This entry really surprised me! Polish obviously needs work, but eh, game jam. The concept is super cool, and I had a lot of fun! Ended up getting a score of 26! I had an ungodly number of lungs, it was honestly horrifying. I kept being surprised by new parts showing up, like the spit gland, and the eyes, plus higher tier versions of the same parts. The little dna editor was super finicky, and it felt like it wasn't snapping together like it should a lot of the time, but the concept was incredibly cool. Framing the upgrades as new body parts in your creature was super clever.
I also think the spatial puzzle element of trying to fit new body parts onto your big mess of a creature was also really cool. Having to place body parts in your creature made it feel less like upgrades, and more like mutation.
And the turn based mechanics were super fun. I think that adding some kind of way to see how fast enemies will progress once you take your turn, like showing some kind of indicator of how far their bar will move, would definitely help with strategizing properly, though I see how that's a pain to implement with the way the system seems to be built.
Having the legs get bigger on a faster creature is a really cool idea, but it ended up feeling a little odd. I'd see a big hulking creature sprinting towards me, then it'd do 1 damage, and die in 1 hit. I think having elements of the sprites respond to a creature's stats is a super cool way to handle it, but definitely could use a little more thought.
The spit ability also broke and stopped working about halfway through, but it was super cool while it was working. Maybe having different abilities like that with different cooldowns, or even make different abilities increase how long until your next turn if you use them, so that powerful abilities leave you vulnerable. Lot of cool potential!
Didn't end up really wanting to go back for more than one run, but honestly, with a little more time in the oven, this has some serious potential. I'd absolutely pay for a full version of this on steam! Super cool unique concept, enjoyed it a lot! High ratings from me! ^^