silvervalegames 2017-12-04 04:15
I somehow managed to prolong the game after I got "Game Over"... so high score!!!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → LEAF WARDEN
By markopolodev
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 171 | 3.67 | 33 | |
| Fun | 323 | 3.33 | 32 | |
| Innovation | 113 | 3.68 | 32 | |
| Theme | 158 | 3.83 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 134 | 3.85 | 33 | |
| Audio | 42 | 3.90 | 33 | |
| Humor | 150 | 3.34 | 27 | |
| Mood | 143 | 3.48 | 31 |
I somehow managed to prolong the game after I got "Game Over"... so high score!!!
A fun little concept for a game! I'm not very good at it, though :) It would be nice if there was some kind of tutorial, as it took me a while to work out how the game works and what the controls are.
Seriously underrated game here. Your screenshot does not really convey the leaf-sweeping magic of this game. Why can I shoot lasers from my broom? Why is it so awesome? I don't know. Nice work.
> I somehow managed to prolong the game after I got “Game Over”… so high score!!!
Yeah, the ending is not coded very well, since the game uses leaf count to decide when to reset - I should have used a timer -_-
> It would be nice if there was some kind of tutorial
Agreed that it's not very intuitive, I wanted there to be a few scenes to explain things before the main game but ran out of time :cry:
Thanks for the feedback!
> Nice work.
Thanks! I had a lot of fun making it and I'm glad one other person enjoyed it :D
I didn't realise bug fixes were allowed after the submission deadline, so I've fixed the game-over bug where the score keeps increasing.
Wow, this game is very relaxing, cute graphics too.
Almost hypnotizing.
Wow really interesting Game! Like others said before, the profile pic doesn't do it justice! Very unique and fun!
Neat twist on the zen-garden idea. Who knew lasers could be so relaxing!?
I really, really like both the rake sound and the music :) Man, you rocked those! Also very lovely leaves physics, just wish the incoming wave didn't brought so much lag :D
On the tutorial, one time in LD I just made a static text in the corner of the screen that listed the controls, it worked pretty well! And it's not time consuming, so a tip for you for your future Ludum Daaaare endeavours!
So stressful in the best way possible!
This is really hard, but I like the laser blast. It's so satisfying dragging it across the board. Death to leaves!
I really dig the sound effects, graphics and the overall feel of the game! I wish the raking was a little more satisfying but the laser definitely makes up for it.
@Taugeshtu > just wish the incoming wave didn’t brought so much lag :D
yeah, I would definitely want to switch to something more like an entity system for the leaves if I continued development.
> just make a static text in the corner of the screen that lists the controls
I will definitely keep that in mind! Thanks for hanging out in the stream!
@Elfcirynn
> I wish the raking was a little more satisfying
I am on a quest to make raking the most satisfying experience! Do you have ideas I could steal for improving it?
@MarkoPoloDev I don't remember if there was a raking sound effect, but that would be sweet, just a nice distorted square wave sorta sound, and if it moved leaves a little more predictably? Or at least I didn't figure out how to make the raking work for me. :D
@Elfcirynn There is a raking sound effect that is actually noise put through a bandpass filter, but it's pretty quiet.
I definitely agree that the rake moves leaves inconsistently; I didn't understand until I saw @manbeardgames trying to play it! definitely needs a bigger hitbox / better leaf collision detection.
I like the idea of this game, and outside of the Ludum Dare theme, would be interested to see a more scaled back difficulty version. Maybe adding like a "zen" mode to it where the number of leaves in each wave is reduced to where you could keep going for a while to just relax and rake some leaves into a big pile and blast 'em away with my rake laser.
Like @elfcirynn said, sometimes it seemed that the rake wasn't pushing the leaves I thought it would be, maybe with the collision detection.
One last suggestion on the controls maybe would be to allow the player to choose the direction the rake sweeps in. Maybe set it up with the mouse, so you can move left and right using keyboard, and use left and right click on mouse to sweep in those directions.
