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A jam submission

Viridis InfactionView game page

A real-time infestation simulation where you control a swarm of plants and evolve them over time
Submitted by Chowbacca — 13 hours, 17 minutes before the deadline
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Viridis Infaction's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#104.6674.667
Overall#973.9443.944
Gameplay#1883.3893.389
Presentation#2213.7783.778

Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

What do you like about your game?
The simulation aspect mixed with genetic mutations were really fun for me to code.

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit)

great game, i wish there was a desktop version to replay it later, this look like it has a ton of replayability, its really neat

tho one thing that is missing imo is some color indicator on stats to see if they are dangerously low or high to be able to make some quick decision, rn the time required to check individual stats goes against the concept of a RTS

Submitted

Nice to see another game about plants! Really like how it's an RTS game but it took a little while and some experimentation before i understood the mechanics. The visuals and music were top notch!

Developer

Thanks for playing! If you're interested in other plant games there's also this one: https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2583332, although Mr. Rola already highlighted it so you may have already seen it ;)

Submitted(+1)

Well, I managed to beat a level 1 on the first try!
Though I was pretty much just spamming seeds at every free spot and after some time corn-looking ones just killed everything I needed, if I got it correctly...
It's really fun, still I wonder if there's a way to give a player a little more control on what's going on (just like in mine))
Also visuals are really unic and cool.

Developer

I've had a couple good suggestions on how to improve player agency. I think giving the  ability to weigh genetic traits and introducing some kind of biomass currency like in your game might help offer more control while reducing button-spamming (I think in your game the ability to weigh genes might work against the experimental feeling you get in the early stages though). 

The levels are also procedurally generated, which isn't bad necessarily, but I think my levels just need more diversity and content, especially for worldbuilding purposes.

Thanks for giving it a try!

Submitted

It's very interesting, and it looks pretty good! I just think it was a bit too complicated for me to get lol, I got overrun very handily. But overall I liked it! And I think it has a lot of potential if it's simplified a little bit, or explained a little better. Although I think less is more in this case.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing it! I like how complex the mutation system is, but if I continue building on this concept I would like to go deeper and the only way to accomplish that would be to make the game much more comprehensive to players at the start. It's definitely a lot to take in as it is.

Submitted(+1)

A pretty interesting game. It's biggest flaw is how obtuse it is to understand in-game but it is the game that kept me playing the longest in this jam so that's something

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you gave it a shot! Yes, a tutorial would make this game feel far less sink-or-swim for getting into.

Submitted(+1)

Who knew tactical plant warfare would make for such a unique experience? :P

It's really cool to see your plants grow and expand over the territory and I really enjoyed the vibe of this game. The one thing I felt like was missing was some kind of box-select/batch control. I wanted to be able to select a bunch of plants in a region and have them all fire at the pheromone without having to select each one. Also a bit of a tutorial segment would help with getting started (once I read through the description I figured it out, but it was a lot to take in at first, the rest of the complexity ramps up in a manageable way though). Great job!

Developer

Letting you hold the left-mouse button and drag to select a region and control everything from one panel would be worth exploring and really help avoid people from feeling like they're spamming the clone button. Lack of tutorial is easily one of the biggest hurdles to this game's enjoyment.

Thanks for playing and providing feedback!

Submitted(+1)

A really cool idea. I am interested to know where you take it if you develop it further.

Developer

Thanks for trying it out!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Cool game concept! Very original and it has some real potential! I got pretty locked in for a while. I played this game for the longest out of all of them so far. Also amazing music! Congrats on the submission!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much :)

I got the music from pixabay under their content license... The artist's name is Roman Belov, their songs were sweet and really fit the ambience I was going for: https://pixabay.com/users/romanbelov-25347333/

Cheers!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Np! It fit nicely! Great song selection!

Submitted(+1)

Viridis Infaction is an interesting one, without a doubt I feel it deserves five stars for originality. I have a certain love for these somewhat more free form simulation type games, and given the theoretical (bio)diversity in how you can approach 'building' for lack of a better word I can see it holding up on multiple run throughs.
Top that off with a visual style that I find exceedingly appealing and you've got yourself a contender! I don't have any particularly well though out criticisms yet that haven't already been levied, I'll mull it over for some time, and see what I can come up with on future revisit.

Since you mentioned desire to continue developing it I look forward to exactly what this idea will bloom into. Keep it up!

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you enjoyed the concept so much! During playtesting there were quite a few viable strategies that emerged which caught me by surprise. I appreciate the thoughtful response. If you end up thinking of any other criticisms I'd be more than happy to hear them... there are also a lot of submissions to go through so no worries if you end up getting carried away :)

Submitted(+1)

Loved the music and the retro feel, and the game seems pretty original to me. However, couldn't apply much of a strategy, as I ended up mostly spamming the R button while clicking on every cell I saw. I also wished there were more in-game context on what was happening, but I think that overall it's a well executed idea. Great job 🤝

Developer(+1)

Hey, thanks for checking out my game! Unfortunately, a few people fell into that strategy of just spamming R. I'm thinking of ways moving forward that I might be able to incentivize a more selective cloning process. To speed the cloning up you can actually press tab to select the nearest mature cell.

Narrative was definitely not a huge priority in this game... I think it was okay for the Jam but lack of context or direction seems to be giving people a sink or swim experience.

I appreciate all the feedback :)

Submitted(+1)

This game is really complex, both in a good and bad way. At first it is pretty hard to understand, even after having read the description in the page, but on the other hand, once you start getting the hang of it, it’s really fun to try and cultivate your plants for certain outcomes and get the right genetic pool. Overall, I think the game has really good depth, and I also have to congratulate you, cause this game is definitely unique.

Developer

Thank you! Yes, this entire project was very experimental. While I'm happy with what I got done in the past two weeks, there's definitely room for improving depth as well as making the systems and controls a little more intuitive. An interactive tutorial would have brought my project a long way. I appreciate the feedback!

Submitted

Nice game! I don't fully understand the mechanics, just spam the clone button until that blue guys kill me.

Developer

Thanks for playing! There's definitely ways I can improve the game explanation (like a proper tutorial), as well as incentivise selective cloning more... Definitely a concept I want to continue expanding on.

Submitted(+1)

Really chill game. Once you understand it, it is a lot of fun to try to get certain mutations 

Developer

Thanks! More can be done in terms of tutorialising, but I'm glad you could get into the core game loop :)

Submitted(+1)

This game is a lot more than it first looks. It'll take some time to figure out your plants mutation system, because it's an incredibly complicated evolution simulation. Give it a try, it's worth your time!
(Disclosure, I helped playtest this game)

Developer

Thanks buddy :)