FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD58 → Mushroom!

Mushroom!

By tim-eriksen

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall743.5531
Fun683.5031
Innovation893.3731
Theme54.4631
Graphics1043.5031
Audio683.4830
Humor1142.7628
Mood853.4629

Comments

paroxysmal 2025-10-06 00:22

Cool concept and I liked the picking mini game. Good to see a PICO-8 game on here. Good job.

john-gabriel 2025-10-06 00:33

PICO-8 developers are evidently a learned bunch! I only just played an entry that teaches you a bit about the night sky, and now I'm learning about mushrooms, too!

appoxgames 2025-10-06 00:35

Charming, i always enjoy minigames inside minigames :) Only feedback i have is that it looked like nothing really happened when you failed the mushrom minigame.

Good entry!

quail-weaver 2025-10-06 14:42

Fantastic !!

alex-mulkerrin 2025-10-06 17:01

It was very nice to wander around completing my collection of mushrooms in perfect condition. The aesthetics of pico-8 were well used in this entry.

tim-eriksen 2025-10-07 12:27

@paroxysmal @appoxgames @quail-weaver @john-gabriel @alex-mulkerrin Thanks for the kind words! :)

klausklapper 2025-10-07 17:25

Hello fellow mushroom game creator! :D

Always nice to see some PICO8 action on here, and you really nailed the graphics. Loved the very determined walking animation, and the soundtrack was a good mix of relaxing, but also pushing me on to collect even more mushrooms. The harvesting mini game reminded me a bit of Underdark - the amount of perfect mushrooms I ruined with my bad reflexes ;)

Great game, well done!

torte478 2025-10-07 18:38

A charming and engaging game. One of the most polished and comprehensive games for PICO-8 I've ever come across

dhim 2025-10-07 19:03

Nice, this game has the vibe of mushroom hunting, chill and relaxed. I got them all in perfect condition.

- I don't see the point of getting money, though (you had more features planned ?) - Sometimes the view radius get larger?

If I were to expand on that game I would go in the following direction : - A more dense forest-like environment that makes it harder to find mushrooms - "spots" that are good, maybe having another collector and trying to reach your spot without them following you! - Weather for the mood - Eating mushrooms and getting buff (speed, extravision, one that make you large, and one that make you small) or debuff (~extravision~, dizziness)

I am getting inspired!

tim-eriksen 2025-10-07 19:42

@klausklapper Thanks! I was kind of surprised there wasn't more mushroom games, but good to see there is at least one more :)

tim-eriksen 2025-10-07 19:54

@dhim Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Yeah you're definitely thinking in the same direction that I was.

I hoped to have time to implement different vendors and buyers with requested mushroom varieties that changed each day, giving the player something new to focus on each time. The coins were supposed to be able to be spent on gear, maps and so on, but I did not have the time. I ended up just leaving the coins in as a sort of total score. As for the view radius: as a quick fix I just did rectangular math to show mushrooms, and I had a stretch goal to switch to circular math if I had time at the end (which I did not have). Hence the mushrooms sometimes popping up outside the circle :P

My plan was to make the map more forrest-like with trees, bushes, rivers and things like that. I had planned to have each variety have different rarity and spawn only in certain environments, but again, I did not have time. I like your eating mushrooms suggestion! That could introduce a cool tension between spending the mushrooms you find vs. bringing them back.

Hm, I might just have to continue work on this game at some point.

cogcomp 2025-10-07 20:01

Really clever mini game for picking the mushroom! I started of expecting the game to be really boring but spiced things up just enough to keep me playing. Well done!

pincushion 2025-10-07 20:33

Not much to add. I like how the mushroom visibility changes when you stop, as though you're looking more intently around you. The collection is really great to scroll through.

tim-eriksen 2025-10-07 20:42

@pincushion Thanks for playing :) Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to portray with that effect! If I had more time I would have made the visibility radius slowly increase the longer you stare.

pimeko 2025-10-07 23:23

Really cute graphics and gameplay – makes sense to see mushrooms only when close :) The collect mechanic kind of reminded me of Undertale

pres2300 2025-10-08 03:18

I really didn't expect the picking mechanic to be as fun as it was! I played this a lot longer than I expected because of that. Great game!

pe4q07 2025-10-08 08:20

I like that you can not see mushrooms far away. That would be a common thing to just fill the map with sprites and let player collect them one by one, but here there is a more realistic approach that you kinda see the forest but see mushrooms only right under your feet. Cool

bloodbane 2025-10-08 08:45

Nice mushroom collecting game! Having limited range to find mushroom is good forcing player to explore instead of just picking where to go. I only wish the mini game would be varied instead of just hitting at right spots everytime.

tim-eriksen 2025-10-08 09:18

@bloodbane Thanks for playing! I had planned to make 3-4 mini games that would be either randomly selected when you picked a mushroom, or maybe have 2-3 mini games chained together. I have the system in place in the code for supporting more mini games, I just didn’t have time to implement more than one. Oh well :)

Happy to hear you liked it! @pres2300

snowpriestess 2025-10-08 09:38

Really cool game, I loved the minigame to pick the mushrooms! Everything is well thought, congrats!!

nurakim 2025-10-08 09:38

I like the simple gameplay, relaxing and.. yeah i love mushrooms

baluj 2025-10-08 18:19

I liked the idea and found it enjoyable. I wish the money had a purpose.

island-jam-2-group-3 2025-10-08 21:36

I was about to ask whether the money had a purpose but I already saw that you didn't have time :sweat_smile: Anyways, a cool little entry, congrats! :-)

ghettobastler 2025-10-14 18:59

Nice game! I think these mechanics work pretty well together, especally the "detection radius" that diminishes when you are moving. I would be happy to see how you develop this concept further. Nice entry!

f1krazy 2025-10-15 15:13

Always great to see PICO-8 entries!

The gameplay is pretty simple at the moment, and it's a shame you weren't able to incorporate all of your ideas, but it's still surprisingly addictive. I kept playing until I had perfect specimens of everything but the wood hedgehog. I did notice it was possible to get mushrooms with a quality rating of 101, and the green bar would then poke out of the right-hand side of the white outline. There's also a brief flicker when you close the guide while in the market square - I think it's loading the woods area for a frame before correctly loading the square?

Those are just minor details, though. All things told, this is a pretty good entry and I'd love to see an expanded version with more of the mechanics you had in mind!

tolja 2025-10-18 18:27

Another mushroom picking game for pico-8! Nice that the field guide is based on real mushrooms, not just made up ones. I liked the picking mini game and even the soundtrack was good enough to not get annoying during the play session. Good job overall!

jim-jagers 2025-10-23 21:30

Very cozy game, I had a great time