Winter Is Coming . . .

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.27
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.96
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.73
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.70
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.53
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.74
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.80
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.83
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★48%
Here's PixelFeet's entry in the Jam. Our team consists of Joshua Jackson (Programmer), Zack Walsh ("Producer"), Matthew Carpenter (Graphics), and Jonathan Carpenter (Music).

The object of the game is to create the best tree you can in ten minutes using the resources you are given. Your tree will need to absorb sunlight with its leaves and water and nutrients with its roots in order to do this. After ten minutes, the game ends and you are provided with your final score. And it's pretty obvious how we've incorporated the theme. Have fun.

These are the tools we used:
IDE: FlashDevelop
Engine: HaxeFlixel
Graphics: Aseprite & GIMP
Sound: as3sfxr
Music: Studio One

Edit 1: Corrected typo. "Help!" now reads "Instructions!" on the main menu. Hopefully that'll clear up some confusion.
Edit 2: Switched primary screenshot to title image.
Edit 3: Fixed bug where players could earn extra points by stacking leaves.

Genres: strategy

Comments27

PapyGaragos
PapyGaragos28 Apr 2014, 08:59
I like this one. You get a nice sense of progression, even if it feels slow at first
Hemuuuli
Hemuuuli29 Apr 2014, 07:55
That was relaxing. Button to randomize new start would be nice addition.
CDK29 Apr 2014, 08:35
could have wanted an highscore list or something .. couldn't really compared my score to anything (got 103).. was an interesting gameplay though. but i think it went quite slow in the beginning making it somewhat boring :) but maybe make it be a bit faster at the start? maybe get 2 yellowballs pr. default.
Lars Faust
Lars Faust29 Apr 2014, 10:36
Really nice gameplay. However, it does start off very slow and also ends very slow when you have gathered all the nutrients there are in the ground.
Got a score of 177.
broepi
broepi29 Apr 2014, 14:07
Really good concept, I like that! Yay for the pixel graphics. Yay for the ingame music. the only thing that bothered me a bit is the resource distribution. sometimes it takes half the time to reach water.
stvr
stvr29 Apr 2014, 16:17
Surprisingly fun, although it's a bit slow at first if your nutrients are all blocked by water. Would be nice if there was a score you were aiming for, or if you were trying to stockpile a certain amount of nutrients/water by winter.
StencylTuo
StencylTuo29 Apr 2014, 18:32
The game desperately needs a x2, x4, or even a x10 button with how slow it is. Still, it was an interesting take on the theme, just not a fun one to just sit and wait around for 10 minutes.
01010111
0101011129 Apr 2014, 20:43
Really interesting concept - I just wish it played a little bit faster :) I also couldn't tell when I could place wood or leaves, which really just led to frustration by always clicking and waiting.
PixelFeetauthor30 Apr 2014, 00:35
Thanks for all the feedback so far! It's pretty great, especially since this is our first non-practice game ever, much less our first Ludum Dare entry.
joe40001
joe4000130 Apr 2014, 04:48
I liked this. 241 was my score.
sorceress30 Apr 2014, 14:42
score 254. Nice once it gets going, but it's very slow paced for the first 5 minutes. I ran out of nutrients at the end as you did. The amount of nutrients randomly generated at the beginning seems to determine the ending.
DaanVanYperen
DaanVanYperen30 Apr 2014, 17:03
Simple but entertaining game! Had to F5 a couple of time to get a good start.
Sodaware
Sodaware30 Apr 2014, 23:11
As others have said, it's very slow to get started, especially if the nutrients are a long way from the start. A speed-up time option might work well, or maybe starting with more resources to help build the initial tree.

It's a great concept though, and I think with a bit of polish and balancing it could be really fun!
petey1235673 May 2014, 05:07
Love the game, just wish the clock was faster.
drnick3 May 2014, 05:41
Very good concept. In a game like Minecraft you spend so much time chopping blocks from the trees, in this game you get to see the other side of the coin. Some comments:
1) For a jam game, the graphics are poor.
2) There could be more ambient sound, like in the menu.
3) The game is a little short, and often at the end all the nutrients disappeared and you are left with nothing to do.
4) On how to generate better levels/maps/soil: search on Perlin noise and it's applications in content generation.
Raiyumi
Raiyumi3 May 2014, 05:55
I really like this concept. I played it a lot longer than I thought I would.
Muciojad
Muciojad3 May 2014, 08:09
One of most original idea I see so far. But is there one bad thing for me - I was very irritated when I had to wait a while to place next tile, but without this - it's quite nice game ;)I like simple art style.
Skipi3 May 2014, 11:53
Reminds me of my entry quite a bit.

I found it mildly frustrating how quickly the ground blocks disappeared, and how long I had to wait if I ran out.

Other than that, it's a neat idea.
Rad Star3 May 2014, 13:31
Really cool idea!
klianc093 May 2014, 14:18
This really needs a speedup button and some balancing, but when you polish this up, it could make for a really cool resource management game.
ThingoStudios3 May 2014, 15:55
Fairly enjoyable, if a bit slow. None of my structures even remotely resembled trees, though.
ArcturusDeluxe3 May 2014, 20:38
Pretty cool idea. Gameplay is a bit slow though. Graphics are pretty basic but they do the job. Nice job!
jujule8 May 2014, 22:29
A really interesting take on the theme. Graphics are ok. I wish the bird was singing during the game also, as it is super relaxing.
As others have said early game (and early game only, in my opinion) needs to be a bit faster. That could also be twicked with having the nutritiant/water distribution less random.
A really refreshing entry. Keep working on it. It's good but there is tones of space to add content and elaborate gameplay.
Kimau
Kimau11 May 2014, 17:05
Really enjoyed this!! My kingdom for a fast forward button when I'm resource locked! Also it would have been nice if you had separated the game numbers from those on screen instead of one big update tick. You get tick over anxiety (terrible term I know) and it would be a really nice UX change.
Adrian
Adrian14 May 2014, 07:56
Interesting concept. It's basically an optimization game, which is fun at first but can get boring very fast. This one I haven't get bored of yet, but I haven't played much. :)

Good job overall, I enjoyed it!

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