LudumData

Life is Hard, and then You Buy a Cactus by trmrddr

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

singing.gif

You play as a bunny who's working from home.

Being home & working brings up your anxiety,

but having plants brings down your anxiety!

Earn plants by working.

Work by typing up business words!

Sing to your plants to bring down your anxiety even more!

Remember: The more work tasks you have, the more anxious you are!

Keep yourself sane, and remember: It's all about that work/life balance! :) ui1.png ui2.png

  • Code by mathemagician and Armure
  • Concepts by giraffalope and RobL
  • 3D Art by trmrddr and RobL
  • Music and sounds by Progs

Changelog 1. v1_1: Non-US keyboard layouts had issues with ? and '. Those characters have been removed.

Youtube https://trmrddr.itch.io/life-is-hard-buy-a-cactus
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/life-is-hard-and-then-you-buy-a-cactus

Ratings

Overall 275th 3.945⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Fun 832th 3.518⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 113th 4.027⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1536th 3.518⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 213th 4.373⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Audio 204th 3.971⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Humor 522th 3.491⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Mood 326th 3.918⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 55🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

SnowyCocoon
21. Apr 2020 · 01:40 UTC
Cute and simple game! Love it!
majorleegay
21. Apr 2020 · 01:44 UTC
I did not think I'd enjoy a game about work/plant balance at all, but this game low-key bops. I like the music choice and absolutely adore the in-game music playing keyboard.
Equivocator
21. Apr 2020 · 01:45 UTC
I loved the idea and it's very relatable!
For some reason it wasn't accepting an apostrophe as input?
WittyCognomen
21. Apr 2020 · 01:46 UTC
Typing seems to be broken on non-US key layouts.
Arktas
21. Apr 2020 · 01:48 UTC
The game is really cool, a bit stress during work part, relaxing in singing one. Well done !
bbkate98
21. Apr 2020 · 01:50 UTC
very cute!! love the graphics and sound design
shwany_b
21. Apr 2020 · 01:50 UTC
"Please CC Raymond"

Woah I gotta take a break
noahnewline
21. Apr 2020 · 01:50 UTC
Lovely game!! There's so much to like about it, but my favorite thing is probably the dynamic music. I really enjoyed how it changes based on what you're doing, nice touch! I wish the anxiety meter would pause during the transition animations, but then again anxiety doesn't stop for anything :laughing: Overall excellent!
Silverice
21. Apr 2020 · 01:50 UTC
Didnt work in chrome, but in firefox played well. Lovable graphics, only problem is that my keyboard "?" simbol didnt appear in the game, so everytime i encountered a "?" i lost.
NanoArch
21. Apr 2020 · 01:53 UTC
Very polished for a jam game, the graphics are good, and the concept is fun, I normally don't enjoy games like these, but I enjoyed this one.
Ayced
21. Apr 2020 · 01:54 UTC
So weird but cool or perhaps its just me xD I think I found a bug or "problem"

I was writing the emails and one of them had a question mark at the end which I didn't seem to be able to apply (possibly because of my keyboard layout? idk)

