I loved the guy telling you about the new things. His little art, animation, and sound was nice.

Very nice game xD

Well, i hate saplings now kkkkk Very solid entry, best tutorial so far, quick and "on demand". The graphics are a charm and give a lovely personality to the game, the music feels on pace with the gameplay and the sound design is very nice. Really loved it!

Simple but beautifully done, right when I was about to get bored, new stuff got introduced, amazing entry!

This is awesome!

Loved it! The little demon it's kinda cute.
I think it would be less frustrating if the tools could be change with some keyboard controls.

I loved the take on the theme. and a very good learning curve right here. In most games I find myself trying to understand what's going on, and here I was fed with everything I need (and nothing needlessly long). Also it became quite hard before I could noticed.
I'd love have my tools placed on a specific place on the side, maybe done automatically, but I guess its part of the difficulty of the game.
Also loved the dialog, not too long, not too short and as a nice touch to it. well done!

Very nice game. I think our games are quite similar. The tutorial is really nice way to introduce the game to players and an often overlooked area of game design.

Very interesting game concept, I really enjoyed playing it.
I also love the tutorial devil a lot :D
One little thing I might change would be the grow time of the bushes when you cut them, I feel like they grow a bit to fast back unlike the trees.

Difficulty ramps up really fast but otherwise cute idea and implementation, finally I put to use all of mine classical evil music playlists

I loved your positive spin on the theme, great work! It's slightly difficult to play on trackpad due to the left/right click dependency, but I don't think I can think of a better alternative. Overall, super cute and fun game!

I know that evil overlords love their red, but I wish they colour-coded their gardening tools!
Also, finally a survival-type game where the goal is to keep things *dead* for as long as possible. Didn't know I need one until I tried one.

Aside from that, I liked the audiovisuals, and the goofy minion is my favourite (still needs colour coding, though). I found it tricky to keep juggling between various gardening tools, and would often pick up the wrong tool for the job (especially shovel and hammer, since saplings and cut down trees are pretty similar) - that aside, the experience was enjoyable, though it might need some additional balancing. Overall, I lasted 150 years.

For some reason, the Desktop version has no menu buttons, so I had to stick with the web one.

@alphish Just realized I hid the buttons for a screenshot, and forgot to unhide them before exporting for desktop.. facepalm

But thanks for the kind words :) overall I like the chaos though, the goal was to capture that feeling of being overwhelmed I always get when playing papas pizzeria haha

what a fun idea. The little demon talking is really fun. This is a really interesting inversion of the theme which I really enjoyed.

WOWZA a dandelion! Hey, the character development you smooshed inside that dialogue was great. That was funny and wacky -- my kind of game. It's easy to want to veer away from simple games, but what you built here oozes good LD juices and it's very original. Something about the 'pop' of that mouth talking is perfect (I'll be borrowing that for my next game). Thanks for the laughs, keep it up.

@levi thank you for the kind words :) I was little scared the dialogue was gonna fall flat so I'm glad to hear at least one person enjoyed it

Also, PLEASE use the popcat noises! Every time I redid my own tutorial it made me bust out laughing

If I could give this 6 stars for humor I would, The tutorial was an absolute joy to play and the pop cat demon caught me completely off guard. An hidden gem among all the other entries, this frantic subversion of the 'god' game is a welcome and unexpected departure from the genre. I would love a full version of this game. My only issue is that the tutorial was a bit too hard so I didn't really get to learn everything at a tutorialy pace (I failed right when the bamboo popped up).

Incredibly entry, I absolutely love this.

@zack-hd Thank you so much! Maybe I will have to expand on it after the Jam ends, it was a ton of fun to make :)

P.s. - There are difficulty options (including an easy mode) but they're hidden away in the settings! I definitely should've put them after you hit "start" though...

