itch.io

Really beautiful and smooth animations on the artwork. Did you draw it yourself, or use an asset pack? Regardless, it's integrated very cleanly into the game, and it worked very well.

The animations on enemies dying is good, but it's a bit unclear sometimes when they're hit, and when they're not. I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is clearer visuals and indicators of how far weapons extend, more immediate reactions when hits happen, clearer indicators of when blocks happen.

For example, every time I use my shield, the "chink" sound and the block animation effect happen. This makes it tricky to know if I successfully blocked an attack or not -- instead, what I would like to see is for the blocking sound effect to play only when I block an enemy's attack. That would give me better feedback to know when I should attack, and when I should block, but as it is, it's a bit tricky to figure out.

But again, the animation and the fluid movement is your best strength here -- that flowed really nicely, and you did a good job on that. Whether you drew that yourself or just integrated it from an asset pack, regardless you did it well.

Nice work!

If anyone would like to see an example of 4p gameplay, we had some friends over yesterday and got to try out a full game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE5MqBuPCVo

Super well-done.

I think what I loved most about this is how "complete" it is -- it felt like you wanted to do a very specific thing, and you did it. Great job scoping this project and seeing it through -- it felt very solid that way.

Atmosphere was great, the visual effects were good, and I really appreciated the judicious use of styling. It felt good.

You illustrated your chosen concepts really well, and it felt like visual and interactive poetry. Great artistry that way, and the interactive elements enhanced that nicely.

It was nice that objects held multiple descriptions as you interacted with them later -- either a second time in a row, or after other game events happened. That felt like well-done interactive fiction.

I liked the topic, the message, and the execution. Overall, very very well done!

Good atmosphere in the game -- I got Isle Delphino vibes from it, which was good.

Controls felt good and solid. No collision issues, even when jumping onto the various other elements in the world (trees, bus-stops, fences, etc) and it was solid controls. I liked the double-jump effect (that was a nice surprise to find halfway through), but was a bit disappointed in that I never needed it.

I would have liked to see some puzzles or more clever challenge in the game. Whether a hotter / colder effect (to try and find the remaining grapes) or some puzzles where one needs to lure foxes off of platforms to get to a grape at the top of a series of jumps -- something like that.

That said, it was tricky to know what you were going for in this game. It seems modest in its ambition and what it's trying to accomplish. You have a lot of talent as a game developer, and I feel like you could push your own boundaries a bit more in terms of honing your craft.

But overall, it's a very clean entry and there are no bugs in the game -- I'm always impressed when I see a 3D game without physics issues (that's a very difficult thing that even Bethesda doesn't seem to have entirely figured out), so good job on that. :)

Congratulations on getting your entries (plural!) complete for this year's speedgame -- very impressive feat!

Very impressive entry!

The artwork in this game was beautiful, and the hand-drawn artwork and animation in the opening sequence was wonderful. I really loved it -- in particular the sequence with the light coming down the stairway:

Culminating in this shot -- I can see why you chose it for your logo, but for whatever reason I really love the way it looks here without the text:

Honestly I think it's my favorite piece of art I've seen in this whole speedgame competition so far.

Gameplay-wise, the movement would benefit from a little "juice" -- little niceties like coyote-time and better collision boxes would help. For instance, it was weird to me that I could stand this far off the platform:

But then when I got to this point on the curved platform, I would start falling, and the fact that there was no jump buffering (another common element in platformer "juice") meant that I had trouble jumping off of this curved box:

The parallax in the artwork and backgrounds is fantastic, and it's just a beautiful world that you've created.

I got very confused the first time that I played it, because I went "up" from the first platformer room rather than "left", and I couldn't get back down. I was very confused by the collision boxes and the sound effects that let me get up here:

But then when I got to the very top, I was simultaneously more confused and less. I won't post a screenshot of the Easter egg so as to keep it a secret, but I laughed. :)

I wasn't able to exit that room, and I was very confused, but eventually I restarted the game from the beginning after reading that other people had found more things to do in the game, and I found the left path that I could exit through. That gave me a bit more to do, and I was able to complete the game and get to the final cutscene.

You have the engine foundation, the cutscenes, and the artwork. I would love to see this game be more inherently "fun" (from a movement-mechanics perspective), and I would of course like to see more content, puzzles, etc.

