Envelop

by ethteck
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.06
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.20
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.38
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.81
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.94
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★28%
Envelop is an absorb or be-absorbed shooter with ghosts and ectoplasm galore! Shoot intimidating ghosts to shrink them to a manageable size while dodging other ghosts' minimizing attacks! Be careful not to shoot too much ectoplasm, though, or you'll fall victim to a nearby foe.

WASD or Arrow Keys - movement
Mouse - aim and shoot
Escape or P - pause

Development and Design by
Naethure (Lee Berman) &
Ethteck (Ethan Roseman)

Graphics by
PoofieCharlee (Charlee Anderson)

Comments14

Enrymion
Enrymion26 Aug 2015, 03:39
View range is too small for it to be that interesting
hammerfrenzy26 Aug 2015, 03:40
Interesting idea, I like the ghosts' expressions. Wasn't able to gain much size, but I did have fun chasing down tiny ghosts.
wg_phancock26 Aug 2015, 13:11
Interesting graphical theme. The gameplay, while good in concept, has some fatal flaws that really stop it from being as good as it could (unless I missed something). Smaller guys are faster than you, so chasing them through a bullet hell just gets you killed. Big guys kill you on contact and you seem to lose more from shooting them than you gain. I managed to eat one guy after a dozen or so attempts.
wg_phancock26 Aug 2015, 13:14
Follwup; I decided to try the linked version instead...you really should just get rid of the embedded version. Having the full screen viewable makes it a completely different, and quite enjoyable game. Updated rating to represent the full version.
ZzCalvinzZ26 Aug 2015, 19:59
pretty good....a little difficult but I enjoyed it
ethteckauthor29 Aug 2015, 03:33
@wg_phancock - great suggestion. After both your and @Enrymion's comments, it looks as though the main gripe was the window size, so I removed the embedded version. :)

Thanks for playing and your followup, and I'm glad you enjoy the game!
Slashee the Cow
Slashee the Cow29 Aug 2015, 03:48
A lot of the time I found anything small enough for me to absorb went too fast for me to catch it.

Also there's a LOT of bullets flying around randomly from stuff I'm nowhere near. Makes it hard to stay a decent size.
ehtd
ehtd29 Aug 2015, 04:11
Good idea, but too hard
PowerSpark
PowerSpark29 Aug 2015, 04:35
This isn't easy. So you copied Agario, but it's even harder. Maybe the bolts are cool, but there's no point in chasing orbs without being able to split into them; they're too fast.
ethteckauthor29 Aug 2015, 04:55
As for the comments about the difficulty, we understand it's pretty hard to jump in and survive for a while. If you give it some time, you'll develop a strategy, but I can see why one would lose interest before then.

To address @PowerSpark's comment, agar.io was really one of the last "absorption" games we had in mind when making this. We were really thinking of Spore, Osmos, Bubble Tanks (though that doesn't deal with absorption), and some older flash games.

Your opinion is completely valid, but I just wanted to give my take on it: it seems you're wanting to apply your strategy in agar.io to Envelop, but this game, while sharing some basic principles with that one, has different rules and with them, a different optimal strategy.

Just as a hint to anyone wanting to play who happens to read this: It's true that significantly smaller ghosts will always outrun you. The goal is to find a ghost that's somewhat smaller but mostly still the same size as you. Those ghosts can be caught up to (as they are slow like you) and absorbed. And shooting is extremely helpful, but shoot sparingly! :)
OmarShehata29 Aug 2015, 11:34
This is definitely fun! I liked that the ghost's expression changed depending on whether they could absorb you or vice versa. There's a game very similar to this that I played a while back, but it was online multiplayer.

It would also be nice if the sizes changed more gradually rather than instantly.
Biruts1 Sep 2015, 16:41
Very nice project guys, i really love it, please check our game too and if you liked it give us a vote. Look for Road to hell and enjoy.
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord