Ludum Dare #34compo

Need For Seed: Undergrowth

by rhythmlynx

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.63

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.30

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.53

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.12

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.82

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★97%

Direct the growth of vines to avoid lawnmowers. If you run out of seeds, fly the bee to lots of flowers to pollinate them for more. Try to survive as long as possible!

I used both the 'Growing' and 'Two Button Controls' themes. I made this game in/for the wonderful PICO-8 fantasy console by Lexaloffle Games, you should check it out - http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Source is available from the itch.io page.

=== Update v1.1
Post-compo version with lots of improvements based on all the great feedback I've been getting in the comments, thanks a lot everyone! There's a changelog included with the updated version.

=== Let's Plays!
Some awesome people have been streaming/recording their impressions of LD games, mine included! Big thanks to these folk for giving feedback and helping spread the word.
- killswitch423 did a whole video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCBY6bV8YWI

- Lars K streamed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U397JBUuDWg&feature=youtu.be&t=7m15s
- Alvaro_as streamed it http://www.twitch.tv/alvaro_as/v/30132917 (jump to 04:03:47)
- Wasteland Dan recorded his impressions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqxXORTP7Gs&feature=youtu.be&t=1m32s
- ShaunJS streamed it http://www.twitch.tv/shaunjs/v/30293633 (01:33:35)
- ArchonTheWizard streamed it http://www.twitch.tv/archonthewizard/v/30288965 (03:06:00)

Genres: action

Tools: PICO-8

Comments73

jcmonkey14 Dec 2015, 03:46

nice little game. the lawnmower coming off screen was nice

zatch14 Dec 2015, 04:19

Cute, fun!

pvwradtke14 Dec 2015, 04:20

Now that's a nice twist on the classic snake game. Loved the retro arcade game feeling, sound effects included. Took me a while to figure out the controls, but once I did it, I was having a lot of fun! :)

Halleflux14 Dec 2015, 04:23

The basic idea is very solid, but it was almost entirely luck based. I kept feeling like I never had any chance of doing anything in it, which isn't a good feeling to have.
Beyond that, though, solid graphics, nice sounds, and a good job implementing both themes rather well.
Great work!

JamesMowery14 Dec 2015, 04:23

This is pretty cool! I like the concept. The only improvement I would suggest is giving a little bit more of a visual indicator of where you're going to start sprouting next, as sometimes you waste some time trying to figure out where you are (also gets worse as more elements are on the screen). But other than that, I really enjoyed it. Kudos to you!

takemikazuchi54514 Dec 2015, 05:19

Nice game, I really liked the sound effects. High points for mood for sure.

BloodJohn14 Dec 2015, 05:47

the sounds and graphics made to feel nostalgic. I couldn't understand anything, the game is overloaded with functionality. need tutorial or hints. how do I win?

irwatts14 Dec 2015, 05:52

Great presentation! I was unclear of my goals until the game over screen, but still enjoyed the experience.

Duobix14 Dec 2015, 06:10

Too much text for me-explaining things-and the constantly dissapearing vine made me curious WTF was going on :D I don't know if this was planned or not.

salmonmoose14 Dec 2015, 06:34

I feel like it was a little arbitrary how successful you could be.

BoUnDtOtHeEaRtH14 Dec 2015, 06:48

Nice game!

mukult14 Dec 2015, 06:59

Nice art and fun gameplay!!

John Drury14 Dec 2015, 09:06

Fantastic! Really enjoyed this. The concept has potential to be a mobile game.

NuSan14 Dec 2015, 10:49

Cool game, I like that you have a plant phase and a bee phase. Having feedback on where landmower and next plant/bee will spawn could let you plan instead of react to luck.

_stice14 Dec 2015, 14:30

Lovely game. I love everything about it! The audio, the simple, striking art, even how messy the screen gets as you keep playing.

laFunk14 Dec 2015, 14:33

Super awesome! Quite engaging; I didn't understand what I was doing for the first minute but I was already engaged. Brought me back some child memories for real. Super cool retro feel!

Decentsauce14 Dec 2015, 15:13

Sprouted for 134 seconds! :) This game is fun. Played for multiple rounds.

Ildfuglen14 Dec 2015, 15:32

Cool game! Got a bit cluttered as you progressed but I had fun, the graphics were great, the audio was okay and this is a nice little timewaster with pleasing aesthetics.

Thank you for your game, hope to see your games in the future as well!

jamaster9614 Dec 2015, 15:52

Hard to play.

Kapura14 Dec 2015, 16:36

Absolutely fantastic. The dual modes of play was a wonderful way to spice up the common two-button steering pattern of this compo, and the random vehicle coming in and destroying everything in its path kept the game from becoming overly strategic with the flower patterns. One of the absolute best I've played so far.

qbicfeet14 Dec 2015, 16:56

Love it! Very replayable with a nice level of depth to it, it's fun figuring out what strategies work and don't.

wilsk14 Dec 2015, 18:32

Nice work! Fun to play and a good retro feel. Thanks

Hegemege14 Dec 2015, 18:51

Both audio and visuals in similar retro theme, nice! Took me a few tries to understand how the game works, a sense of success after getting a nice combo :)

tgrehawi14 Dec 2015, 20:16

Love it. Pico 8 is really charming (though I must curse you for introducing me to a new way to sink my time with Lua) and the lawnmower reminds me of duck hunt dog with its frustration induction. Great work!

icereci14 Dec 2015, 21:42

My beautiful flowers died a lot :)

Optimus612814 Dec 2015, 23:06

I didn't understand at first, having my growing plants for so very short time but later I got it and it was very addictive.

nunesbarbosa14 Dec 2015, 23:46

Great game, very innovative and challenging

diest15 Dec 2015, 04:39

Pretty well designed and very unique. I enjoyed it!

walaber15 Dec 2015, 04:42

awesome entry! great interpretation of (both!) themes, and just overall really well done. I love pico-8 games :)

lXxGarrisonxXl15 Dec 2015, 04:56

My friend just sent me a link about PICO-8 last week. good job on the game

Acerio15 Dec 2015, 06:11

Replayed this game several times it was really fun!

AdamAlexander15 Dec 2015, 06:51

Nice game, hard to get your head around initially.

Gamepopper15 Dec 2015, 13:41

Love the use of tank/vehicle controls to set where the plant grows. Game flows really well, very simple but very challenging!

justinooncx15 Dec 2015, 13:55

Pretty interesting game! Took me a while to figure out what was happening, though, and the randomness made it pretty hard.

anael15 Dec 2015, 14:24

Nice :) the plants falling reminded me of Fruity Frank on Amstrad, thanks!

SkullPixel15 Dec 2015, 14:29

Really cool idea!

SidewalkSleeper15 Dec 2015, 14:30

I really like this idea. It's neat, simple and immersive. Well done!

fullmontis15 Dec 2015, 15:29

A very well done and challenging game, I really enjoyed it.

I agree with others that having an indicator on where you are going would make the game a little easier. But to me that is the only gripe I have.

recursor15 Dec 2015, 15:40

Quite an interesting and original take on the theme to take it back to the old school arcade feel. Nice job.

BubsyPoochies15 Dec 2015, 15:51

I like the idea a lot, and it's kind of philosophical.
You want to replay it all the time to try and get better results and that's good. However the randomness feels kind of unfair.

Good job overall :)

GoodwolfStudio15 Dec 2015, 16:27

This has the perfect retro feeling. At first I didn't understand the controls/game mechanic at all (the movement kind of wasn't visible enough), but when you get trhough that it's a nice little game.

tedling15 Dec 2015, 16:33

Very cool game. Pico-8 is something I still have to try out for myself. The one thing that you missed: Handling what happens if the player moves out of the viewable area.

Dyn15 Dec 2015, 17:20

very cute pixel art and interesting idea

Jwatt15 Dec 2015, 17:33

A thousand points for the name alone. Bookmarked so I can try this after finals week.

Taffaz15 Dec 2015, 17:52

Cool game, took a bit of getting used to but enjoyed it.

Gravity Games15 Dec 2015, 18:39

Really nice game, it reminds me of Atari 2600 games. The sound effects were pretty nice, it was fun to play, and I admittedly laughed at more than one of the puns on the title screen. However, some elements of the game were not quite clear at first, most notably the pollination.

AthenaOfDelphi15 Dec 2015, 20:13

An all round nice game that's fun to play. Great job!

Zeezgames15 Dec 2015, 22:08

I liked this retro feel and the game was fun although took me a while to get used to :)

Well Done!!

pjimmy15 Dec 2015, 22:45

awesome, cool game, love the vintage effects

DrTeaSpoon16 Dec 2015, 02:09

Cute :3

alvarop16 Dec 2015, 04:46

This had a very arcade-y feel, solid gameplay - although a bit cryptic at first - and nice game design ideas.

I enjoyed playing it, a lot. However, I felt like the placement of the vines and bees was a bit random and sometimes it would cause the game to be unfair. Besides that minor inconvinience, I think this is a solid game!

Trasevol_Dog16 Dec 2015, 14:53

Really nice gameplay, had fun :3

Archonthewizard16 Dec 2015, 23:13

Interesting idea. Became more fun once I got the hang of it. Could be more intuitive and less deterministic though.

KZdev16 Dec 2015, 23:16

I had a lot of fun playing this

KunoNoOni17 Dec 2015, 03:35

The graphics for this game took me back to an earlier time when games were about gameplay and not flashy graphics. This is a beautiful game full of simple yet engaging gameplay. Well done!

Webravenz17 Dec 2015, 16:30

I don't understand everything but it's was fun !

Adam Gould18 Dec 2015, 00:00

That was really well made!

Joror18 Dec 2015, 00:15

Cool little game. Had some time figuring it out a bit. The screen gets a little too cluttered at times to see where I am. All-in-all pretty nifty.

oz2mura18 Dec 2015, 02:48

I was hooked once I figured out what to do. Devising strategies to how to get the most out of each run. I bunched up flowers together, only to be foiled by the lawn mower. Wanted to keep playing, but I has more games to rate!

my best score. :o http://i.imgur.com/1Jikuhe.png

Overall awesome!

pianoman37318 Dec 2015, 06:47

Nice arcade theme. The font is kinda hard to read though.

Efuvex18 Dec 2015, 07:08

Hmm nice graphics. Probably most drawn to it by the humour ahaha :) Got 75 seconds (is that how highscores work?)

Jod18 Dec 2015, 07:59

Supercute, loved the graphical density! Took me a while to figure out what to do!

Larzan18 Dec 2015, 09:03

Nice idea of a snakesk-game, good look, but i didn't really understand the mechanics, the time ran off so fast...

KayZ18 Dec 2015, 14:16

Very nice game. Played it several times. Survived for 154 seconds in my last game. The post compo version has some nice additions.

Zanzlanz19 Dec 2015, 04:55

Very cool idea for the theme! I like how the role of RNG adds a skill mechanic to the game. Feels pretty balanced!

Excellent job!

batmanasb19 Dec 2015, 06:50

All the dead plants make it hard to seed (pun intended). It's a nice little game, really grows on you.

Jwatt19 Dec 2015, 15:57

A fairly unique experiment on using both themes, but it's very RNG as a game.

It feels very much like an arcade game, thanks to the whole PICO-8 environment. (I'll translate this to a high mood score.)

2320 Dec 2015, 12:33

This is great! It feels good and like a real game, and the difficulty is right where it rewards a little practice. Sometimes having unlucky spawns can feel pretty unfair, though.

aemiliu520 Dec 2015, 14:08

Need for Seed: Most Planted :P

Drauthius22 Dec 2015, 00:43

Was a bit confusing at first, maybe something could have been made to indicate what the player is controlling.

Jonathan Whiting30 Dec 2015, 17:42

Nice little thing, the timeouts felt a little harsh.

Jupiter_Hadley31 Dec 2015, 20:06

Really neat, little game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/i8PM6O3S2Ao

Guard130074 Jan 2016, 19:46

My only problem with this is that the randomness of spawning fucks me over a lot, especially when I spawn off screen going away from the screen and literally have no way to fix that. o.o