:slight_frown: Unfortunately I can't seem to run it on my mac, I get the following error:

zsh: exec format error: /Users/***/Downloads/ForestFrenzy/ludem-dare-4

Couldn't run the .exe on my computer sadly, couldnt find the .dll

Im getting an error on windows too..

Wouldn't run on my Windows PC either. The log in the console reads: "Failed to load image "map.png. Reason: Unable to open file."

ok im looking for ways to compile on windows, thanks for the feedback!

I figured it out! It can should now run on windows!

You have to use terminal to run on mac and Linux.

A strange game with obscure mechanics. Why do trees catch fire spontaneously? I like the forest layout though!

From a technical standpoint, this is my favorite so far. The physics are super cool and the fact that you programmed it all in C++ is very impressive. It could use a little work as a game, however. The main problem is that it's incredibly easy. I had to do nothing for about 5 minutes for the lava to even reach my plants. One time the lava stopped flowing completely, which seemed like a bug? But again, a very technically impressive and innovative game, nice job!

In its current state, I'd say it doesn't really work as game, but I must congratulate you for trying something different here! From the games I looked at so far, this is the most interesting one in terms of mechanics, simulation and even gameplay. By "interesting", I mean that they have good potential, even though you apparently (and understandably!) didn't have the time to polish it.

The interpretation of theme is quite nice also.

Some suggestions for improving the game and how it is received by the players:

* Take some care to make it more easily playable. On Linux, I had to run the game as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./SFML/lib ./ludem-dare-46` so that it would find the SFML libs. (From others' comments, apparently the Windows and Mac versions have similar issues.)
* @hanamigi, complained about his trees catching fire spontaneously. I guess what happened here is that this player used "the nature powers" too much and got punished by the gods with a solar flare. But I know(?) this only because I watched your video, and there I saw a text that appeared *very* quickly (had to pause the video to be able to read it) saying there was a solar flare, *and* I read your game description telling about god punishments. For someone simply playing your game, the trees are indeed spontaneously catching fire, because there is no in-game feedback about what is going on.
* Later: Ah, I think I got it: for all punishments you show the message as long as the punishment is active. This makes sense for things like "global warming", which last for a long time, but the solar flare seems to be active for just the fraction of a second during which the fires are started.
* Overall, the game does not help the player to understand the mechanics. What does that red/black bar mean? What do each of the buttons do? (The fourth one, "stop the time" was actually very hard to figure out.)
* The available "nature powers" don't play well with the lava within the context of the game. The "make things float" and "stop the time" powers are technically cool, but don't have any use for the game AFAICT. The rain and ice powers are more useful, but I didn't see any interesting interactions between them and the lava. (Again, I am talking about things in the context of the game: sure rain and ice help to stop the lava, but these are a very simple interaction that does not lead to interesting strategies or surprising results for the player.)
* Just brainstorming: what about a more dynamic setup, like the lava source point changing from time to time ("the lava god decided to visit a different place")? Or a dynamic environment ("the earth goddess decided to create some more land")? Maybe this could make the gameplay more dynamic.

Thank you very much for making and sharing this game! While I can't say I liked it as a game, it made me wonder about game design in ways other games didn't. And, hey!, this is a gamedev jam, so take this a huge compliment! :thumbsup:

Great physics and world generating system! Rules are simple but gameplay is interesting enough. I really love this game.

@lmb thank you for a great review! probably the best feedback I've ever received.

Very impressive!

@catomag And thanks for the feedback about the feedback! Really, really, *really* happy to help fellow humans :slight_smile:

I love "falling sand" games and I was excited to see there was one done for Ludum Dare! IMO that's super ambitious (maybe... too ambitious for a jam) and I'm really impressed all by the work that went into the engine. I loved watching the plants mound up in interesting ways. Sure, like you said it's not balanced at all. Like, I got rid of the lava in about 2 seconds and spent the rest of the game just watering plants. But that's not a bad thing. Besides the lack of audio my biggest critique would be the unclear UI, which I think you could instantly fix by including describing the controls and instructions on the LD page. Thanks for making this, I had fun.


Wow. Amazing that you did this in such a short time!

Man, this is cool! To an extent, it feels more like a tech demo than a game - but still one that is a ton of fun to mess around with.

I agree with others that some more instructions (even just on this page) would go along way. There's fun in figuring everything out, but a few hints never hurt anything.

Would have been nice to put source code on Github/Gitlab. Adding binaries to the source code makes a much larger download. Awesome that you used C++. Having written gameplay instructions would be helpful.

I love these kinds of physics playgrounds, had fun messing around. Could of used some more goals/objectives to give the player more purpose

thicc.png :ok_hand:
For some reason the vegetation only caught fire once, so I managed to grow the green bar wider that the window.
Also I restarted the game, tried to play with the levitation spell on lava, and the lava source dried out :hushed:

So obviously it seems that scope was a little to big for this one. Understandable. But there's A LOT of potential here. Using celluar automata like this to make a challenge is such a great idea, and for the amount of time, very well done.

The real excellence here though, are those relatable file names, featuring such beaties as:
-furrest.png
-twee.png
and my personal favorite
-thicc.png

Thanks for all the reviews guys! I had a blast making this... thing and I hope I someday make something fun out of it. For now, thanks for the feedback and for helping me qualify!