You've really nailed the aesthetics, and I really loved the pacing of the verse in the opening cutscene. Stellar job on the atmosphere and mood, and I think you did extremely well on that.

Congratulations on completing the entry!

This is a really cool game. I really like the expansiveness of the hand-crafted world, and I like the feeling of exploration that one gets -- that little pause to show the title for a new region when you walk into it for the first time -- it's very Zelda-like that way, and it's a great vibe.

I like how I can talk to so many of the people, though there were often women by wells that seemed like I should be able to converse, but they were unresponsive -- almost seemed like they were possibly part of the well template, and not actual NPCs?

Regardless, it was really cool, and the storyline with resolving the conflict between the three brothers seemed interesting. Normally when I would get stuck (like in the water or underneath the world or something) then I was able to just quit and reload and it would pop me back out into the last place where I'd entered the world, but the last time I got stuck was in a cave that I couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of (screenshot attached).

Also wasn't sure what to do with the honey jar that I got, and the description I think was left-over from a different item.

Collisions are definitely the trouble-point here, but outside of that, I think you have a really solid foundation here. The cutscenes feel good, the dialog works, and the 2.5d perspective feels very natural. The island felt friendly and welcoming and it really made me want to explore more. I like atmosphere of the rundown town and it feels like the sort of place with deep history and it makes me want to learn more about the place.

I really appreciate the running shoes -- it helps SO much to be able to get around faster in the world.

A couple of other quirks -- whenever I interact with something, I need to re-enable my running shoes. Also, the GUI buttons look like they should be clickable, but it's not intuitive that one needs to only use the keyboard to interact -- it really looks like these are mouse-clickable elements, so making it a bit more clear that it's keyboard-only might help.

Overall, great job on this entry!

Seriously great game. I absolutely love the way that you really drove at the meaning of the verse, and sought to weave that into the narrative of the game. Excellent application, and I think that you did a superb job.

The game is very cohesive, and you made excellent use of various fades, wipes, effects, or other transitions.

The puzzles are good. I like how there are at least two ways to solve the Rocky level -- I think I beat it in an unintended fashion, but it was still fun. I would like to see more done with this sort of thing in other levels, but maybe what I just want to see is more challenging levels -- it felt like half the game was tutorial, and then the actual "meat" of the game was relatively short. I suppose that's a good thing though -- if I'm just left with wanting more. :)

Hole control is a bit finicky, but not sure how to fix it to be better. In general though, I was able to get it to do what I wanted.

The guard AI is good, and seems to behave well.

Art style is incredibly consistent and the game just fits together well.

Really nice job on the game -- you definitely made it feel very "complete" and polished. It's often tempting to bite off more than we can chew in these sorts of things, and you did a great job of keeping the scope of the game manageable and delivering a complete experience.

Love the art, love the sound, love the animations, love the game. Great work!! This is very much a playable parable, and you did a great job on it.

Thank you -- I'm glad to hear it!

Thank you! That's definitely the goal -- there's not a whole lot here for 1 player, and the game is not-at-all tuned for that.

If you can find a second (or third!) person to play it with, I think the experience improves quite a bit. :)

So glad to hear it, thank you! How many people did you play it with, and how far were you able to get?

Very well done on this game!

This game is a solid concept with a lot of promise. You managed to get a lot of the cozy vibe you were going for, but the two things that hurt that the most were clock uncertainty, and harsh punishments requiring a full game restart in the event of failure.

First time I played, I was out on the other end of town, exploring quests and whatnot when night suddenly fell, and by the time I got back over to my plot of land, foxes had already killed it.

The second time I played (going through all the same setup and initial quests again), I finally found the "H" menu and was taking my time, reading the controls (best I can tell, this is the only place that tells you how to cycle to different seeds -- I didn't see this in any other menu). While I was in this menu, I was suddenly greeted with the message that the vineyard had fallen, and the game was over -- I didn't ever even see that night fell, but if you're in the help menu while night falls, apparently it just kills your game.

This made me nervous that the game wasn't paused while I was talking to villagers or exploring the rest of the story options, and overall a bit paranoid about what was running the clock, and what wasn't. If there were a more clear pause indicator of when the clock is running, and when it isn't -- that would give me a bit more mental liberty to not feel like I'm wasting time by talking to townsolk.

