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Can you look after my plants?
Can you look after my plants?
By the-martijn
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 1726 | 3.27 | 66 | |
| Fun | 1698 | 3.09 | 66 | |
| Innovation | 1185 | 3.30 | 66 | |
| Theme | 289 | 4.13 | 68 | |
| Graphics | 1175 | 3.66 | 68 | |
| Audio | 1321 | 2.90 | 66 | |
| Humor | 897 | 3.13 | 62 | |
| Mood | 1653 | 3.13 | 66 | |
Comments
quichi
2020-04-21 00:00
Great game! I really like the aspect of deliberately choosing to not water the plants.
It was quite challenging for me to figure out what plants I have to not water though. I know that you can play the game multiple times through to unlock more info about each plant with more points, but it would make the game feel a lot better if the player could kind of figure these things out on the first run. For me, I would ideally like for it to be possible for the player to 'beat' the game on the first run.
The art itself is really good! the plants are all really well drawn and read very well to the eye. I also like the dynamic background, it makes the game feel a lot more alive.
When I lose though, the game just keeps going with the days - I would skip to the result screen so the player doesn't have to sit through each day even though the plants are dead.
The music/sound is also quite loud, a way to turn those down would be a great addition.
Overall, it's a very enjoyable game with a nice mechanic that compliments the theme well. I had a lot of fun guessing how much water the plants needed, great work! :)
@quichi Going through all the days with the dead plants makes you feel guilty more and more, haha. Thanks for the feedback ánd tips!
I like the Idea but getting points is too hard in the beginning in my opinion, because skipping through 20 days is very boring. Keep up the work!
Nice litte game!
Some good things: Nice graphics for the plants, and soothing background (graphics and music) which fits well with the "meditative" gameplay. Interesting gameplay with the different plants, and the dilemma of doing too little vs too much. Great use of theme!
Some grievances: I found it hard to quickly read to text, and to easily distinguish the rotten/dry graphics from the normal graphics, which made it a chore to check *all* the plants. Game was a little too long for a gamejam, as it's late, I've developed all weekend, and there's alot of games to go through ;) This is probably a very subjective opinion, but I was "annoyed" that I didn't get to get all of the information. With a little less punishment, and maybe lowering the points needed by a small notch, I'd probably have stuck around to the end.
Overall I liked it, and played it 3 or 4 times.
@skovtrolden Thanks for the feedback! I had some different ideas for the game, but bacause of the time I made it this way, haha. First wanted to make a shop where you can choose from which plant you'll get the information for, but made this alternative way because of time..
Thanks for playing!
I liked watering my dead plants. They never grew though.
I enjoyed some of the ideas. The multiple playthroughs with additional info each time was a nice touch and the music and overall feed of the game felt right. I really enjoyed the opening cutscene with the sound effects, so great job on that.
puzmak
2020-04-21 09:10
Lovely! The pixel art for the plants look very good! Sorry grandma, I wasn't a good babysitter to your plants :(
syudzius
2020-04-21 13:22
Nice game! I love the graphics, and when combined with music they give a nice retro vibe :) I tried my best, but half of the plants died every time, sorry,grandma... Good work!
I liked the idea of watering plants, it reminds me of my own that are not so well right now ^^'. The intro scene is cute and the pixel art of the plants is pretty well done. I must confest the music was a bit annoying after 20 days, and it could have been great to have a little feedback when you water a plant. At the begining i didn't understood which one i waterded or not. But it still is a good idea and a cute little game, gg !
miklo
2020-04-21 14:06
Simple game made fun with a nice, small backstory and pleasant to look at graphics. I liked the unlockable plant info that added to the replayability of the game. The soundtrack was ok and the only thing graphics-wise I didn't like was when that lightbulb started rotating, rotating pixels are not great! Still a very fun and cool game.
laralama
2020-04-21 14:45
Nice graphics and simple concept. I love all those calming plant games (I made one myself, but not really calming).
But I can't manage to keep these alive. I water them when they are dehydrated. Am I doing something wrong? This is driving me crazy.
@laralama They will die if they've been 3 times rotten or dehydrated. So you don't want them to be dehydrated or rotten, but healthy everytime.
