grow or burn by Silvio

[raw]
made by Silvio for LD34 (COMPO)
[How to play]
You beat levels by reaching the right side of the screen with your plant.
Add leafs to your plant to increase the energy gain per gameround.
The plant must be hydrated to grow so add xylem to transport water.
The bigger the plant the higher the energy cost for further growth.
When your plant gets bigger, it attracts some weird mage that will try to burn it. Adding fruits to your plant will distract him so he will only destroy the fruit instead of half your plant. In the later levels the path to the right is blocked by a mysterious violet plant. Grown flowers will randomly remove one section on the map. If you manage to grow that the tip of your plant is in a dead end, just let the fire hit you. you will lose a bit of your plant and keep growing in the right direction.

Since only two buttons are used, you have to wait a few seconds, whenever you want to go back in the menus. Pressing a button will reset this timer.

this timer makes reading the in game description of the buildings so here:

Xylem:
is placed onto the stem of the plant and moves water from the origin/root of the plant to the end. from the color of you plant you can tell if water is needed. you cannot grow or place buildings on dry parts of the plant.
Xylem is actually the part of real plants that do that. I didn't come up with this weird name.

All following buildings are attachable to all parts of the plant that:
do not bend (corner parts)
or are the first or last part

Fruit:
grows in a few gamerounds and then protects from one fire attack which destroys the fruit. they last forever

Flowers:
grow slower than fruits but when fully blossom they remove one of the enemy plant parts on the map and then dissapear. In the first levels you might only used them for the look of your plant.

Leaf:
stay for several gamerounds and increase you energy gain per round.
then they fall off and make room for other plant-parts

[Issues]
The web version of the game might not respond at first but I found a way it
works. click the dark part around game and then click into the game. It will lose focus if you click somewhere other than the game.
its some weird html5/libgdx thing that is beyond my skills.
If anyone is familiar with libgdx and html on itch.io, please tell me, if you know how to prevent this.

I haven't checked this but it may be that fruits don't protect you in the first round after they fully grew.

If you start a level and try to place a building to you plant before you let it grow, the game will crash. I might fix that.

[Misc]
for the game I used
Game: Libgdx
Graphics: Aseprite
Soundeffects: sfxr

Ratings

Coolness 39% 1766
Overall 3.55 244
Audio 2.65 468
Fun 3.15 484
Graphics 3.35 347
Innovation 3.55 244
Theme 4.65 3

Feedback

SecularBaron
14. Dec 2015 · 14:11 UTC
This is an awesome game! I'm glad I didn't go with a plant theme because it wouldn't have been as cool as this. Very original idea and fun. The sounds and scrolling with one key reminds me of DOS games I used to play.
vegapomme27
15. Dec 2015 · 10:47 UTC
Holy cow ! This game is amazing. The interface got big limits but it goes very well. Nice work, the concept is crazy.
prymidion
15. Dec 2015 · 10:49 UTC
I couldn't get past the starting screen in the web version.
tyrants.not.found.team
15. Dec 2015 · 11:11 UTC
Awesome concept and idea, great execution. My only complaint is that the controls are haaaard. I know they're within the theme requirements, but I wish it was easier :D

Other than that, yeah, wow, well done!

Cheers,
Ionut(Tyrants.not.found team)
AthenaOfDelphi
15. Dec 2015 · 12:15 UTC
Like the concept, great use of the themes and the visual style is pretty nice too, if a little hard to read at times. Overall though, I like what I've been able to play.

Unfortunately that isn't much as I kept getting fatal crashes.
🎤 Silvio
15. Dec 2015 · 12:48 UTC
@prymidion yeah like I wrote, thats some weird html thing. click the reload button and press a and d randomly. that should give focus to the game
🎤 Silvio
15. Dec 2015 · 12:48 UTC
@AthenaOfDelphi the downloadable jar crashed?
cubicme
17. Dec 2015 · 15:44 UTC
great game! I can't stop playing. wait to go back is a little annoying but so much stuff with only button is amazing.
Dry Tree
19. Dec 2015 · 21:39 UTC
Very good. I'd like to see a real-time version
Jace239
19. Dec 2015 · 21:56 UTC
I like the game, I just can't stand the menu system. This is one of those cases where earning points in the theme cost you more points everywhere else. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I could have just clicked some options easily. Still would've given it full stars for the Growing theme and more stars for Fun and Overall. Nonetheless, I can appreciate the creativity that went into designing the game and overcoming both themes simultaneously. Good job!
🎤 Silvio
19. Dec 2015 · 23:45 UTC
@Jace239 I totally agree with you, but you have to consider that I made this in 16 hours straight with little pauses. I was in such a hurry, some of the key elements were created in the last 30 min. Any other system would have consumed too much time.
XenosNS
23. Dec 2015 · 19:52 UTC
Really enjoyed this
equiposalchicha
01. Jan 2016 · 20:47 UTC
A really well-put together game! Only complaint I have is that the contrast between colors can tire your eyes very quickly. Don't get me wrong, the aesthetic is very nice, but seeing the same, bright background color throughout my playthrough wasn't very pleasing.
Also, the two-button constraint hintered the gameplay a bit in my opinion, since I struggled quite often to go back to the main menu, or even selected an option by accident.
But I'm just nitpicking at this point, you did a great job on this one!
Dining Philosopher
04. Jan 2016 · 16:35 UTC
Couldn't start the game by holding a and d simultaneously, neither on Firefox nor Chrome (on Ubuntu 14.04).
🎤 Silvio
05. Jan 2016 · 07:55 UTC
@Dining Philisopher thats a the focus issue. click the dark part around the game and then click the game