Xanitol

High score: 205

I'll try to say things that weren't mentioned by previous comments:

The controls indeed were an issue, and what Allison adviced to do (crossing my arms to get the input) really worked, although it wasn't comfortable. It made the experience a lot more easier and if I didn't do that, I would have missed the gameplay. I think it's because games never make you aim on the left side of the keyboard. In shooters, movements are usually with wasd, and targeting with the arrow keys or the mouse.

I'm gonna reference the Binding of Isaac because it is a game where you shoot with the arrows and you move with wasd (it was mentioned by Fachewachewa). (I hope you know this game to use as a reference cause it's a very good example of that type of controls) As I played, I got strong tBoI's vibes because there's that "feel good" feeling as you shoot. Progressively stronger and faster rate of fire while holding the direction as it satisfyingly gets rid of enemies. Your game emulated that well! It felt good to destroy things. :)

The background could benefit from having colored lines (mildly dark pink) rather than black. This would allow the background to contrast less with the elements of the game.

I got ultimately killed by the blue cells, maybe those could avoid getting to the point it becomes impossible to push them back? It didn't seem like I could have done anything to survive any longer

Pretty cool anyway! The intro is satisfying to look at, too :)

Like other have said, controls were confusing. It's definitely the opposite of what's more intuitive (also Isaac is probably WASD to move, arrows to shoot, so there's that).

The visuals, while nice, were also confusing. The brown enemies were pretty hard to see against the background, and the overall readability wasn't that good. But I really liked the variety in ennemies and patterns. Though the big thing might explodes a little too soon, and I think on my last try an enemy just spawned on me?

A small text explaining what the pill you just took does might help understand things too. Even a simple "health up / speed down" etc. And regarding explanations, it's not the game but you should definitely write at least small description for the game.

And finally the game needs a few sounds effects, even some pretty basic stuff. Games with audio always feel more alive, but here with this kind of visuals, it really feels like you should hear something.

Oh and the game over screen was a nice touch :D

Cool art, felt kinda 'fleshy' (especially that funky pulsating background), which makes sense with the pills and made for a cool style. The controls were reeeallly counter-intuitive. WASD for shooting felt really strange. Using the mouse to aim would have felt much nicer.

Wasn't really sure what the pills were doing - they changed the attacks, but there wasn't any indication of what they changed sometimes. Would have been nice to see stats on your attacks - like, are the slower bullets hitting harder? Or are they just worse in every way?

Also wasn't sure if there was an end goal. Kept playing until the screen was filled with the expanding thingy.

Loved the little intro animation, that was really nice.

Overall - cool entry, nice graphics, controls let it down a bit - but that's potentially on me since maybe other people get on with that control scheme alright. Good job :)

Quite cool. Like all the enemy variety and different bullets, but they never seemed to be positive effects. Haha Nice entry

Neat idea, based around the theme. I found that the controls were almost impossible to deal with though... until I crossed my arms and played with my hands on the opposite directions. Having the left hand move and the right hand shoot made 100x more sense to me than the other way around 😅

Interesting game! I included it in my GM48 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/2x0hqeP3RWA

I helped work on this project, but due to the rush (Literally Last minute) We didn't have time to add me. This was a fun time and I enjoyed it, It was my first game jam, Cassidy taught quite a few things and I am thankful to have had the experience.

I think there's a lot going on here, which is impressive, the only downside is I didn't know what most of it was. There was no instruction about what any of the pills did or what was going on. I think you've got some good foundations here and maybe the time limit was a factor in polishing this? I enjoyed playing and I hope now that you have more time post-jam, we can know what the pills did - nice start, keep going with this! :) The background effect was cool as well!

The lack of sound really detracts from the experience in this one, but it's a bit rough in other ways as well. The enemies and pills do some neat things but the presentation is a bit lacking and the controls are clunky.

I like the pacing in this game, you can always kinda choose what to do, if it's get a new upgrade, shoot one group of enemies or the other.

The effects in this game are pretty great, I love the warbling of the walls and how the duplicating cells split apart.

The controls are a little confused for me, shooting with WASD instead of movement is a little counter intuitive. The visuals are funny and well made, pretty chaotic. The gameplay remembers me of Isaac haha, it's fun to see what effect the next pill will give you.