Small tip: All plants have a specific time they need water, like every 3,5 or even 14 days. (And most of them have a range in which you can water them, for example after watering you have 3 days and then 2 days to water).
If you water them all the first day, you can easily discover after how many days they'll dehydrate, so you can save them next time you try it. Good luck!
steven-c
2020-04-21 15:20
haha, clever little game!
toxicon
2020-04-21 15:20
i liked the idea, and the mechanics. the simple pixel art and the color tones are quite fitting. the topic is very precise. awesome
Very funny introduction. The pixel art is great! The lottery must have been given a truckload of money when she could go on holidays for a whole month^^
@pythooonuser She's old, so she's probably on vacation to Benidorm.
This game really tests your memory! My personal best was 640 :D Good job!
Wow, that's pretty good, @bredcrumb ! I guess you have green thumbs, grandma would be proud, haha.
Amazing game. I don't know why, but can you explain when you have to water them. My plants just randomly die!
@beavergames click them, the soil becomes darker if watered. They don't just randomly die, see my reaction to the command of @laralama
ryzy27
2020-04-21 16:58
I have managed to keep 4 plants alive. Definitely better than in real life.
No bugs encountered, other than displaying "undefined" when mouse is not over the plant. I'm curious how you implemented plant logic. I think they have varying "health points", as in cactus probably is more durable than other plants.
Cheers!
kate90
2020-04-21 17:01
I enjoyed from beginning to the end! So simple yet fantastic idea! Well done! Question: How many points max you can gain in one game?
@ryzy27 There is a variable "wet" which decreases every day with 1. So the ground gets dryer every day.
Each plant has variables "minimalwet" (for example -2 or -5) and "maximumwet" (for example 5 or 14). If you water the plant and the variable wet is 0 or lower, it sets the variable to "maximumwet". If "wet" is higher than 0, it sets it 1 higher than the maximum, which makes it rotten.
The variable "wet" has to decrease to 0 before you can water it without getting rotten. It also can get lower than 0, if it stays higher than "minimalwet", otherwise it will be dehydrated.
For example (SPOILERS!) the Echinocactus has "minimalwet" set to -10 and "minimalwet" to 14. If you water it on day 0, you have to wait for 14-24 days before watering.
I like to play this game. I missed more feedback during the game. It can be a educational game. Keep the project.
vertry
2020-04-21 19:27
Granma never forgive me :( I couldn't even save the small cactus :(
What do you think about adding bloom to the flowers that managed to be alive to the end of the game?
Loved the graphics, and especially that clean animation in the beginning. I had a hard time understanding why some of the plants died though, but I'd imagine it was because I misunderstood the amount of times you could water a specific plant a day.
@vertry Ooh, that would be nice! I had more ideas but unfortunatly no time, haha
konrad
2020-04-21 20:47
This is really funny. Most of the time I had no idea what I'm even doing, which made this very relatable. It'd be quite hilarious if you'd see grandma's reaction in the end depending on how you did. Definitely nailed the theme.
Nice, seen a few gardening games but really love the "Grandma" narrative here and the pixel art style as well. Impressive work!
Art and music was good, cool concept too. Enjoyed it
laurari
2020-04-22 12:39
I really like the idea, but I would love a hint for knowing (at first run) if I need to water them or not. I managed at first to maintain 3 alive (the dry ones xD). On the second run I got enough points to get 2 clues, but I think something went wrong, as one of them said to water after 10-15 days and it got dehydrated on day 8...
