Chitin Chameleon

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Thanks for the heads-up @mixer, you're right! I've added the link now, apparently I hadn't properly saved it before.

It took me a few tries to understand that it's more a puzzle game than an "action" game.

It's a bit weird being between two tiles, I was never sure if I could move or not. I nearly got all the trash, but failed with 3 remaining, and didn't feel like playing again. I wasn't sure what the tunnels were. The first time I tried to move on one, I couldn't move on it, and assume it was a rock or something blocking me, so I never tried again, until at some point I went on one by accident. Also I forgot about the space bar. I might have finished the game with that.

And I just realized there was no winter ?

The explanation in the description is really necessary to play this, since a lot of the information you could be showing the player isn't being show. For example: which tiles (or rather, tile corners) are currently accessible to the player; where the tunnels lead; how much food the various actions I can take at any time will cost me; etc.

Still, it's a nice puzzle concept. There is a small degree of randomness, both in the litter placement and the exact time certain tiles will change colours. I'm not sure I can identify more of a strategy than "make sure to go in a circle, collecting the litter, using summer about halfway through to make sure you can survive long enough".

Interesting concept, and a very creative interpretation of the theme! Though as you mentioned, it needs some tweaking.

The idea of "you can only move if one tile matches your colour" is great, especially because the landscape changes in a fixed rhythm. I noticed it's best to move three steps at a time.

A good strategy seems to be:

• during the first spring, collect garbage but also move towards spots with high food concentration
• during summer, collect as much food as possible, pretty much ignoring garbage
• during fall, collect garbage and opportunistically use blight for food upkeep, but don't wait too long to transform to spring, otherwise food won't have enough time to spawn

My highscore was obtained by hanging around the final piece of trash for at least two seasons, and stepping onto it just as my food ran out. Disappointingly, the game counted this as a loss.

Maybe the score should go down the longer it takes you to win?

[Reading the other comments: wait, those things were tunnels? I thought they were just rocks…]

The game itself is well done and kinda fun. My strategy was more or less similar to what thomastc said. One thing that could be improved was documentation. As other people noted, it's hard to understand what it is with just text. A good explanation would make the experience much less stressful.

I took a screenshot of my score but turns out I just suck at this. Anyway, I think this isn't true
"tried to figure out how to Make It Fun, but after several pivots didn't succeed"!
It's an interesting game. Takes a while to really get it and I can see some people just loving games like these. Reminds me of those weird puzzle games back in the win3.1/win95 days that I would try and have no idea how to play. thomastc has an interesting strat and clearly I still have no idea how this game really works but I had fun. Got +200 points!
…And now I realised there's an actual win condition. Anyway, it was fun!

Took me a bit to understand what I was doing. no info on the itch page or in game. didn't realize the instructions where here (my bad). interesting take on the theme. Not sure if the bug should be aligned with the grid? Felt like it should have been. Movement was heavily impeaded by obsticles on two sides. good showing though.