‘Spilled!’ is a Relaxing Experience in Cleaning up Ocean Waste

Spilled! takes you to captivating but polluted world that you just cannot help but clean up so you can watch it come back to life.

There is something extremely satisfying about cleaning up a big mess. There have been several different games that have different types of cleaning, but Spilled! is an absolutely stunning take on the concept, feeling both wholesome and captivating as you clean up water. The game was actually created by someone who has lived on a little boat, which is such an interesting bit of background for me, as living on a boat is something I’d personally never do.

Within the game, you drive a small boat around different areas, cleaning up oil spills, rock sides, and garbage that has been dumped into the water. This is done through a sort of bar at the front of your boat which can suck up oil into a storage tank on the back of your boat. Oil on the sides of the cliffs around you need to be blasted down with water before they are sucked up by your boat, and garbage needs to be pushed to the recycling plants that are floating in each area. These plants are where you will also exchange your oil so that you can empty out your storage container.

You do get coins for all of these actions which can then be used to upgrade your boat. The coins that you get in Spilled! can be used to purchase upgrades; more storage for oil, a larger sucker at the front of your boat, faster movement, etc.. You also need to clean up a large majority of the area before you can move onto the next (although you don’t have to get everything).

The real magic in the game, however, is seeing the world transform. You go from having this dark, brown, gross water and as you clean it up, it turns lighter. You can see animals and plants shining through. Soon, you can see a beautiful ecosystem of fish moving around and plants swaying in the current. It’s absolutely stunning. The music in the background feels calming, and you aren’t racing against a timer or pushed to do anything quickly. There are also animals stuck along the way that you can save and collect.

Spilled! is slated for release on March 26th, but in the meantime, you can grab a demo on Steam.

About The Author

Jupiter Hadley

Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist, writing for Metro UK, Big Boss Battle, AlphaBetaGamer, and many more, all with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, judges many jams and events.