Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
A jam submission

Flesh GardenView game page

Submitted by ZatzuDevs (@LaztLazzie), rileyrazor — 4 days, 18 hours before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Flesh Garden's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme / Secret Requirement#14.7334.733
Enjoyability#43.9333.933
Uniqueness#54.0674.067
UI#63.5333.533
Farming#73.9333.933
Bug Amount (5 Star is no bugs)#173.6003.600

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted(+1)

This game has a hell of a look.  Combined with the chill music, it made for a pretty relaxing gardening experience.  The cauldron/crafting aspect really stood out. It was pretty fun to experiment and discover imaginative new recipes. Though, I never did figure out what to do with that huge pile of chum....maybe I should have tried to feed it to the frog?

As mentioned by some others, the menu would sometimes do some odd stuff, but it was manageable to deal with. I did notice that some of the frog's text was layered behind the "real" plants that I bought, so I couldn't quite read what  I was supposed to do with the bigger cauldron, but it was easy enough to figure out.

One thing that didn't really do much for me was the night time spraying-the-angels sequences. I mean it worked fine and all, but I just wanted to go back to gardening. Of course, this is a gamejam and we can't fit every feature in, so I understand why it might not have been as involved as other aspects (which are great).

Great work all together!

Developer

I am so very glad you liked the cauldron part! The frog is mostly just there to eat failed potions (chum) but you can try feeding him other potions too for surprises :D
I found the frog's text problem. I didn't see it during my tests.. but it should be an easy fix. Thank you for finding it.

The nighttime is... admittedly not as well thought as I hoped. I thought I wanted the player to have something to do at night other than just gardening but it seems I feel into the "more features = better games" mentality while making it. But I'll still try to improve it, maybe add incentive when killing them or something.

Thank you very much for your kind words and for playing! 

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Overall, a fantastic entry.

Great art and music. Everything has a mischievous, Halloweeny vibe. The theme is deliciously gross. Eyeballs and hands in a pot--brilliant. The customers are very well-designed, and the frog is adorable. I laughed out loud when the angels first showed up.

Some of the UI is a little counterintuitive. The GIFs on the game page make for a helpful tutorial, but I still found myself confused about how to serve up potions (although in practice, it worked).

The pacing is a little off. Although it's a lot of fun to spray those pesky angels, the night lasts too long and I found myself just waiting for dawn. 

Also, I think it might have been helpful to give the player a bit more money in the beginning, or at least set the lab up with a single pot and a couple of free seeds. It is a little too easy to waste all your money buying pots and then realize you don't have enough to buy any seeds.

Developer(+1)

I am very very very touched by your words on the art/designs! It was hard to make, I kept having thoughts they didn't look good enough or too boring or stuff like that while drawing. This comment means a lot, ya know. Much love, much appreciated <3 

I'm glad the GIFs helped. I tried a few tutorial methods like the text in game but I, admittedly, am now so good at UI design. I hope I can improve on that.

I think I'll place a started pot/plant at the beginning. I was worried that the player might buy the feet and pumpkin too early if I give the player too much money at the beginning. But I have gotten a few comments I should add starter money for the same reason you said. I think see pot/seed is a better alternative. Thank you for the suggestion! And thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

This was a lot of fun to play. I liked the pace of it. I did run out of money because I didn't have the right costumer for my items, but eventually they came and I was able to buy more seeds.

Developer

I'm glad you like it! The customer RNG is kinda tricky but I'm glad it worked out!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

As I've said a million times I ADORE your game so much! It's awesome to see how much it's grown since I playtested it! It's a ton of fun with a really lighthearted feel, and the music sounds awesome. I love the cel-shading and the distinct style of the art, it's beautiful and it's one of my favourites in the jam!

Things I adored:

  • The music fit beautifully with the ambiance of the game
  •  The art is fantastic. I think the minimal shading and the colours give it a really striking aesthetic that makes it stand out
  • I love the creature design so much, they're brilliant!
  • The call to action with the angels made night time a lot of fun! Huge improvement over the last one!
  • THE CLOCK!!!
  • The customization and how pretty your shop can look after customizing
  • I loved learning what the upgrades did!!
  • Honestly a stunning looking game, I can't say it enough I think its so distinctive and memorable I could see your aesthetic from miles away. The frog was also brilliant and I loved them sm LOL 

A few things that I noticed that I wanted to share (for the future):

  • If your pots are overlapping, you will sometimes plant double the seeds
  • Planting sometimes allows you to plant multiple seeds without returning to the shop, but sometimes it quits. I liked being able to do it one-shot though
  • The stick doubles after the potion tutorial
  • The tutorial ended very abruptly, so I was waiting for more
  • There is a strategy to your game, you can actually grow two sets of plants by evening and stop growing until the next morning and then before the heart-tree or upgrades you can avoid the angels all-together- which made life easier but made for a lot of waiting around
  • There is a bit of cognitive dissonance between the potions you can make and the ingredients to make them. I found it hard to remember the combos just by looking at the final product
  • There is some choppiness still when dragging on occasion
  • The angels can glitch out on occasion

AMAZING work! I'm so proud of you!! You did incredible <3


Submitted(+1)

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

This is such a cute game, and it made me want to keep playing it! Quick satisfaction with how fast the plants grow- the potion crafting is fun and I love the stirring part- and I liked how some customers came for ingredients instead of just potions. Takes some stress off while trying to get set up in the beginning.