This is so fun, yet so stressful, oh my! I managed to get to year 92 in sicko mode!! :D

Pretty neat little game you have here. It is tough but it fits the theme in such a way. I like the idea of picking up weapons like this. It quickly showed the game and what it entails. Keep it up!

Super polished and fun game, got difficult quickly but stayed enjoyable. Really funny entry as well, I laughed when the demon started cat-popping. Such an enjoyable entry that fits the theme fantastically. Great stuff :smile:

Oh my gosh that was a fun time. Only thing, make selection of tools like, nicer? And make it easier to click small things. Otherwise it was perfect!

My hand hurts... 10/10

Really cute graphics and fun, simple gameplay! Great job :smile:

Cat popping demon immediately made the game better :). It definitely was immersive, and clearing plants was surprisingly stressful. The tools were pretty easy to learn, and I liked that some plants used the same tools in different ways.

I did softlock part of the tutorial on accident, when it started as I was holding the shovel, but I was still able to skip and figured out how to clear trees. Overall good game though, and that didn't detract from the experience! (except that I didn't get to listen to the demon :(

What an oddly stressful game! I will puppet what others are saying, and the little devil really steals the show!

Super job! Nice sounds for actions and the concept is very suitable for the theme.

Amazing, you really nailed the difficulty ramp. Every time I got the hang of the flow, something new was introduced to trip me up. Really great entry!

There is so much to say but in summary: AMAZING GAME!! Definitely the best one i've seen so far. I tried to go down a similar route in my game but applications of tools was reduced to unfinished stretch goals; however, it is really cool to see that idea executed so well! I need to send the person on my team who suggested having specific tools this game :)

Ahhh, i hate plants. This requires some serious apm :)
Overall a cool game!

Cool! I like everything

Interesting idea with a fresh aesthetic and a nice mood. It fits perfectly with the theme. Unusual gameplay. I had fun playing. Neat ++

haha very cool man! very unique as well! I liked the mechanics and everything was well layed out and though of!
Good job!

Very cool idea and neat graphics! I found it to get hard very quickly, especially on the first playthrough.
For me the tutorial got stuck at the point where the sapling is sprouting. I had to skip the rest of the tutorial to continue playing.

Nice idea.. I liked how you can place your tools around and it not snapping back to the origin place :)! I get to year 99 :)

@firesplash-entertainment I've seen a couple issues where the tutorial freezes around the sapling/tree part. I still can't find out whats causing it 😞
I'm glad it's skippable though and not game breaking!!

I love Balthazar! Good job on nailing the "Delay the Inevitable" theme.

Hello! I think that my cactuses are scared of me now that they saw me having fun for destroying the nature. Anyway the concept is cool. Finally a gale where the sound is not to high even at 20%.

Haha you make Baltazar do the POPOPO sound, our games are the same in that point :smirk_cat:

Respect for such vital and positive perspective of game, it was superfun and now my hand is tired but I tried hard!

This was so good! The music was a perfect match, and the voice of the narration was absolutely spot on. The mechanics were really fun too - surprisingly fun for how simple they appeared to be, but the time management elements of it really made it engaging. The timing was a little bit too fast, to be honest, and it felt like I was getting overwhelmed beyond the scope of what I could reasonably do in the time frame, but that's nothing a little tweaking couldn't fix.

Really well done - you should be proud of your entry!

Pretty cool take on the theme ! It gets really hectic after a while, especially given I can't put the tools back in their spot and they end up being just a mess of tools and trying to find the right one becomes impossible :laughing: cool concept, clean execution, great job !

I really liked the idea, and the character animation is amazing. the difficulty may increase a bit quickly but the use of the theme works well with the gameplay. good work !

Wow, it's actually amazing how we had completely opposite ideas and executed them in a similar way. I liked it a lot, it is really easy to get a hang of and enjoy it. I like how I quickly became stressed when I got all the instruments and plants were growing everywhere, good job!

Loved this entry!

