An unusual sandbox farm, a very exciting setting. Experimenting and observing the growth of plants was so meditative. Intellectually, I understand that these are algorithms, but my heart was immersed in caring for plants and fighting zombie plants. And then I created a dinosaur lake. Look at this!
Oh my god I love it! There was so much I wanted to do but didn't get to, I'm glad you made something with what was there. We've added some things since the Jam, including some lovely music by my partner Brian to make it a little less sterile, so if you liked it, see what we added and let us know if you dig it's growth.
This was a great sandbox experience! We started experimenting with water and creating different kinds of soils, then noticed how different plants only spawned on their respective soil types, then started intentionally weeding some types of plants to let others grow. It provided just enough control over the system not to overwhelm us too much with possible actions and not to bore us with repetitiveness. For the lack of a better comparison, it felt just like caring for the real garden!
Yeah we tried to keep things simple but the logic for pattern matching on a hex grid got more complicated than we thought. I think the result shows that this idea is worth investing some more time into.
It's a great relaxing game, I like the idea of tending the garden without having direct control over it. I was having a few issues with selecting the shovel and accidentally putting down water on the tile underneath the icon. I think the idea of plants combining is a very interesting and cool one.
Thanks EC! The kernel of the idea came from working on some big farming/ invest&express games. Limitations would force players to get more creative in how they decorated, so I went for the biggest limitation. The guiding design principle was "You can't control nature, you have to work with what it gives you and be patient." We are aware of the control issues and are working on patches now.
All the art was made in Marmoset's Hexels. It's an amazing tool. I'm a terrible pixel artist but somehow I can get decent stuff made when I use Hexels.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. We are going to do some work on this in the next weeks and really try and get it to be the game we imagined it could be.
This is super cute. It's like a little engine for making pretty things. I can see very easily how it can expand, but even at the point of writing this, it's calming and engaging just on its own.
Aww, thank you so much, I'm glad the cuteness and future possibilities can be seen even if there's so much more I wanted to get done. Brian did the art and more, I just wish I could have coded the merge tool properly to do the flora justice, and so y'all could cultivate gardens in your own styles.
Comments
An unusual sandbox farm, a very exciting setting. Experimenting and observing the growth of plants was so meditative. Intellectually, I understand that these are algorithms, but my heart was immersed in caring for plants and fighting zombie plants. And then I created a dinosaur lake. Look at this!
Cool dino! and wow 1000 water spent. We just released an update with the features we wanted to get in during the game jam. I hope you'll check it out.
Oh my god I love it! There was so much I wanted to do but didn't get to, I'm glad you made something with what was there. We've added some things since the Jam, including some lovely music by my partner Brian to make it a little less sterile, so if you liked it, see what we added and let us know if you dig it's growth.
Thank you for the game!
This was a great sandbox experience! We started experimenting with water and creating different kinds of soils, then noticed how different plants only spawned on their respective soil types, then started intentionally weeding some types of plants to let others grow. It provided just enough control over the system not to overwhelm us too much with possible actions and not to bore us with repetitiveness. For the lack of a better comparison, it felt just like caring for the real garden!
I love the chill vibes, great take on the theme.
The art is also fabulous.
Two small criticisms, 1 is the bucket gauge supposed to go negative? and 2 some music and ambient sound would really pull this whole thing together.
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. Both of the issues you mentioned are fixed now along with some new features.
Nice and chill game !
It’s a shame that you didn’t have enough time to fix the plant merging :(
Yeah we tried to keep things simple but the logic for pattern matching on a hex grid got more complicated than we thought. I think the result shows that this idea is worth investing some more time into.
TBH I never thought about how a hex grid could be handled. I found this very interesting https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/ (especially the cube coordinates)
Thanks for hinting me toward this :)
Yeah we were learning as we went on that same site. The update is out now and the merging is finally working.
It's a great relaxing game, I like the idea of tending the garden without having direct control over it. I was having a few issues with selecting the shovel and accidentally putting down water on the tile underneath the icon. I think the idea of plants combining is a very interesting and cool one.
The art is also very unique. Nice work!
Thanks EC! The kernel of the idea came from working on some big farming/ invest&express games. Limitations would force players to get more creative in how they decorated, so I went for the biggest limitation. The guiding design principle was "You can't control nature, you have to work with what it gives you and be patient." We are aware of the control issues and are working on patches now.
Cool concept! Maybe try giving the player some planting options. That would make the game more engaging.
Wow, how did you make the triangle-drawings? Is it converted from pixel images or you used special triangle editor? Is it your own graphical engine?
All the art was made in Marmoset's Hexels. It's an amazing tool. I'm a terrible pixel artist but somehow I can get decent stuff made when I use Hexels.
I loved this, just a really neat concept and really fun to just make your own garden in it :)
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. We are going to do some work on this in the next weeks and really try and get it to be the game we imagined it could be.
This is super cute. It's like a little engine for making pretty things. I can see very easily how it can expand, but even at the point of writing this, it's calming and engaging just on its own.
Aww, thank you so much, I'm glad the cuteness and future possibilities can be seen even if there's so much more I wanted to get done. Brian did the art and more, I just wish I could have coded the merge tool properly to do the flora justice, and so y'all could cultivate gardens in your own styles.