Unlike most of the games and prototypes here, which began around 2026, Amoeba Rogulike is from all the way back in 2021. It was my first game jam entry! The 7drl. It was ranked 1st based on aggregate metric score, though it was shared with 5 other entries. Still, out of 240 total submissions that year, I was extremely happy with the result.
I still really like the idea of the game. I think it’s really unique! I had this idea in my head for a long time of a game where you would go around as a cool goo monster and manage internal “organells” kind of like a tower defense / factory game. A traditional Roguelike probably wasn’t the best way to represent that at the time, though. But it’s what I was technically capable of! So it’s what I went with.
This definitely could have been a full game if I had put my time and focus into it. I didn’t really want to be a game developer, though. In hindsight, I probably could have put some time into it, and it would have been awful ROI. I had a lot going for me, admittedly! I had strong social connections in the Roguelike community which I think is the most important thing you could have as a game developer. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t have been able to stop the rising tide of AI that would make all my efforts in game programming moot. So I’m quite lucky I didn’t invest in it!
If I had to list my main issues with it, it would just be that the design itself is rather bad. It’s a hodgepodge of mechanics added because I thought they were “cool”, not because I was looking at them through the lens of a designer. More attention to detail without adding anything new would have gone a long way, I think.
- Better organelle-tree feedback
- Randomly putting random junk on the ground???
- Information overload
- Tactical decisions don’t really matter, the winning strategies for the game relate to power-scaling in a corner.
- Game overstays its welcome by a lot
- Early game too slow
- Pacing is nonsensical, you’re either dramatically under-power-scaled or dramatically over-power-scaled.
- Tighten tighten tighten! Smaller numbers! I love small numbers and hate big numbers!
When I remastered the game earlier this year to put it on my website with all the other stuff, I did a couple of low hanging fruit improvements (bug fixes, tiny balance tweaks, and visuals/sounds/animations for telegraphing). I think those were worthwhile. I regret making the map easier on the lower difficulty, though. It made the game worse and kind of defeated the purpose of making it a “remaster”. I’ll back out that change when I get around to it.
Doing a game jam was weird. I think it was a valuable learning experience and I don’t regret it. However, I did this game jam while I was still in school, mid-pandemic. I didn’t have a job or real adult life, yet. I do not think I would do something like that again unless I become both unemployed and independently wealthy with something to prove. Obviously, these days, coding skills are worth next to nothing, so I don’t even think it would be worth my time then, but who knows.
The original submission is still on itch if you want it for some reason, though I personally think it’s abhorrently inaccessible. Plus, I kind of have beef with itch.io right now because of the crazy amount of censorship + takedowns that they do, and I kind of want to pull it ideologically… But alas, I want this piece of early adulthood fossilized in amber more than I want to protest something by moving the host for a game nobody plays anyway. I’m not that petty.