BTW, I thought "Joe" being the name of the carpenter was a nice touch. :) Not sure if that was an intentional Joseph reference or not, but if it was, then I appreciated it. :)

I would like to try again, but the harsh penalties for failure are the biggest thing that hurt the "cozy" vibe for me -- experimentation is risky when consequences are so high.

The music is pleasant, the townsfolk are nice. Consistency of placement for "Back" and "Goodbye" buttons would help me feel more certain that I had navigated the entire dialogue tree -- a little more polish and quality-of-life (to show which dialogue options still have paths to explore, and which do not) would help the dialog system.

I like the prayer mechanic. Not clear if it does anything or if it's just wasting more precious seconds of your limited daylight minutes, but I still like the animation and everything. Not sure it needs to do anything mechanistically in the game (I never like prayer that becomes a mechanical element in games), but it's still a nice thing regardless.

Overall, very nice job on the game! This is one of the few that I haven't (yet) played through to completion, but it still feels like a very good game. The ambiguity on the clock and punishing me for reading the help or being in menus is what is preventing me from wanting to invest more time into it.

Even so, great work!

"Atmospheric" is how I would describe this game.

It ran reasonably well on my Windows laptop, but the framerate was a bit chunky (couldn't tell exact FPS, but maybe 20 or so) -- would have been nice to be able to adjust the graphics to run a bit better on my machine, but otherwise it was still definitely very playable.

I liked the use of lighting and atmosphere here, and the animation and movement felt clean. The collision detection felt solid, and I never glitched through the walls or any other boundaries -- even with the complex geometry in the game. That was very good.

I liked the particle effects and illumination when lighting the braziers. The discovery of the world felt good, and a couple of times, it seemed like there were false paths that I went down (green and purple lighting) -- I assume that was meant to represent false and misleading paths?

Failing near the end of some of the jumping puzzles could get frustrating at times, but I pushed through and was still able to reach the end. I really enjoyed the music at the end, and the illustration of the graphics. Overall the game felt like a visual poem to illustrate the chosen verse.

Technically, this game was extremely good. Artistically, it was solid and well-executed. The fun / gameplay was the weakest aspect, but it was still a very enjoyable experience.

Nice work!

Fun little game!

I enjoyed the sound and music -- they defaulted to "off" for both, but once I found the option to turn them on, they made the next game more enjoyable.

Fun concept, I think you have a good basis here. I actually enjoyed sliding the grape to start the game -- that was a fun little thing to have to do. :)

I think you have a good base for a game to improve upon, and I look forward to seeing what you do in the future! Congratulations on completing a submission -- that in-itself is an accomplishment!

I was extremely impressed with this game. I nearly gave up during the first level -- thinking that it wasn't a finished game -- but I decided to just click around and eventually I started to see the patterns. The storyline of the apprentice figuring things out that were forgotten felt really thematic, and it was actually the hook that kept me playing through this time of discovery, and I really enjoyed that feeling of figuring things out as I went -- it almost felt like Myst that way -- where you're presented with these undocumented puzzles from a world long-forgotten, and there is immense satisfaction in getting them to do something.

I think I beat the game (I hope I didn't accidentally click through the final cutscene, as it felt rather short, and when I tried to click "Continue" afterwards, it just went to a black screen?) -- but I really enjoyed the writing and the voice-acting. I'm very glad you didn't use an AI-generated voice for this -- your voice-acting was perfect, and it really drew me into the game. I think your selection and curation of the other AI-generated assets for the game fit together very well, and it was clear you put a lot of thought and care into this.

I don't think I ever learned what the defensive towers were for, and I certainly never got them to fire anything. My strategy for beating the game was to power up my flame generator and always keep a healthy stock of flames and just continually repair my castle.

Power up flames, then power up books, then build the towers, then work on the central beacon. That was my strategy, and it seemed to get me through the game, but after reading comments here, I'm sure there would have been better ways to go.

