Pumpkin Keeper

by gurkenlabs

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.95

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.68

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.37

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.18

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.11

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.84

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.82

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.87

A farmer's life is tighter than a banjo string...
Keep your pumpkins alive and fight off your rivals in this action-based farming simulator.
Wake up early in the morning, grab your trusty watering can, and make sure the pumpkins make it through the day.

Yer rivals Tilly and Willy, these suckers are like a blister.
They don't show up until after the work is all done and tryna ruin the crops.
Keep em away from yer harvest or they gon wreck it all up.

Controls

Screenshots

Tools

* Engine: LITIengine
* Art: Adobe Photoshop 2020
* Music: LMMS
* Sounds: Audacity
* Version Control: Git + GitHub

Disclaimer

We offer two downloads on Pumpkin Keeper's itch.io page.
* v1.0.0: The original version submitted for LDJAM 46, made in 72 h
* v1.1.0: The *'Director's Cut'*, containing post jam fixes:
* Disambiguated UI
* Refined Prop placement
* Fixed timings
* increased difficulty on Friday
* decreased scare cooldown

Tags: #2d, #farming, #pixel art

Genres: action, simulation

Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Audacity, LMMS

Comments30

POBIX22 Apr 2020, 13:48

I really liked the gameplay loop, the art and the dialogue, but the game was limited to 30 FPS which feels pretty bad.

JJacobs22 Apr 2020, 13:48

Nice concept and fits perfect with the theme!

JAsonsumm122 Apr 2020, 13:50

Cool farming sim, excellent art, I enjoyed it :)

zollmaniac22 Apr 2020, 14:03

I had a lot of fun with this! I think it is a very solid entry and with a little more polish, it would be great! The initial pacing was a little slow. Three days of only watering started to drag a bit, but once Tilly and Billy came into play, it kept me engaged more. If you can get the player to stop moving completely while playing the watering animation, it'll help the controls feel a little more responsive. The graphics were solid and the music fit in well with the games aesthetic. Great job!

Ommadawn22 Apr 2020, 14:04

A bit repetitive but funny game, I liked the way you scare away the rivals (my kind of humor haha)

Marino22 Apr 2020, 14:05

I liked the pixel art a lot. First level felt too long and boring, then with the Tilly and Willy the game got its difficulty up to a nice point. I would like to see some reward for beating the level with all of the pumpkins alive.

Brachistosauro22 Apr 2020, 14:30

Very nice graphics and "setting". Drags a bit, but other than that it was pretty enjoyable!

GABlue22 Apr 2020, 14:55

Really fun gameplay loop. As others said, it start slow, when the other foes appear it starts to get better. It would be great if new things were introduced, like crows, that you should shout alway. I really think another funny thing is that, after some levels, one of those enemies when the level was almost ending, came with a gas mask. So, in the other day, he would say "I know how to deal with this..." and he may use his banjo to play bad music so they go away (or a crazy combo system where the guy feel down, lose his mask, and then you fart him away... he could then come with a earplug, and so on. It could make a crazy combo system xD).

Love the art and so on.

davidvfilipe22 Apr 2020, 14:57

Cool main character animations!

Narom4222 Apr 2020, 18:49

Nice animations and pixel art !
A bit repetitive.
Thanks

Laurari22 Apr 2020, 20:39

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME!!! You did an awesome job!!! Amazing pixel art, good banjo music, super theme-related, good use of farts (and they sound very real :spy: ), great increasement of difficulty... Good job guys!!

Jin931023 Apr 2020, 09:42

Did he just fart?! :D Your games never stop to impress me, really awesome entry! Sound, art and overall execution well handled and polished. First I was hoping I could get the water from ponds as well, but that would make it way easier. The important thing is, that I became pumpking! Great job, thank you for that.

gurkenlabsauthor23 Apr 2020, 12:55

@pobix check out the config.properties file in the game directory. it lets you switch the parameter "cl_maxFps" to whatever you like.

gurkenlabsauthor23 Apr 2020, 12:57

@gablue I would love to see some of those features :) In the end, we had to keep a deadline, so we stripped down the concept to its core.

gurkenlabsauthor23 Apr 2020, 12:59

@jin9310 congratulations on becoming the pumpking! The certificate and medal are on their way ;)

gurkenlabsauthor23 Apr 2020, 13:01

@laurari Fun fact: I spent what felt like hours looking for a good banjo instrument plugin. As I couldn't find one, I resorted to a plucked violin :violin:

victor_reiner24 Apr 2020, 07:19

Oh! this is impressive! I love! The art is awesome!

SpiRiTs24 Apr 2020, 07:55

Really fun game! And it got really hard on the last day! still I manage to beat it on my first try. Nice entry!

Mykola24 Apr 2020, 21:15

Very nice game! Gameplay is clean, art is awesome, sounds and music fit well, the story and dialogues are great creating a very good mood. And it's feels complete. I enjoyed playing it, well done!

Lyje25 Apr 2020, 19:25

Well made, but gets repetitive very quickly. Even when the enemies appear it's not very challenging and the days still drag. Could be nice with some balancing!

Johnny Rainbow26 Apr 2020, 19:48

Very nice graphis, also a fun idea to play a pumpkin farmer. Music fits very well. After certain time the game becomes a bit repetitve. The clock in the upper right corner sometimes covers some pumpkins...

Johnny Rainbow26 Apr 2020, 19:48

gurkenlabsauthor26 Apr 2020, 20:00

@victor-reiner , @spirits , @mykola Thanks for the feedback!
@lyje We adjusted the timings in the post-jam version, thank you :)
@johnny-rainbow What screen resolution were you playing on?
Check the config.properties in the game directory for
* gfx_displayMode
* gfx_resolutionHeight
* gfx_resolutionWidth

pee-thief26 Apr 2020, 20:13

the farting brings this to the next level! nice job

gurkenlabsauthor26 Apr 2020, 20:23

@pee-thief That means a lot from a gentleman of your noble name :smile:. Thank you!

Max Louis29 Apr 2020, 13:05

Hey guys! As you know from my stream last night, absolutely loved this game! You did a really good job of creating a game with just about the right amount of difficulty to make it achievable but stressful (in a good way!). I love the different days, the cockerel noises and the fart noises lol. The art is obviously stunning too. A brilliant game experience and entry into the jam! See you around on Twitter (and hopefully future streams!). :)

thevinter30 Apr 2020, 14:17

Great game! Some suggestions: add more variety to the gameplay loop: for example gates or different types of enemies, but I can really see this turning into a full game.

zubspace30 Apr 2020, 19:55

I really enjoyed this game! Everything is adorable: From the colorful pixel art to the quirky music and sound effects and the hectic gameplay. This is a great base to build a game upon with more machinery and enemies to handle.

Well done!

weeping-rupee5 May 2020, 02:18

Hey,
Here's the VOD from my stream wher I played your LD46 Entry if you're interested:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/611064935

Thanks for the submission!

GameOverMexico7 May 2020, 12:56

Cool farming sim, excellent art!

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