Silent Growth by bar0net
Silent growth is a game where you need to feed nutrients to a tree by placing resources on the ground.
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Made in 48-hours from the Ludum Dare Compo by Jordi Tudela Alcacer using: - Unity 2019.3.7f1 Personal - Photoshop - Bosca Ceoil
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Controls
- [Mouse Wheel] Select a resource
- [Left Mouse] Place the resource on an available spot
- [Right Mouse] (Drag): Move the camera up and down
- [Esc] or [P]: Pause/Unpause
Directions
- You will lose if every root wilts or the tree loses all its health.
- You need to keep the nutrient levels within the range. At the end of the day, nutrient levels within range will heal the tree and nutrient levels outside the range will cause harm.
- Every turn you will get access to a random set of tiles you can place on the ground. Each nutrient is color and shape coded.
- As roots grow at the end of each day (5 turns), they will collect any nutrients they get in contact with.
- You do not have direct control over how the roots grow but magnets will attract them!
- Every root also likes a particular type of nutrient. If it collects enough, it will split.
- Roots will wilt if they get in contact with rocks.
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SCREENSHOTS
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COMMENTS
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Changelog
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Contact
| Link | https://bar0net.itch.io/silent-growth |
| Link | https://github.com/bar0net/LD48 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/silent-growth |
Ratings
| Given | 0🗳️ | 0🗨️ |
Some of the resources, like the black gem were at a better scale than others. The blue resource was the only confusing one, since it looked half-black. It would have been an interesting decision if it was (whether to go all one color, or use 50-50 to play safe). The scrollwheel controls and UI weren't immediately obvious so I'm glad you wrote out how to play, but the general scheme of clicking to place resources worked well (and it always placed where I was expecting).
If I could wish for more, it'd be for more of my decisions to interact with the systems you already have... Like more ways to direct the roots, perhaps based on which of the 3 resource slots you picked, or resources push/pull in a specific direction based on color, so I can choose to play risky to split a root, or use the "wrong" resource just to be safe. Also would have been nice to be able to plan further ahead (maybe by seeing both the current root and what the next split will be).
@goodgamesjames I think you just pointed out all the things I struggled the most during development xD I maintained the blue resource from the first pass (I was intending to do something more 'reality-based' and I intended that to be water). Finally, I went with something more symbolic and I wanted everything to have disctinct colors and shapes but... Let's say I should spend more time honing my visual design skills.
The magnet idea was a compromise solution to make things clear and easy. My first idea was to make them grow towards what the tree needed the most (but that could lead to a less predictable behaviour), the second idea was to have every root favor something (that ended up being the split mechanic) and I ended up settleing for the magnet. If I had more time, that would defenitely be something I would spend some time prototyping and trying different ideas!
Thank you for the extensive review and all the insights!!!