I really liked how you didn't hold the player's hand through this, but I think you're right -- that a few more indicators (such as hover-over effects, or possibly particle effects to draw the eye) would have helped to build a better intuitive sense of what things were going on. The "repair" icon felt like a "build" or "upgrade" icon, and it was a while before I learned that the bad guys were bad -- I thought it was letting me upgrade my towers or something, but it was difficult to tell. If the central beacon could crumble (instead of just fade away) -- or if there could be a falling stone particle effect -- that might give more indication of what's going on when the bad guys hit it -- but overall I was still able to figure things out and complete the game regardless.

Super good job on the storytelling and the cutscenes and everything -- it was very engaging, and I liked the discovery aspect of the game. It would be nice if there were more "cleverness" to the action of the game (like a match-3 game having some sort of strategic opportunity that could arise) -- as it was, it felt very mechanical towards the end, and I would alternate clicking between the same three spots (flame, book, repair - flame, book, repair) until I could charge my beacon and end the level. Once I figured out the basic mechanics, there was little reward for remaining mentally engaged.

Overall, I really loved the game. The storyline and writing was superb, and the graphical style and all of the elements were very cohesive. I felt like the game held together incredibly well, and I really enjoyed it. Great work!!

haha, wow -- I had no idea what these towers did. Thank you! I didn't need these in order to beat the game, but I'm sure it would have been a lot easier if I had known what these did!

Really impressive game!!

Your use of lighting is super-effective, and I think you did an incredible job with that. I really loved how you handled the lighting of various elements (you weren't just powering up by adding a light, but the Bible you're holding glows). You handled your 3D assets extremely well, and everything felt very visually cohesive.

The behavior of the enemies feels very natural and intuitive -- I like how they attack for a bit, then wander, and it feels very organic, with just the right levels of unpredictable but kindof predictable.

Gameplay-wise, I liked the in-game tutorial. That felt good! I was confused at first what was meant by the people you were supposed to rescue, and spent time trying to collect / return the bad guys, without realizing that the people I was supposed to rescue were something else entirely. I had to wander the map for a fair bit before I actually found my first person, and I'm just glad I didn't get lost. A minimap or arrows would have helped, but I also liked the feeling of exploration that I got -- maybe just road signs or a minimap that uncovers and grows as I walk, so that it doesn't spoil the whole map for me from the beginning, but it's at least easier to find my way back to the church. That might be all I want -- just a way to know that I can find my way back to the church.

Speaking of the map, I really enjoyed your whole layout. Everything from the little stores, to the gas stations, to the various houses with their For Sale signs and various yard elements like pools or doghouses or things -- the game felt VERY hand-crafted, which was such a welcome sight. I'm really really glad that the houses weren't simply all copy-pasted in a row, and that the roads and neighborhood layout felt very organic and handmade. That was just delightful, and exploring the world was part of why I played it as long as I did.

I think I made it to leverl 6 or 7, rescued 7 people and eliminated over 300 baddies. Eventually the game began to feel a bit tedious (I didn't really know when I should stop?) -- I eventually found a couple of shields (wasn't quite sure what these did but I assumed if I ever got hit they would have helped me), and recharged my health back to full, where it remained for the rest of the game.

The "treadmill" of progression was fun, but would have appreciated having more of a goal to work towards. People keep spawning, baddies keep spawning, the difficulty doesn't ramp up (if anything, it gets easier as I ramp up in level-ups), and so the only reason I would ever stop is boredom. From a game perspective, I think you want the game to end when it's fun, in order for people to walk away in a moment of fun / challenge (since that will be the impression they're left with), rather than leaving because there's nothing else to accomplish.

Regardless, it was a super-fun game. I think a lot of the spiritual analogies were there, but I think there are some easy opportunities to insert more explicitly Christian teaching into the game. Not sure how you would feel about this, but one example that comes to mind is to choose a selection of verses that talk about reading God's word, and to display them when you're charging up your faith-o-meter. Not sure how best to balance that, but I think there are definitely some opportunities to make it more explicitly instructive.

There were a few bugs in the game that I encountered (such as yourself or your followers clipping through the floor), but none of those were show-stoppers, and I was always able to jump to get me (or my follower) out of the ground and recover.

I'm still so impressed at how you handled everything in the game -- especially the atmosphere and the visuals. It's really difficult to balance the lighting in such a dark game like this, and you handled it masterfully. Very very well done -- this game felt like it had a lot of polish, and it was a lot of fun to play!

