Ludum Dare #45compo

The Monkey and the Tree

by apace

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.34

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.27

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.57

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.07

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.32

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.79

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.02

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.19

The Monkey and the Tree

Hello there! This is "The Monkey and the Tree". After scrapping my initial idea, which was way too difficult design-wise, I came up with this game, where the goal is to grow a tree from nothing.

Also, this is the first time I created music, so please don't hesitate to click the mute button in the main menu.

If you feel like it, you can try beating my highscore, which is 142892 points.

About

The little monkey needs a high, very high, tree to climb on. He wants it to be at least 100 meters high!

Controls

Use the mouse. Move it from left to right and right to left to get the tree to grow. Wider movements make the tree grow wider, which gives you more points. The location of the movement controls the direction in which the tree will grow.

Tags: #2d, #casual

Genres: action

Tools: Unity

Comments16

Frogman7 Oct 2019, 09:55

It was fun and funny. I liked the graphics. However, I couldn't finish it because it hurt my hand and the monkey was too fast for me...

Tero Pulkkinen7 Oct 2019, 11:17

it starts nicely, but i didnt have any idea how the controls work. it just kept stacking the layers, but nothing i di changed the behaviour.

Apaceauthor7 Oct 2019, 11:22

Thanks for playing. Sorry for not making the in-game instructions clear enough. The tree grows by you using your mouse. You have to move the mouse from left to right (or up/down, whatever, but back and forth). Whenever you change direction, the tree grows by one layer. Depending on the size and position of the movement, the tree will grow thicker or thinner and towards specific directions.

TwinTurboDouche7 Oct 2019, 12:48

Took a minute to figure out the controls but after that I created the craziest tree! Had fun and would play again!

pedromgdo7 Oct 2019, 13:05

Good idea, this could work in mobile to be honest. I found a funny bug that would allow the tree to go around itself, but overall still great!

JoshuaRabbit7 Oct 2019, 13:19

The game is fun and the graphic is cute. And 'creating a tree' is matched to the theme.

Nikita Demidov7 Oct 2019, 13:53

Very funny and interesting game!
And the music is pretty good!
Keep on!

Netherlab7 Oct 2019, 14:42

When I saw the screenshot I knew I was in for a treat! Really creative and original! Had a blast playing it. The concept of how fast you move the mouse influencing the size of the line is also brilliant!

Derek Volker7 Oct 2019, 16:37

DAMN MY ARM!

Now that was really interesting and fun concept while also using non-conventional controls. I really like it, congrats! Also, congrats on making the music, maybe you could think in something more present reagarding sound, but the result was ok.

Lukvasando7 Oct 2019, 20:11

I loved the game! The monkey was unexpected!

bazld7 Oct 2019, 20:51

Ow, my wrist :)
The way you control the direction and speed just with this one motion is very novel.
Cute and fun game, great job.

Human Writes Code8 Oct 2019, 07:42

Oh lord. My arm is sore now! That was a great game. I got to 75m before I realised that the monkey was actually climbing behind me! After that it was just furious mouse waggling. It was great fun. I completed it with a score of 36872. Well done! Loved it.

beepyeah8 Oct 2019, 15:43

Interesting and novel input mechanic, could be more fun on a touch screen. I liked the idea a lot! Good work.

adliberum8 Oct 2019, 18:48

Neat little game and a clever lit play on the theme. Great work! :thumbsup:

Emiliabea8 Oct 2019, 19:05

My arm is done for the day for sure. This was fun, didn't realize it was a race until I took a sec to answer a text and then sped run it. Very fun :)

Catie Jo8 Oct 2019, 19:13

Definitely agree with beepyeah that a touch screen would make it more fun -- the swiping was really buggy on web with a trackpad; maybe it's better with a mouse? Cute concept, and I thought the music was quite good, especially for a first time! Overall the mechanic is nice, and it's super cool you did all this as a compo. Just tweak the swiping mechanic to be more responsive...maybe you could add a line that shows the swipe motion as you draw it, then have it disappear when your cursor releases?

Other games by @apace

★3.48

★3.44

★3.27