Thanks so much for playing! Glad you enjoyed the twist on the classic formula. I totally see what you mean about the dead zones, balancing the unowned blob generation is definitely something I want to improve on.
I wanted to make the UI minimal in-game and chose to put all instructions in the itch.io description. Will definitely fit it in-game for a more polished version. Thanks for the compliment on the sound effect! I had a lot of fun recording it
Thank you for the comment. Basically, the idea behind shooting out an unowned blob as a projectile adds to the overlap-slowing mechanic. When you want to chase someone, you might want to shoot a projectile to slow them; on hit, they'd choose between escaping, but you should have a better time chasing them because of the slow effect, or absorbing your projectile (which also slows) and fighting back. When you are escaping, the chaser is faced with the same options: to be slowed by your projectile or just absorb it, plus shooting it out has a recoil which gives you a little boost. I didn't have the time to tune the numbers and how much it slows to make this a more powerful mechanic, but generally I like how it plays into the whole system. Thanks for your constructive comment!
Thanks for trying it out and for the kind words! A multiplayer mode is definitely on the post-jam to-do list. I appreciate the feedback on the Firefox performance, too, I'll see what I can do to smooth that out!
Thanks for liking the aesthetics! Not having a split was an explicit design choice because I intended to make overlap and speed penalty a core mechanic. Adding splitting on top kinda breaks the design and the simplicity of each in-game entity's one-to-one ownership system. The speed problem in my design is supposed to be balanced out with the speed upgrades, making the core game loop as follows: absorb -> grow -> upgrade -> repeat. Since you can upgrade infinitely, you can use the upgrades to offset the speed penalty of growth. I must admit that the time window was too short for me to properly tune the numbers to a more desirable state, but I think as a jam PoC achieved what I'm designing for. Thanks again for your constructive comment!
Yeah... It is difficult to tune it to a balanced level and have balanced NPCs within the game jam's time window. The spawn rates for unowned resources should definitely be increased to help the player live longer. It probably makes better sense in a multiplayer setting (agar.io), which would probably be more balanced (with some amount of player base of course XD). Thanks for the constructive feedback!
Amazing that you're able to make this much content over the span of the jam! A little too daunting to look at this much text just opening up the game. Would be nice if you could create a light intro level to walk players through the basics and add mechanics gradually.