Thank you so much for trying it out!

I definitely should have added more difficulty levels to the game. If you wanted to try it out with less-experienced players, there are some game parameters that you can adjust in the game Settings menu (the gear icon in the lower right) -- such as raising the limit of grapes that are allowed to be stolen from 4 up to 10 or 20.

Regardless, thank you very much for your detailed and thoughtful feedback -- I do appreciate it!

Really fun game! There are a ton of nice little features in this that were really fun and enjoyable.

I liked the harvesting of grapes to pay for new towers, and that it wasn't dependent on killing the foxes -- that made it feel more like PvZ, and I appreciated the feel that it gave the game.

The day / night cycle was a really nice surprise, and I liked seeing the game go to night. The fireworks at the end were a lot of fun!

I like how the cost of the towers is not written numerically -- it makes it very intuitive about the cost, and that felt fun.

One trouble I wasn't sure about was whether 1.5 was a faster fire rate, or if 0.75 was a faster fire rate. Is that the firing rate, or the firing delay? Adding some units there (0.75 per s) would have been helpful for me.

Overall I really enjoyed the game -- it had a good amount of polish for just being a 1-week game, and I am very impressed!

One thing that I found difficult was to read the small text, and when I tried to zoom in with the browser, it didn't make the game any bigger. Not sure how to fix that, but it's the only other trouble point I ran into.

Great job on the game -- it was very very well done! The music was pleasant, I found the artwork to be delightful -- it was all great. Nice work!!

Really fun game! There are a ton of nice little features in this that were really fun and enjoyable.

I liked the harvesting of grapes to pay for new towers, and that it wasn't dependent on killing the foxes -- that made it feel more like PvZ, and I appreciated the feel that it gave the game.

The day / night cycle was a really nice surprise, and I liked seeing the game go to night. The fireworks at the end were a lot of fun!

I like how the cost of the towers is not written numerically -- it makes it very intuitive about the cost, and that felt fun.

One trouble I wasn't sure about was whether 1.5 was a faster fire rate, or if 0.75 was a faster fire rate. Is that the firing rate, or the firing delay? Adding some units there (0.75 per s) would have been helpful for me.

Overall I really enjoyed the game -- it had a good amount of polish for just being a 1-week game, and I am very impressed!

One thing that I found difficult was to read the small text, and when I tried to zoom in with the browser, it didn't make the game any bigger. Not sure how to fix that, but it's the only other trouble point I ran into.

Great job on the game -- it was very very well done! The music was pleasant, I found the artwork to be delightful -- it was all great. Nice work!!

Struggling to run this one on OSX -- I unzip the file, but it tells me: "You can't open the application "The Colors We Forgot MacOS64" because it may be damaged or incomplete."

The file is 124.9mb, so I'm guessing the whole thing downloaded -- I should have access to a Windows machine later so I'll try it there eventually

Thank you very much -- I appreciate the feedback.

Overcooked was absolutely an inspiration for this game. That, and Killer Queen.  

I think you're right -- it would benefit from a few extra things to do around the vineyard.

Congrats on finishing an entry -- delivering is a big accomplishment in and of itself.

I like your choice of sprites, and the game is complete.

Oddest thing for me was how it feels like I almost need 3 hands to play -- two for controlling the character, and one for moving the mouse. If I could use "up" (or W) to jump instead of only spacebar, then I wouldn't feel like I needed two hands to be dedicated to the platforming, and then need another hand to control the mouse.

But that said, this makes me think of a Mario Galaxy sort of game, where one player is controlling the platformer, and another player is driving the light with the mouse -- a two-player run-and-gun type game could be cool.

Once again, congrats on shipping.

Last push -- getting in some final changes before the deadline.

Spent the last two hours playtesting with my son, and we changed a BUNCH of stuff. No longer discrete levels, but instead just one continuous play-through, where the spawn rate of grapes and foxes starts out slowly, and eventualy grows to a frenetic pace by the end.

Lots of little refinement on movement, sprites, feel, etc.

High scores are added (local-only).

Splash screen is added that's a fair bit friendlier.

Thank you for the feedback, I do appreciate it -- that's encouraging.

