EcoSquare

Raise bugs in aquarium!

The bugs will try to adapt to environment. Your job is to maintain balance in the ecosystem, and create long surviving bugs. End-game goal is to have a family of bugs to live for 15 minutes or more.
Downloadable version recommended, since better performance allows for more crowded aquarium.

How To Play

The game tells you how to play but here's overview of the controls:

Zoom in/out - Mouse scroll

Pan - Middle mouse

Select bug - Click a bug to select it and view detailed info

Earn money - Click Sell on lower right (hotkey S) and move your mouse so, that sellable objects are highlighted. When you're happy with your selection, click to sell those bugs, plants and meat.

Having trouble keeping bugs alive? Here's some tips:

• Remember to buy plants! They are on second page of the shop (tab Other). Without them the bugs suffocate
• Get money by selling bugs - don't be afraid to sell big part of the population
• Healthy bugs with long lineage sell for best prices
• Once you have enough money, try setting plants on autobuy, and set minimum amount quite high, so that plants have some chance to succeed - sell bugs to control population
• Save different kind of bugs to solve different situations - for example, get some predators if population explodes
• Making balanced ecosystem is not easy! Don't be afraid to sell all the bugs and start from scratch with good amount of money :)

Note: There's bug (he he) when restarting game, money won't restart - this is nice if you have some, but sooner one restarts game when money is gone. So restarting actually requires reloading the game. Saved bugs should be preserved even during reload.

Psst, since you made it to the end of instructions, I'll tell you a secret. You can easily exploit economy, as assorted bugs cost much less in shop (10$) than what you're able to sell them (30-50$). So buying them and immediately selling them can grant you infinite funds.

About

This game was made for Godot Wild Jam #40. Theme for the jam was cozy. At the time I liked watching videos about so called ecospheres, or closed ecosystems in small aquariums (or jars, even!). I thought that there's something cozy just watching small creatures going around. That's how I ended up with this idea.

Most of the time was spent on making the simulation itself, and last day gamey parts like shop and tutorial messages were added.

Font used: Open Sans

Big thanks for Mubsi for making soothing soundtrack. Please enjoy it!