Hi, thank you for all your comments and suggestions! 

I agree the the game is too simplistic in it's current state. If I ever come back to this project I would love to add things like a win condition, upgrades, better spawning system etc. I think the game's clarity would benefit a lot from extra colors, so potential updated version would certainly be more colorful. 

Even though the game itself is not up to par with the competition (there were a lot of amazing games here), I'm still very satisfied with the project. Algal Bloom was the first game I ever submitted to a game jam and it was an awesome learning experience. I'm really happy that I managed to upload my project in a playable state, and some of you guys spent a moment to test it and share your opinions.

Cheers!

Interesting game, but sadly quite lackluster. I could imagine some nice things coming of the concept; maybe make it so you can convert harvested algae into money that you can use for upgrades?

I loved the removal of the algae, it looks so satisfying for some reason haha. I found it a bit sad though that there wasn’t more game mechanics, I had the feeling I just had to go a random path and die eventually… Overall though nice submission!

If you find the time to play our game too, I would appreciate it!

The game runs well, and controls feel nice. I appreciate the sprite turning animation - nice touch. It would have been more fun if there was some aspect of control or progress. It didn’t seem to matter which way or how I moved, just clear inevitable death :)

The music and colors give a nice calming aesthetic. Well done, and shout out to another PICO-8 user!

That's a great start that could be developed into something bigger. Funny thing, I myself considered a game for this jam with the exactly same title.