I need to try and do a few more rounds of playtesting today and submit the final project -- it's nice to see so many other games submitted to the game jam.

Ok, that's enough for a first few hours of vibe-coding. There is a small options window, and the ability to remap controls.



It's all on Github, and you can play the (very rough) version of what I've got so far. Should work for 1-4 players. I can beat round 2 by myself, but I think I'll need to find someone else if I'm going to be able to get past round 3.

https://hanclinto.github.io/vineguard/

I think I need more variation in the attacks for this to feel more fun -- right now it's a bit too straightforward, I think. It might be nice if there were bushes or places in the grass where foxes could appear from anywhere, because right now it's too easy to guard them when they're only coming from the right and left edges of the screen.

If you play it, please let me know what you think -- we are traveling tomorrow, so not sure how much more I'll get in before the deadline is over, but I'll hopefully at least get two more hours.

Cheers

--Clint

We have a start of a tutorial:

Sprites! These look good: https://elthen.itch.io/2d-pixel-art-fox-sprites

Integrated, they look like this:

aaah, it doesn't like clipboard-paste attachments.

Here is the screenshot:

Not sure why, but when I try to post with a screenshot attached I get:

"Errors:

• post: body: expected text between 1 and 20480 characters"

Early screenshot w/ working foxes, grapes, harvesting, and co-op wine-press pumping for up to 3 players -- it's a lot of fun to jump on the handles and work the press back and forth, I think. :)

Need sprites.

Currently publishing on Github Pages, but it's suuuuuper rough. Source here: https://github.com/HanClinto/vineguard

Follow along as I vibe-code a last-minute entry:
https://hanclinto.github.io/vineguard/

I'm currently traveling in England for the last 2 weeks and am still here for a few more days, but in between traveling and events and everything, I'm trying to get a semblance of a small game written.

Here is what I started with as my spec, and I am vibe-coding this with Github Copilot w/ GPT 5.5:

# Vineguard

_A fast-paced local multiplayer cooperative PvE harvest-and-defense action platformer with party-game pressure and light competitive stats._

> "Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom." - Song of Solomon 2:15

> And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them." - Matthew 13:3-4

> "And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival..." - Judges 9:27a

> "Let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and whether the pomegranates are in bloom." - Song of Solomon 7:12

> "They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit." - Isaiah 65:21

## Design Pillars

- Local couch co-op first. No online multiplayer.

- Easy for mixed skill levels to play together.

- One-screen arcade-cabinet feel.

- Cooperation first, with playful individual stats between rounds.

- Social, readable action: players should quickly understand what needs help.

- Simple controls, no attack button required.

- No-build HTML, JavaScript, and Canvas, deployable on GitHub Pages.

- Code should be straightforward enough for advanced middle-schoolers to understand.

## Theology of Games

So many things that God gave us have both holy and unholy uses. It is interesting that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, yet there are prescribed feasts for the people of God, and Holy Communion is one of the ways God provides His grace to us.

So if we are "wired for food", yet food has both holy and unholy uses, then we ask: what did God have in mind when He wired us for games?

We believe games are at their best when they draw people and families together, and games are at their worst when they draw people and families apart.

Vineguard should feel like a joyful, communal game about protecting what is growing, gathering the harvest, and celebrating shared work.

## Inspiration

- Killer Queen: local arcade energy, drop-in feel, one-screen readability.

- Overcooked: cooperative chaos, self-organizing roles, visible workstations.

- Ultimate Chicken Horse: approachable platforming and playful social friction.

## Target Scope

- Jam length: one week.

- Players: 1-4 local players.

- Balance target: 1 player can test and understand the loop, 2 players is minimum fun, 3 is adequate, 4 is best.

- Session length: roughly 15 minutes max unless players get an especially strong run.

- Round length: roughly 3-5 minutes.

- Minimum satisfying version: one screen, four local players, foxes only, platformer movement, harvestable grapes, central see-saw winepress, round progression, and local high score.

## Core Game Loop

Players defend grape clusters as they grow in a vineyard.

Grapes begin as blossoms, grow into fruit, and eventually ripen. Ripe grapes can be harvested by players, carried to the winepress, loaded into the vat, and pressed into juice.

