Mad Planter by Niki90000

[raw]
made by Niki90000 for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

MadPlanterTitleLudumDare.png

The scientist tries to build his garden of super plants, but suddenly his plants are attacked by vegan zombies!

The old scientist is too weak to fight, but his plants can fight for him.

Can you help him defend his garden?

Ratings

Overall 2336th 2.857⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2082th 2.857⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2393th 2.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1822th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 2172th 2.643⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1288th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 2114th 2.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 10🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

gonutz
21. Apr 2020 · 04:17 UTC
Hallo sehr! Was ist oben?

Vegan zombies - I love that! :-)

The music is cool and the graphics are awesome - great pixel art!

After I lost the first round I was still clicking like a mad man to water my last plant but then I got to the game over screen - clicking on the zombie restarting the game. I was not able to read about my accomplishments. There should be a timer to allow me to calm down before continuing...

There are graphical artifacts due to the fact that you use a 3D engine to draw a 2D tile-based game. When I move there are some black lines popping up here and there.

At first I thought it was a tower defense so I placed my plants at the corners of the brown path. That was not a good idea, I died. The right strategy is to spam plants right at the top next to the shop. The problem is that it is way too easy now. Why only three waves? The balancing is not right.
The graphics were misleading in this case, one plant already placed near the path and a wave timer - this must be a tower defense game, right?

The level looks really nice but I have no real reason to walk anywhere and look at it. I still did but really I am made to just stay near the shop. The walking mechanic is almost unnecessary to have. In these situations I try to focus on what is relevant to the game and embrace what I have. You could have the guy be the shop keeper and then <insert great other idea, now that we changed this>.

You should have flipped the plant animation horizontally, zombies come in from the left but the plants hit right :-)

Overall a really cool entry, thanks and good luck to you! :-)
BrokenCogGames
21. Apr 2020 · 14:42 UTC
Cool game! It reminds me of plants versus zombies.
ssh.randy
21. Apr 2020 · 14:48 UTC
Hey cool game! I think that there's a bit more work to do on making the core mechanic more compelling (for now, it can seem a little tedious to just click on plants to water them). In addition, there's only one type of plant, so the game gets a little stale quickly! It'd be nice to think more about how you could extend this core mechanic (of watering plants) to make for more dynamic gameplay! Maybe make it so that plants take a few more turns to grow, and that watering shouldn't just be mass clicking?

Also you could make it so plants maybe spawn into different types, and that all you control is the class of plant you're watering!

You could also plant things that make you money, to buy more plants. Lots of different ways to go with this, it's a cool concept though! Great work!
Gabriel Pittol
21. Apr 2020 · 14:49 UTC
Cool game, and good music choice.

One issue I had with it though, were some graphic glitches that happened too constantly, like once or twice every two seconds, where black lines spawned on the screen.
Ryan Harriman
21. Apr 2020 · 14:51 UTC
Good game. I like that the path made it intuitive on where to place the plants in the begining.

Nice job.
Rodi
21. Apr 2020 · 14:53 UTC
Hello ! The game is simple but i liked it a lot ! would love to see a more polish version :)


Feel free to test my game also :D
MajinBuuBop
21. Apr 2020 · 14:53 UTC
I liked it! Definitely a really fun concept and I really liked how it played think a bit more visual feedback would be helpful for when the zombies die and the plants health.
FabiGhindaru
21. Apr 2020 · 14:55 UTC
Interesting game very similar to plants vs zombies! ^^
singleshoe
21. Apr 2020 · 14:56 UTC
Nice game! I really like the vegan zombies mechanic, however I have to agree with the others, it feels a little empty right now. I tried to play it as a regular tower defense the first couple rounds but I died pretty fast. Then I basically did two rows of plants right by the shop and it basically was over, there was nothing the zombies could do haha.

Here are a few additions that I think would keep the core idea while making it more engaging:
- Add obstacles that the zombies need to go around, either static or placed by the player. This way there will be a bit more randomness in how the plats are approached.
- Make more waves of zombies, each with a few more zombies than the last. Add a longer difficulty curve. Right now you either get swarmed immediately or you're not bothered at all
- Make plants cost more money. I basically created an impenetrable 4*2 wall of plants by the end of the second wave. Either making the basic plant more expensive or making it weaker so you have to buy more.

That plus the suggestions of the others should make a fine little game :)
AntaresValdemar
21. Apr 2020 · 14:59 UTC
Nice work, the game plays well, it's simple and easy to understand. Maybe I am just bad at this type of game but the difficulty seemed to ramp up insanely quickly. But I thought it was cool, the graphics are nice and the music is groovy, good job!
Nocity
21. Apr 2020 · 16:10 UTC
Nice little submission. The difficulty curve is steep but huge zombie armies are fun.
Pusheeneiro
21. Apr 2020 · 16:34 UTC
Nice pixel art, and great idea of remix Plants vs. Zombies.
Welliton
21. Apr 2020 · 16:58 UTC
Interesting ideia. I didnt understand how the plant was hitting the zombies, some visual feedback would be awesome. It was to hard from the 4th wave on. If the gardener were faster planting and watering them, it would be easier. Good job.
rujo
22. Apr 2020 · 18:27 UTC
funny variation on the tower defense genre, liked the mood