Night Time Harvest

tomssuli 2023-01-23 21:07

The graphics had some old retro appeal to them. If the pixel size would have been consistent throughout the background and scores too, I could have even called it stylish. I liked the change of graphics for day/night.

The game itself felt a little incomplete. The gameplay didn't change at all between the days. You got no more seeds than the 10 you had in the beginning, there was no worse zombie attacks and I could just plant the seeds to the leftmost soils so if I was quick I never had to even face the zombies. I could get money from the crops but had nothing to spend it to. Only way to get points was to kill zombies, but there is no scoreboard. Also there was no end to the game.

Sound effects were good in retro style, but the mood would have benefited from music or even some ambient that would differ for the night and day. Now it felt bit quiet and empty.

Overall a good start of a game. I wish you had got a little more content done. A game can be called complete when it has clearly a start, playing part and ending. Even if there was not alot of gameplay included, I'd say that a "full story arc" is important even if it was just one sentence or image in the start, some gameplay in the middle and scores at the end.

I hope now that you've done this much this time - and probably learned new things making it - you manage even more in the next game jam! :slight_smile:

Also, (maybe you already knew this) you should review about 20 games to get same amount of reviews so can you get your scores in the end of the competition (this weeks friday)

amastryukov 2023-01-27 11:50

The gameplay loop is straightforward and simple, the instructions are fairly clear. The balancing could use a bit more work as I continued planting and harvesting for 5 nights in a row without seeing any zombies. The amount of seeds harvested every night was the same, making the game feel repetitive and without an ultimate goal.

pixelstuff 2023-01-27 14:27

Good little game, i fell like jumping is pretty useless and the zombie do not to enougth dmg, so i don't feel in danger

oadt 2023-01-27 15:41

The shooting mechanic might need some work (bullets still hit zombies when they are offscreen and the firerate isn't limited) and I think it would be cool if you gain more seed with the time. But still a good start and congrats on you first LD jam game!

orion-black 2023-01-27 16:12

I only played a couple of nights (is there an ending or is it infinite? communicating that, either way, is good in terms of knowing if there's a goal or you're meant to self impose one). Initially I got a feeling of "venturing into the unknown" at night because I had planted my crop deep in, but then I just grew my crops closer. If you're planing in doing further work on this game, incentivizing that kind of riskier play (better crops? different crops? the deeper you go) could be a good idea.

mark-winter 2023-01-27 18:38

Good beginning! I generally agree with the other comments in that your game requires more challenge/interest since it's just either planting crops right by the house night after night or shooting zombies with is simply clicking quickly.

hayricakir 2023-01-27 18:42

Nice 8-bit sound effects and fun gameplay. Good job! If you would like to shred some zombies in slowmo, be sure to check out my entry, I would love to hear your feedbacks: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/shred-a-bunch

ava-skoog 2023-01-27 18:58

Nice game, just feels a little incomplete 😅 Like others have said, there was no real sense of progression since every day and night was seemingly the same, never getting more seeds for more crops or anything, unless we've all missed something, so would be great if you responded with a comment to clarify if so 😊

I got wondering if maybe the point of the zombies was that things would only grow at night so you'd have to stay up fighting some of them to get anywhere, but I gave it quite a bit of time and saw no difference, so I guess not?

Graphics were cute and consistent. UI was clear and it was good to have instructions at the top at all times, especially since the level was mostly empty above ground anyway. Bit easy, never lost any health.

Felt like a bit of a trek back to the house. Maybe fewer fields or placing the house in the middle would've been better.

Overall a good start that just lacks something I feel. Could definitely make it work, perhaps with the aforementioned nighttime growth as an incentive 🧟‍♀️

profan 2023-01-27 19:05

The game is pretty simple to understand, but the gameplay loop doesn't seem to evolve that much as you get the same amount of seeds every night, and the zombies come straight at you while you have what seems like infinite ammunition, so there's not much challenge there as it is :eyes:

Would have been nice if you could have used your surplus money to maybe acquire more seeds instead of automatically getting the same amount each day, or maybe better equipment or more land or something :)

Still congratulations on getting your entry in! Hope to see you again on LD :D

kuggenhoffen 2023-01-27 19:11

Others already had good points, just needs more things to do and some fine tuning :) It's got all the elements for a decent little game, graphics and ui are consistent and look nice and the sounds fit the game well. The gameplay has nicely working elements, however the zombies do not seem like a big threat and I think it would be a lot if you could use money to buy more seeds for example. Anyways, good job!