FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → The Gumbo Garden

The Gumbo Garden

By guardaro

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall21033.0528
Fun17353.0728
Innovation12883.2528
Theme18393.3428
Graphics20092.9028
Audio7283.4828
Humor5443.4627
Mood17333.0728

Comments

lucisaurus 2020-04-21 19:35

I couldn't start the game again, do you have to refresh the game to play again? If that's so it's a little frustrating, I would have made an option to play again? Nice game!

xenith 2020-04-21 20:00

can't seem to replay the game, might wanna look into fixing that! was good fun nonetheless

guardaro 2020-04-21 20:30

@xenith @lucisaurus Yeah, restarting was on the list of features that I just didn't have time to implement. Thanks for the feedback!

dummydojo 2020-04-22 01:40

I'm digging the really weird vibe of the game. Made me laugh first time through. The art style is charming in a way. Some critiques:

-Gameplay was confusing at first. I thought that there would be a clear priority of what I need to get, but it seems I should just be grabbing what I can.

-Options are incredibly overwhelming at first glance. I feel like you should have a lot less options and gradually make your way to more options to give the player a difficulty curve.

-I liked the audio at the start, but it got annoying after awhile, especially when it reversed/sped up.

-You should give the players instructions while they see the playing field, so that they understand the context. It's jarring to be thrown directly into the game after reading a couple sentences and just seeing a still image.

Interesting game though. Good job.

guardaro 2020-04-22 12:41

@dummydojo This is some great feedback! I appreciate it.

lapisraider 2020-04-22 13:37

Movement seem a little weird and slippery in the sense I often have trouble picking up some of the ingredients as my character seem to be sliding a little. The UI could also have some improvements so the players can have a easier time knowing which ingredient is gonna run out first.

Despite that, I quite enjoy the game and I can see that it has a lot of potential! The premise of it is really interesting and I hope I can see more of it!

undead-aubergine 2020-04-22 16:51

It's a nice idea although the controls were a bit confusing at first. It usually happens to us that after playing our own game for long, we are so used to it that we feel it's easy :)

julienlussiez 2020-04-22 21:16

The music is nice and reacts to your actions ! I like how it becomes when you're losing. The controls should be improved but well done.

blackmoodgames 2020-04-23 01:49

The idea is cool, i like the graphics and the music, you found the way to make a competitive experience which is new in the games i've played so far, that's very interesting.

the only thing that made me kind of lost is that the contrast on the letters on the bowl is low, and i could't find balance on reading and finding the stuff to throw it in

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* fun experience !

a playthrough i recorded on my second try https://youtu.be/NKEfe6OpAd8

coleslaughter 2020-04-23 05:37

Good lord that "pot is almost empty" music stressed me out D:

I was frantically filling my pot with ingredients just to try to make it go away, haha.

I like this game quite a bit. :) it has a unique premise and an undeniable style. I do with the UI was a little easier to parse though. I would argue that what ingredients you're missing is the 2nd most important text on the screen, just behind the names of the ingredients themselves, and yet it's in super tiny font, and difficult to parse when there's a lot of them stacked on top of each other. I think with some consolidating and balancing, this could turn into something really cool. :)

Nice job to everyone who worked on this!

walkalope 2020-04-23 14:47

Hello! I played your game on-stream last night. If you missed it, you can watch the VOD - my Twitch link is in my profile :smile:

First off - I love the gumbo theme. I love gumbo. And I love games that are about cooking - so; "check, check, check." I'm super impressed that you were able to get a leader board set up as well! My top score was... around 195, I think? I was not very good at it, lol.

I think it could help to really push the visual contrast between empty plants and growing/grown plants. And I would remove the text and signs entirely. Often I would just see the word "tomato" and run there only to find that there were no tomatoes.

I also don't think it would hurt to slow everything down a bit. Slow the emptying of the pot, that is.

The music was super fun and I think it would be neat to make lots of levels of varying difficulty with lots of different cajun/creole recipes. Some really neat New Orleans music and art would be fun to include as well - really lean into the setting, ya know?

Thanks so much for sharing - and well done!

guardaro 2020-04-23 21:55

Hi Walkalope! I was watching your stream but didn't have a Twitch account yet so I couldn't comment. I sent the link to the video to the rest of my team--they got a real kick out of it! Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback! @walkalope

rasheed 2020-04-24 18:33

what a good job ! really great game I liked the idea of it its very enjoyable to play ! keep it up and wish the best##

anthony-pengelly 2020-04-24 20:58

Really fun game - well done! I absolutely loved the music!

100th-coin 2020-04-25 04:42

Ha! I love the sausage / shrimp plants. The pie chart on the pot was pretty cool too! Great job.

chambre19 2020-04-25 08:13

This is a nice and unique little game, love the style and the gameplay. I think the audio is a little loud, but that really is my only gripe. You have done a great job at making it a hectic experience as well as something unique for the theme.

Good job and see you next Ludum Dare!

aryanjumani 2020-04-25 08:59

Somehow not able to enter my name. There is no restart button. Music is bit loud. But had fun playing. Hope you take it in right spirit.

kszaku 2020-04-25 09:25

I'm a sucker for music that adapts to gameplay, so you got a big plus for that right from the get-go. What you seem to be aiming at is thinking man's time attack game, and I kinda dig that.

ch4oticau 2020-04-29 03:59

Nice work, a fun game! Here's a few things I noted:

* The music was excellent, and as Kszaku mentioned above, the fact that it adapts to the events in the game is fantastic, makes things more tense for sure.

* It took me a few playthroughs to get the hang of it, I think it's not really that clear what you should be doing when you first start, but that may change from player to player.

* When I lost my first few games, it was more of a sudden "game over", there wasn't much leading up to the game over that told me I needed to pay attention. I later noticed that the plants start showing black when they are rotting. Might've been nice to have them shake or something as well, or hear a sound effect.

* I liked the graphics, they were crude, sure, but I think they suited the game well and I think with the time that was allotted to such a project, you guys did great and you should be proud of what you've accomplished :)

Hope to see you guys in the next Jam!

darthone 2020-04-29 04:06

I found the game quite challenging and ended up just putting whatever I could quickly grab into the pot. Definitely not the best meta