**PROS:**
- The audio is opted out, so I suppose it wasn't made by you yourself, but the choice of audio was great and made the game feel intense, great mood!
- The talking face 'animation' was beautiful, LOVED IT!
- The different tools were interesting and I loved the variety.
- The variety and build-up in difficulty was appropriate for me.
- The amount of years was a fun way to keep score, made me want to keep trying to beat it, too!

**CONS:**
- As things got more intense, I had a hard time picking up tools properly, as I automatically just kept placing them on top of each other. Perhaps an option to pick them up with keyboard hotkeys would've been great! (Actually, I just realised this might've been a design choice to make the player be more thoughtful with where they'd drop the tools


I also ran into a single glitch once were I froze the game. During a dialogue bit, I either dropped or pick up a tool somehow (I don't remember how or what I did) and then I was unable to click to progress the dialogue.

**CONCLUSION:**
- Awesome enty, variety, and replayable to people who enjoy these kinds of multitasking games!

Really good use of the theme pairing it with the inevitability associated with life always finding a way. At first I found it a bit too challenging, but then I realized optimizing tool placement is key. The art is really pleasing and cohesive, and the music fits the theme nicely. I did run into a bit of a soft lock when I dropped a tool over a tutorial message that popped up (I assume the timing was just right) and it wouldn't let me continue. Not a big deal at all, just thought I would mention that it's possible.

Let me just say. I love Balthezar. The sound when he talks is AMAZING

The sound design + music was really well done.
I also think this is a really great take on the theme and the entire game seems really polished.

Had a lot of fun playing and it was quite stressful! Great game <3

A reverse survival game, neat! The tutorial was both funny and smooth, plus the difficulty ramps up at just the right pace for me.

Hahaha, what a cool one! I've enjoyed it really much :)
That sound effects are really neat. And my inevitable lose means that the life will go on, which actually is really satisfying

I reaaaally enjoyed this game :) It had a clear goal, a challenging difficulty, and was funny at its best with this extreme talk animation :laughing:

Nice one :thumbsup:

Very nice and refreshing to see a positive twist of this theme. I got the feeling that this jam is relatively darker one. :) Love the graphics; the artstyle is very cohesive artstyle and cute, and with a lot of personality. And love the speaking animation. Very adorable. One of my favorite entries this jam. :)

This was really fun to play, and it looked beautiful! I think there are especially points scored with the accessibility, the tutorial is very well put together, and the difficulty settings make it fun for everyone! I loved how it got more chaotic and difficult to manage over time, my highest score on sicko mode was 192 days.

Great job on this entry!

Very cool game!
I had a lot of fun, the visuals are nice, the sounds are okay (I love the sound that the tutorial guy makes when he talks)
The idea especially, I think it's really good. It's not the first time that life is a bad thing in a video game, but I still think it's a cool idea, especially since it works pretty well with the theme.

However, I'm not a fan of having a difficulty option. I think it would be better to have your game starting at really easy difficulty, and as time goes on it gets harder and harder, until it just gets impossible to survive. Plus, I played in both normal and sicko mode, and I didn't notice a big difference in difficulty. I easily managed to get to year 300+ in sicko mode.

Still a very good game overall, congrats :D

@haastregt @omgitsleana you guys are insane!!

First, Haastregt, I was about to say you're insane as you've beaten my PB at sicko mode :)
but then omgitsleana dropped the 300+ days!! Thats crazy!! My PB is only 170 haha

But the game does start at an easy difficulty and ramps up. The different difficulty options just controls where the game starts and where it caps out

Normal mode starts at a difficulty (speed) of 1, and caps out at 3. Sicko mode starts at 3, and caps out at 5!

Thank you both for playing so seriously I appreciate it!

