Guardian of the Sand by EverythingIsBacon

[raw]
made by EverythingIsBacon for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

coverImageLD.png The art of fine sand castle building is often overlooked, but not by one brave beachgoer. Even at such a young age he is a master of the craft: Every tower, every rampart--Perfection.

There’s only one problem…

Our little builder forgot to create his latest masterpiece outside of the high tide line!

The sea is sweeping in! Defend the castle!

Use your giant sand pile to fill your bucket and build sand breaks. They’ll slow the tide and reduce the damage dealt to your castle. But be careful! Just like the castle, sand breaks will ultimately succumb to the sea. Keep building breaks, and whenever possible, take a bucket of sand to repair your castle!

Oh…and watch out for crabs!

Move: W, A, S,D

Dig sand from pile: left mouse button at giant sand pile

Create sand break: left mouse button when bucket is full

Repair sand castle: left mouse button next to castle when bucket is full

Ratings

Overall 800th 3.45⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 830th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 578th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 395th 3.9⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 462th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 655th 3.225⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 584th 3.1⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1050th 3.125⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Ty1rl
04. Apr 2022 · 18:12 UTC
Great concept. Really dig the art style.
Denatus
04. Apr 2022 · 18:21 UTC
Damn them crabs!

![Screenshot 2022-04-04 201936.png](///raw/0fb/f3/z/4aad3.png)
chris-pugliese
05. Apr 2022 · 01:22 UTC
got over 5 minutes! seems like rebuilding the main castle is near useless bc of the time commitment, and the optimal strat is to spam pillars at the bottom of the screen? not too sure. solid game but a little too repetitive and i found myself getting tired of the loop a few minutes in.
LucasBerg
05. Apr 2022 · 01:27 UTC
Love the game description haha
Marius Horst
05. Apr 2022 · 01:30 UTC
the game has a bug so you tecnhically could play it endlessly but well done. You just can spam the filled sandbucket so you repair the sandcastle but dont use the sandbucket.
Ossi
05. Apr 2022 · 03:39 UTC
Cute game! I really like the art style a lot and those adorable crabs! I did run into what I think is a bug, if you spam click a full bucket of sand you can make infinite walls. Honestly might be a good addition for a powerup to balance out the difficulty of choosing between building walls vs repairing your sand castle. Good job!
adangtran
05. Apr 2022 · 23:35 UTC
Definitely a relatable theme. It would be nice to have some feedback on what the sand breaks did as it didn't seem to stop or divert water (I understand fluid mechanics are probably too much for the game jam time). I assume it holds the tide back but some metric to make the cost benefit of more breaks vs repairing would be interesting.
Belle
07. Apr 2022 · 18:00 UTC
Awesome game! It was a lot of fun and the theme was spot on. If you keep developing it, it would be so much fun with a multiplayer option in the future where you can sabotage eachothers castles
CypherDoesStuff
08. Apr 2022 · 13:19 UTC
Noo my castle! Love the waves, crabs not so much lol.
JHax
10. Apr 2022 · 12:36 UTC
Really cool interpretation of the theme, I've definitely spent a lot of time trying to engineer a beach in a way that will hold back the sea from my wonderful sandcastles (I haven't figured out a foolproof way yet). Graphics are nice, particularly enjoyed the crabs. I did think it maybe wasn't super obvious the effect the the sand breaks actually had, but other than that, well put together game :smile:
LDJam user 280755
10. Apr 2022 · 14:19 UTC
Good idea and nice graphics! One thing: I couldn't quite tell whether the sand breaks did anything. It seems like the water just goes straight through them? Is it weakening the waves or anything? A visual indicator might be nice if so.
Paul Nadan
17. Apr 2022 · 04:39 UTC
Really neat idea, and definitely a relatable struggle. The castle looks really cool, and I like all the different versions as it succumbs to the waves. The overlapping wave effects also looked good. Like a couple other commenters have mentioned it would be nice if the effect of the sand breaks was clearer, but it was still a cool experience. Nice work!