Chop and Sprout by SethJMoore

[raw]
made by SethJMoore for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

Once you start chopping and sprouting branches, it's tough to keep the bulb (or the game) stable enough to reach the green goal. cover.jpg Those 48 hours went quicker than I expected, but at least I got something halfway playable submitted for my first Ludum Dare.

Ratings

Overall 529th 2.645⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 469th 2.774⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 61th 4⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 135th 3.952⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 368th 2.296⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 496th 1.948⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 63🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

PetTurtle
04. Oct 2021 · 23:06 UTC
This was hard then expected and took a number of tries. Really nice game!
LDJam user 221199
04. Oct 2021 · 23:10 UTC
I managed to create this:

![Capture.PNG](///raw/f00/63/z/4678c.png)

Good Game!
🎤 SethJMoore
05. Oct 2021 · 02:02 UTC
@petturtle Thanks! I'm glad you were able to win.

@benjamin-halko It's a monster! I think the game usually crashes for me any time I get that many branches growing.
zantze
05. Oct 2021 · 14:02 UTC
Argh, I was few pixels off from winning like three times! The game definetely fits the theme really well, and the gameplay feels quite unique, I love me some physics based games! Quite simple game, but fun to play for a bit, and even crashed few times haha

Good job on the game!
🎤 SethJMoore
05. Oct 2021 · 16:29 UTC
@zantze Thanks for playing!

I discovered a less fun shortcut to win. If you let it grow high enough, you can just chop off some of the left branch, and it will topple over into the goal.
zain
06. Oct 2021 · 00:12 UTC
I won! It took a few tries, but I figured it out. Cool game!
🎤 SethJMoore
06. Oct 2021 · 00:23 UTC
@zain Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
AlbyK
06. Oct 2021 · 00:31 UTC
Spent a bit too long trying to get it, but eventually got there. Really simple game that's a lot of fun to play around with (I love physics games in general).
🎤 SethJMoore
06. Oct 2021 · 00:55 UTC
@albyk I'm happy to hear that it was engaging enough to keep you trying! The list of features I planned to implement has very few checkmarks next to it. I guess 48 hours enforces simplicity!
loyance
06. Oct 2021 · 01:51 UTC
I did get an accidental crash once, but overall had a lot of fun trying to reach the goal. Felt sort of like a weird balancing puzzle. Perhaps increasing the orange dot speed a little bit would be nice
🎤 SethJMoore
06. Oct 2021 · 02:02 UTC
@loyance You might be right about the speed. I've found myself having a hard time catching up with the base of a branch growing away from me. Thanks for the input!
ffernn
06. Oct 2021 · 09:18 UTC
Wow ok that was cool. I really like the idea, although maybe the movement could use some work (?) But yeah is a fun little game!
thetatautau
06. Oct 2021 · 11:18 UTC
The idea is really original and the game is fun.

The controls however are impracticable. The player "dot" is way too small, and also to slow compared to the growth speed, and it's super easy to fall from a branch when the physic glitches. Another option would be mouse control (left click to srpout rigth click to chop for example), although the game would be very different.

Anyway this is definitively good for a first jam, especially as you didn't go the easy way.
Arttu Halonen
06. Oct 2021 · 11:26 UTC
I really like the concept here! Sadly the game ran into technical issues after a few branches every time I tried it, but besides those, it was a nice little experience! Keep it up!
xpoho
06. Oct 2021 · 18:21 UTC
Ежи на белых ножках. Я думаю, это отличное было бы название. Так держать! Развивай идею ^_^
🎤 SethJMoore
07. Oct 2021 · 03:30 UTC
@ffernn Yeah, movement is probably one of the areas I'll revamp if I decide to try polishing this up some.

@thetatautau All good points. I was thinking this morning about how mouse control might work, and if I work more on it, I'll tweak size, speed, etc., plus hopefully I'll be able to mostly eliminate the glitchiness.

@arttu-halonen Yeah, the crashes when the physics gets wonky is my biggest disappointment.

@xpoho 🦔!

Thanks for the input everybody! I haven't had a chance today to rate your games, but I'll make sure I get around to it.
Arttu Halonen
07. Oct 2021 · 04:47 UTC
@sethjmoore I know the feeling, too. My LD48 entry had this big gamebreaking bug that I just couldn't fix in time, and it wasn't a great feeling. But once you get over the feeling, you remember that you've now made a game in just a few days, and that's pretty great by itself!
FabDynamic
08. Oct 2021 · 01:24 UTC
I got so close! If i had clipped the right branch I would have won! this is a cool game with a cool concept and you did a great job. Thanks for sharing it with us!
BOOtak
08. Oct 2021 · 20:11 UTC
Mmmmmm did I crashed it? Seems like it. Oh well, Unity physics are pretty... UNSTABLE :)

![crash.PNG](///raw/09b/a1/z/47db1.png)

The core idea with sprouting and cutting, and branching is reeeally nice and unique, I very much like it. I can see that mechanics reworked into some simple and addictive hyper-casual mobile game.

It worth trying mouse controls, as they might work better here.
🎤 SethJMoore
08. Oct 2021 · 21:57 UTC
@fabdynamic Thanks for playing and letting me know you like the concept.

@bootak The only thing you can count on in this game is the crashes! Everybody's feedback is convincing me that it might be worth expanding at least on the chopping and sprouting aspect of this, and you're probably right that involving mouse and/or touch controls would probably be ideal. Thanks for the feedback!
JaviCoder
09. Oct 2021 · 22:41 UTC
a bit buggy, but it's really cool, it's very interesting and original.
MakimoPL
11. Oct 2021 · 10:03 UTC
I crashed the game, but i have a lot of fun! Good job! ;)
nyxkn
14. Oct 2021 · 20:51 UTC
This seemed quite interesting. I'm not sure if I actually won or not when I got the bulb on the green thing. It started changing colors but there was no win screen. The mechanic was quite novel, but I guess it needs a little bit more polishing to become a good game.
Flying Dog Fish
16. Oct 2021 · 10:51 UTC
I'm sorry, but I have no idea how to play this. I can move the little orange dot around but that's about it. How do you make a branch?
🎤 SethJMoore
17. Oct 2021 · 22:07 UTC
@javicoder Yeah, I wasn't able to work out the :bug:s, so I just claim that's part of the instability!

@makimopl If you had fun, then my main goal was accomplished! Thanks for letting me know.

@nyxkn Oh, it needs a lot of polishing to become a good game, but I'm glad you liked the mechanic. I didn't get to making a win screen, so the changing color does indicate that you won!

@flying-dog-fish When you're on a branch, pressing the 'Z' key will chop the branch at your location, and pressing the 'X' key will cause the branch you're on to sprout new branches.
Flying Dog Fish
17. Oct 2021 · 22:44 UTC
Thanks, I see now I was a bit blind and it's actually written under the game :face_palm:

Anyway, now that I was able to actually play, I see this is actually a very interesting concept game. I managed to get the head inside the green circle, and climbed there myself, but the whole thing collapsed after that. A couple of times the thing just exploded and a couple of times the game stopped responding and I had to close the browser tab, but that's just what the theme called for :wink:
quadtree
18. Oct 2021 · 07:59 UTC
Pretty clever use of the theme. I was slightly confused as to whether I was supposed to get myself into the target, or the big white sphere, so in the end I just did both. Nice job!
🎤 SethJMoore
18. Oct 2021 · 13:50 UTC
@flying-dog-fish Thanks for revisiting the game, and I'm glad you found it interesting!

@quadtree Thanks for playing! Although currently the goal is getting the sphere to the target, one potential idea for further development is to change it so the player has to get to certain goals.