Interstellar Botanist

eveningwayward 2017-05-01 14:54

This is a gardening simulator of my dreams. It would be nice if you could add some subtitles to the introduction as there are always players who don't percept english speach at all even though voice acting is superb. Space photo on the wall looks like a joke to me, it would be better without it as it ruins the isolated mood.

All in all, I liked the idea of combining seeds together to get new plant species and slowly looking after them to see the metamorphoses. It's quite a perspective game mechanic actually, so keep up the good work.

berkano 2017-05-02 10:04

Wow, this is a seriously impressive entry. Very engaging and fun to play, would like to try this in VR! Voices are brilliant! I couldn't quite figure out why trading ships say they are coming, then after a while the timer increases and so it never gets to zero? Thought it might be triggered by some action I am taking, but couldn't make the connection...

spinaljack 2017-05-02 10:12

+1 for VR support. Nice gentle gardening simulator with the added excitement of suffocation!

fancy89 2017-05-02 11:47

What would you do when you grow up? I want to go planting plants in space. YES YES YES.

Thanks for doing this.

It lagged a bit on my pc, but otherwise, just beautiful!

grim 2017-05-02 12:30

A really nice game! growing plants in space has always been a hobby of mine! <3

saiodin 2017-05-02 14:29

@EveningWayward Ha yeah, the photo kind of is a joke. Unfortunately we didn't have much tome for graphics and the plants and tools took priority.

@berkano Ah! It sounds like you actually had a mutation that delays the trading ship. You can spot those mutations by hovering the scanner over the plants. Now that I think about it, it needs a way to remove unwanted plants beside of selling.

@VR Yeah, I could see how VR would fit the setting.

saiodin 2017-05-02 15:15

@grim I can't find your game, can you put it in your description or drop me a link?

scornz 2017-05-02 16:46

Woah, this is a serious entry! I'm surprised at how polished the UI is for a game jam, really nice job!

smiling-cat-entertainment 2017-05-02 17:49

The voice acting for the AI was hilarious! Nice, clean graphics an UI, great job!

wildmusketeer 2017-05-02 19:08

Amazing space farming simulator 2017! Beautiful relaxing game that's quite funny at times. I love the VO actor and the lines he delivers. If I'm to nitpick, I wished there was better explanation on the seed combiner- I thought that there might've been some Gregor Mandel stuff going on. I think the game achieves what it sets out to do though, which is a relaxing farming simulator. Great entry!

saiodin 2017-05-02 20:00

Thanks for the feedback! @wildmusketeer The slider at the seed combiner basically prioritizes the stats of one or the other seed, which then has some randomness to it to get better or worse (tho strongly tending to get better). Unter the hood the seeds also have tiers that influence their value. The mutation effects are completely random, but are in A,B,C rarities that decide their chance to appear. A mutation that successfully transfers onto a new seed has also the chance to level up to rank 2 and then 3. But there was so little time in the end (underestimated the backend stuff) that I wouldn't be surprised if some things were buggy ;).

mhgamework 2017-05-02 21:59

This entry is great, i had a lot of fun playing! I only wish i knew better how the differences in plants worked.

aaranos 2017-05-03 02:26

Very nice game. The variety of things you can combine and make really add a lot for the curious player to discover. The audio was also extremely well done, and was actually humorous. That and the audio quality was impressive for a Ludum Dare game.

Seems to be one of the most polished entries I've seen so far. I think my only recommendation could be to introduce the player to how to survive before tossing them into a ship depleting oxygen.

dray 2017-05-04 11:52

Nice Entry. I had to switch my keyboard to english to be able to use the tools. i tried to take care of a lot of plant together but my oxygen was still going low. don't know what was the good process to be good for this. The narrator and mood is really cool, i liked it!

gurbx 2017-05-05 10:41

Interesting game with a cool concept! I was slightly confused as to what to do in the beginning. I didn't have time to learn the game before I died the first time I played it. Great humor and the voiced AI (lol :smile: ) was a great addition. The sound was generally very good!

breno-m 2017-05-06 21:20

Nice simulator. The voice acting, graphics and mood are perfect. I agree with someone above, a VR version would be fantastic. :)

uvwar 2017-05-09 02:23

Had almost no idea what I was doing, then I died? I think my seeds were disappearing too at some point, or something like that. I liked what I could figured out, though!

jk5000 2017-05-09 12:27

The idea is super great, but it is sadly very difficult to know externally what you are suppose to do. The voice acting is really funny, but would have liked if the voice acting also was used as a tutorial for the game mechanics.

pikopik 2017-05-10 22:40

EXCELLENT concept, I would love to see a polished version. this is seriously got all the things I love.

carlosvvk 2017-05-12 14:22

Nice entry! I liked the concept but I think that you need to clarify more how to play, because I got lost so fast, only giving fertilizer and water to the plants.

5mixer 2017-05-13 11:08

This was a very neat and complex entry! Amazing for a single LD. The AI's voice acting really was a highlight for me. It talk me quite a few restarts to actually get a descent number of plants going and not die instantly. It felt very chaotic buying stuff, checking plant stats etc, but honestly, I feel like that feeling suited the game perfectly. Awesome entry!

garethiw 2017-05-13 16:41

Fantastic game, lots here for a weekend's work. Absolutely bonus points for the humorous AI narration - we've been wanting to do a narrated game for a while now :)

Managed to survive a bit longer on my second runthrough once I realised I had to turn the light + water on and off! Became quite hectic keeping all the plates spinning, so to speak.

Well done!

hiki911 2017-05-14 12:08

Nice relaxing game, especially when you want to kill someone =) There is a problem with game over. It's blinking and you still could move. GJ!

neon 2017-05-14 16:12

This looks really, really cool (I wish I was this good at the space ship aesthetic :grin: ), but alas, I'm not on Windows. Friendly request for a Linux build if possible! <3