The Botanist by Tezza48

[raw]
made by Tezza48 for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

They love the plants. The plants are their defender.

They must feed the plants to prevent their own ingestion.

Don't get eaten by the monsters. Plants eat the monsters. Fed plants are useful.

Controls: WASD

Screenshot<em>0.png Screenshot</em>1.png Screenshot<em>2.png Screenshot</em>3.png

Ratings

Overall 777th 2.935⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 660th 2.978⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 560th 3.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 894th 1.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 673th 3.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 667th 2.381⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 728th 2.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

liammasters
25. Apr 2021 · 21:13 UTC
It took a little bit to figure out what to do and the controls feel a little too snappy. It would be nice if they were smoothed out. Once I got playing it was really fun and the art is so cute!
PhthaloGold
26. Apr 2021 · 08:05 UTC
Cute little game. It took a minute to figure out the objective, and it was sometimes hard to get the monsters to the plants. Overall fun though.
dhim
26. Apr 2021 · 08:16 UTC
Ho, i thought I had it !
And then the boss got me!
Steve Johnstone
26. Apr 2021 · 10:45 UTC
I was pretty confused at first, and to be honest I was still confused until I won. I would have liked a little bit more information about what I was supposed to be doing.

The art style was super nice, and I loved the look of the giant crab. Good work :)
Adam Selker
27. Apr 2021 · 03:33 UTC
Satisfying! The gameplay feels nice and fresh, took roughly 1.5 lives to figure out how it works. Graphics and audio are "enough"; minimal and satisfying if not beautiful.
Valid
27. Apr 2021 · 05:12 UTC
You managed to make me feel panic the first time the little mushroom people were coming towards me! The hit sound was a little loud in my opinion. Cute game, thanks.
squigglez
30. Apr 2021 · 14:17 UTC
fun game. i didn't really get it at first, but it really came together for the end. made me feel actual fear. good work
AdonisDevs
01. May 2021 · 15:30 UTC
Very short, but an overall interesting experience. The ending is definitely surprising!
Skosnowich
01. May 2021 · 15:32 UTC
Very fun game, took time some until I realized, I have to lure the monsters into the plants, so they get fed and then to lure the boss into those plants. The movement was, I guess, buggy - because you could simply spam WSAD to move faster around. So you don't need to wait for the animation. Especially moving diagonally was extremely fast that way.
xlambein
01. May 2021 · 15:32 UTC
I like the concept! It took me a minute or so to understand what I needed to do 😅 but I like the minimalist, slightly cryptic description, and explaining more details would sort-of ruin that. I'm also very fond of the art and the whole general mood of the game. This is a well-crafted little experience 😊

Just a small thing that bothered me: the character doesn't move exactly on the grid, and it makes the hitbox unpredictable, which hurts the experience.
eps
01. May 2021 · 15:33 UTC
Short and i wanted to be more gameplay.
Maybe by adding some action when certain type of mob are eaten by plants ?

Great graphics.
TheGreenWorm
05. May 2021 · 11:15 UTC
The game was quite criptic, and the itch page didn't explain the goal pretty well, but after a while I understood how to play. Consider adding arrow keys control, as QWERTY keyboard isn't universal (so WASD can be quite uncomfortable for French players for example, witch are used to ZQSD)
🎤 Tezza48
05. May 2021 · 17:46 UTC
@thegreenworm Thanks for playing.
The arrow keys for sure, I use a keyboard without them so forget to add them.

I wanted the players to figure out what to do organically which it seems everyone has. I'm glad that you and the other players kept at it to figure out what the goal was.
defilerzero
05. May 2021 · 23:10 UTC
Took a second to realize the mechanic at play, but was short. Could easily see the space for unique monster mechanics, but it's still a solid experience.
jorgeblanco
05. May 2021 · 23:15 UTC
Nice quick game. I like the movement. As the others have commented, the goal is not explicit so it was hard to know if I was doing things right. The boss ties it all together into a cool little action package.
ynneblack
05. May 2021 · 23:29 UTC
That was fun! Cute pixel art style, and easy to figure out how to play it (except for the red squares at the bottom of the screen). The "boss battle" came a bit out of nowhere, I did not have enough fed plants nearby as I ran up, thinking they can't go up like the other crabs. :D If you wanted to create a sense of urgency, it worked really well. Just the sound was a little too harsh, maybe.