[HTML5] Bodenhorizont by minotalen
A frustraZen game about the limits of control and just giving in.
To get everything in one go you'd need to be very lucky, so try not to worry about your mistakes too much! There is only so much optimization you can do.
Some things didn't make it into the final cut, like groing a beanstalk upwards and automaton bugs that nom on your flowers. We are still quite happy with what we made and we hope you have fun playing the game :)
code & idea: mon (@minotalen)
creative lead: Mer Grazzini (@mergrazzini)
suggested background music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0vrsO3_HpU
the jam version is attached at the bottom of the itch page :)
| Link | https://pastebin.com/PBGjZwqp |
| itch | https://minotalen.itch.io/bodenhorizont |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/bodenhorizont |
Ratings
| Overall | 527th | 3.75⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 903th | 3.355⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 121th | 4.053⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 287th | 4.092⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 680th | 3.868⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 893th | 2.691⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 522th | 3.789⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 18🗳️ | 22🗨️ |
https://dario-zubovic.github.io/PuzzleScript/editor.html
@valden yeah making it in PS was a bit of a challenge, ended up disabling a helpful visual feedback animation in favor of game performance. I'm just a really big fan of portmanteaus, that's how frustraZen happened.
@rubentipparach there is a way to travel faster, but I don't want to spoil it here :P
Fun little fru-laxing game. Nice work.
I is happeh plant

glad you had fun!
This is one of the more interesting games I've played in the jam. The jam's theme works well to give the player a goal without telling us anything. I felt like the game as a whole comes together (with the soundtrack) really well as an art piece, with something to say. Going back after I had collected each note and the treasure and looking at my roots and the decisions I had made was really nice :) I tried to collect all the seeds and flowers too, but sadly I softlocked myself behind my own root system :( Really cannot emphasize how much I enjoyed this one!
P.S. I also made my entry in puzzlescript. I thought there was a hard limit on sprite size at 5x5. Now I know that is not the case! haha
I never thought I'd get so ticked off at a rock :x
It took a bit for me to really feel out the vibe of the game, but once I did it was enjoyable! I liked the soothing sounds of the dirt chunking away as the vines grew and blossomed to the sound of the background music. You did a great job encouraging an atmosphere of calm, even though I wanted to yell every time I was soooo close to a note but my vines furled in on themselves and I couldn't get to it, lmao.
A great job! The art is nice and polished - I loved all the variants of flowers used, and it was very pleasing to watch them pop up as I went along. Even though I didn't use the teleportation between flowers mechanic much, it was interesting to have in there, and I appreciate that it was there - any game that involves backtracking and puts effort into making it easier to do so is a godsend, imo.
Excellent work! ☆☆☆☆☆
Nice mood as well. Good job~
It was really fun to see how you started fast, almost mashing keys and then slowed down, planning your steps more carefully. Nice also that you were kinda sharing knowledge between each other. I regret backseatgaming and explaining tricks, helped me figure out that discovering the how the root system functions may be an important part of the experience, but perhaps it was for the best since streaming a bunch of games reduces patience. Thanks again for playing, glad to know that the message gets through, even in a bit of a rush ;)
edit: took forever but it's done!
It's very confusing tho, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. The root growth seemed completely random.
I still enjoyed just exploring randomly and creating flowers. Good game!
I'm little sad 
@bokonon glad poking at the system was fun for you, wish I could do the same. Maybe one day I'll lose my memory and get to 'explore' instead of 'exploit' my system haha.
@danframe aww yes that ledge was a bit too sadistic, it has been widened in the post-jam version. In general I have tried to make the game a bit more forgiving this time around.
@fis sorry that happened to you and thanks for reporting it, fix is coming up with the next build <3
@notan-lemon Thank you for playing, 'meditative' was certainly one of the goals :)
@jrevel thanks for the kind works. Maybe it is because I designed the system, but tbh a good portion of my runs now end with me having reached everything, so the 'lack of control' is partially also a 'lack of intimacy with the system'. I admit though that it is much tougher to understand the system when it is presented to you without explicit rules.
@wizard-sino getting a 'bad seed' at the start is certainly a flaw in the jam version. Sometimes I shout at the game: "Let me get there or else, I made you", but that also doesn't seem to help! I hope we have improved on the issue of bad starts in the post-jam version, the game will still sometimes hurt you in tragic ways though, sorry.