Ludum Dare #55compo

Spring Must Come

by muriel

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.37

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.17

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.17

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.70

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.40

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.13

You are the spring guardian and your mision is to perform a ritual to summon spring that consists in making sure that all the map is as green as Switzerland.

Pictures:

Learn the basics:

Control elementals:

Spring must come...

How To Play:

- WASD or Arrow Keys to move.
- Space to grab and release stuff.
- Mouse to control position of elementals when grabbing a control staff.
- V mute audio.
- U and J to increase or decrease volume.

Tech Used:

- C++
- Raylib
- Emscriptem Compiler (for web build)
- Pinta (linux)
- Audiacity. (Audio modifications)
- sfxr.me (Sounds)

This time I decided to change my tech stack for Ludum Dares to explore other options, so instead of using Unity or Haxe (A very robust option to have something working quick), I decided to explore C++ and Raylib. I was a bit afraid at the beginning as in this context is a bit riskier than other options but in the end I've come with a nice workflow to be able to compile for the web in a WYSIWYG fashion which is nice.

I hope that you enjoy playing my game as much as I've enjoyed making it! Thanks LD community you are the best ;)

Tools: Haxe, raylib, sfxr

Comments20

Imbajoe16 Apr 2024, 03:50

I feel like a parent keeping track of quadruplets. Nice submission, was the first puzzle one I came across too.

CamD6716 Apr 2024, 03:51

That was really fun! The first few levels felt a bit too easy but once it got later on (especially the equilibrium level and the few after it) were very challenging but in a good way!

It would be really cool to polish this up! Could be a fun puzzle game to release

murielauthor16 Apr 2024, 07:20

Thanks @imbajoe, I'm sure that you are a fantastic parent for your quadruplets :)

murielauthor16 Apr 2024, 07:24

@camd67 hehe, yes I'm trying to get better at tutorials + difficulty curves. I'm slowly getting there I guess... Being honest I might think about polish and publishing as the engine is quite easy to use to add new levels and some friends already gave me more ideas on things that I could include in later levels

CreepyPvP16 Apr 2024, 12:03

Hi nice idea. Always cool to see games done with raylib :)

murielauthor16 Apr 2024, 12:21

@creepypvp thanks, yeah I was a bit reluctant at the beginning but a few hours in and I was already reassured that I made the right choice, being honest I don't see myself going to back to something heavier in terms of build tools... Also in the end I managed to just write a super silly ./deploy.sh command that allowed me to push updates quite easilly which was a real blessing for the last minute adjustments.

So yeah super recommended to everyone that might be considering C++ and raylib as their weapon of choice for the next compo :)

JustARoom16 Apr 2024, 14:24

Managed to get till level 10, that one cooked me, I'm no good with puzzles. Great game tho

murielauthor16 Apr 2024, 15:37

@justaroom wow that's already super far :) This one it is a bit tricky as you need to think "outside the box/map" xD.

Thanks for playing @justaroom I'm glad that you liked it :)

LDJam user 37242516 Apr 2024, 22:50

Excellent job on the natural tutorial. There was never a point where I felt like I didn't understand the mechanics. That said, it was still very challenging. Very clever game, great job!

candlesan17 Apr 2024, 04:57

Very clear progression that tutorialized all the main puzzly elements. Fun take on the theme

kristinamay17 Apr 2024, 14:00

Great intro to the game, and at first I was like "well what's so hard about this?" and then I got to the equilibrium level and was like, "....ohhhhh." Good work!

murielauthor17 Apr 2024, 17:11

I'm glad that you liked it @kristinamay!

Yeah haha the real game starts there, yeah that was the level that convinced me that the game design was good enough as when I was doing it I was mmmm no-one will enjoy this :)

Vodzik17 Apr 2024, 21:55

Clever game with good difficulty progression.
Good job!

vivid-hallucination18 Apr 2024, 01:49

I like bringing natural beauty back to a space. It's like if Terra Nil was fantasy instead of sci-fi. The slow terraforming speed of the elementals made the equilibrium level a bit of a slog, but it's a solid concept.

🪬

LDJam user 380818 Apr 2024, 03:29

Nice easy into the game mechanism and then Equilibrium. It really felt like herding cats :)

The core loop felt good on this one and I think you could expand this really easily to more levels. Just add some polish / juice to the game and it would be really good. Nice work!

Nazorus18 Apr 2024, 12:34

Such a cute game with a chill atmosphere! It starts out a bit slow but quickly becomes a hectic management game, which is quite fun. I'm not sure what's the best way to manage elementals in levels with lots of them, maybe put them near a torch?

Other than that the game feels super smooth, pixel art looks nice, and I like the relaxing music a lot.

Kudos to you for doing the compo :v:

burnedkirby19 Apr 2024, 07:13

Feels like a puzzler, but it becomes more like a management kind of game, juggling the other spirits. Interesting concept, but it kind of gets a bit stressful later on. Neat idea though. Good work!

henk21 Apr 2024, 14:16

I liked playing this, and made it to the end; the level design felt especially well done. One criticism: I'm not sure having the player take damage in the non-springified
level portions added much value to the game. It doesn't seem to affect
strategy much at all, and doesn't add enough difficulty that I was really
thinking about it all that much, especially in the later levels.

zirconcode22 Apr 2024, 19:45

Starts slow, then feels like herding cats, unexpected progression, very nice

loveapplegames28 Apr 2024, 15:27

Kudos for the interesting and very original gameplay. The levels where you can get stuck are a bit stressful, but were not too difficult. Sometimes the game's pace is a little slow, maybe it would be nice to be able to pull the elementals faster with your staff.

Other games by @muriel

★3.62

★3.90

★3.50