Thanks, super appreciate it! :D
I never set it to "run in the background", it just did that naturally. It never occurred to me that it might not actually lol Overall I kept feeling like maybe it was "too simple" or whatever like once you get all 5 plants and 5 bugs you just add water and chill..... but I also wanted to keep it that way too.
As to what happens if you never add bugs or stop pumping water:
- Bugs are the only things that produce waste. Waste composts into fertility (some bugs like the Earthworms, and all plants increase the conversion rate). Plants absorb the fertility which allows them to become healthier. Their health is capped to their fertility so if you have no bugs, you can't get them to that bright vibrant green with the sparkling effects you see.
- If you stop watering it, the soil will dry up (visibly becomes lighter colored) and things will begin to lose health and eventually die off (fun fact: at critically low health the plants emit the same particles as when healthy but since they are color shifted down it looks like disease). Everything that dies turns into waste.
- If waste gets too high (above 30) then it also causes harm to everything in the terrarium. Even if everything dies, it will naturally compost over time. Every time some waste converts, you also get Growth Points making it very difficult if not impossible to soft-lock the game without actively trying to.
- Also, plants generate Oxygen and bugs need it to breath. No plants = dead bugs even if all the water is there (plus the waste will get too high). I always had die off from high waste LONG before oxygen lack was a factor during testing however so I actually hid that stat in the final version but it is still being tracked in the background in case I revise the game post-jam so it becomes more relevant (maybe change it to air-quality and waste lowers it? I've got a few ideas for a post-jam update/remake).
Overall, behind the scenes there is a full self sustaining ecosystem going on that requires both plants AND bugs to thrive. It just needs a bit of attention. It provides a nice little break from whatever the player is working on to water it, an excuse to stretch or just vibe for a bit before going back to it.