Hearty Harvest by Tobius

[raw]
made by Tobius for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

heartharvesttitle.png

Play Hearty Harvest

What is the game?

Hearty Harvest is a relaxing puzzle game about growing and harvesting plants. With a unique take on the typical match-3 style, you'll be harvesting crops till the cows come home. 👩‍🌾

How is it unique?

You do not score points for simply grouping plants together. Instead, each plant grows every turn and when it is fully grown you score points. However, plants will only grow if they are next to another plant of the same color. More plants of the same color will cause them to grow even faster.

heartyharvestcover4.png

Who made it?

Mike, Ryan, and Trevor! We are a group of friends with no real game development experience that like to do Jams together. This is our second Jam as a group, if you'd like to see what we made for our first jam, check out Moirah's Manor!

What is the target audience?

This game is intended to be a mobile game (Try it out on your phone!) that appeals to people who like puzzle games but want something different than the typical bejeweled or candy crush. It is also a great game for anyone who likes casino games but doesn't want to spend money.

What's next for the game?

We would love to publish this on mobile app stores eventually, but first we need an artist to create us actual assets for the game instead of using the free / generated assets we have now.

As far as features, the biggest missing feature is supporting swiping to swap plants instead of clicking. It is partially working but was more challenging than we thought to get it right.

Lastly, adding more content and features to the game. Like different effects that can happen on the different moon phases, other choices instead of seeds each turn (extra growth, etc), additional levels to play, and more design to make the game feel more polished.

Play Hearty Harvest

Ratings

Overall 442th 3.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 455th 3.295⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 295th 3.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 232th 3.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 217th 3.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 371th 3.5⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

bigbadollie
09. Jan 2023 · 18:48 UTC
Wow the artwork looks stunning! I feel like the tutorial could have been a bit more clear.
JoshKirby
11. Jan 2023 · 23:54 UTC
The arts incredible! Like others have said, the tutorial should've been a bit clearer
Torban
11. Jan 2023 · 23:55 UTC
Really cute game. The mechanics of adding matching color veggies was a really nice and innovative touch that tied in with the Harvest theme really. Great work on this one!
BtheDestroyer
11. Jan 2023 · 23:56 UTC
Really great art, though some simple animations on everything would have made it way more clear how all of the interactions worked.

Maybe it's just me, but the tutorial wasn't *super* clear as to what I was supposed to do, but I was still able to complete a few levels so I must have done something right :sweat_smile: I think specific instructions in the tutorial (eg: Swap these two plants) and highlighting the results of my actions (eg: See how that made them grow faster?) would have helped.

The music and sound effects were spot on, though some variation in the sound effects and more of them would have helped. I don't think there was any sound when I actually scored points (or if there was, it didn't scale based on how many points I scored) which made it hard to tell intuitively if I was doing well.
Iskra
12. Jan 2023 · 00:10 UTC
Great game! Looking forward to the mobile version ^^
DaBoombus
12. Jan 2023 · 01:28 UTC
I really love the artwork and music. They really create a relaxing mood that fits the pace of the game.
I found the game somewhat confusing though, I wasn't ever really sure where the purchased seeds would end up going.

Overall I really enjoyed the game, good job!
stephenwhoskins
14. Jan 2023 · 02:40 UTC
This is a really good game! I love how relaxing it is and I do find it innovative and a very good use of the theme! I give this game two thumbs up! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Wolfraam1974
16. Jan 2023 · 09:41 UTC
Very relax and beutiful game! Respect!
Chase of Bass
16. Jan 2023 · 09:44 UTC
The strategy in this was really addictive and fun! I really like how you could group them together and take a chance that the seeds you pick each round would go in the spots you're hoping for -really satisfying to get large groups of them and an excellent design choice having similar colors work too -made it easier in a good way! I would buy this game on steam -fantastic work! :D
JUMPirate
16. Jan 2023 · 09:58 UTC
A very novel form of casual game, which combines elimination elements and a little roguelike elements, become a very interesting combination.
OddballDave
16. Jan 2023 · 10:20 UTC
I like the concept. An interesting twist on the classic matching games. Graphics and audio are top notch. Everything worked as expected. This is a very solid entry. A little bit more variety in the gameplay might have been nice, but that's only a minor gripe. I think this will do well.

Good stuff :8ball:
Ginxel
16. Jan 2023 · 21:43 UTC
Really cute art!!
Tyler M
19. Jan 2023 · 00:22 UTC
I love your take on the match genre! The aesthetic was great, and the music felt very appropriate. I think you could work a little more to make the mechanics more intuitive like experimenting with animations to show the crops getting harvested for hearts between rounds (maybe they fly into a basket for instance). You could also do more to show the plants benefitting from being next to each other (like a sparkle or glow that scales with larger matches). I could definitely see you guys fleshing this concept out into a full game!
amarokczukay
20. Jan 2023 · 18:43 UTC
nice concept, it's a chill puzzle game. i like having to take care of the colors, it's a nice mechanic. 27 days seemed a bit too long, but i don't know.
Blue Pin Studio
21. Jan 2023 · 10:11 UTC
The entry was not bad, personally i don't enjoy the art because its blatantly made by an A.I in most cases. As far as the gameplay goes, I had much better luck spamming random buttons than actually trying to figure out what to do. Overall i would say its a nice entry but the gameplay needs a bit of work :D
ChevalBancal
21. Jan 2023 · 21:38 UTC
Really great artwork and nice twist on the classic swap and match games. I found the game confusing though. Good job nonetheless
WobbleBlocks
22. Jan 2023 · 12:57 UTC
Awesome work! solid gameplay and nice graphics!
moonlightbomber
23. Jan 2023 · 10:33 UTC
I agree with the others here. The mechanics need to be clearer. Gameplay would be intuitive if I would drag and drop two crops.
Alchemic
27. Jan 2023 · 18:33 UTC
It took me a bit to understand it, it's a really unique mechanic! The artwork is interesting.