Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

Chemistry Girlfriends: Doodle EditionView game page

two girls using their chemistry to survive the zombie horde
Submitted by TransEli — 1 hour, 9 minutes before the deadline

Play game

Chemistry Girlfriends: Doodle Edition's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Fun#4983.6003.600
Originality#8433.6503.650
Overall#11113.3833.383
Presentation#22372.9002.900

Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
(CHECK DESCRIPTION FOR CONTROLS) Taffy and Lizzy are very much joined together, although by mechanics rather than physicality. When the girlfriends are close together, they are easier to control, can combine the properties for their attacks for a score multiplier, and are able to cover for each other. However there are so incentives that make it so that they can’t be kept close together at all times, for example: Lizzy is much faster than Taffy, so you can use her to collect fuel and distract zombies, two things that Taffy isn’t good at because she is barely faster than the zombies. As a result of this separation, they are more venerable, less powerful, and harder to control.

Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?

Yes

We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam

Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?

No

We used pre-existing audio

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted( 1)

Pretty fun! Controls were hard at first but I could use to it. Liked the combo weapon idea.

Developer

I'm glad that you took the time to get used to the controls, something I should definitely work on for this game is a tutorial if I ever come back to it. The game could be much easier to get into if the elements of the game were introduced one-at-a-time rather than reading the word vomit that is the description of the game and having to take in a lot of information just to start playing the game. But its great that you had fun with the game in spite of all that!

Submitted( 1)

This was pretty fun! The controls actually feel really good and convenient to play with, having one character on WASD and the other on mouse. The UI is a bit hard to understand but other than that, I really liked it! Nice work!

Developer( 1)

Thank you! From the very start I tried to make the controls simple to counteract the inherit difficulty of controlling two character that move independently of each other, so I'm glad you were able to get used to the controls and find the fun of my game. UI readability is undeniably a significant problem with the game just can really stand out as the weakest link that drags the entire game down. Every time a commentator points out how difficult the UI is to read my regret for not spending enough time on the UI increases. So if I make another version after the jam is other the UI is definitely the number one thing I will need to improve.

Submitted( 1)

This is super fun.  I want to try it out co-op at some point.  I agree with some other people that clearer UI would be great.  I really like the doodle aesthetic too.  Great job.

Developer( 1)

You could technically play it co-op, have one person on the mouse and one person on the keyboard. Obviously co-op isn't intended and I actually think playing it this way might actually be harder than controlling the two characters on your own, but its an interesting idea and maybe I could make the game much more co-op friendly if I tweaked it a certain way. As I mentioned before, the UI was slapped together in ten minutes and I regret not spending more time on it, the doodle aesthetic is also kind of last minute but it worked out much better and I'm glad you liked it!

Submitted( 1)

Agreed with others that the UI was a bit tricky to understand, but I really loved the mechanics of this one. Works great thematically and was really fun to torch hoards of enemies. Nice job!

Developer

Just like the other replies, I totally agree on just how obtuse the UI is and doesn't really fit with the doodle art. I'm glad you love the theme of chemistry and how the mechanics ties into it, and I'm glad you found it fun. Thanks!

Submitted( 1)

Nice little game, good use of combination mechanics. Especially that the movement of the orange character ties into the aim for the blue one.

The colored progress bar is a bit hard to read, so if you continue to work on this, you might want to work on the UI.

Developer

Thanks! When I heard the theme for the GMTK game jam announced, I knew I wanted to make a game were two elements are closely connected mechanically and not physically because I wanted to go in a different direction from I imagined many other people would take their game. I was inspired by how real flamethrower work. And yeah, if I ever come back to working on this UI will be the one of the first elements I need to improve.

Submitted( 1)

Interaction between the 2 elements feels great and the game is well balanced. My only struggle was the UI, which took me a while to get use to. Nicely done!

Developer( 1)

YES! I'm very proud of the core mechanics but I agree that the UI is the weakest part of my game and it's my fault for neglecting it, I definitely should've spent more time on it.

Submitted( 1)

I like this new combat style "Set your friend on fire and spray the gas at your friend to kill the horde of zombies". such a nice way to survive the zombies apocalypse.

the gas meter by color is a bit hard to tell how much gas I have left for me.

Developer

Yeah, the UI was probably the my least favourite part of the game. I literally designed all of the UI (The colour meters, score displays and the menu) in around 10 minutes and you could probably tell. I definitely should've spent more time on it. It wasn't until after long submissions were closed my Dad (Who play-tested my game so I could gauge how much I need to explain to new players) told me that the UI was hard to understand and I realized how obtuse it was. It could've been very easily improved if I just put a percentage of the girlfriends' hp and gas on top of or near the colour meters. So yeah I completely agree with your criticism.

Submitted( 1)

Super good. Once you get the hang on moving both at the same time it really clicks. Got 138000 points!

Developer

Thanks! I see that you invested a fair amount of time into the game judging by your high score so thank you very much for giving my game a fair shot despite its obtuseness and lack of in game instructions.

Submitted( 1)

I got 21100 scores. Though this game has no instructions and don't know what the top bars mean, I figured out which key I should press to defeat the enemies. It made me cheerful.

Developer

I didn't have time to put in in-game tutorials so all of the instructions are in the description so it's great that you enjoyed the game at least a bit without instructions!

Submitted( 1)

Lots of fun, using the red girl's ability is plenty of fun. It reminds me a lot of the maxed out bloons tower defense spike shredder. Good job!

Developer

I'm glad you find it fun, it was one of my main goals of from the very start to make the attacks satisfying to use, and it seemed to work from the responses I got so far!

Submitted( 1)

The control are quite complex to use efficiently, but otherwise it's a really nice game, well done!

Developer( 1)

I tried making the controls as simple as possible, but there is something inheritably difficult to get used to about controlling two characters that move independently of each other. However they are easier to control when close together and the flamethrower combo the double score encourages this play style, but retrieving the gas still often requires separation so I completely understand your frustration. I didn't really notice it while I was playtesting because I was pretty much already used to the controls, so having playtesters be able to point out things I've never noticed about my own game is really helpful!

Submitted( 1)

This was such a cool take on the theme,  I'd love to see it explored further with more attacks and combinations. I really like the hand drawn art and the grid background, makes for an awesome aesthetic. Great job!

Developer

The doodled art assets was actually a last ditch effort by me to make my game look more polished in a short amount of time. The game was actually initially planned to have more cartoony and detailed art (It's also why the game has the subtitle of "Doodle Edition"). But I'm glad you liked it anyways!