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JOOMPUS's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #48 | 4.556 | 4.556 |
| Audio | #76 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
| Theme | #176 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Overall | #308 | 3.537 | 3.537 |
| Innovation | #582 | 3.111 | 3.111 |
| Enjoyment | #800 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Gameplay | #1084 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
It fits the theme through a constant risk–reward loop. Every hit fills the wake meter—bigger pot, higher chance of being eaten. Pills and upgrades create sharp trade-offs: push your luck for more, or play safe and survive.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Font by Daniel Linssen: https://managore.itch.io/m6x11
How many people worked on the game?1
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Comments
The art and sound design are AMAZING! Genuinitely some of the best stuff in the Jam by far! I'm surprised your game doesn't have more ratings! Incredibly cool little game!
Thank you so much for playing, I’m glad you liked it. I published the game a long time ago, and I’m happy that it still keeps bringing people like you little by little, with such positive comments. They really make my day <3
Awesome visual style and the sound effects match perfectly! The way you unveiled the theme was really fun. My only note is that the difficulty could be toned down just a tad. That said, the game for sure packs an emotional punch!
Is amazing find so good game here: Funy, playable and so original. Great job Ericcool09!
I have strongly recomended to all my friends... and "Joompus" has been the star in out laterly game-jan.
Thanks a lot for your talent!
I absolutely love the aesthetic and animations! Fantastic work! Nice little take on the clicker genre where you have to consider when to click rather than spamming it. Do the pills respawn really slowly? I've not seen them for a while since I used them all up.
I’m glad you liked it! Honestly, while I was developing it I never thought of it as a clicker game, but now that you mention it, it really is exactly a clicker hahah. About the pills, there’s a 10% chance for one to drop when hitting the monster — it could just be that you were unlucky. In the future I’d like to raise the probability to 20 and add more types of pills :) Thanks for playing!
A bit difficult to get started with but I wished there was more when I was done. The pixel art is super well done!
The visual style is very rounded, good job (and I don't normally enjoy pixel art all that much). I liked hitting teeth out of the monster but I found it a bit slow to wait for the meter to reach a zone where I wouldn't get eaten for sure. Good job!
Oh! Thanks for the comment and for playing! :) About what you said about waiting for the gauge, you’re absolutely right. In fact, a side effect you also get from the sedative when it’s upgraded is that it makes the gauge drop faster—you can really feel the difference as you level it up. I’m glad you had fun hitting an innocent creature; I spent a lot of time making it feel satisfying haha <3
Wait, that guy is INNOCENT?!
It was really hard to figure out what to do at first. I read the instructions several times and kept clicking around randomly in the game, but still felt lost — until I finally checked the comments from other players, and then it all started to make sense. Overall, it’s a good game, just a bit confusing in the beginning. A short tutorial or clearer guidance at the start would really help new players get into it faster.
Thanks so much for playing and giving it a shot! :) I’m happy you enjoyed it, and I agree—without a tutorial it can be confusing at first. I like letting players discover the mechanics and systems on their own, but I’ve learned that with games that are very technical under the hood, that can be tricky. Thanks for the feedback—I’ll keep it in mind. <3
Same in my case. Sometimes I must return to the begining and start to read. History and controls are really important. :)
Great core loop, and will be even better with some long term goals, which will encourage to progress. Incredible and stylish art as well as sound effects. Good job!
Thank you so much for playing, I'm glad you liked it :)
Quite an addictive game, with confusing gameplay at first, but enjoyable once you get the hang of it.
I really like the pill theme, and the probability is very well-tuned.
A candidate to win the Jam, good luck!
I liked the Joompus and the other little guys, very neat art style. The sound effects are also great. Game fits the theme nicely.
The teeth in the buying UI aren’t very easy to spot, and it wasn’t really clear what the upgrades and pills do, I was just randomly choosing them and clicking Joompus more and more. I’m not sure if there’s an end game, but I couldn’t reach it.
Overall, cute game. Good job.
I’m glad you liked it! Let me explain: the % on the bar is the probability that the monster will eat you when you click on it. You can wait until it’s lower to take less risk, or go faster if you prefer. When you die, you lose your money, but the upgrades are saved. The blue creature upgrade makes the % go up less when you click, and also makes it drop faster. The green creature upgrade increases the amount of money you can store in the jar. And the strength upgrade makes you deal more damage per click to the monster.
You’ll notice that each time you click, the monster gets a little smaller. Yes, there is an end — killing the monster! But when you die, its health regenerates, so to beat it you’ll have to figure out what each pill does, level up your upgrades, or just wait until the % is low enough to avoid being eaten.
There are many ways to finish the game, but all of them lead to the same goal: defeating the monster. I’m really happy you enjoyed the game, and I hope you feel motivated to beat it =) My record is 6 minutes to trigger the credits.
I’m sorry if the system feels a bit unintuitive or too complicated, but I hope it made sense :)
Really Amazing game. Incredible visuals and very polished. Looking forward to see the game expanding goodjob man!
One of the best games I have played this jam in terms of polish. LOVE the artstyle, and I am quite like the sound design as well. The only issue is that it is not clear what determines how much the bar fills.
Thanks for your kind words and for trying the game! What makes the bar fill up is the percentage shown on the Sedative totem. As a bonus, in the background this ability also makes the bar go down faster. <3
Perfect for the theme and a lot of character in the art, the screen effect really ties it in. I'm a sucker for these roguelike loops. Nice one!
Thanks to you for playing and commenting :)
I really liked the visuals and the concept is very innovative, also the sounds are very good too
I really liked the visual and the concept is very innovative! the sounds are very good too
thanks for playing <3
The art is really pretty, and I love the sounds too. They make for such an interesting experience and fun, goofy characters.
Some bugs noticed:
- The Joompus wakes up even when the meter bar shouldn't be full, or the meter bar does not fill up consistently. (happened that the first hit dealt 20, the next 80, or that first 2 dealt 20 and the next 60, and it is instant death). This bug is quite frequent.
- The freeze pill didn't work a couple of times: the meter bar would turn blue, but would not stop moving.
Overall: It is the nice type of game that says "my dev had fun making me". I too had fun playing it.
Hi! Thanks so much for playing—I’m really happy you enjoyed the art and sound, and I appreciate you helping me improve the game with your bug report.
About the issues: the freeze pill is meant to stop the wake meter from going up or down; it doesn’t guarantee you can’t be eaten. And the meter isn’t a “fill to 100% = wake up” bar—it shows the current chance that Joompus will wake up on your next hit. Sorry that wasn’t clear; that one’s on me. I’ll look into the cases you mentioned (inconsistent fill amounts and times when the meter turned blue but still moved) and push a fix.
Thanks again for playing—now that you know how it works, I hope you’ll come back and slay the Joompus! <3