This game is sweet.

The pixel art and the animations are all great. Especially the game page. Very nice. The sun animation is very cute. I don't like the dithering in the grass. None of the other sprites use dithering so it stands out (but I just hate dithering in general so maybe it's just me). I would have preferred little patches of tall grass to differentiate the dark and light grass areas. I think texturing the grass slightly would have looked great (google "pixel art grass" and that's what I mean by texture). Or some extras like tiny 1-4 pixel wild flowers; tiny so they aren't confused with the flowers you grow. Something subtle so you don't lose the worms or your plants in the background.

Enemies are simple, but having them spawn in bursts is a great way to do it. If they just spawned 1 every ~2 seconds, it would be much too easy to keep them under control by killing them one at a time. The burst ups the intensity of the game for a bit and you have to figure out which worms to hit first. The scythe stunning them was key to the strategy of killing them. And the scythe doing a bit of area damage meant you always wanted to try to hit as many worms as you could which added a lot of fun second-to-second decisions trying to perfectly aim your clicks. The slight cooldown on the attack means you can multitask a little early on. You need to attack some worms far away, then while the cd is resetting, multitask by spending that time filling up with water. Then going and finishing off the worms when the cd is ready.

I kinda had no idea what I was doing a lot of the time. Not that it made it any less fun. The game was easy enough to figure out what you had to do in a broad sense even if you didn't know the specifics. Like I knew I needed to water plants and slice worms. I  figured out that I could hover over the water at the bottom to refill my can without being told, because that's pretty clear. But I was unsure what watering plants did when they were in their final stage. I guess it keeps them alive, but I wasn't sure if I needed to fill up the blue bar to get to another stage. How does the chopping your own plants thing work? Sometimes it wouldn't work, sometimes I'd get 2-4 new plants. Does the plant need to be in the final stage to be able to be cut? I'm not really sure why I would want multiple plants. Do I get more points? They sort of act as lives. If I have multiple plants, the worms need to kill them all for me to lose, but they don't spread very far so the worms can kill nearby plants pretty easily. I didn't really know what the upgrades did. It seemed the upgraded scythe lowered the cooldown which was handy. I see now that the game page has the upgrade info.

All in all, the game is really fun to play. It has great flow between chill watering and stressful scythering. And this is your first game? What a great game to start with.

Why does this game require Administrator privileges and could you possibly provide a version that doesn't?

It took me a minute to figure out that I should be cutting my plant, but once I did the game became fun, fast, and rewarding. Love the art, love the music, and I love the concept.

EDIT: After a couple hours of playing this, I'm still really enjoying it. Some elements have really been implemented in a thoughtful--and most importantly, enjoyable--way:

Watering feels so good. The way the water sinks into the ground and nourishes the plant brings me back to the times I'd help around the garden watering as a child.     It's also a smart design decision to slow the pace of this already-breakneck game. Requiring the mouse to hover for even a half second over a certain area helps keep the expected APM (actions per minute) from growing too quickly. Speed, activity, and how they scale are all crucially important for this game. High 'APM demands' may easily scare off a casual/novice player--and they certainly cause the game to demand more attention and energy from all players.

Scything takes the best of fruit ninja game elements and uses them to encourage judicious, prudent, contained play from the player.      Imagine you  // were// trying to defend your plants from an onslaught of worms (as happens quite randomly from time to time). You know which of your plants are most vulnerable. You decide that these worms need the personal attention of the scythe. It's barbaric, sure, but these worms have to learn: that your plants are yours and worms can go kick rocks. Fueled by a protective energy far surpassing a mama bear with cubs, you set out to make a last stand for the ages against what seems to be an unending siege of worms.

In the hot sun--plants aching, straining for water--you shake off your own heat and misery and garden like no one has before. You're the Lebron James of your garden: doing it all, you're saving plants left and right, strategically propagating new plants, and slicing worm after worm, sometimes all in one stroke. If you're going to be running around swinging a scythe wildly, you'd better have the foresight to plan your garden to mitigate friendly fire casualties.

That's a unique plan to make in a game, and it could easily have ended up such a less interesting choice if the scythe didn't sweep, operating instead as more of an instant point-and-click action. I find myself wishing more games would encourage player restraint as well as this game does.

The upgrades are delightfully simple, though I have to wonder how much they matter once the game reaches a certain point. There's also something of a minor lack of clarity with what the upgrades  // do// for the player. Scythe upgrade definitely makes swing speed faster and damage higher. Watering can increases capacity, but maybe something else as well. Plant upgrades seem to increase health, though I swear they also become easier to water with higher upgrades.

Just tonigh I'm already going back and forth between what upgrades I want to get and when.   I change my mind from one attempt to the next in order  to compliment the strategy I've employed for that venture. There's no question that some upgrading of the scythe is necessary; the difference between 3 hits and 2 per worm is massive, so you don't want to find yourself behind on scythe tech without money to spend. I think plant upgrades are probably the first priority, but then again I also once thought watering can was first priority.  The upgrades are somewhat opaque. They don't generally have a massive impact on the game. They feel // very// classic arcade in that way, and not the least modern. I would not be surprised if most people think as a result that the upgrades were poorly implemented--'dated' is often fairly undesirable in a modern game. I do though think that these people are wrong; the upgrades stand respectfully out of the way, allowing mechanical performance to take center stage, as it should in most all arcade games.

The soundtrack and sound design are both very simple. This simplicity affects everything: there isn't an intrusive moment of loop-restarting unlike with some more convoluted, developed anthems. The other elements of sound, the effects, are also simple. The chop of the scythe is comprised of few layers, and never varies. The watering can is a powerful roar, equally as unchanging. The effects are snappy, the soundtrack is peppy, and neither presents itself as a grand display of skill. It's a Game Jam game. One of the best decisions a game creator can make is to set very achievable standards for the supporting elements of the game * so they can go // big// in the parts of the game that made them want to make the game in the first place.

So far my high score is 103, 341, and I think that may not be the end of the story for it. A day ago, I had no idea this game was even a twinkle in Crusticus' eye. Now, I'm looking forward to playing it at minimum a few more nights!

*this isn't always sound, but clearly seems to be in the case of this game.

It was really fun! Hate Arcades! Because I love them and can't help but play until I get some good results. Very Nice job!

In any case, it's fun and it's not so easy. The number of opponents is randomly generated and thus I had in one run right at the beginning 8 opponents... then longer only one or two opponents. That would still need a little love.

Quite nice game. A bit too hard there is too many snakes spawning. It's a nice game well done. Just review the difficulty and it could be a good game.

Fun little game. Kinda hard rn even with the upgrades. Audio is great from music to sound effects! Overall fun idea that fits well with the theme! 

Cool game. coudn't keep up with snails to make garden, only menaged to keep alive one flower.

I would rework upgrade system to make it easier for a player to upgrade stuff so that playere dosn't need too keep track of coins.

Also can you make a standalone build that doesn't need installing?