Skylands by huminaboz

[raw]
made by huminaboz for LD 38 (JAM)

Screenshot 2017-04-24 22.16.39.png

Left click to walk/drop seeds. Right click to break tiles. Be careful some seeds can only be used once!

Sow the seeds of your construction! Guide Johnny Tileseed through the skies by growing and destroying tiles. Expand your small world to traverse the sky!

*Web Play here: * https://boz-float.itch.io/skylands

Team:

Art & Levels: Mark Usmiani https://mark-usmiani.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/MarkUsmianiArt

Animation: Connor Wilson https://twitter.com/tungstengroove

Music & SFX: Haberworks

Programming & Levels: Boz http://aesthgames.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/huminaboz

Ratings

Overall 126th 3.846⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Fun 176th 3.564⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 186th 3.538⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 426th 3.359⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 110th 4.308⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 105th 3.789⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 385th 2.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 253th 3.486⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 110🗳️ 41🗨️

Feedback

AmnonLevi
01. May 2017 · 05:46 UTC
Very nice and cute! loved the assets you used for this as well as the relaxing music.
It's king of annoying that you can't see forward or zoom out.
Kate Kligman
02. May 2017 · 01:25 UTC
This is a cool puzzle game. It's compact, but challenging in the right spots. I feel like the difficulty increases sharply between levels 1 and 2, but it wasn't too much of a stretch to figure things out. Agree with the above commenter a zoom-out would be nice, but things work as they are and add to the challenge. Looking forward to seeing a post-comp version of this if you make one!
parkdraws
03. May 2017 · 07:07 UTC
I wondered when I would get to play a game with Mark's art. ;) The pieces came together well, nice work everyone!
caterein
04. May 2017 · 01:22 UTC
Great art and gameplay. Would for sure enjoy being able to zoom out, but overall, really well done! :)
CasualMaverick
04. May 2017 · 01:47 UTC
Beautiful game! Looks great, fun to play. Well done.
chunkybrewster
04. May 2017 · 02:31 UTC
Fun game, looks great, very polished! One negative, the ice block sfx is very loud and ear piercing in relative to other sounds.
drestuff
04. May 2017 · 07:19 UTC
Finally I get to play a game with Mark's art and it was super cute! This was a lovely puzzle game and you even had time to make 8 levels. Music was good but the SFX was slightly grating. Really great job overall! :seedling: :sparkles:
Foya
04. May 2017 · 22:32 UTC
I have to say for now it's one of the most polished game I tryed from this jam !
The art is cute and the music is catchy, gameplay and puzzles are interesting and fun to play... In short, I spent a long time playing and and trying to explore this 'small world'.

Only 'problem' I experienced, was when I get stucked in an infinite loop between 2 sunflower tiles (fortunatly I was able to restart the level) . Also, maybe I wish a smoother movement between the tiles because the delay could be frustrating. Otherwise, what a nice experience!
mikea
04. May 2017 · 23:10 UTC
Love the art style. :D
Omiya Games
05. May 2017 · 02:15 UTC
Got through all the levels, most of it with no problem. Had lots of fun! Puzzle games are my jam, after all.

Saw a lot of polish from the user-experience perspective. While I was able to comprehend most things, the things I struggled to discover were destroying tiles, and the sunflower tile ability (at least initially). For the former, some sort of right-click prompt on a specific tile, as well as the left-click to indicate how to create a tile, would have been nice. For the latter, it would have been nice to see that tile contrast with the normal tiles to make the distinction of what it does more clearly. Also, the lack of zoom-out to plan your course of action really dampers the experience, and it would have been nice to have a history of undos so you don't have to restart the level all the time.

I personally didn't like the mouse controls only allowing the player to move to tiles directly adjacent to the character. Path-finding to the proper location would have been a lot nicer. Arrow keys would work pretty well as well. Didn't have any problems, otherwise.
athomicus
05. May 2017 · 10:16 UTC
so nice graphics and music wooow Congr.
Devastus
05. May 2017 · 10:23 UTC
It's a pretty fun game! There's certainly a lot of polish here, you took one mechanic and made it well. Combined with a nice art style, it makes for a really solid entry.

The fact that you can only move to directly adjacent tiles felt really, really clunky though and something I simply could not adjust to. As aforementioned, I would consider a pathfinding solution or moving the controls to arrow keys etc.
those-30-ninjas
05. May 2017 · 16:56 UTC
Like everyone else is saying arrow keys to move would have been nice. Really cute art. Solid mechanic and lots of nice polish. Good entry overall :)
Mars
05. May 2017 · 17:53 UTC
I loved the music and the graphics in this game, it all looks and sounds very good.

The way I had to keep picking up the tiles left behind me somehow added a lot to the experience, because it made the gameplay be a combination of resource management and puzzles. It's a pretty interesting combination, and it adds somewhat of an edge to the typical puzzle genre gameplay.

I think maybe using WASD or the arrow keys for movement, it felt a little bit awkward to move and interact with the two mouse buttons. More than once did I accidentally place something I didn't mean to place. Outside of that the controls felt very fluid and responsive.

