This contains some spoilers if you want to play the game. Maybe do that first and then come back to this wall of text if you fell like it :)
FIRST OFF
I am a professional software developer and create games once in a while in my free time. Most of the times they dont get finished. I have to say this is not a problem for me. Im happy if i can get a mechanic implemented and dont have the time or the perseverance to polish and finish afterwards. I participated about 5 times in Ludum Dare.
On this years valentines day, my daughter was born :)
I wasnt sure if i can finish a game for Ludum Dare or even participate. But i tried with a really small game with simple mechanics. I can say Im happy how this turned out. It would profit alot with some more polish and the one or another mechanic that i had to scrap in the progress because time was really running out.
I think this is the first time i participated in the compo and submitted my entry.
PLANNING A SMALL SCOPE
It doenst matter how small you plan, you allways need to scrap some ideas in the end in Ludum Dare. At least thats what i allways expierince ;) I would have loved to do a card game for this one but i realized pretty fast that im not capable of doing a game of that type in the small time amout that i have.
It came to my mind how scary this times are. I wanted to create something peacefully, a place where you cant get hurt and without any stress. I wanted players to have a good feeling when playing and have them feel to accomplish something even when its small. I think this game is the result of that. I never did something like that.
The idea was the be a wizzard that can revive dead plants. And maybe add some animals, like a deer or boar, and special skills.
THE GAME
GROWING
I think the biggest feature of my work is the mechanic to grow the grass. I have a simple tilemap with dirt tiles. These dirt tiles have an additional layer with an empty sprite renderer for the greens. When you cast your spell the greens grow magically. In the background a percent value increases when you cast in range of a tile and decreases when you dont. This percentage asks a greens texture for the amount of random pixels of that percentage and draw them on the empty green layer of the tile. I dont think this is the best way to do something like that but i really like the result and are happy i came up with that in such a short amount of time. And i love the fact i learned something about reading specific parts of a texture at runtime to do something with that information. I really think im gonna do somethin with that in a future game.
ANIMALS
My idea was to have a really lovely forrest with lots of peacefully animals running around in the end. Im not a very good artist to say the least. And time was running out very quickly. I added a bumblebee, a butterfly and a squirrel which all look pretty nice for my standards. The squirrel was supposed to run from tree to tree but this also had to be cancled due to time issues. It only hops around on the tree. But if you bounce into the tree it hides inside the leafes and comes back out shortly after that. The other two animals have a similar mechanic if you do bounce into their plant. They fly off and search for another plant, which looks nice.
JUICE
I know its a bit cheap but i added some glow to make it all look nicer, as i said before im not good at polishing games and dont have much expirience finishing games :P So i cut cornes a bit. Speaking of cutting cornes my code is a mess X_x but i guess some of you can relate. working solo in the compo for the first time was really challenging for me so im also ok with that^^
I also added some bounce to the objects when you walk into them and added some particles that fly off. This makes the world feel more real i guess.
ART
The only art i can create and are kind of happy with is pixel art. i dont think this art is a master piece but all combined together looks pretty nice in my opinion. I would even say its the best work as a whole i ever did. I did a lot of plants, some mushrooms, 2 tress and a bunch of different weed sprites. The animation of the wizzard could be better i guess. It also was scaled up because i decided to shrink the tiles halfway through :/ which makes it look a bit off i guess. Im happy how the casting animation turned out.
SOUND AND MUSIC
This was the first time i trusted myself to record sounds with my voice infact almost every sound effect was made with only my mouth. I also used some tinfoil and a paper sheet. With some filters in Audacity that all turned out pretty okish :D
The music was created with boscaceoil. I did some better work with that tool in the past but im a bit rusty i guess. I tried different things and ended up with that what you can hear in game. I would say its good enough for my standards but could be a lot better.
SCRAPPRED MECHANICS
- DOPPELGAENGER: I would have loved to have more active skills. Something like spawn a mirror image of your wizzard that walks around and uses magic himself.
- MANA: At first you werent supposed to have infinite mana to cast all the time. There should have been a mana fountain ore something to replenish but this was scrapped because well you guessed it: TIME
- Deer and Boar: These animals should have been there initially. But it would have taken me alot of effort to create thier behaviour in a somewhat realistic way. So i scrapped them for some much simpler insects :D
WRAP UP
If you have read this far. Thank you. Really. I dont know why i wrote all this down but felt like doin it. And as i started i couldnt stop.
I have to eat now or my wife will get angry. I hope you had a good time with the game. And im excited to hear your feedback.
I'm sorry but I think I'm missing something. I can move and use magic, but it only shows particles, no plants are growing. I tried to keep the spacebar pressed for a few seconds, but nothing happened.
Is there anything else to do? Also, I'm running Linux if that helps…
For what was there, this was wonderfully sweet. Love the unique take on the theme. Absolutly wonderful. It took a little while for the fun stuff to grow, but that is probably just how this game is meant to be played.
