Garden Slime

by amanda-neff

co-authored: @shogeku

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.09

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.93

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.90

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.25

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.91

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.90

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.06

Garden Slime is an early prototype made for Ludum Dare 51.

As our first joint gamedev experience, Garden Slime is a slime simulation game focused on caring for and ultimately breeding different slimes together. Slimes will go about their business while you influence what they interact with.

The game will get progressively more chaotic as a new slime egg gets added to the garden every 10 seconds!

Controls:

Drag & Drop - Move the various slimes, eggs, and ball wherever you like

Arrow Keys - There's a sleeping slime who you can move however you like

Space Bar - Opens the slime stat menu

Escape - Opens the main menu (Exit game to restart)

Debug Commands

1 - Hurt currently selected slime

3 - Spawns a new slime egg

Credits

Creative Director and Artist

Amanda Neff

Instagram: @CrypticMortality

Programming

Shogeku

==========
Patch Notes
==========

Bugfix01

- Fixed audio issue where music comes out only on left side

- Fixed ball speed not dampening when hitting fences/trees

- Fixed broken name assignments

- Fixed ball wiggle triggering when slime dropped

- Slimes die when health drops to zero instead of going negative

- Fixed slimes spawning on fences

Tags: #2d, #atmospheric, #cute, #monsters, #pixel art

Genres: simulation

Comments38

The Yak4 Oct 2022, 03:04

Good Concept, I loved the art

SofiGnedova4 Oct 2022, 05:48

Very nice and soothing :з

ActuallyTheMoon4 Oct 2022, 11:02

Cool vibes!

SayuriNyooko4 Oct 2022, 12:16

Slimes are so adorable! I like the art and sound ^_^

I wrote it myself4 Oct 2022, 18:44

It is a cute idea, the music is great! Good job!

nardandas4 Oct 2022, 18:47

Cute little game. I really like these ones that aren't do stressful! This is a stressful theme. I think a few particles to show when the slimes did something would be nice. I really liked how they kicked the ball around. It was so cute!

LDJam user 2997604 Oct 2022, 18:52

Cute game, I'm a sucker for slimes and this style of art! It'd be nice to have a shortcut to seeing a specific slime's stats (mouseover or right-click).

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:17

@the-yak Thanks! We considered a player character, but it felt like an unnecessary level of distraction. At least you can move one of them around :p. Might make that an option for whatever slime you want later.

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:18

@sofignedova We do love our cozy games ^^;

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:19

@actuallythemoon Cool vibes for cool people

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:20

@sayurinyooko All @amanda-neff right there. Love what she adds to this.

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:22

@i-wrote-it-myself We arrived at the idea pretty quickly. Gave us plenty of time to get used to our flow

Amanda Neffauthor4 Oct 2022, 19:23

@nardandas This was partially the reason for the emoting system; we have plans to continue developing this beyond what's available now. Thank you for your feedback!

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:24

@nardandas I also dislike overly stressful games. We will def be implementing lots more visual and audible feedback in the future, as well as an action log to keep track of what your slimes have been up to!

shogeku4 Oct 2022, 19:25

@mauvegrover Slimes are my fav monster! The stat system will def be more intuitive going forward. Everything is hooked up to display correctly, but didn’t have enough time to add in too many effects from it.

Eugenik4 Oct 2022, 20:58

Very nice game! :D.

shogeku5 Oct 2022, 01:03

@eugenik Thanks :) I liked yours as well

Ninnec5 Oct 2022, 03:09

The slimes were really cute. Unfortunately when I hit the space button my screen would just get pulled down. Probably just an issue with my laptop

shogeku5 Oct 2022, 03:21

@ninnec Im glad you liked the slimes :) I’m not sure on the window slide. Maybe the game wasn’t the selected window? Try full screen to see if it makes a difference.

Ninnec5 Oct 2022, 03:26

@shogeku Looks like that was the problem, thanks

MegaFuze5 Oct 2022, 06:10

This game looks very cute! overall I gotta say this is a nice prototype and I had fun looking at the slimes interact with each other, nice job!

Mortiss5 Oct 2022, 12:30

Nice to see them playing with the ball) It's a shame they don't do much else.