I think you did a very good job, the idea seems fantastic to me and I really love the art :D
Updated: Ported it to Windows if HTML5 doesn't work. But I would recommend the HTML version more.
teto
2020-04-22 14:45
Really great idea and I love that you added the replayability factor with unlocking information after a certain amount of points. Graphics were cute although maybe you could have made it a little clearer if you had watered a plant that day or not as I found it hard to keep track. Maybe just a water pouring sound or something? Overall, great game and well done!
khud0
2020-04-22 14:46
Oh no, they all died on the same day. %_%
Overall it was good, and I liked how you had to keep track of multiple plants and it had a nice difficulty. Also the graphics were nice. One thing I thought the music was a little much I think it might do better with more chill music
It's not going to set the world on fire, but it was nicely put together and did what it wanted. Although figuring out how long a plant can go without water was a little obtuse, which isn't good when you need to rely on keeping them alive until the end to be able to earn the information you need to keep them alive, which seems a bit backwards. And it's a bit too unforgiving. I can water a plant as soon as I see its dehydrated, and its dead the next day. Not good when you're trying to figure out the timings. Nice introductory cutscene though. It was fun to watch.
lorenzos
2020-04-22 19:53
I lold at the animated intro, ahahah. Extremely difficult, I enjoyed playing it a lot, stayed longer than previous games, but had to give up after 5 or 6 runs. I unlocked info for four of the plants, but it doesn't look they're always observed. Maybe the plants start in a random point of their watering cycle?
@lorenzos They all start on day 0 with the same dry soil, but they're different both in how many days they'll need before another round of watering and other periods where they can do with less water before dehydrating.
@finn-truman Yeah, I totally agree with you. I didn't have much time to polish the gameplay a bit more, because I had to start over again after the first day, so if I started a bit earlier on the mechanics, some things would be different, haha.
Thanks for playing and commenting ;)
Some other people have already said this, but it may have been more interesting to have in-game hints for the watering schedule. There's not really enough content at the moment to make replaying very enjoyable. I do really like the idea of it though. It's very unique. Also graphics are nice, plus the short little granny scene is cute.
it was challenging, great idea for the theme love the pixel art plants good job
@thecritterscove There are already in-game hints in the game, so what do you exactly mean?
mlho7
2020-04-23 23:25
Really nice entry, simple and smart, I really like the graphics, well done.
very nice art to accompany the gameplay. i like the strategy of choosing whether to water plants. Very difficult game because of the information being restricted. I like the story. Overall, a very nice game with an interesting mechanic.
@the-martijn I guess it is a little tough with this specific game. With similar games, the things being taken care of often have subtle visual indicators. In this case it might be more helpful to have a description of the plant species. Maybe that could give a hint without spelling it out?
god-colo
2020-04-26 15:55
The pixel art is awesome! Even if I did let the plants die, I had fun playing this game! :smile: Greato Jobu! :smile:
God damn I can't even keep a cactus alive
attala
2020-04-26 21:12
I found the gameplay difficult, but it's probably just me :) I would like some more hints as to when the plants needed water, but maybe it would get too easy then. Fun game mechanic and well executed.
savvu
2020-04-26 21:24
Hey found your game after you commented on my Devlog video on Youtube! Glad I played your game it is really well polished and the art is amazing! A great idea and execution!
kaappis
2020-04-27 17:44
3 plants survived! Somehow, only two survived on my second round...
I really liked this game. The deduction puzzle aspect of each figuring out each plant before you get it unlocked is pretty awesome. Loved the progression you get by getting those tips if you do well enough.
Graphics were great, I loved the bit of sound, and the little intro animation was a nice touch for sure.
Would have liked a "skip to end" or "wait for X days" shortcut, as I murdered all the plants pretty quickly early on, but that's just a little thing. This was a very polished, on point entry. Good luck with it!
art is great
matootsy
2020-04-28 06:58
The idea and introduction is good and well in the theme. All my plants die on day 19. It could be a good tutorial to know how to take care about plants. I like the concept. Perhaps it would be nice to have a bit more feedback on the leaves, to understand better if they need or not water.
Fun take on the theme and a very relatable problem. I get the feeling that the optimal way to play this game is to take notes on a few play throughs and find the optimal amount of water for each plant; So science, much like.
Nice little puzzle game. Would have liked it if the game tells you that you need to water plants every x days and may get rotten / dehydrated if you water too frequently / poorly.
I menaged to save all the plants on my third go.
Nice one ! The game feels complete, and you really want to keep them alive for this old (maybe nice) lady (which i wish didn't give too much money for a job I poorly done), the plants infos are actually very useful and the addition of the context before the "menu" card is a real nice touch !