First of all, I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who's played and rated Color Critters so far. I'm running out of time to get to 20 ratings, so if you haven't played it yet, please do! I promise, as ever, to play and rate the games of everyone who leaves a review!

For now, though, it is once again time to take a look back at Color Critters' development - the high points, the low points, and what comes next for it.

What Went Well

• With my last entry having been such a tough act to follow, I went back to focusing on gameplay over storytelling this time round, and it's worked a treat, with most reviewers saying how enjoyable they found the gameplay and nobody seeming to mind the non-existent plot.
• This is my first Ludum Dare since being diagnosed with ADHD. Despite my continuing struggles with the condition, and other medical issues (more on those later), I was able to comfortably finish the game within the compo window, with the exact number of levels I wanted and even adding in mechanics that I hadn't originally planned. Judging from the reviews, I got the difficulty progression spot-on as well. It helped that the game was coded in a way that allowed me to easily shuffle the level order around.
• Fearing that the gameplay might feel slow or arduous, I tried to streamline the gameplay experience as much as possible to avoid slowing it down further, by stripping out things like menus, "level complete/failed" messages, level transitions, and so on. Again, I feel it's worked, as I've received only one or two minor complaints along those lines; for the most part, people seem to be breezing through the game without it feeling like too much of a slog.

What Went Badly

• I have been, to put it mildly, suffering from various chronic aches and pains ever since the second day of the jam, which forced me to wrap things up early (more on that later). It wasn't as bad as LD45, where I was throwing up at my desk, but unlike LD45 where I was fine the next day, that chronic pain has persisted ever since, and for the past week it's been compounded by a nasty cold. All this has meant I haven't been able to put as much time and effort as I would have liked into advertising my game or playing other people's, and my chances of hitting the 20-rating mark are in jeopardy. There's not much I could have done about this, I suppose, but it's still not ideal.
• Each critter was intended to have an active ability, activated by pressing Z. In the end I couldn't come up with any before the compo ended, and they were left with just their passive immunities. As well as messing up the control scheme, since Z was reserved then never actually used, this meant the critters didn't feel as "unique" as they should have done and significantly reduced the game's intended complexity, leaving me struggling to scrape together enough puzzles to hit my target number of 15.
• I had plenty of time left to compose some music for the game, but again, I couldn't come up with anything and just left it. There's at least a rich selection of sound effects to make up for it, but this is still my first entry in quite a while that feels musically lacking.

What Comes Next

The general consensus regarding Color Critters seems to be "this is great, but it has the potential to be so much more". I agree. Therefore, my intention at this time - although it's not set in stone - is to expand Color Critters into a full-sized game. I'm undecided as to whether it will be a free release on Newgrounds, or a paid release on Steam and itch.io, but the following is definitely planned for inclusion:

• Many more levels (I'm thinking 60 is a good number), grouped into sections
• Active abilities. Yowler will be able to attract and repel metal crates, which are too heavy to be pushed; I envisage Roart and Blute being able to respectively melt and freeze certain objects but I'm not 100% certain how that's going to work yet
• More level mechanics/gimmicks (and a complete overhaul of the game's code to let me add them more easily, as the compo version's code is a clusterf*ck).
• A save system
• Music
• Some sort of color-blind mode - while nobody has requested one, I expect the number of color-coded elements in the game will make it difficult to play for anyone with color blindness

I will try to post dev updates to my social media profiles, which you can find linked in my LD profile. Again, though, I don't know when (or even if) this full-size version will be released, and I have various other projects in the pipeline at present, so please bear with me!

That's all for now. My focus for now will be on getting to the magic 20-rating mark, and once that's done I can start working on the full-size Color Critters. It'd be good if I could get it finished and out of the way as soon as possible so I can get back to working on Prism Warriors, which is lagging well behind where it should be.

Well done to everyone who managed to get their entries done on time, and I wish you all the best of luck for when the ratings come out!