Amanda Neffauthor5 Oct 2022, 14:16

@mortiss We had quite a few things planned, but with the scope, we only ended up adding a touch of what we ultimately wanted.

digitaldude5555 Oct 2022, 15:25

Its cute, like the cozy music and mood. It's very unfinished though, and the theme wasn't used too well, if you develop the game further remove the 10 second mechanic.

shogeku5 Oct 2022, 16:00

@digitaldude555 It definitely needs more depth, we just ran into a time wall with the jam. The 10s auto spawn was a jam theme inclusion :)

Pier-V5 Oct 2022, 16:11

Fun little sandbox game you have here! Somehow it keeps you constantly interested despite having a simple (but solid) concept: maybe it's because the slimes are so cute, or maybe it's because I was just too curious to see what would happen once there's too much happening on screen, or maybe it's the little details like each slime having its own character and preferences - who knows. But I ended up playing the game way more than what I expected, and it was quite fun. I hope to see it completed once the jam is over, it definitely has potential.

How was the jam theme implemented? This was unclear to me, but I assume every 10 seconds a new slime appears - if that's the case, well it's quite clever.

I loved both the pixel art and the music, they fit the game perfectly, but one note about the latter: it would have been nice to have it in stereo (or at least in mono but coming from both left and right channels) and to avoid the long silence before it loops again.

Thanks for sharing your game, good luck with the jam!

shogeku5 Oct 2022, 16:15

@pier-v Wow, thanks for the detailed feedback! You're correct that a new egg spawns every 10 seconds ^^; The audio will be getting a lot more work post jam.

Doot5 Oct 2022, 20:54

Nice little relaxing experience! I like the mood, just looking at the slimes play with the ball and listening to the music was quite soothing.

I was a bit confused by the stats menu, I did not really understand who was who or what those stats represented.

Great job on your first jam together ✨

LDJam user 2796225 Oct 2022, 22:06

a very relaxing end to the stream, thanks for bringing this one by :heart:

vkaike26 Oct 2022, 22:04

I like the game idea, but I didn't understand what was our goal, if I need to make them happy, or just play whit them, of if there is a way to win or lose. Maybe would be cool to see some kind of tutorial for it.

settings7 Oct 2022, 01:16

Coziest game I've played in a jam! I liked the idea, and I think the visuals and music were great. I wished there were more mechanics, sound effects and visual effects implemented, but I understand it's just a prototype!

wildmusketeer7 Oct 2022, 02:39

Hey there! What a breath of fresh air this entry brought! Just a chill vibe to do some slime watching :smile: Great work on the art and sound, and enjoyed the fact you can play as one of the slimes! Also, does it make me a monster that these slimes made me hungry? I also have very similar feedback to some others--wishing to see more effects when events happen + have a clearer understanding on what the stats do. But those are nitpicks for a game jam entry -- a really chill but greatly done one!

LDJam user 1568197 Oct 2022, 05:10

Looks cute, though there didn't seem to be much to do. The ball zoomin about provided most of the entertainment :)

Stream vod here!

jonah7 Oct 2022, 18:14

Cute game! Did not really know what I could do! But had fun playing around!

Nice job!

MikkyTi7 Oct 2022, 19:10

Cute and chill game, enjoyed these cute little slimes))

LDJam user 2504268 Oct 2022, 00:47

Really adorable game with some chao garden vibes :3
It would have been awesome to see those other unimplemented slimes in the game, some minigames, and some genetics type stuff for breeding like if you were to breed a red and blue slime, you had a chance for purple xD
I would love to check out your progress and give further feedback if you continue development on this project. You know where to find me @shogeku

MaxKyckling9 Oct 2022, 17:03

Cute game. Very relaxing. I loved playing with the little slimes. Good job! :)

Oakhardt10 Oct 2022, 20:06

Really soothing game! I like the art and the music. The ball is a cool idea! I'm not sure why I can only control one slime with the arrow keys. The last one selected would be nice. Reminds me of slime rancher. I also think some mini games would be nice or objectives like getting a special colour of slime or a certain amount? Just throwing ideas around. I think this is a nice entry!