I've tweaked the rake size and fixed the hitbox - turned out I was flipping the sprite but not the hitbox, so raking on half the screen was wonky -_-
> Maybe adding like a “zen” mode
Agreed, I kind of regret adding a lose condition now.
> maybe allow the player to choose the direction the rake sweeps in
Definitely on the post-jam feature list!
Very clean and consistent style. Love the music.
What a brutal way to clean up your zen garden!:smile: I got confused at first trying to sweep away all the leaves, before i realized the the lazer is the only true way! Very simple, but solid game with addicting gameplay, nice work. And the soundtrack is quite neat too.
Yeah, it took me a while to realize I'm supposed to sweep them to the center then blast them away.
Wow, Brilliant concept.
Nice art style, super fun to just sweep the leaves around. As a design/UI thing, I didn't realize the bar at the top was how many leaves there were before you lost (without reading the description) - maybe a different color scheme might be more effective? Also, I really like the art but I think one thing that might make it even more solid is if you standardized the pixel size across assets, so they feel like part of the same world. Otherwise, the various layers feel a bit disjointed. Very fun overall!
Wow, great mechanics that work really well together, and it all feels so satisfying. And that cyber-zen music… I may have to come back and play this more later.
Nice graphics! Nice music! Nice sound! I would love to rake more leaves but it seems I can only rake them towards the center.
Maybe make it possible to change the rake's direction and rake the leaves out of view while the laser is just another option to get rid of the leaves quickly?
Maybe have some kind of cool down for the laser too?
@arly Glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback!
> As a design/UI thing, I didn’t realize the bar at the top was how many leaves there were before you lost
Yeah, I definitely learned to rethink my definition of 'intuitive' this jam. I'm thinking a vertical bar on the side with a copy of the leaf sprite for an indicator that moves up and down and fades to red / starts shaking as it gets closer to game over.
> standardize the pixel size across assets
An artifact of my poor art skills =( Good call, I'll have to work on this.
@one-seed-fruit Glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback!
> cool down for the laser
That is a good idea, although I think I'd have to find another way to get rid of leaves; sweeping them offscreen doesn't seem like it would be very satisfying. Maybe I'll add little tables you can sweep them under XD
@markopolodev I just thought of an idea. What if you can rake the leaves, and when they are clumped together using the laser on them doesn't just destroy them, but turn them into ashes or compost. Then you can rake the ashes together to make fertilizer and rake the fertilizer on to the tree in the middle to grow it better...
I had hard times distinguishing between the falling leaves and the ones on the ground, I wished they had a slight color change. I wasn't very good at the game but I still enjoyed it. Also, nice humor with the laser!
> laser turns leaves into ashes or compost
Or maybe more sand, that disturbs that carefully drawn lines of the zen garden? :thinking:
> rake the fertilizer on to the tree in the middle to grow it better…
That's supposed to be a big carved rock, not a tree. TODO: learn to draw rocks :laughing:
> I had hard times distinguishing between the falling leaves and the ones on the ground
Good call. Not sure a color change is they way to go (might disrupt the mood?); I'll have to play around with it.
Thanks for the feedback!
@markopolodev > Good call. Not sure a color change is they way to go (might disrupt the mood?); I’ll have to play around with it.
Could maybe do a animation on the leaves that are falling, versus the ones on the ground being the static sprite.
Such a strange but wonderful idea. Got used to it soon enough, though not sure if the difficulty balance is right. Kinda gets to a point where I found I was just spamming lasers, aware that I was heading to an inevitable death! Fun though, and enjoyed playing on stream :)
Interesting idea! Nice music.
I do wish there was a bit of a tutorial or at least the controls listed on the screen, I had a tough time at first figuring out what to do. I also got a bug at one point where I went off the screen in the bottom right corner and couldn't find my way back.
The raking animation was really nicely done, as were the delicate falling leaves. I am not a good gardener, the leaves fall too fast I cannot keep my cool! Really beautiful game though, nice take on the theme :)