Root cause

by oal
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.56
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.98
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.82
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.60
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.16
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.48
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★54%
My first LD. The game was made with Phaser.js, and is playable in the browser. Grow your plant as big as possible, and make sure to collect enough water!

Comments34

Elforama
Elforama28 Apr 2014, 03:16
Nice concept. The root effects were nice.
dylanwolf
dylanwolf28 Apr 2014, 03:16
I got 516 days, 14274 energy score. I really like the challenge in trying to balance water and energy usage--it's frustrating at first but once you get going it's pretty rewarding, and then the challenge becomes sustainability.
blockbot
blockbot28 Apr 2014, 03:19
Really cool concept! I think it would be worth exploring this more.
WeaselZone28 Apr 2014, 03:20
Very relaxing, very easy once you get the basic tree going and watch that you balance stays positive. Cool presentation & idea!
Xeke_Death28 Apr 2014, 07:57
I like it... It took a few turns to survive past 20 days, then I realised what what going on, and made quite the healthy little bush...
Yozz
Yozz28 Apr 2014, 08:21
Really like your idea. One of the most interesting interpretations of the theme.
nonentheless28 Apr 2014, 08:25
Great game, though little easy after a minute. :)
NeiloGD
NeiloGD28 Apr 2014, 08:29
Nice :) Took a few turns to figure out how to grow roots (by clicking on the water) but after that it was pretty straight forward! Would be nice if a part of the plant could be marked to die off, so if you grew too quickly part of the plant could die off...and then become more sustainable. Mind, could make it too easy too.
liamtwose
liamtwose28 Apr 2014, 08:30
First time round I blinked and my plant was dead. Great little game, although I had to mute it as the music was a bit overpowering.
Reinkout28 Apr 2014, 09:41
The animations are really nice.
CustomPhase
CustomPhase28 Apr 2014, 09:41
Really loved this one. Cool idea, neat graphics, decent audio. Too bad its getting too easy pretty fast, even if you make mistakes. But thats balancing, and it takes alot of time, so im not too displeased with that.
snooze82
snooze8228 Apr 2014, 09:45
nice game - survived 303 days - i'd like if leafs would fall off, if there is not enough water
Kimba28 Apr 2014, 09:59
You did a good job but it isnt a challenge
furriKira
furriKira28 Apr 2014, 10:28
I love the concept. You should add something more, otherwise it's a big waiting game after awhile when you're balancing.

Got the tree quite big! 2104 days passed and I just stopped there.
rubna28 Apr 2014, 10:44
208 days! It's hard to get into, but really interesting to play! Nice job
PapyGaragos
PapyGaragos28 Apr 2014, 12:54
Nice game, and nice take on the theme.
What did you use to make the music? The sound effect was a bit repetitive after a while but that didn't stop me from playing
oal
oalauthor28 Apr 2014, 13:16
Thanks for all the feedback so far!

For the sound effects I used Bfxr, and for the music I used LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio). The music was just about the last thing I added, and as you can hear, I'm not a musician. Some random key pressing and something called "Arpeggio", and boom, I had some ambient background music. :-)
Tipyx
Tipyx28 Apr 2014, 14:28
Very nice ! The concept deserve to be upgraded, but the base is here :). The difficulty is nice and it can be played for hours :).
Summary, a great seed has been planted :)
Jan Peter (jpdev)28 Apr 2014, 15:09
I normally don't have a green thumb when it comes to plant life..

.. same problem here, I got it going good.. but was too greedy, I grew so many leafes, that in the end the water respawn was just not enough to sustain my tree.
ezombort28 Apr 2014, 15:18
After struggeling on the first few tries I figured it out and it was fun to play. Were there any ultimate goal or just going on "forever"? Cool idèa, neat game :)
ezombort28 Apr 2014, 15:29
Retested with sound this time. Pretty "space'd up" music and sounds, made me laugh :D
zinfandel
zinfandel28 Apr 2014, 15:44
I like it a lot. It's a unique concept and works very well. I quickly exhausted my water resources though, so I suppose it also teaches you a lesson - not to expand beyond the resources return rate hehe...
atterday28 Apr 2014, 19:15
This game is very cool. I got too greedy though and my awesome plant with loads of leaves died of thirst. Thumbs up!
pancakecity
pancakecity28 Apr 2014, 20:48
This is really cool, one of my favorites of the compo so far
DanEEStar29 Apr 2014, 10:08
Very nice atmosphere. A bit to easy once you got the balance going.

A bit hard to start. Took my a while until I figured out how to click the water tiles.

What are stems good for?

It would be very cool if the tree grows bigger and had more branches.

You should definitly work more on it and polish it up.
Cawrtz
Cawrtz29 Apr 2014, 10:42
Very interesting, peaceful game. I like the concept a lot. Enemies like worms eating the roots could have been cool !
tomvert
tomvert29 Apr 2014, 11:48
Interesting concept, good job for a first LD, keep it up !
Melondonut1 May 2014, 06:33
oh...it feels like that I'm the one who don't get the overall concept....
Thorig
Thorig2 May 2014, 22:07
The mood is what I like about this game. No pressure once you figured out how it works. Nice entry.
GFM
GFM3 May 2014, 23:52
Nice game. :)
stvr
stvr4 May 2014, 02:49
The rate of natural water replenishment could not sustain my ridiculous rate of growth. I expanded to cover the map, and then perished. I would not make a good plant.
alwaysinbeta5 May 2014, 22:54
I like the idea a lot. Strangely compelling. After a while I was praying for rain but it didn't come ;)
end3r
end3r18 May 2014, 13:27
Cool idea with nice execution, I enjoyed playing it.

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