The Living Blob

by dob
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.55
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.65
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.58
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.35
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.61
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.21
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.00
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.08
An action/puzzle game written in HTML5/JavaScript. For mouse and keyboard.

Play here:

http://planktongames.com/blob

SS0.jpg

Premise:

You are a mad scientist who loves growing blobs. Unfortunately, your blobs have been getting infected recently.

Your goal is to create full 5x5 blocks of healthy blobs. If you do, these blocks are immune from disease.

Controls and Instructions:

- You get your blobs in irregular groups of five at a time
- To place a group on empty spots, Click on the grid
- You can rotate the group with the E and R keys
- If you leave a hole when you place a group, it will fill in with an infected blob
- There are two levels of blob infection, infected (spotty) and diseased (purple)
- You can heal a 3x3 square of blobs with medicine. Move your mouse to the center of the area you want to heal and hit the M key. Infected blobs become healthy, and diseased blobs become merely infected.
- If you surround a medical syringe on the board with blobs, you collect it and can use it.
- The Infection bar rises over time (after the first level). If the Infection bar fills, some healthy blobs on the board will be infected, and some infected or diseased blobs will infect their neighbors.
- If you get stuck, or if your blob gets too infected, hit ESC to restart the level or return to the main menu

Creation

Written in HTML5/JavaScript using the CraftyJS library. Art in GIMP and PowerPoint with word graphics from CoolText.com. Sounds in GoldWave Audio. Music created in WolframTones composition tool.

Screenshots


Gameplay

SS0.jpg

Level intro

SS1.jpg

Help screen

SS3.jpg
*Post-submisison minor bug fix: Level number wasn't showing, so I added a bit of code (one line) to fix that. 4/20/2020*

screenshot
Tools: GIMP

Comments20

Thor Lucas20 Apr 2020, 04:01
Veeeery interesting! I really liked this mechanic. Fun! Graphics could use some work though — it looks ancient. Like one of those game I used to play on coolmathgames. This could make for a verry fun mobile game. Seriously!
Kinshuk_thebest20 Apr 2020, 04:04
Nice game! I wasn't expecting this at all! Its Fun!
frances
frances20 Apr 2020, 04:07
I enjoyed it a lot. I gave up when I didn't have any more empty spots to place my blobs, though. It would've been nice if the game told me when there were no more possible moves to make.
Nerd Everyday
Nerd Everyday20 Apr 2020, 04:10
Great game! The graphics and audio are fun, and the game is a good puzzle.
comatomatoes20 Apr 2020, 04:16
Cool entry! In case you're still wondering, the last level is possible! =)
dob
dobauthor20 Apr 2020, 04:47
Thanks, all, for your comments. @comatomatoes I knew the last level was possible, I just hadn't won it yet before publishing. I just thought it was kind of funny publishing a game I hadn't been able to win. But thanks for letting me know. I was able to complete it about 30 minutes after the release when I went in with more medicine. @frances I agree - I really wanted to add a no-legal-moves detector and offer a restart of the level, but I just didn't have time. Sorry about that.
James Gillespie
James Gillespie20 Apr 2020, 10:42
Fun and surprisingly difficult after a few levels
gagouman21 Apr 2020, 03:42
Fun puzzle game, gets really difficult after a few levels!
Jimbly
Jimbly21 Apr 2020, 04:13
Framerate got awfully low when my board got pretty full. On the final level, when the board got filled up, got down to about 10 fps, which made it *really* hard, but I just barely won! Nice game, really enjoyed it.
dob
dobauthor21 Apr 2020, 05:01
@jimbly Sorry about that - it does get a lot of sprites going if the board is full, and my development PC is pretty fast. I was worried about it slowing down on laptops. I'm glad you were still able to succeed.
sndr
sndr21 Apr 2020, 08:48
Pretty cool puzzle you have there, with interesting mechanics! :) Difficulty ramped up quite fast, but I had fun nonetheless. :)
chromableedstudios22 Apr 2020, 03:07
Really impressively polished game for a jam--nice work! My only suggestion would be it was kind of hard to tell which square(s?) the medicine were occupying, maybe they could change the color of the tile underneath or something.
Bulent Altinay23 Apr 2020, 11:18
Awesome game...Framerate drops when the screen is full...5 :stars:
cirno
cirno23 Apr 2020, 13:20
This game is awesome! The gameplay mechanics, animation effects and sound are all good! I really enjoy this one.
just-stanley23 Apr 2020, 13:37
Fun game! I got all the way up to level 7 but only managed to get 2 5x5s
Sir. Syko
Sir. Syko23 Apr 2020, 17:03
Haha awesome game and Sfx! :smile: That Blob Marley pun though, you could have used some sleep :stuck_out_tongue: Btw imo when grid cell on the edge were left empty and surrounded by blob (unable to be filled) they should become infected as well :wink: Great game! Keep on it :wink:
caeonosphere
caeonosphere24 Apr 2020, 02:33
Fun puzzle, would have enjoyed some kind of endless mode for high scoring!
Baby Dino Herd25 Apr 2020, 00:44
Excellent work! The presentation and polish was excellent throughout, visual cues were helpful, and the game was easy to pick up and fun to play. Not much else to say -- excellent job!
Uppitydonkey5727 Apr 2020, 19:16
I have no idea whats going on but I enjoy placing the blobs!

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