After some furious action, it’s time to take a calming outing on the water. I’d already seen Spilled! before Tiny Teams, having come across it some months previously and finding an interest in it. Created by just one person, that being the boat-living Lente, Yogscast Games provided me a code as part of the Tiny Teams Festival to give it a play. And I’m so relaxed with this water-based ride.
The water has become filled with oil spills and other trash. On a boat, the player’s aim is to clear all the oil and trash from the water. The world of Spilled! is designed in a very structured way, making sure there’s not simply a mass of water to traverse in a straight line. Those islands surrounding the water also provide a stronger sense of biomes changing, such as going from grasslands to rocky mountains.
Each area has to be unlocked by cleaning a certain percentage of the current one. The boat has a collector on it to suck up the oil from the water. Once the tank is fill, head for the barge to transfer it, getting paid for helping to clean the water. A barge exists in every biome, so there’s no long journeys to make to get another payment. And no long journeys to upgrade the boat, either.
There are three upgrades available. The oil collector, the tank that oil is stored in, and the solar panel that sits on the boat’s roof that increases its speed. The oil collector will get longer with each upgrade. The tank and solar panel don’t see a physical change, but they can be felt. Each upgrade starts at 10 coins, with the price doubling for the next. Balanced upgrading makes for the best strategy, especially as progressing through the biomes brings larger oil spills to clean.
And other things to be cleaning. Early on, plastic bottles are added to the mix. These need to be rounded up with the oil collector and delivered to the barge. Oil will be found stuck to the islands, with a water hose being added to the boat to get rid of those. Barrels of toxic waste will have sunk to the bottom, with a magnet being added to the boat to grab those. There will always be something to keep an eye out for, though the game will alert you to anything new that needs to be done.
Other things to keep an eye out for are animals stuck within oil slicks, and jobs that will provide an extra bit of money. There are two animals in each biome, which are easy enough to find. Simply drive into them to collect them, where they get added to a list of rescued animals. As for the jobs, these are also easy to find, with an object out on the water that someone wants returned. Much like the bottles, push it along with the oil collector to who is asking for the object.
Spilled! is said to be a relaxing game, and that is true. It’s a very relaxing game. The soft, almost pastel coloured visuals are easy on the eye. The music is gentle, feeling like a light breeze on a hillside. There’s no urgency with cleaning. No timers or percentage markers. And though each area opens without fully cleaning out the previous one, I always felt I couldn’t leave the job mostly done. I would always make sure everything had been dealt with before moving on.
And that is all that Spilled! is. A relaxing game spreading a message of keeping the waters of the world clean and safe. Its easy controls offer no frustration, though small groups of bottles do seem to like phasing through the oil collector at speed. Though it might be short, it is an excellent time.
Once it releases, I’d say it would be an easy recommendation from me. Anyone who needs an hour or so to destress can easily do so with Spilled!. Seeing life come back to the water is just such a simple joy, and watching that water life is just one more way this game provides a relaxing atmosphere.
The Tiny Teams Festival is a celebration of games developed by small teams. This year running from 8-15/August, the festival once again is highlighting games both new and old, and even those yet to release. Check it out on Steam, and find yourself a great game from a tiny team.
Images Taken From:
Spilled! | Steam
