15 stars. Everything was top notch. I would've been happy with just the micro stage, so evolving into the fish was an incredible surprise. My favourite moment was being teased the beach before reaching the boss, making me realize I was about to get some legs.

I really like the visuals. I also find the evolution system very cool, and I like how you get to choose the upgrade.

The overall vibe of this game is extremely well done and it also fits the theme very well! I had a lot of fun playing through it and I love the control the player has through the upgrade system. Don't really have anything else to say, a very solid game for your first game jam!

Really love the aesthetic and art style of this one, and I like seeing the character get it's new upgrades, really feels like growth. I really like your guys take on the theme! I would've liked a bit more control over some of it's abilities like the projectiles and I think it would've been helpful to have some kind of health bar or indication the enemies are getting low in health. Good Job!   

Wow, this game has a really great atmosphere! The dark visuals with that music was a really good job. I had a lot of fun figuring out the bosses and turning myself into the apex predator!

I really had fun with this one! That feeling of getting more powerful was irresistible. However, it would have been nice if the enemies (but especially the bosses) had health bars. And the player should probably also have a health bar, though I suppose you did implement special effects to indicate when the player was about to die.

This game was so charming and unique, I loved it! The sound design was wonderful and something about the "evolve" was so satisfying. I loved being able to build up my cell and I also liked that the "boss" is made available right from the beginning but we can't fight it until we have sufficient builds. The setting was atmospheric and suitable for the game. My only critique is that I would love to see more feedback of taking damage or losing abilities when dying (which I believe was a mechanic) since at times I wasn't sure. But other than that I thought it was amazing great job, especially on your first jam! Got a 5/5/5 from me :)

This could absolutely be made into a feature-length game. Many people, myself included, enjoyed the cell stage of Spore very much. This plays like a much more in-depth version of that (and I'm all for it).

Additionally, in the earlier stages, my character uncannily started to look like a real little water creature, hopping around and looking for things to eat.

The dash was quite fun, but at the higher levels of upgrading it, dashing was 99% of my movement, and the base movement speed upgrades stopped seeming necessary.

The music was quiet but rather calm, and it fit the atmosphere quite well.

I like the idea of being in tunnels, it adds a lot more depth to the game (pun not intended) than just free floating through the water would. That being said, without a mini-map and with so many dead ends, I found it mildly frustrating sometimes to navigate. This stopped being an issue once I had my dash leveled to about 5 or 6.

The SFX and VFX were done quite well, too. Evolving was a genuine "dopamine" moment.

Fantastic job.

PS

Your use of the theme is top-notch. More importantly, it was well executed, too.

I really like the whole aesthetic of the game very well done. My only gripes are that I can't see the tail on web version on mac and that the game seems to get to a point where it offers me upgrades that dont seem like they do anything? Specifically needle lvl 7 doesnt really seem visually better but maybe it does more damage? clearer descriptions would be really cool. Other than that I loved the idea of the first stage of spore.

A very good rogurlikr where you farm over and over to progress. Very fun to play with so cool graphics and arts ! Well done to you, one of the better submissions i have seen !

For a first jam submission especially, this is epic. I like the mechanics overall, although I wish the dash was in the direction I was moving. The presentation is beautiful with nice art, effects, and sfx. Really well done, and congrats on completing your first jam!

i played the game for like an hour straight and i managed to complete it. the experience was AMAZING. i loved spore so of course i loved this game too. that's really a good job. impressive this is your first jam!

Very Relaxing game!
The music was relaxing, the mechanics were good, i really enjoyed leveling up and picking which ability i would like.
The boss though i didnt really understand how to fight him but thats a skill issue though, i laughed when i died and lost my upgrades i thought it had a checkpoint system but figured its more of a roguelike.
Again Love the game    

Really fun game! I liked building my cell over time as the levels went by and faced stronger enemies. 

very solid first jam submission, i loved the spore first stage bit and it fits the theme really well. I wish i finished all the levels to hear all the music but I died and lost all the upgrades like happened to the comment below and i couldn't get them again :/ But still it was a very fun game, i liked how you dealt with the way to get to new areas too.

This was fun! I stopped playing after I died and lost all my upgrades not sure if that was intentional. Great interpretation of the theme:)

I really loved Spore - especially the bacteria and first land phase, where you got to really build you organism like you'd fantasize.

And I felt the same vibes here - naturally I loved it too.

Especially since the level ups are very quick, so you get to test all the different power ups.

I had some problems with the boss fight - which caused a bit of frustration.

1. I leveled the Dash Ability - since it damaged/killed smaller cells I thought nice, Ill make that my main damage ability, but learned that I took damage dashing the boss. I mean this was also a bit on my part because I just later discovered the "hurt"-phase of the boss.

2. But by the time i realized that, I pushed im in the upper right corner, where the way continues, causing him to get stuck... so I couldn't get behind him and get those two hit zones.

Regardless of this I had TONS of fun this won't affect the rating for your amazing game.

Congratulations on finishing your first game jam submission with such a great entry.

Arts and music are chefs kiss level!

A very fun game! Sound effects are satisfying too.