only notice while being small. Great work!
LDJam user 385232
10. Oct 2024 · 13:38 UTC
Awesome entry ! The shrinking mechanic is a ton of fun right away, the art is top notch and the map exploration is really enjoyable. I immediately felt the urge to chase and minimize the hell out of whatever was throwing those missiles above the pile of books at the beginning. Wasn't disappointed :D Good job team.
LelulaGames
13. Oct 2024 · 00:09 UTC
I like the idea. Graphics are kind of cute. At first I lost the slime because I didn't realize it wasn't following me, but I quickly found it, then realized it was growing when I fed it. Interesting way of doing it.
Andriana Mantidfly
13. Oct 2024 · 06:03 UTC
Very nice, but too short game
Gamayun.Games
14. Oct 2024 · 18:48 UTC
Such a nice idea! Reminded me of "Honey, I shrunk the kids" movie :)

I enjoyed the shrinking gun and the way you proceed through the levels. The design of the enemis was also very cool! I probably wish to have some sound effects as you interact with the objects though!

I was also not sure if you needed the slime to accompany you, maybe you could do all that just by yourself, both shrinking and defeating enemies :) And those huge rockets launching from the small launchbad after you shrank it looked a bit weird :D maybe the rockets could also become smaller?

Great job!
Ninjavitis
15. Oct 2024 · 07:03 UTC
Good take on the theme! The interplay between shrinking enemies and then consuming them with the slime was interesting. Couple of comments:

- I found the slime frustrating to deal with, in particular trying to get it up the ramp leading to the book before the rat missile launcher. I was able to eventually to get it to clip under the small opening beneath, but then it got stuck.
- I missed the HUD elements the first time I played - they're too far apart from each other, and not where the player would naturally look.
- Running out of energy for the shrink ray was frustrating, since the only way I could figure out to replenish it was to wait as it very slowly recharged. Felt like it either needed to recharge faster or another mechanism replenish ammo, like the slime eating something.
- Given its importance, I think a little time should be spent improving the graphics of the shrink ray so it is more than just a flat blue beam.
- For the transitions in the intro, I'd recommend registering a click anywhere rather than requiring the player to click on the buttons. Simpler to implement and more intuitive.
- I was confused by the flow of the intro graphic - it doesn't seem to read top to bottom, left to right, like I would expect.
IBluebirdI
15. Oct 2024 · 11:35 UTC
The theme was played out well, i liked that! My slime got stucked though few times, but recall helped i guess. He didn't want to jump out of bed. I don't blame him though =D
🎤 Xwilarg
16. Oct 2024 · 15:11 UTC
Thanks for all your feedback!

@ninjavitis For the energy part, your energy does indeed increase when the slime consume enemies