Hilarious and so goddamn stressful! I was so quickly overwhelmed haha. Very fun take on the theme, and I love balthazar's character and mouth noises :joy: great job

Extremely polished, well thought out entry. The tutorial is a great way to introduce the mechanics (and it's really funny). Kind of wish Balthazar was in the game a little more, reacting to your movements. Wins for this game are the visuals and sound effects. My critiques:

I ended up having a big pile of tools on my earth. This is entirely my fault, but it made the game very frustrating. Perhaps a scroll wheel of tools would be a good feature, or have tools automatically go back to a certain location.

Dialogue sometimes got stuck and I had to press skip instead of the arrow for next, missing out on that little pop sound effect

I wish more plants had better visual feedback for when they would regrow. On top of this, trees basically regrew instantaneously, which forced a certain playstyle

I want a bit more liveliness in the scenery! Like I said, add Balthazar outside of the tutorial!

Minor, but the gradient of green slowly taking over the world feels more like a visual glitch than intentional. Rather than different sprite try using a shader to get more control

Great entry overall!

The gameplay is simple, but very well done, and works to the browser format very well. Not having tools default back to where they originally spawned was a very smart idea, as it turned tool management and placement into a very important mechanic for the game. I'm clearly not that good at it, though-I only managed to get to year 77 as I struggled to grab the right tool. :sweat_smile:

The story is effective, and Balthazar is charming in his dialogue boxes. However, his dialogue boxes *did* occasionally get stuck, which was initially confusing and made me worry that the game was soft-locked until I saw the skip button. The graphics and audio are also simple but effective, working well to establish a mood while not getting in the way of the gameplay.

In the end, there isn't any real major gripes I have towards the game beyond the glitch with the dialogue boxes. Nice work.

Haha, very addictive game! :) Those bushes are too resilient, I want to destroy them all!
Graphics and very nice, simple, but on point! Audio is great, puts you into the right mood :) Thank you for this great entry!

The inevitable life. Interesting idea)

Really solid game. The art and setting make the simple idea pretty engaging.

The only major feedback I have is that it was quite annoying to switch tools. It feels like an overly complex mechanic for a simple game like this.

But overall, really good entry!

cool vibe love being an overlord! the subjects were plenty but i wish it was mapped to keyboard to select item of usage. it locks the player unnecesserily for my taste. other than that very well made thanks for sharing well done!

Very nice tutorial!

I personally am not a fan of games where i have to click on things really fast and frantically, though.

The art was nice. The balance was tough. You're really in to it straight away!

Have to pickup and put down the tools is a cool idea.

Totrial subtitles: *POP** **POP** **POP** **POP** (Lasted 83 years)

Pros:
- Great and unique take on the theme. Very positive one nontheless
- Demanding gameplay
- Good difficulty steps
- The pop-pop tutorial is hilarious
- Great variety of 'life-enemies' and tools to use

Cons:

- I just wish there was a key shortcut to select tools instead of clicking them back and fort. I believe it would not hurt the gameplay in any shape or form
- Any 'recharging' meter on the bushes or any other re-growable elements would be nice to get a better game feel and make priorities straight on what to focus on.

Great entry nontheless. Good job!

Nice game. I found the bush too quick to grow back, I agree with @mikoziq , shortcuts would greatly improve the game's controls. That said, this is a very nice entry. Good job.


:smiling_imp: *pop* *pop* *pop*


Nice entry! My best score was 99 in sicko mode.

As others have said, the tutorial guy and his speaking noises are hilarious. Overall the game has a lot of character in the graphics, gameplay, and premise, and it was very satisfying to frantically find the right tools of destruction to eliminate some hapless flower or shrub.

It would have been neat if there was more variety in how you dealt with plants other than just clicking on them quickly with the right kind of tools. Something timing related or tiny tiny mini-games would have been neat.

It sounds like you didn't make the music since you opted out of audio, but it was a very good choice of music at least.

Nice work for a solo Jam entry!

nice variety of tools and the art looks nice. I also really liked your little talking face and sound for the demon thing that gives instructions. Bonus points for including a tutorial.