Foxes enter the vineyard and try to steal grapes. Players scare foxes away by approaching them. A scared fox drops what it is carrying and flees.

The round ends when the juice jar is filled. The game ends when the players can no longer defend the vineyard, such as when all usable grapes are gone or stolen.

Between rounds, players get a short pause, see team progress, and see individual contribution stats.

Play continues through escalating phases until the team loses. The team's high score records how much juice they collectively produced and how many players participated.

## Vineyard And Grapes

Grape clusters appear at fixed vine locations around the map.

Each cluster has clear growth states:

- Blossom: cannot be harvested or stolen.

- Unripe fruit: cannot be harvested by players, but can be stolen by foxes. If stolen and dropped, it disappears.

- Ripe fruit: can be harvested by players and can be stolen by foxes. If stolen and dropped, it remains on the ground and can be picked up.

Ripe grapes should be visually obvious. Use a clear sprite state and a small particle effect, sparkle, pulse, or bounce when they become ready.

Players can carry only one grape cluster at a time.

When carrying grapes, a player can deposit them into the winepress only if the press vat is empty. If the vat is occupied, the player keeps carrying the grapes.

## Foxes

Foxes are the first and only required enemy type.

Fox behavior:

- Enter from an edge of the screen.

- Choose a target grape cluster.

- Run toward the target.

- Pick up the grapes if they reach the target.

- Carry the grapes back toward a screen edge.

- Escape with the grapes if they leave the screen.

- Drop carried grapes and flee if a player gets close enough.

Foxes should not need to be killed. Cartoon contact or scare effects are fine, but the main verb is "scare away" rather than "attack".

Ravens are a later expansion idea, not part of the first implementation target.

## Winepress

The winepress is the central social machine of the game.

It has:

- A central vat that holds one grape cluster at a time.

- A juice jar or meter showing the round goal.

- Two piston platforms or pump handles, one on each side of the vat.

The two pump platforms work like a dual-pump railway handcar mechanism:

- Landing on one pump platform drives it down.

- Driving one side down raises the opposite side.

- Standing still on a pump platform is not enough to press.

- A player must be airborne and then land on the platform to cause a pump stroke.

- One player can operate both sides by jumping back and forth, but this should be slow.

- Two players alternating jumps should press much faster.

- Great timing should feel satisfying, but mediocre timing should still work.

The distance between pump platforms can tune how valuable teamwork is. Wider spacing makes solo pumping harder and tandem pumping more desirable.

## Readability And Guidance

The game should constantly but quietly show what needs attention.

Important readability cues:

- Ripe grapes should sparkle, pulse, or emit particles.

- When a player is carrying grapes and the press is empty, highlight the vat or show a clear deposit cue.

- When the vat is loaded and ready to press, highlight the pump platforms.

- Fox intent should be readable: players should be able to tell which grape cluster a fox is targeting or whether it is escaping with grapes.

- The juice jar should clearly show progress toward the round goal.

- Danger should be visible before failure feels sudden.

Avoid tutorial text during active play. Favor animation, color, particles, outlines, and simple icons.

## Player Roles And Mixed Skill

Vineguard should let players self-organize without formal classes.

Example roles that should naturally emerge:

- Pump operator: stays near the winepress and works the see-saw.

- Harvester: grabs ripe grapes and carries them to the press.

- Defender: chases foxes away from threatened vines.

- Runner: handles far vines and urgent recoveries.

Less confident players should be able to contribute by staying near the center, operating the pump, or guarding nearby grapes. More adventurous players can take on longer routes, fox recoveries, and multitasking.

Falling, missing a jump, or arriving late should cost time, not remove a player from the game.

## Controls

Supported players: 1-4 local players.

Preferred controls are simple platformer controls:

- Left

- Right

- Jump

- Down or special, only if needed

The first implementation should not require an attack button. Players scare foxes by proximity or collision.

Keyboard layouts to consider:

- Arrow keys

- WASD

- YGHJ

- PL;'

Players should be able to press any key from an unused valid control set to join.

Gamepads should be supported if practical through the browser Gamepad API. A simple "press any button to join" flow is ideal. Full controller calibration is optional and should not block the first playable version.

Keyboard ghosting should be tested early, because four players on one keyboard may not work reliably on every keyboard.

