Barren

by whiteseraph

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.52

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.37

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.96

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.67

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.13

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.13

Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.50

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.27

My attempt at Ludum Dare 45's theme "Start with Nothing". This is my first game jam ever, even though the game is not playable in this state as I haven't implemented a real win condition, I like the idea I had.

I wish I had time to implement more interactions between tiles. Basically the game is about a "golem" god being, that starts in an empty world with seeds in his body. As he moves through the world, he lays down seeds for various things like water, trees or humans. In this way, he creates new life from the barren world.

I know the game is not finished at all, but I didn't want to quit, so decided to publish it and just face the bad ratings haha.
But it was a great learning experience, and I can't wait for the next Ludum Dare!

Instructions:
The goal of the game is to develop the barren world in the same way as the overlay map is developed(toggle it with SPACE).

WATER SEED - creates river

FOREST SEED - creates forests

VILLAGE SEED - creates village or city if applied 2 times on same block

MOUNTAIN SEED - creates mountains

MOVE SEED - free move point across the map(you can move without move seeds on the stone edges of the map)

Controls:

- Space: Remove overlay for target map

- Arrow keys: Move on the board

changelog:
- fixed bug with win screen so you can progress to other 2 levels actually now
- added build for windows on itch.io

[itch.io web build]https://dkomnen.itch.io/barren

Genres: puzzle

Comments16

Akronsus12 Oct 2019, 11:07

Nice idea, could be interesting. A bit easy and therefor doesn't really stand out as a puzzle game. But hey, you did a thing :D

GigaHood17 Oct 2019, 11:11

not a bad game, maybe a undo last turn buttom could be helpfull? it's a great fist game though and I hope you learned a lot, if you did it all by yourself that's really cool but maybe you could look into making a team next time to help ease the load. a big tip for very game jam is keep the idea simple, prototype fast and know when to quit (as in when to stop adding or when to realise a thing you're trying to do is taking too long and it's just wasting time so it would be better to do something different). solid 4/5 game for a fist jam.

bonus points for making it playable through the browser

negator2vc17 Oct 2019, 19:31

Nice idea for a game! A memory puzzle game! A bit easy because you can show the level form with a click of mouse or space but still very nice idea and pretty well executed!
The 3d graphics was great especially this type of game! The sound effects was nice!
Nice job with your LD entry!
PLEASE add some screenshots to the game page!!!!!! I almost overlooked because of that and I am sure many other players did overlooked for the same reason!!!

Whiteseraphauthor18 Oct 2019, 14:29

@negator2vc Screenshots! How could have I forgotten those haha.. Thanks for reminding me :)

LeGoLaZ18 Oct 2019, 18:51

Graphics are great, but I dont understand anything(

Roka Josh20 Oct 2019, 11:10

Interesting game, I really like the art style and the puzzle was fun although a tad easy. Would like to see this be worked on more, great job!

celsyum20 Oct 2019, 11:12

interesting idea

NoobException20 Oct 2019, 11:34

Interesting idea, great job for your first jam!
The sound of moving was quite annoying, but overall it was interesting to find correct path :smiley:

sver20 Oct 2019, 11:39

Very nice Puzzler! Planting the landscape is really relaxing :)

CG_Fred20 Oct 2019, 11:43

The concept is nice but the movement of the block placer is totally weird, not sure if that was intended.

Marcin J20 Oct 2019, 12:22

Pretty good puzzler, the 'player' pawn or whatever doesnt really fit the aesthetics and sounds were a bit lacking but not bad at all. At first I thought the graphics were glitchy but it turns out I didn't disable the overlay :D

jk500020 Oct 2019, 12:38

This is an okay first game. I like the graphics and I like the simple game idea. The game could have needed a bit better introduction, but overall it is fine jam game.

Empty Set20 Oct 2019, 13:42

I wouldn't say this is any less finished than the average game made for the jam.

Interesting puzzle mechanic. My one complaint is it's a bit too slow - I spent more time watching the golem thing trudge around than coming up with the solution, especially since there's no undo button so you need to start from scratch if you mess up.

Jin931020 Oct 2019, 13:45

First of all, congrats to your first LD game! Consider publishing your first game big success despite the ratings, for me this is the main idea of LD. To get in and finish something ;) The game itself works with interesting concept and original way how to approach the theme and the puzzle genre. I really like that, truth is that there are some things that would be great to have in-game but, this is a game jam and this is totally solid for an entry. Great job and keep up the passion to make games! ;)

Rodrigo Denúbila21 Oct 2019, 13:10

Good job for your first LD. Fits to the theme and is a nice idea.

fabula_rasa22 Oct 2019, 15:54

Very cool concept and I liked the graphics. The movement on the board felt very weird, most of the time it seemed to me like my golem did not go where I expected him to go at all.

Other games by @whiteseraph

★3.60