The Flying Tree by DavidPeterWorks

[raw]
made by DavidPeterWorks for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

You use thermal wind to fly with a mount maple seed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_pseudoplatanus​

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/R1wQbPm91EA

Find soil to grow a tree. You stucked in a loop thanks to mankind.

Inspired by paragliding and inktober. :)

Controls: Left/Right arrows

Credits:

Sztrovacsek David Peter Music: Unknown royalty free music from Youtube. (Let me know if you know the source)

Ratings

Overall 1065th 3.327⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1587th 2.385⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 747th 3.389⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1356th 2.962⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 204th 4.241⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 95th 4.185⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Xisco
06. Oct 2020 · 09:06 UTC
Great! Love the art and the mood.
Marakesz
06. Oct 2020 · 09:08 UTC
looks great :)
TomekS
06. Oct 2020 · 09:11 UTC
Very nice art, and great music, the mood is amazing. I find the gameplay a bit frustrating, there maybe should be a sound cue for the thermal power? Anyway it's a solid well polished entry, well done.
Tero Pulkkinen
06. Oct 2020 · 09:12 UTC
The art style is very amazing.
Jetyh
06. Oct 2020 · 09:18 UTC
Truly beautiful game although the gameplay seems to be largely trial and error but that may be what you were going for. Either way, I enjoyed it.
ramelio
06. Oct 2020 · 09:20 UTC
I love the mood ! I still can't reach the summit...
oneiromancer
06. Oct 2020 · 09:27 UTC
Great entry with amazing art and music too set up the mood. A little criticism though, because you don't see the wind currents unless you are in them, it feels too risky to move anywhere, and the gameplay becomes a little frustrating.
🎤 DavidPeterWorks
06. Oct 2020 · 09:58 UTC
This game is based on my paragliding experience. As a pilot you guess most of the time. You have to "scan" the mountains for good thermals.
Alexunz
06. Oct 2020 · 10:03 UTC
Nice game, quite chill. It's satisfying to get those thermals and fly up high! I like the game loop you've got (I won't spoil it here though) but it's a nice story-telling way of looping the game.
ZoranSter
06. Oct 2020 · 10:08 UTC
Nice mood and great music!
KreGames
06. Oct 2020 · 11:53 UTC
Litlle hard to see the termics. Nice concept. Great art!
SnailRhymer
06. Oct 2020 · 12:06 UTC
Really nice art and atmosphere! I never felt like I had much agency and I died a lot without ever getting more than two trees planted. It feels like having the trees act as checkpoints would have made the game a bit more forgiving - I wanted to play more, but felt I couldn't really progress.
mhm32167
06. Oct 2020 · 16:15 UTC
Nice atmosphere and art looks quite unique. It was hard initially to figure out how to find the thermals - it takes a lot of trial and error more than anything else. Great concept!
gorrgolem
07. Oct 2020 · 12:47 UTC
I like the atmosphere, the poetic inspiration, the graphics are really cute.
Hamus
07. Oct 2020 · 18:54 UTC
Beautiful art and music, and the gameplay seems fun! Had trouble playing it because my browser made the thermal graphics incredibly small and hard to see.
fabula_rasa
08. Oct 2020 · 11:01 UTC
Great mood. The art, the music and the simple gameplay all band together to create a practically meditative game. Very nice.

Finding thermal currents is quite hard and if there is some way of predicting where they could be from afar, I didn't notice any. So it feels quite random - go the right direction, discover the current and survive or choose poorly and fall to your doom. That's the life of a seed in a nutshell I guess ;).
NamidaSai
08. Oct 2020 · 11:40 UTC
Absolutely nailed the mood and the ambience there. I love this art style and the music was perfect to go along with it. I agree with other comments regarding the fact that the trial and error approach felt a bit frustrating. I saw that you mentioned it was based on your paragliding experience of scanning the landscape for winds. Maybe small hints and indicators on a more populated landscape would help? It would break away from the cloudy aesthetic but would help millions on the gameplay side of things. However, it's already a beautiful art piece, great job!
rmonthil
08. Oct 2020 · 13:22 UTC
Very nice game, nice art and very nice music :musical_note: Contrary to others, I didn't get frustated about finding thermal currents. This trial and error approach works for me. But what got me just a little bit frustrated, was the lack of checkpoints actually :sob: I lost almost at the end and I was expecting to start from the last grown tree ! But anyway, very nice mood and the gameplay is well mastered! Congrats ! :deciduous_tree:
Trexxak
13. Oct 2020 · 23:26 UTC
What a meditative experience!

Meditative, but still quite challenging. The thermals could be a bit more visible, although I do understand that it would probably just destroy the beautiful landscape.
Wonderfully crafted game all in all, good job!
leggy
23. Oct 2020 · 08:28 UTC
I loved the concept, chilling music and awesome art. the only remark is that I'd improve visual for thermals, but the concept is really nice! well done!
Matootsy
24. Oct 2020 · 13:26 UTC
Nice ambient. Good choice for the music. But the quietness of this atmosphere is a bit broken by the difficultie to find the good placement on thermal wind. I couldn't reach another mountain :-( I would prefer to have something more smooth for the control. Anyway. It's really a nice idea.