Heal Slime

Skincare RPG made for the Vextro Slime Wave Collection (12/23)

Made with RPGMaker MZ
Play time: 20-30 minutes

There’s a scene in Dragon Quest Builders 2 where you’re in hell and you help some monsters build a church (DBQ2 is a game about faith), and then they help you build a dune buggy. As you drive around hell with them, their bodies clip in and out of the buggy and through each other and your body, too - it might be easy to mischaracterize DQ as a game about good versus evil, but it’s about something much subtler, it’s about going outside and staring into a patch of grass for 30 hours.

I've been thinking about Heal Slime at least since April, but I put this game together in about two weekends in early December 2023. I have a very complicated relationship to "slime." Slime is the first monster from Dragon Quest, it's the queer slime I become when I melt into a puddle and drain into the margins, it's the dozens of slime products I put on my body before realizing they're not helping (90% of the time).

It's the formless ooze that sticks between dreams and games and parties.

Last summer, I became really sick (sicker than usual), and this is a hole I continue to dig myself out of. I've spent way too much time writing searches like "[skincare product] + sensitive skin + reddit," wayyy more time than I spent making this game. 

I wanted to make a robust RPG where instead of Etrian Odyssey-like strategic combat, you would have to figure out a balance of heal/body/products/time. My body and schedule are often at odds, how and when I can take a shower, what sort of food I can eat, what sort of climate I am in and for how long. The water in my sink is too harsh for my face, but I have to wash it. I'm fucking freezing but the hot air will dry out my whole body. I drink gallons of water, but I feel more dehydrated? I just want to eat spicy Korean food, I just want to hang out near the lake. I want to go to shows that have fog machines...

 

I wasn't interested in making a game where the slimes get sacrificed or something really dire happens, or make a critique on killing weak slimes to amass power. The slimes in games are actors, and are my friends. The slimes in Heal Slime like to chill, help others, play games, and meditate. I ended up making a short puzzle/adventure game that is about spatial relationships and looking around. 

It was my first project in RPGMaker MZ - I enjoyed using the updated MZ. Hopefully everything worked out okay... I would like to have an in-browser version up as well. Heal Slime is included in and made for the Vextro Slime Wave Collection: https://itch.io/c/3870078/vextro-slime-wave. 

Maybe I will end up making a self-help RPGMaker trilogy, lol...

As always, feel free to reach out with questions/glitches/secrets < 3

Plugins: 

MZ3D by CutieVirus
MessageCore by VisuStella

Music:

Frederic Lardon - "Sous le soleil du capitalisme," "Ta gueule," "dance dance fragile" via loyaltyfreakmusic.com

Note for Mac users: There are some folks using M1 Macs that are having trouble playing the game, receiving a message about moving the app into the Applications folder. This has worked for some folks and not for others. I'm still trying to figure out the solution.