This got me stuck
Cheese Team
21. Apr 2020 · 01:54 UTC
This was fun! If you type too fast, some of your inputs get dropped.
KilThrall
21. Apr 2020 · 01:55 UTC
I loved how I could play some simple piano songs while singing hahhaha. It's a really nice game, I liked it
MattKuroshi
21. Apr 2020 · 01:59 UTC
everytime that appears a ' was an instant loss, but i find this game very original and cute :3
nerdysl0th
21. Apr 2020 · 02:06 UTC
Big animal crossing vibes, in the best way possible! Very charming and polished. Good job!
Nachodlv
21. Apr 2020 · 02:10 UTC
Really fun. I had a little bit of lag so it was really hard to type. The bunny is super cute.
🎤 trmrddr
21. Apr 2020 · 02:25 UTC
@mattkuroshi @ayced @silverice @wittycognomen @equivocator We pushed a fix so that everyone can play the game! It's 100% less questionmarks and apostrophes! Obviously can't have an unintentional game-breaking bug like that laying around!! Sorry about that.
willjardine
21. Apr 2020 · 02:43 UTC
Super cute!
PecheDodue
21. Apr 2020 · 13:28 UTC
Nice game, love the visual!!
Hexa3
21. Apr 2020 · 14:36 UTC
The piano was the icing on the cake!
leafthief
22. Apr 2020 · 04:32 UTC
I felt really bad for the bunny whenever they had to work! Good job overall! <3
saucygames
22. Apr 2020 · 06:43 UTC
love me a good typing test! artstyle is ouii nice
FishMasterino
22. Apr 2020 · 08:22 UTC
Everything about this game is great, it looks nice, sounds nice and plays nice. The emails were funny too, I really loved it !
I also counldn't get past emails with "-" in them
mirsakka
22. Apr 2020 · 09:43 UTC
Ohhh this was so pretty and nice idea of writing and singing! I loved to sing! Yeees! :rabbit2:
arzi
22. Apr 2020 · 12:00 UTC
I love the artwork and the concept is great, but I feel it's a bit too difficult for how it feels otherwise (or I'm just a really bad at typing). Amazing work nonetheless!
mathemagician
22. Apr 2020 · 12:54 UTC
@arzi Trying to balance the game was definitely more guessing than science for me. As a stop gap, we included a difficulty slider in the options menu, though nothing really mentions that it exists (I added it with about 30 minutes until the deadline haha).

@fishmasterino Glad you enjoyed, but sorry to hear people are still having issues with getting certain keys registered. I was more than a little naive for trying to parse typing out of keypresses instead of reading an actual text input, but you live and you learn. Hopefully I'll be able to get a quick fix out sometime soon.
Fables
22. Apr 2020 · 17:56 UTC
Super cute game, very well made with great graphics and fun gameplay!
fatPenguin
22. Apr 2020 · 18:06 UTC
haha oh boy that whole scrum things gave me PTSD.. I'm not at work anymore, man! :P
jk. cool and funny game, the graphics were beautiful and i have the utmost respect for anybody who does rigging for a gamejam ^^ congrats on finsihing your game :)
JAzambuja
23. Apr 2020 · 00:28 UTC
really fun game! awesome art, congratulations!
tweedle
23. Apr 2020 · 03:25 UTC
lol that animation when you click on the computer to work. liked that i got to play my own tunes when singing to the plants.
Geegaz
23. Apr 2020 · 07:16 UTC
Tried it, loved it. It looks so nice and polished for a Jam game ! Everything fits perfectly. I just couldn't get my anxiety down, as I didn't understand how to properly sing it seems ? Amazing job !
CosmicCrystalGames
23. Apr 2020 · 10:30 UTC
Incredibly adorable game! Really novel use of a typing game mechanic. The general theme of the game feels very relatable right now! Overall, a really fun and polished entry :)
Abdurrahman Khallouf
23. Apr 2020 · 14:16 UTC
I like the mood and the cute aesthetics.
got bored half way through but I finished all the planets. wasn't hard.

I like typing so I liked that part. but the balancing act got boring fast.

all in all it was a nice experience. my baby daughter loved watching me playin' :tongue:
Motley
23. Apr 2020 · 15:51 UTC
Great graphics! The gameplay wasn't very immersive, but I guess that's how work is

As a sidenote, the notes on the piano are in incorrect positions (the group of two black keys is above CDE, not ABC)
🎤 trmrddr
23. Apr 2020 · 15:54 UTC
@motley We initially had it on the C-scale, so we made the art for that. But then our audio guy made the music in A, so we switched around the letters but didn't bother updating the black keys (oversight!).
Motley
23. Apr 2020 · 16:02 UTC
@trmrddr Oh, I see
Lexyvil
29. Apr 2020 · 04:02 UTC
Fun game! I realized that the more e-mails you had the highest the anxiety went, and the more plants you owned, the more it helps lower it.

![yay.jpg](///raw/b69/a1/z/33882.jpg)

My favourite aspect was probably the option to sing different notes. Not limiting the player was more fun, by having us choose what notes to sing~
elysiagriffin
09. May 2020 · 19:56 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615937007?t=6h46m35s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin