Water the Flowers by Andrew Hoyer

[raw]
made by Andrew Hoyer for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

In line with the theme "Keep it Alive", this is a quick and simple game where you collect water and bring it to the flowers to keep them from dying.

Screen Shot 2020-04-20 at 2.44.05 PM.png

I wanted to introduce my children to game design and coding, so they played a part in creating the game concept, the artwork, and the music.

The game was developed using PixelBox.js.

Ratings

Overall 2215th 2.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2016th 2.909⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2456th 2.341⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1119th 3.705⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1900th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1215th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1901th 2.118⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1981th 2.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

turtlesoup
20. Apr 2020 · 22:39 UTC
Really enjoyed playing that and I really like the artwork. You and your kids did a great job! :)
Watcher
20. Apr 2020 · 22:40 UTC
Very minimalistic concept, but it was pretty enjoyable. The music is on point. Gameplay is simple, yet difficult enough to stay engaged. Great work :)
ShyguyBerlin
20. Apr 2020 · 22:42 UTC
The soundtrack is very short and because of the short loop, it gets annoying very fast.
SaeedPrez
20. Apr 2020 · 22:48 UTC
Hi there, it's a simple game but I liked it. Soothing music.
Good job to you and your children.
LDF Productions
20. Apr 2020 · 23:35 UTC
Beautiful game, congrats to your kids they did an amazing work :)
SeriouslyCrunchy
21. Apr 2020 · 15:04 UTC
Short but cute and sweet, nice little one! Look forward to seeing what you and your children might do in future!
Wallaby
21. Apr 2020 · 18:23 UTC
Very cute pixel art!
Destin715
21. Apr 2020 · 18:26 UTC
Tell your kids they did a great job! Its only up from here!
pmarincak
22. Apr 2020 · 00:54 UTC
Very cute! A nice short and simple game that matched the theme. They did a great job! And the music was very relaxing.
kasperhangard
22. Apr 2020 · 17:20 UTC
really well done, really pretty little game.
I ran out of water, and the drops didn't spawn quite often enough to keep the flowers going. Up the water spawn rate and it would be perfect! :D
🎤 Andrew Hoyer
22. Apr 2020 · 17:26 UTC
@kasperhangard Yeah, the spawn rate probably needs some adjustment, but the overall goal was to keep it more limited because I ran into cases where you could pretty much play indefinitely. Thinking about it a bit more, one way to make it better without making easy would be to have more water, but each drop is available only for a limited time before disapperaing. Thanks for the feedback!
windfall890
22. Apr 2020 · 17:27 UTC
Surprisingly frantic for such a peaceful setting!

I had a lot of fun running around searching for water.

Tell your kids they did an awesome job!


one tiny thing:
After a respawn, gravity seems to be enabled on the player, so he falls!
🎤 Andrew Hoyer
22. Apr 2020 · 18:02 UTC
@windfall890 Indeed? I never saw that happen, and I am surprised since as far as I know, Pixelbox.js doesn't have any physics and I did not include any other libraries. Still, there could be some kind of glitch in there causing weird behavior. Thanks for the feedback.
SludgeKey
22. Apr 2020 · 19:54 UTC
Really like the fact that your children helped you make it! I think it's a nice litle cute game.
Eldar
22. Apr 2020 · 23:51 UTC
Got to 124 points before my flowers dried up :) Is the score just the number of seconds the player survives, or it's a function of the number of living flowers as well? If it's the former, it sounds like it's optimal to just take care of one flower and let the other two die.

I assume you were going for a small, cute, peaceful green game - in that case you achieved what you intended :) My one complaint is that I had a bit of trouble understanding the stages of flower withering - either my botany skills are terrible, or the colors weren't very self-explanatory.

I love the fact that your children participated in this - kudos to y'all and good luck for future projects! :)
🎤 Andrew Hoyer
22. Apr 2020 · 23:57 UTC
@eldar Thanks for the feedback. The score is actually the number of seconds. Initially I realized that there may be a strategy in saving only one flower, and that was true. To prevent that, the speed of withering increases as each flower dies. With only one left, it's basically frantic mode where you can survive for a while but you're about to lose soon, so keeping more is definitely better. Whether 2 or 3 is most optimal, I didn't test.
Eldar
23. Apr 2020 · 00:16 UTC
@andrew-hoyer Ah, interesting rule! I did notice the withering rate increase, but I thought it was due to time passing rather than other flowers dying off. Maybe you could add this info as a hint.
🎤 Andrew Hoyer
23. Apr 2020 · 15:45 UTC
@eldar I updated the game page now so it includes controls as well as a clear description of the gameplay. Thanks for your notes on this.
EreHuc
25. Apr 2020 · 13:57 UTC
Cute little game with sweet and cute song. You and your kid did a great job !!
LCStark
10. May 2020 · 16:17 UTC
A nice little game! It looks peaceful, but it's actually quite dynamic. The art style is great, the music nice and calming. Overall I've enjoyed the experience. It looks like you guys had fun while creating it. Well done! ;)