The thing that really carries this game is the sense of completion though. It's clear you haven't neglected any aspect of the game, the difficulty, mechanics, graphics and audio all feels well fleshed out. Overall a nice and complete entry, well done!
Banana Man
06. May 2017 · 02:42 UTC
Really liked this game. Took me forever to understand how to build and move! I have no idea why they easy enough controls lol :smile: Great game though would like to see where this heads!
Ithildin
06. May 2017 · 03:32 UTC
Very polished and complete entry, it already feels like a seriously solid prototype towards a proper release (that I'd definitely like to play :smiley:)

Graphics and sound are amazing, I love the art style and the colours, and music is catchy.

As for gameplay, the puzzles seem well thought and the introduction of new seed types is nicely paced, but at first I had some problems understanding the core destroy/sow mechanic. Also, sometimes I found myself clicking further away from the adjacent tiles until I remembered that you can only move one tile each time.

One of the best entries I've played so far. Brilliant job!
clegamecoop
06. May 2017 · 04:23 UTC
Wow! Well polished game with lots of content for a jam! Nice job! It did take me a minute to understand I was supposed to remove tiles at first, though. After I figured that out, it was a really fun game!
andyman404
06. May 2017 · 08:11 UTC
Nicely polished artwork, music, and level design. Great job for 72 hours! It fits the theme nicely too, removing and constructing your small world. Well done.
BlackRose
06. May 2017 · 11:43 UTC
Its a really good game! I love all of it, the gamplay, the graphics, the sound (that its a little bit high for me). Maybe a little explication of all the items or something will be perfect.

Thanks for that game!
slash_random
06. May 2017 · 15:29 UTC
Nice puzzle-game with rather simple and easy understandable mechanics. The graphics remind me of so many mobile-games and also the mouse-only controls. It would be cool, if you could click tiles two or three spots away just to move there. It would make the gameplay a little more fluently.

By the way it seems to me, that I have found a bug. When I used a sunflower to jump to another sunflower I sometimes stopped on the second one and could continue from there. And yet another question: is it intended, that you can finish the last level with only one ice-seed and the five sunflower-seeds (could be due to the mentioned bug)?

All in all a nice little puzzle-game and a great contribution! Thanks for your game!
Phlip45
07. May 2017 · 01:39 UTC
As a disclaimer, I did not beat this game.

Art: Fantastic. Very mobile app sort of style which suited the game well
Sound: Above average. Music was enjoyable and did not get annoying through out the game. Sound effects made sense and only added to the game
Theme: Above average. Recycling the tiles you've already been to makes the world seem very small at all times as you only have a few different places to move to at any given point.
Fun: Great. The puzzles felt well done, and if they were a bit more cruel (as in you have only exactly what you need to succeed) I could see this being an actual mobile app style game.
Overall: Fantastic! Loved this little game. While I didn't beat it, that is mainly due to me being the absolute worst at puzzle games. I could see someone as a fan of the genre really liking it though. Really reminds me of a game called Starseed Pilgrim which is all about seeds and a small world as well.
gamepopper
07. May 2017 · 14:17 UTC
Really nifty puzzle game, I especially like the clean and colourful graphics, I could see this work as a mobile game. It would have been nice to have the WASD or directional keys work for moving the player around, since clicking can get tedious.
Pandakipu
07. May 2017 · 15:26 UTC
Nice game, it was really fun to play. Great job !
hectigo
07. May 2017 · 17:17 UTC
Really good polish on the art assets, both graphics and music. Just zooming out would have made the game so much better though, now it's often just guesswork instead of trying to actually figure out where you need to go. Could also use path finding in the controls.
Valicitor
10. May 2017 · 12:24 UTC
Great game, Solid mechanics, top notch graphics and sound, the puzzles are interesting, my only gripe is that some of the puzzles are a tad impossible on the first run due to the lack of information, you need to fail in order to gather the information to succeed, maybe add something like a free roaming camera or zoom option so the player can work out the puzzle on the first pass.
DemyHallar
10. May 2017 · 20:22 UTC
Very solid and nice game, love the graphics. You made it interesting, which is a quite rare quality for the LD game.
Kurt Roembke
11. May 2017 · 02:36 UTC
Very nice. Graphics, music, and sfx all compliment each other well. I like the game mechanics a lot, and overall thing it's a super solid jam. Nice Rick and Morty derp face. ;)
Jupiter_Hadley
11. May 2017 · 17:14 UTC
Cute graphics! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYiOXlTKNb0
spacewarp
13. May 2017 · 17:18 UTC
Very neat puzzle game, kept me playing and entertained :)

A zoom-out feature/map would be nice to have but not required.
Kaisean Games
19. May 2017 · 13:08 UTC
Wow. This is totally cool. Some levels were even downright hard.
Graphics are great, flow too.

The only "negative" thing I can say is that it would be better if more of the map was visible at one time. It's hard to plan on some levels, and as you made it, every tile counts.

Well done! This one is really great.