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GMTK 2025 : Eco Reactor's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artwork | #2120 | 3.553 | 3.553 |
| Creativity | #2578 | 3.596 | 3.596 |
| Audio | #2805 | 3.021 | 3.021 |
| Narrative | #3395 | 2.447 | 2.447 |
| Enjoyment | #4655 | 2.723 | 2.723 |
Ranked from 47 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?
Eco Reactor simulates a closed-loop ecosystem in which players need to balance resource inputs and outputs to maintain a stable environmental loop
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Tools
Engine: Godot 4.4.1
Modeling: Blender 4.4.3
Additional Assets
Cog Icon by Lorc
Licensed under CC BY 3.0
game-icons.net
Music
"Crystal Cave" by The Cynic Project
pixelsphere.org
Sound Effects
"Page Turning" by Nicole Marie T
opengameart.org
Font
Xolonium
Licensed under SIL Open Font License
https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/xolonium
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Alex Shopov, aka EcoDevGuy
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Comments
Love the idea for this one! Balance the ecosystem is deceptively hard, I failed over and over again, but really enjoyed!
howdy! i'm gonna leave a few little screenshots here that i hope are helpful for communicating feedback and maybe debugging. there is a chance i'm not sure what's going on so feel free to let me know if that's the case!
i was able to place different blocks inside other blocks (fungus & solar, building in a tree, etc).
in terms of the balanced values, i had the above spread (everything at 0 except for O2 at -2) for about ten plus days until my system eventually adjusted and then failed: i think i had all values near ideal levels so everything was a'okay until the balance gave out, i was unsure though of what constituted a 'collapsed system' and what resulted in the 'game over' at the end. i think that communicating target levels more clearly and, in the event of a game over, reporting the reasons for it (i.e. "your CO2 was too high") would help the player a lot!
overall, very cool idea! i'm really envious on what you were able to accomplish in such a short time span. i would love to see how this looks post-jam with some more polish.
AMAZING feedback, thank you!! I've encountered the double placement bug, but it's really difficult to pin down; I totally blame it on the rush of trying to get jam-ready code out the door. I'm re-architecting all these systems from the ground up for the post-jam version. I'll let you know when the next version is posted!
I love this conceptually, I love games about balance and nature. But then I'm probably biased :P
Thank you! You may be biased, but clearly also have good taste! haha
I’ll let you know when the next version goes live, if you’re interested! I’d love any feedback you have to offer.
This is a shameless plug, but the best advice I have on making games about nature is my GDC talk
But more generally, my feedback would be to double down on balance as a theme, even though every other game doesn't
Balance vs chaos is exactly the theme I’m going for. I have a background in biology and CS, so lots of personal and field experience to draw from.
Good luck!
one of most amazing arts in this jam. nice job
Wow, thank you for the high praise!
I love management games, very cool idea!
Thank you! I really enjoyed your racoon game!
This is a resource management game, and I'm happy it uses a grid system! I don't usually play this genre much, but I ended up spending quite a bit of time with it. It's a good game
That's awesome to hear, thank you! This was my first time making a resource management game, glad you enjoyed it!
Woah, really interesting game. Couldn't get the hang of it but it was very intriguing nonetheless!
Thanks for playing! I'll definitely get a tutorial and more gentle ramp up implemented for the next version.
Really creative idea, haven't seen many other resource management games in this game jam. One thing that would really benefit this game is instructions or a tutorial though, as it took me a while to understand what I was actually doing. But once I did, it was a fun challenge.
Thank you! A fun challenge is exactly what I was going for. Tutorial is the number 1 most requested feature and I'm already working on it for the next version!
Never did figure it out, but it's a really good challenge. I kept running into problems where I would go ot put an item down and it wouldn't let me. Outside of that, its kinda relaxing stress? I enjoyed it! Well done.
Thank you!
took me a while, but it's a nice concept :) To figure out how to balance it out
Thank you! I'm adding a tutorial so hopefully it will be more clear in the next version.
Fun game. It is very hard, but I like a good challenge. It may be a little buggy now, but I'm sure you'll fix it at some point. Good job! :D
Thank you! A good challenge was the intent, but it definitely needs more balance. Working on squashing those bugs now!
I didn't do that well, but you have a good concept to build on here!
Plenty of people have made helpful recommendations, so I'll just suggest polishing the ui/feedback, so it's clear when things can be placed, when certain variables are critical, etc.
I think there is a lot of potential here, good entry!
Thank you! I’ll definitely polish this up and get a new version out as soon as possible!
Good concept! I got stuck on my best run since there were too many pre-placed algae tanks and I couldn't reduce the oxygen, but it's good a good gameplay loop. Nice work
Thanks for playing! The oxygen consumer is bugged, I’ve made it a note to fix that in the next release.
I think the game could be cool but I don’t really understand what to do! I saw that you putted the info on the itch.io page but I am lazy. :) You know that it needs a tutorial so yeah! The games artwork is ok! Keep up the good work!
Great game! I made it pretty far, I think the game could benefit from a tutorial and maybe a shader to make it look a bit more retro-like
Thanks for playing! A tutorial and early game progression is definitely on the list. I didn't have time to play with any shaders, so that's also something I'd love to experiment with.
A pause button would have been nice, but instead I died, took notes, planned ahead and made it to day 110 (and counting) with a perfectly stable ecosystem :)
Feels kinda inspired by Terra Nil, at least it has the same chill vibe which I like. With more levels / puzzles I could spend some time on it!
EDIT: Also FYI, Fungal decomposer and Compost thingy are the same aside from energy cost (unless I missed something)
I love reading this! Great job getting to day 110, and good catch on the Fungal Decomposer and Compost Reactor! I set the wrong values in the former and didn't notice until it was too late to change. I'll be sure to fix it in the next release! I'll definitely be adding more content, including incremental progression and puzzles.
This is a really great game . its style reminded me of my childhood. You’ve done a really good job. Also, your art style is beautiful!
I think you should have with less tools, and make different "puzzle" so the player can learn what everything do steps by steps. But the concept is cool and promising, good job
cool concept, there is something promising here with some planet crafter vibes and some tera nil maybe? Good idea
This is a very unique twist on the theme. The game was fun to play, however, I found it quite hard and I think it would benefit from being turn based like others have said. A little bit more polish would make this game really good and it is already quite good! Congratulations on the submission!