## Difficulty And Progression

The game progresses through phases or rounds.

Later phases can increase difficulty by:

- Adding more grape clusters.

- Spawning more foxes.

- Increasing the juice goal.

- Making foxes faster or more coordinated.

Do not increase difficulty automatically just because more players join. High scores should record the number of players.

Aim for phase 6 to be wild and difficult, but possibly beatable by a highly skilled group.

## Stats And Awards

Between rounds, show team progress and playful individual contribution stats.

Stats should celebrate different kinds of contribution rather than shame weaker players.

Possible stats or awards:

- Bane of Foxes: scared away the most foxes.

- Champion Grape Stomper: contributed the most pump strokes.

- Chief Harvester: delivered the most grape clusters.

- Vineyard Guardian: saved the most threatened grapes.

- Long Hauler: delivered grapes from the farthest vines.

- Steady Hands: fewest dropped or interrupted deliveries, if tracked.

## Visual Style

Low-res pixel art, similar in spirit to Killer Queen.

Characters are small, readable humanoid avatars. Keep them simple and strongly color-coded.

Foxes are generic red foxes. They should read clearly as cute but troublesome vineyard pests.

The game should feel warm, festive, and communal rather than grim or violent.

## Bible Verse Presentation

Song of Solomon 2:15 is the central verse.

Verses may appear on the splash screen and between rounds as decorative flavor text.

The game mechanics should carry the theme more than in-game text does. Active play should remain readable and uncluttered.

## Framework And Code Expectations

No-build HTML, JavaScript, and Canvas is ideal. The game should run on GitHub Pages.

The project should deploy to GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the `master` branch.

Keep the code simple, modular, and understandable. Clear separation is preferred for:

- Main loop and timing

- Rendering

- Input handling

- Player movement

- Grapes and vineyard state

- Fox behavior

- Winepress behavior

- Round progression and scoring

Avoid overengineering. Prefer direct, readable game logic over frameworks unless a tiny helper library becomes clearly worthwhile.

## Implementation Priorities

Build in this order:

1. Single-screen Canvas map with fixed dimensions and responsive scaling.

2. Local player join and keyboard input.

3. Platformer movement and collision.

4. Grape growth states and harvesting.

5. Winepress deposit and two-sided pump interaction.

6. Juice jar goal and round win state.

7. Fox targeting, stealing, escaping, and scare-away behavior.

8. Round progression and between-round stats.

9. Gamepad support.

10. Polish: particles, highlights, animations, sound, title screen, high score.

## Testing And Verification

Test whatever can reasonably be tested from an agentic browser harness.

Important flows to verify:

- Players can join with keyboard controls.

- At least two players can move and jump independently.

- Blossoms cannot be stolen or harvested.

- Unripe fruit can be stolen by foxes but cannot be harvested by players.

- Ripe fruit can be both harvested by players and stolen by foxes.

- Ripe grapes can be deposited into the empty winepress vat.

- If the vat is occupied, a player keeps carrying their grapes.

- Pump strokes require landing on a pump platform from the air.

- Alternating pump strokes add juice and can complete a round.

- Foxes drop stolen ripe grapes when scared and can escape with grapes if not stopped.

- A round can be won by filling the juice jar.

Use browser automation, screenshots, and direct game-state checks where practical. If something cannot be verified automatically, record what was manually checked or left unverified.

## Deferred Ideas

- Ravens that attack from above.

- More maps.

- More vineyard hazards.

- AI helper for solo players.

- Full gamepad calibration.

- More elaborate awards.

I haven't participated in a game jam in a long time, but have an itch to try it this year. We'll see how it goes. :)

This year I think I want to build a simple game in Javascript that can run easily in a browser or on a phone. 

I want to try building something in the idle/ clicker genre. Today I spent some of my lunch break looking over some basic templates for clicker games and trying top find a good cooldown button control. 

Figuring out how to lay out my page for viewing on mobile and desktop is going to be the biggest struggle for me. There are so many frameworks and CSS things these days I don't know what I should use. React? Angular? Node? Vue? I have no idea. 

Not being able to code on this over the weekend was a big hit -- I may not actually get this project off the ground. We shall see. 

Veery excited!  Looking forward to this year's jam!