Spilled! Preview

I first saw Spilled! through my X feed because it's about 70% indie games, 20% cute animals, and 10% random, shocking content it throws at me. What caught my attention originally was the nice pixelated art style, which I am always happy to indulge my eyes on, but I was a bit wary of the lax gameplay. As soon as I saw the demo, I jumped in to test just that!

Spilled! is a relaxing game developed and published by Lente where you go around on your little boat, collecting all sorts of waste and trash from the water and handing it in for money to get upgrades. While I don't know how similar this is to what the release is, I — surprisingly — really enjoyed the lack of text and dialogue! Without any context, I was able to have better control over what the experience was at any given time, as I could teeter my attention toward Earth's struggles, or I could focus on the relaxing aspects, such as watching the waters get cleaner and that satisfying feeling of cleaning everything up.

The lack of words caused me to struggle to understand a few things (such as how to get upgrades), but that probably falls on my own lack of attention and not the fact that the "tutorial" was badly done. The gameplay is simple enough that you can intuitively tell what to do: drive around collecting waste, hand it in to get money, save the creatures, and upgrade your boat.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a bit anxious that the game's lack of action might be a bit boring to me; it's not that there's anything wrong with it; I just sometimes need a bit more to stay hooked. As I played, however, I was surprised at how calming the experience was despite the premise of Earth being in danger! Finishing up an area is endlessly satisfying, not just because you can start seeing the wildlife return but because there's a sense of completion when you find all the animals and leave everything clean. That being said, it would be nice to have a way to track if you've fully collected all the pieces of trash, as I sometimes struggled to see them; plus, it's always nice to see something hit that "100%".

One last thing I want to touch on is that, while I'm not usually the type to notice a game's soundtrack, I very much enjoyed the music! It really tied everything together for me. It might sound silly, but it was a big highlight for me during the demo.

Spilled! surprised me. While the game is quite simple in every way, it is one of the most calming experiences I've had in a while. Lente did a great job at making something that brings awareness to a dire situation while offering a safe, relaxing space. I very much look forward to the full release! Check it out on Steam, and don’t forget to wishlist it if you like what you see.