Thank you so much for playing!! I had originally intended for 7 color effects for all of the main colors of the rainbow (ROY-G-BIV) that were all unlocked in a Metroidvania-esque style, so we are definitely in agreement that that system could use some expansion. In fact, the originally intended paint system extended far beyond (and dare I say, was much more unique and flexible than) the simple “powerup” system present in the current version. I’d definitely love to explore all the things I could do with it given the chance to make a full release. Additionally, your comment about the game seeming like the start of something is the consensus of pretty much everyone whose played it, which is pretty good evidence that there’s a lot of room for expansion here :)
Thanks for the complements on the movement and sound design as well! I had to learn a lot about soft bodies and implement a lot of “character controller” things that are typically handled by the engine due to my use of a custom physics implementation, and I’m very lucky that I was able to settle on a final product that felt relatively good to play. I believe it could still use some refinement, but in my opinion it works well for the purposes of the jam. I’m also particularly proud of the sound design; I have literally zero experience with it, and was fortunate enough to find/create a group of SFX that worked shockingly well to convey the alien world and the “gooey” properties of the player character. The movie WALL-E (and a documentary in its sound design) was a big help here as they discuss how to use unconventional sounds to “sell” certain effects with no real world equivalent.
…Perhaps that’s too much information, but I like sharing (and oversharing) about my process in the hopes that it will be helpful to other developers who might come by this thread. Thanks again for playing and for the positive feedback!!