Bonsai by Literal Games
Bonsai is a peaceful game about caring for and growing bonsai trees. It takes time to grow trees so chill out while you grow a selection of bonsai shapes and get ranked for your score!
Click the computer to begin your first tree.
Patience is a great asset, but so are the tools available to you:
- Grow Branch: click and drag from a branch pixel. A branch will begin to grow! If the arrow is red try drawing at an angle away from the current branch.
- Trim leaves: works like an eraser, click and drag across leaves snip them off the tree. Any leaves left in the open will be removed!
- Clip branch: if a branch is too long or just ugly, click once to cut off that branch and any leaves attached to it
- Water leaves: click and drag like a paintbrush to paint the leaves. Painted leaves will suck up water from the root and stay healthy!
If your leaves get too dry they will turn brown and eventually die so be careful to water them if they are turning orange! If the leaves fall off, water the plant and it should come back to life!
M to mute.
Save your progress on the computer to come back later!
| Youtube | http://natpat.net/games/ludumdare/LD46 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/bonsai |
Ratings
| Overall | 65th | 4.198⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 170th | 3.958⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 45th | 4.229⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 530th | 3.989⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 206th | 4.375⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 195th | 3.979⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1061th | 2.988⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 66th | 4.292⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 61🗳️ | 56🗨️ |
The water mechanic was a bit confusing just as the orange color of the leaves that looked similar to branches.
Audio was relaxing, the little guy running around was adorable. Maybe a bit too much waiting at the beginning (although I know bonsais IRL take a lot longer!) but once the bonsais started to grow, yay!
Well done overall :v:
Beautiful game :)
@peterfiftyfour thanks for the feedback, I think if we were to do it again or add to it we would improve the visibility of the tree shapes, you're right that it becomes a bit tricky once you're close to done!
@black-flag we worked hard on the transitions, thanks for noticing!
@damienp I'm glad you enjoyed letting them grow their own way haha
Saw the timelapse posted, and was very curious to look at the growing bansai mechanics. Am not disappointed, it's very impressive. The graphics are adorable, and music very relaxing. Managed to do all shapes between 83 and 92 percents! Only thing that I found weird was the silence when swithcing plants. The save is a very welcoming feature too, I am keeping the link handy.
Amazing work on your entry, loved it.
I can't even imagine how I'd code something like this myself.
Excellent job!
At first I was pretty stressed about the trees going beyond the points, but then I realized that the branch cutting tool could just always solve my problems. Then the game became much less of a rush between trees.
I do wish it was easier to toggle between trees. Also the templates became hard to see because of the background and the trees all mixing together.
What I didn't realize that finish meant finished for good - I thought you could "finish" as in leave it alone for now and let it grow and come back to it.
But once I understood everything I was hooked. I really think you should make this a mobile app. Would be pretty cool if it was real time so you log on a couple times a day and trim it, water it, etc. Make people actually work for it so it can be appreciated. Of course, it would be difficult to get people hooked at the beginning . . .
I like a lot the walking animation, the trees are pretty, and the progression in the shapes is very well-done (fish shape <3)
If you'd like to watch again, you can find the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/617255767