FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Cinderseed

Cinderseed

By val-ociraptor, Alex Niemeyer and Ray - MuffinCat

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1253.9723
Fun3053.5723
Innovation3183.4523
Theme924.2323
Graphics1054.3523
Audio1453.8523
Humor1803.5222
Mood1873.9722

Comments

lezzlebit 2025-04-08 02:10

Fairly basic gameplay loop but the art direction was very nice! I guess it still has quite a bit of challenge to it because I somehow lost even though I thought I was doing pretty decent haha

jimmothysanchez 2025-04-08 02:54

This one was a lot of fun. Took a few tries to win. The Cinderseed is extremely fickle in what it's willing to eat. The art is great and I really liked how the music helped convey the sense of urgency. Well done!

blues 2025-04-08 03:02

i destroyed the world!!!! :revolving_hearts: :smiley: :two_hearts:

donutshoes 2025-04-08 04:37

Cute little game! I liked trying to guess what it wanted next and gambling on filling my can up with that.

ruthiepee 2025-04-09 00:35

What a lovely experience!! Obviously anyone with eyeballs can tell that the graphics are 5-star worthy but there are so many nice things going on under the surface too. The subtle foley of the can opening, the gas pouring, etc. is brilliant, and the way the music speeds up and the screen shakes as you start running out of time adds a lot of thrill to it.

The ending is so good!!! lmfao

hacktier 2025-04-22 23:59

cool game

hank-the-tank 2025-04-23 01:11

fun

geometer 2025-04-23 01:37

Love it! Sound glitched at the end but great entry ^_^

knatt 2025-04-23 02:45

Very charming, I liked the character and the art.

maxwell3000 2025-04-23 04:10

Love the little devil character. Very cute 10/10 best gardener.

vj031206 2025-04-23 09:15

I dont know what you are trying to make us do. Awesome game! The animations were dope.

clink 2025-04-23 09:18

A short and sweet game. The character design has a lot of appeal, as does the minimalistic look of the play area. The many stages of the plant blossoming was a nice addition that I'm glad you got the time to implement, though it's a shame there wasn't enough of it left to add some sort of visual climax to the ending.

There's a lot of humour to be found in watering something using something like tar or petrol instead of water, and having the plant switch moods on a whim, granting it a bit of its own personality in a very subtle way. Nice work, I hope you make it in!

sam-gorman 2025-04-23 17:25

This is a really cute little game - especially since it's already vertically oriented, I could see it working really well on mobile. I love the art style as well: it's a cool blend of 2D and 3D that looks stylish and clean, and there's a lot of character with the way the flower grows, the layers underground, and the silly things you use to water the plant. The music is super bluesy too!

Gameplay-wise, I felt like something was missing here. There's not really a lot to do in the game. When you start it feels like it could either be a strategy game about managing your flower, or maybe a chaotic Overcooked-style experience, but it never really evolves into anything. It can get frantic when you're running out of time for sure (and I liked the sound & visuals that enhanced that feeling!), but the actual things I was doing were a little bland, and nothing changed as I got further.

The game could also do better at giving the player information. The flower changes its mind on a whim, and there's no real pattern to how long it will stay on one item. This means you can't strategize, and the gameplay is all guesses. (This isn't necessarily bad - it could make for some fun risk-taking with some more engaging gameplay.) More importantly, it's not clear how much watering is required to reach the bottom - at a certain point the roots vanish off the bottom of the screen and you no longer have any sort of meter. I would make sure you can always see how far is left!

Overall, this is a really charming game with a simple but promising gameplay loop. I think you just need to add a little more depth as the game progresses! That would make it a lot more replayable.

wallted 2025-04-23 19:47

This flower was quite a picky one! Little fun game, the audio perfectly sold me the vibe of doing chores on a sunny desert. The animation and graphics were very appealing to me. I adore the little horror twist at the end :D

oter 2025-04-23 23:55

This wasn't the type of game I expected on opening it, but I thought the gameplay loop was solid, and it was a nice, perfectly bite-sized jam game. Most of my feedback is just what Sam said above, especially the desire to see progress all throughout the game, because I was surprised when I lost at the end, as I thought the flower was decently big and the root had grown all the way to the bottom.

Only other "gripe" or negative on the game is that I thought the hitbox on the plant could have been a touch bigger/more forgiving, and on the tar pit as well.

I did like the risk or random based nature of the game, how I'd have to guess each time how long the flower would want a particular thing, this made the otherwise simple gameplay nice and engaging.

Also loved the music and sfx, some of the best I've heard all jam!

nbumgardner 2025-04-24 00:05

Nice use of a 3D model for the main character and 2D assets for the background and interactables.

Since the game is made in Godot I would highly recommend trying out the export web build feature since its a good way of getting more eyes on your game.

Filling to 30% worked well for me, anyone else have gardening tips?

shane-gadsby 2025-04-24 00:33

Super cute, loved the character and the overall style, super great work!

saryah 2025-04-24 00:52

Super cute and cozy! I love the art style, lovely music (which speeds up as the timer ends, nice touch!) and sounds effects were fitting, nice and clean. I personally liked the gameplay loop of running around fetching the right things for the cinder flower, to break open the world in time. (I assume that's when the demon catchers come for you for trying to grow a cinder flower to the Earth's core.) I managed it with about 30sec to spare on my best run.

zenorke 2025-04-24 06:30

Oh nice, loved the simple and efficient art style! Good job :)

andriybyelikov 2025-04-26 00:46

Hey! I found your game through your explanation of how you made your music, that was neat. I think the music sounds very Rockabilly-like! So I managed to get the root to grow to the bottom of the screen but I still lost! Not sure how that works... Anyways, good work!