@kiwii unfortunatly i cant test the linux build on a linux machine. Maybe move around a bit and try angain using spacebar while moving if you are still interested.
Wanna see a wizard garden hum ? This was so addictive, I got to 3600 twice and wanted more. Too bad the interface isn't finished, it breaks the immersion a bit but this is a pretty amazing job for one person. The difference of pixel size for the wizard isn't a problem at all, the spell effects and particles really brings it together. Well done !
Was I astounished when I saw this was a convo game. Really well done, nice graphics and effects, moody ambience and music, fun a calming gameplay. I really wish it was more laggy, and that the whole skill tree was avaiable from the start, so I could plan out my build haha. Really well done, congrats.
Visually breathtaking game and love the fact the whole art style was constant, the only thing I would change visually is the font as I feel like it doesn't match the aesthetics of the rest of the game. Such a positive feeling playing this game and half of the fun was just standing still and holding down space to see what happens, the addition of the occasional squirrel definitely helped to maintain an alive forest, can't wait to see this be endless, despite the lovely screen at the end. Maybe add another background song as well as I found myself playing this game for a while and I noticed the same beats repeating and could potentially become repetitive. Well done, awesome job!
@scharma I was expecting it to be a bit laggy on slower machines. Sadly i wasnt able to further improve the performance of the effect. Thank you for playing and your feedback!
I really liked that ending screen, I was playing for a while and while I really enojoyed the tone and pace, I was starting to wonder where it was going, I'll probably pick this up again at some point. thanks for making such a lovely game :)
Fresh, peaceful and can become addictive! I really liked it! Nice job on deciding to create your own sfx and music! (I just noticed a little thing, at the bottom of the end message you have a "is" instead of "if", a detail but still^^). GG!
Lovely game! The music and the sound design was excellent creating an absolutely relaxing and peaceful atmosphere. I would love to see a powerup in the future that keeps some of the dirt tiles as normal basic grass tiles!
Simply beautiful, truly great and one of my favorites of the jam. I hope this one does really well and Excellently great job! Very calming and relaxing! Excellent job!
Very beautiful, relaxing game. I very much enjoyed my time playing this, the sense of discovery and progression was definitely felt. One of my favorites so far for sure, excellent job!
I loved it and I only have ONE remark. There is no drawback to pushing the spacebar all the time, so why make it a choice for the player ? My thumb felt a little sore at the end, but I had a beautiful forest, so who cares ? :D
@kiwii I ran it on linux (Ubuntu 18.04) without any trouble ! Maybe you didn't find any plant to grow ? Also, you have to stay close to the growing plant when you find one :)
Such a cute game! The art and atmosphere is extremely ethereal and makes you feel really relaxed as you move from spot to spot creating pretty flowers and trees. If I could offer one piece of critical feedback, I feel like some of the UI and the information provided to the user could be more refined, but nonetheless, you did a great job!
This was so peaceful and wholesome, I really needed this after a long day. You really made my day :) Thank you for sharing such an awesome relaxing idea!
Absolutely lovely little game, I have a weakness for games with magic and games with growing plants so a game which has both is an instant like from me. Even though the game said I finished it I went on to completely fill in each and every tile with plants just because it looks so pretty and was really calming to do. So in my opinion it is a massive succes and I am glad to have been able to have played it
I hope it was almost as relaxing making it as it was for me playing it :) Some pixel fonts would look great with this. Would like to see more of these relaxing games at these game jams!
What a nice, contemplative and chill experience. I always prefer non gameplay intensive games, such as narrative games and games like this one, where there is just... contemplation. Kudos for adding eye candy.
The visuals are amazing! And I really love the added interactivity where the tree shakes or particle effects appear on the grass and flowers whenever I walk through them! The audio matches the game really well too! Although, maybe you can try clamping the camera when the player reaches the edge of the map so they won't have to see the blue background.
Besides that, this is a really cool and relaxing game! It was something magical indeed XD
Delightful! :seedling: After playing so many games about _surviving_ it was fantastic to play something that takes its time. I really enjoyed building my little forest - absolutely magical!
Wow! Magical game. Maybe the game of LD46 that I spent most time on. I covered every single space of the tilemap. It reminds me of Equilinox which is a good thing. Very calming, great relaxation. Sadly, the game gets quite laggy when there is so much particle effects going on, or maybe that's something else causing it. But when you have a lot of plants around the fps go down. Work on that, add maybe a bit of resource management and you have a perfect relaxation game!
I like the concept of making entertainment non-violent and still enjoyable. Good base for the further development. One thing that kinda irritated me is the fact that I need to hold the spacebar O:
Thanks so much for the detailed description of your dev process, it's really useful to read about how other people tackled creating their game. Fantastic entry, great job!
I love it :) I want this power in real life ;) The minor issue I found with skills progression layer, as cant hide it sometimes on mac. But even with open, I can still make the world undead! ...ehm thats sounds awkward... ;)
I like the concept. it was a bit laggy for me, and I didn't understand the purpose of pressing space. It should just glow automatically. Would like to see a version for mobile devices.