I know you're on the fence about the frog, but I really think if the timer were made longer for him, or atleast maybe he wouldn't get hungry BEFORE a player has made their first potion, that he'd be perfect for the job <3 I think having to manage customers, the plants, potions, and the frog isn't too much- just maybe the frog takes too much attention by how fast he gets hungry and how aggressive he gets.

I did have a bug I encountered twice and had to refresh to fix where I had a seed stuck in my hand that I think I had bought, but I forgot I didn't have a place to put it. After clicking it and trying to buy a pot, the seed was stuck to my hand and I couldn't place the seed. I tried feeding it to Frog to get it out of my hand, but no luck until I refreshed.

Your art style really shines here, and I would argue that after a bit more balancing that I mentioned above, and maybe moving the seed/pot store to the top of the right side of the screen instead of the bottom (depending on how you feel, bc I know this would prob cover visuals of later game) this could be put on a mobile app store!!

Developer

Oh my! I love and appreciate this comment lots n lots! 

I posted the final debugged version this morning. Unfortunately, the frog's hunger had to go, it is with a heavy heart (coz it had so many bugs I tried to fix) but I thought "Not all game designs are making it to the final." so off he goes! And that's ok!

I found the seed bug and turns out the pots also have that problem. I'm sorry you had to restart the game to get it working right again.  I've fixed it in the final ver. Thank you for finding it! 

I'd be thrilled if I could get this to Playstore lol maybe someday :D Who knows lol!

In the original sketch, the shops WERE on top right and the tree was a little lower and smaller personal taste says "make tree big!" So this happened xD I'm not sure if it's the right decision but I think I'm sticking with this one.

Submitted(+1)

Man I love this! I spent like 40 minutes playing without even noticing! I only stopped because of the message telling me I'd seen it all. Really nice game!
I realise only now that you can hang pots on the border of the screen. Maybe you could have made this more obvious with nails :thinkink_face: Also, having a recipe book of the potions you've already found would be cool.

I love the art, love the audio ambiance (except the frog), the chill vibe (except for the night), they all fit the gameplay very well. Having to stir the potions makes the thing kind of immersive, which contributes to the great vibes!

I found some bugs:

  • clicking on seeds in the shops clicks through to the tools or plants behind the tab
  • you can shut the frog up by dragging a pot or potion on it then dropping it back on its shelf (very useful, don't fix)
  • you can buy things you can place and have to trash them, losing money :(
Developer

Holy! My G! 40 mins is super awesome! I'm so very glad you liked it T.T A huge huge compliment. THANK YOU!

Aww man I thought I fixed all the frog's bugs *cries*. That frog gave me so much headache with the hunger system, which doesn't matter now coz based on feedbacks, I've decided to remove the hunger system (No more annoying croak! And no more bugs to fix for me :'D).

I'll try to fix the rest of the bugs and suggestions as well, and maybe more balancing on the nighttime spawn rate (wanna get that chill vibes ~.~)/ Again, thank you for playing the game!

Submitted

Love the art style, you are clearly very talented. The gameplay is good and the UIs look great. Solid effort and it really fits well with the theme. Awesome!

Submitted(+1)

Love the art style, you are clearly very talented. The gameplay is good and the UIs look great. Solid effort and it really fits well with the theme. Awesome!

Developer

aww Thank you. That's really nice thing to say.

Submitted(+1)

Real fun game glad to see you got the bugs ironed out awesome experience!

Developer

more bugs popping up but at least it's working now :D

Submitted(+1)

Your art style is super cute!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Fun game. I like the gardening system. That shows different stages on plant, watering and gather. The graphic style is ok, simple but fits well to the theme of game. I don't like night because this angel can destroy your work and it is not fun. I can't relax on it.  I see the strong inspiration one of the game from youtube. I had a problems with the harvest plant the mouse click not every time wroking properly. Also I buy 40$ seed but then I realized it is for big pot and I can't put this soo I give it the frog, and wasted my money.

Developer

"Living for Plants" deep and direct inspiration. I'm glad I caught the vibe that someone noticed it :D I'll try to check on the harvesting problem/bug. I'll also add a cancel when you buy the wrong seed/plant (which I don't know how to do/code yet but I'll try to figure it out), the temporary solution was directly disposing it via frog, which I get isn't a very good solution.

Thank you so much for playing the game!

Submitted(+1)

Cute game! It's cool that you can really grow your shop. I got a customer that wanted a potion, but how do I make that? I wish I could strangle the frog haha, do you need to feed him? If so he's pretty expensive?

Developer (1 edit)

You were supposed to feed him potions but I'm thinking of redoing or maybe removing the frog's hunger so it wont be too annoying to the player. It feels like a bad game design to force players to feed the frog without purpose.
Thank you for kind words and playing the game!