Da 'Lil Patch

sarah-northway 2023-10-02 22:33

Intriguing!! I love new systems to figure out and fiddled with this for some time. Started just by planting corn which didn't reach full maturity by winter, then started planting beans and clover to improve the soil. Then the weeds took over and it descended into a situation that I think reflects the theme very well! :smile:

The limited AP is at least as important as the limited space, as removing rocks or fertilizing is a big action.

The sun direction is interesting, so some plots get more sun, is it based on the height of neighboring plants (weeds?).

I was looking at fully grown beans, and the nutrients in the soil didn't change before or after harvest, it was always 47. But I think it started much lower, so maybe I don't actually need to harvest, maybe just get them to fully grown? I wonder how that interacts with winter.

I like that it feels like research went into this (or you know a lot about soil quality and crop rotation!). I feel like I'm learning stuff here.

I am misclicking sometimes, when I want to get info on a tile but instead harvest or perform whatever action is selected because I forgot to hit the info button first. Showing soil and crop info on mouseover would help I think!

powerofsin 2023-10-05 08:45

An intriguing game. Would need more fiddling with it to figure out all interactions.

It is a fun concept, and the interface and the graphics are well put together.

It reminds me of the board game Photosynthesis, with the taller crops shading lower crops and the sun changing direction on a hex grid.

There is a bit of an overwhelming amount of extra variables at play here, though. I feel having access to all the systems at the start is a bit too much, even if it's all nicely labeled and tooltipped. Repeated playthroughs are needed to get in the hang of it, and with the speed of the seasons passing, it's more confusing than rewarding.

myrmyxo 2023-10-18 20:24

I really like the concept of this game and your interpretation of the theme !

It's sooooooo complicated though, and so complex, but very interesting ! I really like the illumination mechanic with taller plants shading lower ones depending on the direction of the sun, it's a neat concept (took me a while to understand it tho).

Looots of texts everywhere, it's kinda scary actually, but the UI is pretty nice still. It's sad in my opinion that you can't see the score at all times, you can't really know how you're doing until you click menu.

There's no real incentive to get going, and it's scary how much is happening is you press a button lol. Didn't seem like soil variables affected plant growth much, but that's probably me just not noticing.

The graphics were nice enough and the sound effects kinda funny. I liked the painting-like background, it looks really nice.

Nice idea and execution ! It's way too complex without an actual tutorial though, I think you should add a step by step one with a like scenario in which you're forced to place plants at certain places and click buttons.