Amazing ambience, Love the art and music, very calming perfect for after jam playing and distressing. Unfortunate I did find an issued with a UI that made it almost unplayable. I suspect the Ui build for a 16:9 monitor unfortunately I played it in a 16:10, therefore the shop close button was visually mostly under the Plantcount and the hit box was significantly shifted I was forced to click fro a few minutes in the surrounded area to find the hitbox. But everything else worked perfectly. Well done bud you made a really good jam entry.
I don't know why I went for the 3600 score but you feel peaceful and relaxed to not kill things in a game for once, that you kinda want to continue... Great feeling, artwork and gameplay
Super chill game. Went and eventually completed all the map. Really nice use of bloom and subtle effects to make the game even more polished. Nice work.
A very relaxing and calming experience that you gave with your game. Really, thank you I'd love to see a develop version on mobile, maybe with more plants animations, or why not a backstory :)
Well, it's just beautiful! Awesome graphics. For a long time I was wishing for more of a hurdle or goal or something, but when I reached the end I realised that I got exactly what I needed. I have a really old crappy machine so I was struggling with performance. One point for improvement would be the UI. Really god job overall. Keep rocking!
A really beautiful game and so nice and relaxing! Was stuck on 3599 plants revived for so long but just had to get it to 3600! Really nicely polished and the graphics are simple but captivating. The music didn't get too repetitive either and there's a lot of potential for expansion as well. Incredible game! Well done!
One of my favorite games so far. Graphics and feel are very nice. It's a bit like an incremental game, seeing the numbers increase. I would have liked to have more choice with upgrades, like maybe you have to sacrifice one upgrade path for another... but on the other hand I had a good time just making plants in a low-stakes experience. I went for the 3600 plants. In the release version maybe there could be some force trying to destroy the forest, and it would bring the game more in line with the jam's theme. But in the end I'm nitpicking a game I really enjoyed.
I played it on Linux. I really liked your game, and I am surprised that it is quite similar to ours, the loneliness, moodiness, it also has a small map, has to do with plants, similar colors and light particles.
Very addicting game! Glad you let us keep playing even after finishing it with unlimited upgrades. Just wish there was more ground to transform/reset the playground to play around with unlimited skills~
I feared I might get stuck between trees a handful of times but luckily that didn't happen.
I didn't think I'd get all 3600 plants but I found it very cathartic to just stroll around and fill in all the missing spaces until there were none left.
Cute little game, nice and relaxing to play. The music got repetitive after a while but obviously with a compo jam that's always going to be an issue. Really well done, congrats :)
Amazing game ! It's actually 3 AM here, and I couldn't play a more relaxing game before going to sleep ! I really wish you can continue the development so I can play longer and share with my friends !
Very appropriately titled game. The graphics, animations, and music all give it a chill magical mood. The UI and font were a little out of place visually, but that might be the only significant flaw I can find with this game. Everything else about it is such a lovely pleasant experience. I really hope you develop this game further. There's something about adding life to a world that's extremely satisfying.
Comments77
Beautiful and relaxing. Just what I needed after 3 days jamming :)
Thank you for this game.
Stay safe!
Only thing that made it a 5/5 is changing the font and UI, but the game itself is very fun!
Is there anything else to do? Also, I'm running Linux if that helps…
thanks for making such a lovely game :)
I really liked it! Nice job on deciding to create your own sfx and music!
(I just noticed a little thing, at the bottom of the end message you have a "is" instead of "if", a detail but still^^).
GG!
I would love to see a powerup in the future that keeps some of the dirt tiles as normal basic grass tiles!
this peaceful and wimsical game of creation brought some peace inside my troubled soul. that was enjoyable. thanks
I loved it and I only have ONE remark. There is no drawback to pushing the spacebar all the time, so why make it a choice for the player ? My thumb felt a little sore at the end, but I had a beautiful forest, so who cares ? :D
Even though the game said I finished it I went on to completely fill in each and every tile with plants just because it looks so pretty and was really calming to do.
So in my opinion it is a massive succes and I am glad to have been able to have played it
Besides that, this is a really cool and relaxing game! It was something magical indeed XD
Great job!
After playing so many games about _surviving_ it was fantastic to play something that takes its time. I really enjoyed building my little forest - absolutely magical!
The minor issue I found with skills progression layer, as cant hide it sometimes on mac. But even with open, I can still make the world undead! ...ehm thats sounds awkward...
;)
I'd love to see a develop version on mobile, maybe with more plants animations, or why not a backstory :)
Well done
If you want to know the timestamp of when your game was played you can see it in this spreadsheet:
https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn
And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends)
https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos
I feared I might get stuck between trees a handful of times but luckily that didn't happen.
I didn't think I'd get all 3600 plants but I found it very cathartic to just stroll around and fill in all the missing spaces until there were none left.
I really wish you can continue the development so I can play longer and share with my friends !