Gloomies by SpaceMonkey

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

Gloomies Page 2.png

Sometimes, what lurks in the dark isn't scary... well, even cute!

Gloomies is a pixel-art game in which you'll be able to see some Gloomies wandering in the attic. Sometimes, a gem will appear and the tinies creature will try to eat it. If done, they will duplicate, slowly growing in number.

Be careful however! Gloomies are weak to the strong lights. Being in contact with one will hurt them (pretty badly). So, you can use your flashlight to scare them away from the beams of the lamps or toys that suddenly gets active.

How long will you be able to keep the gloomies alive?Gloomy_Eat.gif

Ratings

Overall 533th 3.569⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 323th 3.655⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 396th 3.483⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 287th 3.966⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 673th 3.466⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 662th 2.821⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 672th 3.375⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 41🗨️

Feedback

Irene02
08. Oct 2024 · 08:18 UTC
Such a cute game! Really love the simplicity of it. Very atmospheric, relaxing, and it fits the theme really well. Great job!
csLupius
08. Oct 2024 · 15:26 UTC
Very well done, it has interesting mood and great choice for music very relaxing and enhances the mood, fits the game.
Mijio
09. Oct 2024 · 08:27 UTC
Well done)
Reyansh
09. Oct 2024 · 08:30 UTC
I really liked the game but I think it should scale in difficulty more linearly, since, for me at least at around 1:50 lights just started spawning everywhere very suddenly, making it a lot harder, very quickly.
I really liked the game though and the difficulty at the end was really fun, I just think it should lead up to that more slowly.
TentacleDream
09. Oct 2024 · 08:31 UTC
It looks very cute and the beginning of the game is very interesting. However, after the second minute the game became simply impossible to complete. At such difficulty, unfortunately, it is simply impossible to do anything with only one gameplay mechanic. I hope you will be able to balance the difficulty of the game in future updates for your beautiful game =)
creativ4eg
09. Oct 2024 · 08:47 UTC
Hi! We've just made very similar game 😅
Great idea with controlling the creatures!
damdoshi
09. Oct 2024 · 14:29 UTC
It is fun. The creature is cute and the mechanics are righteous. I'll share it with my teams, it is a nice game to play.
Tudvari
09. Oct 2024 · 15:48 UTC
2:04! :D At first I thought that "Hmm, this is easy, I've got tons of gloomies, what do they meant by "how long can you keep them alive?"

And then apocalypse begins! :smile: Cute and interesting idea, cohesive aesthetics! Maybe there could have been a bit more depth. Good job!
Vittima
09. Oct 2024 · 16:43 UTC
It's fun and easy to play, very relaxing)
PowerAuer
09. Oct 2024 · 19:29 UTC
It was very cute!
daria-toni
09. Oct 2024 · 20:20 UTC
Strong Studio Ghibli vibes, aaaah! Cute fellas even make that sounds like in Totoro. Very cute game, very simple but everything works as it should. For me the game would be more challenging if the end result was not how long you lasted, but to last until a certain time (so you can win! Or is that already in the game?)
Kekwu
10. Oct 2024 · 06:21 UTC
Sooooo cute, omg
Calcopod
10. Oct 2024 · 06:30 UTC
I loved it!
The simple art style and sound effects complement eachother perfectly, and, while simplistic, the actual gameplay is so fun I could not stop playing.

I've also always loved 2d lights and the way this game utilises them is great!

Absolutely great idea, with good execution! At some points I did have period of around 10 seconds I'd say with 0 diamonds spawning and a lot of "death traps", but I managed to get through them.

4:21 was my best score, due to the aforementioned issues.

Great entry, with lots of potential for a "killing time" type of game. Add some multiplayer and you've got yourself a possible great little game!
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 09:28 UTC
Thank you everyone for your feedbacks, it's really heartwarming for me, especially because it was my first jam!
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 09:39 UTC
@reyansh @tentacledream we had a switch right at the end. We had a timeline and some other items with their own patterns, but we realized that it might become unbalanced since we didn't have any items that forces you to lose any of you gloomies.

We had to incorporate the garland and its mechanic right at the end and we didn't had the time to work on the timeline again. Since we didn't have the time to make a random and infinite generation of the items, we had to make the game impossible at some point (that's why there is this "apocalypse phase" that is just impossible to survive to.)

Our idea at the beginning was to slowly push the player into a type of difficulty close to Megalovania and so the game would've been more challenging and more interesting to push the timer just a couple seconds further :D
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 09:49 UTC
@creativ4eg I went to see the page of your game. Seems like we had the same inspiration! Seem like we're both people of culture :D
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 09:57 UTC
@tudvari Thank you for your feedback!

May I ask you what you mean by "more depth"? Is it more about the gameplay and the items, or more about the context? :o
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 10:04 UTC
@daria-toni I'm glad you liked our game, and that you notice the detail of trying to reproduce a sound similar to the ones from Totoro.

We thought about making the gloomies fight some items that would be considered like "boss fight", where you would have hard patterns to fight to, but keeping the gloomies close to the item would make them start biting it. We ended up not doing it because of the lack of time and the feeling that trying to beat your own time would be funny enough!
Oren Hope
10. Oct 2024 · 10:13 UTC
4:21 is a really great score, congratulations @calcopod ! I think one of our dev was able to reach 4:24 :D

Thank for your valuable feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed our game! We had some ideas to make it more enjoyable if we want to do some post-jam adjustements and additions, but seeing your way of thinking could help us defining what players would like to see :D
Tudvari
10. Oct 2024 · 11:22 UTC
@oren-hope I was talking about gameplay and items. I guess it means that I'd like to play it more with more features! :D
BangKerpow
11. Oct 2024 · 02:12 UTC
It's really cute and including an apk was a good idea since it works well with touch.
Mars
12. Oct 2024 · 14:46 UTC
Very cute game! Not a lot to do, but it was fun for a few minutes to see how many I could get to spawn. The answer was: very many.

Runs well on Linux when using WINE :)
qwertyuiop
13. Oct 2024 · 03:48 UTC
good
jk5000
14. Oct 2024 · 18:23 UTC
A bit confusing, but also pretty fun. Love the atmosphere. Overall a pretty well made jam game.
ArtAllester
16. Oct 2024 · 17:05 UTC
Loved it! Keep up the good work.
Euler Moises
17. Oct 2024 · 19:28 UTC
The first few times I played I didn't understand whether I was supposed to save or kill the little ones.

After I understood what I had to do, I managed to hold on for 2 minutes.

After that, a lot of destructive things appeared and I didn't have a chance.

Congratulations
Geckoo1337
19. Oct 2024 · 20:17 UTC
Cute little gloomies. I really loved this tiny game with a simple gameplay, but a really good use of the theme. The mechanics work well as expected, and the movements are smooth. The background music is really cool - something quiet and ethereal. This game could be better on a mobile device. Thank you for this entry. Well done ++
commanderstitch
20. Oct 2024 · 23:09 UTC
wow. blue gems ftw. fr, super cool on physics type interactions. Reminding me of dabbing my fingers in water to make the ripples push things away. :D
fraywire
24. Oct 2024 · 11:13 UTC
Nice and interesting game mechanic, didn't take long to get used to and I built up the number of these little creatures until I have so many walking around the screen. The game's difficulty needs some more balancing with having an overwhelming amount of obstacles (spotlight, xmas lights & maybe the diamonds) spawning all at once. But overall good job!