Beaker Beasties

CONTROLS:

Camera:
- WASD/Arrows to move camera
- Mousewheel or +/- to zoom camera in/out

Bug interactions:
- Left-click to give food pellets (Most bugs like these, but some bugs only eat other bugs)
-Right-click a bug to follow it around
- Some bugs like your mouse cursor, others hate it

Other interactions:
- Left-click the yellow '?' question mark when it's flashing, to see new info
- Left-click the little red 'v' downward arrow button on glass slides to change what colour of goo is on the slide (and therefore spawn different bugs on that slide)
- 1-4 to show different sandbox slide layouts

(For the GameDev.tv 2023 Game Jam, for the theme: "Life in 2 dimensions!")

Play with microscopic bugs in your science lab.

This was going to be a game, with objectives and stuff, but all the bugs (the bad kind!) got in the way. So for now, it's more like a sandbox experience.

You have various microscope slides with tiny bug-like creatures on them. If you peek closely, you can spy on the bugs as they go about their lives, and maybe even rule over them, like some kind of almighty deity.

You have some goo on your slides - it's crawling with bugs. Gross! The colour of goo determines which bugs will spawn on that slide.

Some bugs will chase each other, some will seek food pellets (which you can create by left-clicking), and some will chase your mouse cursor.

The  more stuff a bug eats, the bigger it gets, the faster it moves, and the farther it can see.

UNFINISHED FEATURES CUT FROM RELEASE:
- Bugs shrink over time?
- Bugs can reproduce
- Bugs leave pheromone trails that other bugs can sense
- Some bugs leave stronger pheromone trails than others
- Colourful goo serves as a wall for bugs to navigate around

OTHER FEATURES THAT WERE PLANNED:
- Lab has various equipment in it (microscope slides, chemicals) that you can use in combinations to tackle levels
- Puzzle features, where you choose combinations of slides and bugs that can work together to progress through the environment on the microscope slides
- Tower- defense-style levels, where you guide bugs to invade an opposing bug species' territory and eat away at their pile of goo
- Sound effects! I prioritised bugfixing instead. At least we've got music!

BUGS:
- Bugs sometimes get stuck when passing from one glass slides to another
- Bugs stop at edges of glass slide and don't turn around
- Bugs don't eat each other when they should


CREDITS:
- Programming, stressing, panicking, etc. by: Kooky https://kooky.itch.io/
- Art by: https://bittybeastie.itch.io/
- Music by: https://seor-livion.itch.io/ https://soundcloud.com/seor-livion/