Developer: Lente

Publisher: Lente

Played on: PC

Release Date: March 26, 2025

Played with: Dualshock 4

Paid: $10.89 (Backed on Kickstarter)

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I love a good crowdfunding success story.  Coming from a solo developer by the name of Lente, Spilled (stylized as Spilled!) blew past its funding goal when it was on Kickstarter, raising three times what it initially hoped for.  From there, I followed its development as Lente documented not only the progress on the game, but also her time living on a boat in the Netherlands.  It was fascinating seeing this game about a pollution-cleaning boat come to life from someone with first-hand experience of living on one, and while the actual interactions with the boat in-game are fairly limited (it’s not like you’re going inside to customize the interior or performing maintenance on it), the passion for life on the sea nonetheless shines through.

Flash forward a year, and Spilled is out now, to the tune of over 1,400 Steam reviews at time of writing and an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating, which is no small feat for a small indie title that can be completed in full in an hour.  I guess that’s just the wonders of the indie scene, though: you never know what’ll be the next hit.  And I have to say, after spending an evening making my way through all that Spilled has to offer, I’m happy to add my voice to the chorus singing its praises.

The controls are simple, though they did take me a short while to get used to.  Tilting the control stick left or right will rotate your boat in that direction, and pulling one of the triggers will either accelerate or reverse.  It feels sort of like old-school tank controls, and my initial gut reaction was that it didn’t feel as smooth as I’d like.  However, that feeling quickly dissipated, and I got into the cozy flow state of Spilled’s core gameplay loop.

Each area in the game tasks you with cleaning up an array of pollution, with new types slowly being introduced as you progress.  At the start, you’ll just be motoring over oil slicks to suck them up, but eventually you’ll also be corralling stray bottles, spraying water to put out fires, and more.  In all cases, you’ll be looking to deposit all your collections back at a recycling barge, which spurts out coins in exchange for your hard work.  Those coins can then be spent on upgrades to your vacuum’s width, pollution tank capacity, or boat speed.  Once purchased, the cost of the next upgrade is double the previous one, but you’re always free to choose whether you want to save up for a big purchase or evenly distribute your upgrades across the three types.

Once you’ve cleaned up around 90% of an area (at a rough guess – there’s no in-game tracker), a gate to the next section will open up, leaving you free to move on or continue cleaning to perfect the one you’re in.  If you do stay behind, the water will briefly flash and an achievement will pop once you reach 100%, so thankfully there’s no confusion about when you’ve done all you can.  There’s also animals to rescue tucked away in the corners of each area, and while they serve no in-game function beyond granting an achievement if you find them all, they’re still a charming inclusion (and a fun way to include the names of some of the game’s higher-tier Kickstarter backers).

“Charming” really is the word that overwhelmingly describes Spilled, from its colourful environs to its chill gameplay.  I love the pixelated filter over the 3D visuals, giving a pitch-perfect level of chunkiness to everything.  The designs of the boats are delightful, feeling like little toys in a cozy, interactive diorama.  Watching the water of each area slowly clear as you clean up more pollution is an exceptionally nice touch, and I doggedly pursued 100% completion in each area just to enjoy the variety of aquatic life making its way through the now crystal clear water.  For such a simple game, there’s a remarkable amount of effort put into making each area feel as though it’s being revived as you clean up ever more pollution.  Add to this a soundtrack that balances peaceful reflection with firm determination, and you have a recipe for a wholly enveloping experience.

A minor quibble is that pushing bottles around can sometimes be a bit fiddly, often requiring multiple passes to collect them all, even with a large vacuum head.  There was even one instance of a particularly pesky one clipping through the head altogether, though I was able to wrangle it in the end.  Also, while having a final boss is a fun way to cap things off, in practice it can be slightly tedious.  Perhaps it’s because I didn’t upgrade my boat’s speed very much, but the boss easily outran me at every turn, so I found it was better to just pick a spot and wait around for it, dealing a bit of damage as it raced by and then waiting for the next cycle.  Lastly, something that could be either a benefit or drawback depending on the person is the aforementioned svelte runtime of Spilled.  I saw everything the game had to offer in exactly an hour (including watching the full credits), and didn’t really feel a need to return anytime soon.  I’m not particularly bothered by that considering the size of my backlog, but those looking for a more involved experience may want to look elsewhere.  For what it’s worth, though, I do think the game’s price at least reflects its brevity.

Spilled really is delightful, serving as a lovingly-crafted experience that can easily be enjoyed in one sitting.  It manages to take the task of cleaning up pollution (an increasingly necessary, yet often challenging and unfortunately thankless job) and turn it into something streamlined and compelling.  Purifying the waters of each area never got old, and while I probably won’t be a repeat visitor to its waves, I can easily see others returning just to have a chill time tidying things up.  It’s got a great presentation and accessible mechanisms, and even the few complaints I have do little to dull its shine.  If you’re looking for a charming game to curl up with for an hour or so, Spilled is one voyage well worth taking.

9/10