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A jam submission

Crop CirclesView game page

A (very rushed) game for Hawktober 2023
Submitted by hiddenone — 9 hours, 31 minutes before the deadline
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Crop Circles's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Judge's Choice#4n/an/a
Asset Usage#44.2314.231
Gameplay#53.2313.231
Story#53.4623.462
Theme#63.3853.385

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How did you follow the theme?
I tried to add demons and death? I dunno, there's not much horror here but I had some fun making it.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

So, I wish there was more going on in this game,  it was kind of dull without a 'challenge'.  But what I'll give you some points on is the way the game looks is very nice, and different from other RM titles in the jam which is a major downside for me in a lot of these games.

I also didn't realize that I wasn't just being nice to the villagers, so the ran out of time ending completely surprised me. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention lol.  You get some points for that as well.  The theme is there, but it isn't front and center, so I don't know how I feel about it from that angle. Still, it's a solid enough game as far as how it is put together.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I agree that there wasn't much to do in the game, unfortunately time really got away from me so a lot of the ideas I wanted to add just didn't make it in.

There are clues that giving the villagers produce isn't a good idea, but after watching Hawk play I realized that a lot of players weren't picking up on them so I'll need to rework them to make them a bit clearer. :) I wanted to approach the theme in a different way so the demons weren't the main source of horror, but I get how that doesn't help the theme really stand out especially in this rushed version.

(+1)

I thought the premise here was so subtle and clever, with nice little allusions (all the poisonous plant stuff  for example). Gameplay was about as good as harvest moon, which is to say fun and exciting for a little, then pretty redundant. Cutting a few days off some plant growth would be nice. I know they are more advanced crops, which makes sense to take longer in a fully developed game, but in a jam game like this with no real time pressure, it just felt like extra busy work. 

Unfinished, but so many real fun parts. 

Developer

Thanks for your comment, Human! I agree with your thoughts, I was aiming for that harvest moon feel but was hoping to break it up with some more character personalities and some nightmare scenes, which is one reason the advanced crops had longer growth periods. Ideally the nightmares would've made taking more time to 'win' the game more dangerous, and while I got those mechanics working I ran out of time to get it polished enough to actually include it in the jam version. I almost lowered the growth periods, but was worried that it would break something that I wouldn't have time to fix so I left them as-is.

I'm happy to hear that you thought it had fun parts even if it's pretty rough, hopefully you'll give the game another try once I get more of it finished. :)

Submitted(+1)

I'm a terrible person. Bye, Richard! I went straight for the final "gift," and, well...

I could see this being a cute game with more development. As it is now, it's pretty barebones and gets boring fast. Nice start, and I hope you get a chance to flesh this idea out later, whether it's in this or another project.

Developer(+1)

I'm glad you went straight for the final gift, it seems like quite a few players tried to avoid it!

I didn't manage my time well, so the game really was mostly the mechanics being shown off instead of the full story I wanted to tell. I do want to expand on this and give Pete and everyone actual personalities and finished cutscenes, so hopefully I'll have some updates sooner rather than later. :)

(+1)

I love this so much! It was so pretty and aesthetic too, I really loved this, farming sims are my fav thing fr, very cool! dw about the endings! You got the point across, I would love to see you continue if you feel up to it!!

Developer(+1)

Thanks, I'm happy to hear you liked my game! I am going to do some more thinking about continuing it. There's a lot I'd like to do with this idea so turning it into a full game would be nice, even if it will take a while. Just got to decide what a farming game really needs to include and figure out how to twist it a bit for this game...

(+1)

well, if you like farming sims, coral island is coming out nov...14th or 11th or something like that? It was the first game I kickstarted, really good if you like those kind of things

It takes a lot from stardew, inspired, but has a lot going on

there's alwayys classic harvest moon too, but I really like where yours was going! With a horror touch, you don't have to worry about the other stuff as much if you don't want too!

Submitted(+1)

"Oh cool, a farming sim"
"Isn't oleander poisonous?"
"Ricin? I know that's been used for assassinations."
"Why does this guy want death caps???"
"Why are there gravestones popping up"

Developer

I'm glad you picked up on the poisonous plants! I didn't want them to be very obvious (besides the mushroom) but I wasn't sure if they were too subtle.

(+1)

You can't upgrade all 6 plots with Helpers, if you try, then it won't let you choose any option or cancel and you have to restart the game. Atleast there was autosave.

(+1)

That said, I really like the game concept!

Developer(+2)

Oh shoot, thanks for letting me know. It had been working, but I then tried to 'improve' things so something must've been cursed... I'm glad the autosave came in handy and that you like the game's concept even if it is rough. :)

Submitted(+1)

Okay, I just loved this. It's true that there wasn't TOO much horror, but you still kept within the theme, and honestly, this is my kind of speed. I find the horror subtle and it's presented in a way I hadn't expected. I think using Buer's Book was actually a clever way of keeping with the theme of the jam. It's not overt and we don't NEED to use it necessarily, but it's still right in front of us. Sadly, I think I did things backwards; I got the bad ending first, and THEN I got the "ran outta time!" ending. Both made me laugh. But now I need to figure out how to get the good ending! I'm probably keeping the game just to play on the days where I need a pick-me-up. Good job! Let me know if you update it.

Developer

Thanks for your comment, I'm happy to hear that you liked the game! There are more bad endings than good ones, though unfortunately I ran out of time to actually give each ending the work they deserve. ^^; There are two 'good' endings possible, though neither is very exciting since they were also rushed.

I'm hoping to work more on the game soon, either to get it to a more finished stage or revamp things to be more in line with what I was hoping it could be. I may wait to see some more comments and then decide if a revamped version is worth it or to just steal the fun mechanics I figured out and make a non-horror game out of them. :)