Hello Jay and John!
I like your game! The music is fantastic, the gameplay is promising and the pixel art, color palette and overall look is just great. A lot of meaningful feedback is given already, so let me try to add some new thoughts.
Controls and feedback
- Rotating the tiles might be worth a try, as it would allow some more intentional placements (see below)
- When dragging mountain tiles, visual feedback about what gets destroyed would be nice (Jay, you already mentioned "Into the Breach" in one comment - I think this is a fantastic reference for such features - and in general, of cause - the game is a gem in so many aspects)
- Audio feedback (SoundFX) when placing tiles as well as when automated changes are happening, maybe in sequential order, to allow players to follow what is changing bit by bit
More advanced rules
- At the moment there are auto-rules for human expansion, but the nature part is only manually controlled be the actions of players
- To emphasise the puzzle character of your game, I would suggest to add auto-rules also for the expansion of nature - patterns, players have to achive to trigger certain events - let's call them "Revenge of Nature" as an example
- For example (ideas lean on typical natural catastrophies)
- A block of 3x3 mountains turn into a single, huge 3x3 vulcano
- A block of 3x3 trees turns into a single "Tree of Gaia" (spawns new adjacent trees every turn, when destroyed/harvested by humans, game is lost)
- A block of 3x3 water has a "deep sea" tile in the center (maybe randomly spawning hurricanes, or fictional creatures like Nessie or Godzilla, if you want to go fancy)
Think this is all that was jumping into my head while enjoying playing your game.
Wish you good luck with the current Jam and as well with the future development of your game. Looking forward to it!