FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD54 → Forest Survivors

Forest Survivors

By donvermo and psyborgpizza

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall10612.8628
Fun10512.6627
Innovation10242.6427
Theme6993.4428
Graphics9022.8028
Audio6402.8028
Humor8941.9725
Mood10192.6826

Comments

equalenergy 2023-10-03 22:16

I really like the concept, the gameplay and audio is slightly lacking however, the uniqueness compared to other games makes it stick out!

maksimj 2023-10-03 22:24

I like the idea behind the game. I find the controls a tiny bit clunky though. Also, it's a bit weird how sometimes the bushes randomly disappear, and new ones appear. I think it might be better if it just grew instead of disappearing. Overall, cool game!:D

xeniarta 2023-10-04 03:06

Nice small game, simple but engaging, I kept playing till my death) I got 4600 scores, I just cut everything around me like a berserk :smiley: I agree with MaksimJ about controls and disappearing bushes, but in general the game is fun, would be interesting to see it with some polishing)

donvermo 2023-10-04 17:51

The bushes disappearing has been noted, it seems there is a bug in game loop that I'll look into fixing. Glad you still enjoyed it :v:

irinam 2023-10-05 18:07

A simple and straightforward game. Suitable music and sound effects.

stvup 2023-10-05 18:08

Interesting concept, my biggest complaint would be that theres a bit of a delay when moving around. Other than that great work!

danjoricey 2023-10-05 23:35

Forest Score.png

Got to 10,000 without losing a life! The pace was quite slow for a while but did pick up after that. I think I did quite well. I enjoyed the lawnmower power up, more time with that would be fun! Well done, fun game!

viktorthegreat 2023-10-05 23:59

What a cute little game!

I will say, the controls were a bit more clunky than I would've imagined. I think the part that's most confusing to me is why does the bear always face down even when coming off of a different direction? Or rather, how come he defaults facing downward in a way that overrides player input? It made me feel like I needed to keep moving, which I guess I needed to do anyway, but it was still something that threw me off.

I also had a totally wrong idea at first, I think it may have been due to some unresponsiveness in the controls? But I don't know if that's on my end or on the game's end. I thought it was one of those games where the tiles will update only when you move, and I didn't realize the vines were destructible, so I thought I had to clear the grass while also staying out of the way from the spikes and hoping that they don't block me off from an area.

The game also felt like it was missing something. I know there's a lawnmower power up, but I felt like the core gameplay loop of running around and cutting things down wasn't very fulfilling. It's a great start! But it needs a little more whipped cream on top, you know? Maybe some of the vines become sentient and chase you down, or the trees start to grow in and make the arena smaller and smaller.

I think this is a perfect start to a great little management game!

compasslg 2023-10-06 00:30

The control feels a little weird, but otherwise the game is decent, good job!

sleepyufo 2023-10-06 00:33

So cute! Appreciate this cute game you've made! The character you play is adorable and the additive layers in the background music as the game got harder was perfectly done and transitioned into over the sound of the lawnmower.

I agree with all the previous feedback above about janky controls. The spawning of the grass would cause framerate drops which didn't help either. Fixing these would make the game much more enjoyable!

The music did loop seamlessly for the most part, just be wary that the loop ends with an extra beat of silence in it. Players can and will discern where the start of the track is (usually a no go..) In your case because of the simplicity in sound you could say it was intentional to have an extra beat so that the music would be less predictable and add variety. If you opt for this approach in the future make sure it sounds really intentional!

I admit I kept playing it till I hit 40k point ahahaha, it was fun! So much potential here! Keep at it!!

lelulagames 2023-10-06 00:51

This reminds me of a zelda grass cutting sim. It's a cute little game, and I like the little bear. The music was repetitive, but that's understandable in a game jam. The controls worked, but I think with some tweaking you might be able to make it smoother. I also liked the idea of grass becoming thorns, then spitting brambles at you. A "spit" animation before the flowers drop brambles might be fun too.

camden-obertop 2023-10-06 01:05

This was a fun, small little game. As the Japanese say, kawaii!

donvermo 2023-10-06 01:31

@danjoricey Thanks for playing, glad you liked the game :v:

@viktorthegreat Thanks for playing and the amazing feedback I'll see if I can address it in order: + facing direction issue was caused by the time constraint, decided to use blend tree animations which I don't usually use. Will definitely try to fix this in a postjam verrsion :thumbsup: - fair point about the spike bushes, we did initially intend for these to whip attack you if you weren't fast enough but ran out of time to implement this. + agreed on the finishing touches, those are great ideas! Will see if I can incorporate some of that in the postjam.

@compasslg Thanks for playing!

@sleepyufo agreed that the grass spawning still causes a bit of an issue, will see if I can further improve performance here in the postjam version. Thanks for the feedback and we are glad to hear you managed to make it to 40k! :trophy:

@lelulagames Love that you point out the Zelda grass cutting, this was partly where we drew inspiration from. Thanks for the feedback on controls and animation, will see if I can make this work in a postjam version! :crossed_swords:

@camden-obertop Thanks for playing!

lincolnsalles 2023-10-06 01:44

The highlight was the sound and suitability to the theme. I thought there was a lack of optimization because it was kind of freezing here, but it could just be my machine. Simple graphics, very simple. Everything very simple but within the theme. But overall I found it a bit boring

donvermo 2023-10-06 03:43

@lincolnsalles Cool, thanks for playing and the honest feedback! Optimization is def and issue that is being addressed.

falestress 2023-10-06 06:27

Good job team ! Gameplay simple but really funny I like the drop animation (flower), the chaos haha :D

Good job team

empyreans 2023-10-06 14:24

Sweet little game. Bear is such a cutie! :bear:

Too easy for me though, I died on 30k because I just wanted to see what happens when you lose. I would add some simple animation for the character there.

Thorn-shrubs should definitely have some way of damaging you, especially considering there's two types of them. Difficulty scaling could be more steep. It gets repetitive once you understand that you only have to look out for falling things that target your last location so adding more dangerous obstacles and improving scaling is the key.

Loved the temporary upgrade into lawnmower :)

Well done!

skel3ton 2023-10-14 17:31

me score was about 50000 and then i just stopped playing :d i was missing some more interesting death screen :)

the game is interesting, the reason why it went so well for me was that I held the mouse the whole time and cut the grass with that pad without breaks, and the control of the character would start a little better. without holding LMB the controls are awkward and the character keeps stopping and that's so annoying.

Otherwise, it's a very nice game and a good entry

quasilyte 2023-10-18 07:42

I don't think that I can lose in this game, but my finger got tired of holding the left mouse button. :D I was doing rather badly before I realized that it's more of an action game than a puzzle. Holding the attack button turns the bear into a berserk that goes through everything like it's nothing. :D

It looks like the game speed stopped to change after a couple of times. A couple of more challenge increases and maybe I would lose, eventually. :)

There is something captivating about this simple game that kept me playing for quite a while (I mean, reaching 40k points requires some time!)

40k.png

notnasiul 2023-10-18 09:02

Work a bit on those controls, add some more variety - maybe exploding bushes that give you time to run away, or poisonous clouds and such, and you will have a curious game at hand! Well done!

ruben-rosenmeyer 2023-10-18 09:19

Nice littlle game!

lereveur 2023-10-18 23:06

I stopped after few tries, with 22040 as my last and best score. There is a little feel of lag with the controls, but appart that the game is working well, and the arts are cute and neat (even if the music is a bit repetitive, I would have added a little more notes in the loop :joy:) Good job!