Harvest Heist by Sheepolution

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

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A bandit trio has a devious plan to become rich. They will steal vegetables from a farmer.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

"Isn't that dangerous? What if they get caught!"

Your concern is appreciated, but fear not, for our friends have disguised themselves. Not even the most experienced farmer will notice the difference between them and an actual vegetable. Once they are underground, that is.

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Despite this 200 IQ precaution, the mission won't be without risks. It just so happens to be that they are messing with the biggest and angriest farmer in the country. Once he notices one of his vegetables missing, he will start tracking you down in no time.

Can you outsmart the farmer and fulfill the dream of this trio to become rich?

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Controls

Movement - Arrow Keys / WASD

Harvest - Z / X / J / Spacebar

Hide - C / K / Ctrl / Shift

Confirm - Z / X / J / Spacebar / Enter

Credits

Code - Sheepolution

Art - Shores & Sheepolution

Music - Makkeraad

Ratings

Overall 30th 4.22⭐ 27đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Fun 40th 4.125⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Innovation 28th 4.167⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Theme 15th 4.521⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Graphics 72th 4.375⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Audio 15th 4.313⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Humor 6th 4.5⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Mood 28th 4.292⭐ 26đŸ§‘â€âš–ī¸
Given 16đŸ—ŗī¸ 11đŸ—¨ī¸

Feedback

fc85057
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 05:07 UTC
Wow, amazing job! This really has everything. It's a lot of fun to play and is a really cool and unique concept. Loads of great humor throughout. The gameplay mechanic is very satisfying, from the hiding and the arrow key combinations to pulling out the vegetables. Having to pull out the other characters is also a great idea. Art and audio are very impressive as well. Even the menu is spot-on; it looks fantastic and the farmer's flashlight is a really nice added touch.

I did encounter a bug during my first playthrough. The first two characters were hidden, and then when the third got caught, the game just froze up. Since there was no menu and I couldn't do anything, I had to restart. It was sometimes also a little difficult to find the hidden players due to the limited visibility and size of the map, but that very well may have been an intentional challenge.
TRUEchips
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 11:41 UTC
Okay, This so great. I love everything! I really have nothing to criticize about that, GOOD JOB!


also I encourage you to develop this game some more.
fallcresthero
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 12:56 UTC
Great job on every aspect of the game. Feels like a complete and polished game. Keep up the good work!

F Pressers pay you respect
🎤 Sheepolution
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 13:57 UTC
Thanks everyone!

@fc85057 Wow, hadn't thought of that. This is now fixed :thumbsup:
LDJam user 245646
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 17:58 UTC
I love the silly concept and the dialogue! The constant hiding and trying really hard not to fumble the arrow keys made a really thrilling experience. The amount of polish is also commendable. Overall, really solid!
Tony Redmer
10. Jan 2023 ¡ 23:27 UTC
Love the art! The concept is hilarious - love the little voice sfx. The death animation is seriously incredible O.O
La bread
11. Jan 2023 ¡ 03:45 UTC
LMAO I love the death animation reference for the farmer!
nullval
11. Jan 2023 ¡ 08:30 UTC
wow :O the art and sounds are absolutely stellar! really fantastic job. The gameplay is really fun and tense
Lawrence
11. Jan 2023 ¡ 09:16 UTC
This is such a cool interpretation of the theme and very well executed. Good job!
She Wrote
12. Jan 2023 ¡ 05:18 UTC
Some deaths feel a bit unfair, I don't have enough time to react to the farmer, as the camera is too zoomed in; but the core gameplay is creative, the story is funny, the music is good, and it is really fun to bury yourself; Overall it is a nice game. Well done!
Aurel300
12. Jan 2023 ¡ 12:11 UTC
Cute game!

I appreciated the polish, like the menu screen, the different "voices" for the characters, or the rotoscoped farmer-punch. Graphically the game was nice, although maybe a bit bland. Some extra decor or "bonus" veggies could have been nice. The music and audio overall was great.

Gameplay-wise it all felt pretty good with minor exceptions. (One of them was my fault, playing on a low-end machine, but the arrow sequences started feeling unresponsive; the game wasn't actually laggy, it just had more, inconsistent input delay.) I found it a bit annoying that I couldn't pull any more veggies when the farmer was coming, I think this could make for a nice high risk/high reward situation (maybe with bonus points?). I thought it would be nice to visually distinguish a hidden robber from a regular vegetable, although maybe remembering where they were is part of the challenge -- but if so, once again it would be nice to have a more distinctive look to the places in the map other than the fences and a general feeling of direction. Oh and I thought it a bit weird when I hid all 3 of my robbers that the game just sort of... faded out.
Quoclon
13. Jan 2023 ¡ 03:43 UTC
First perfect rating I've given out. Loved the art, the funny dialogue, the 4th wall breaking comments from the characters. The animation was lively, and pressing the key directions to up-root the veggies felt so satisfying. I don't think I "finished", and perhaps if there was one suggestion it would be to give a bit more context of 'winning' looks like? Overall excellent, well done :)
SurrealSalad
13. Jan 2023 ¡ 06:46 UTC
This was so much fun! I really liked that the controls for pulling up vegetables had variety so it didn't feel too tedious. My favorite part was having to pull up a person dressed as broccoli from the ground XD. Great job! I could definitely see myself coming back to this one and playing again!
Hawkin
14. Jan 2023 ¡ 01:31 UTC
WHAT a genius opening menu! I always look forward to what you all put out, because it is always wonderful and innovative, from the artwork to the music to the gameplay. I liked how the pattern from hitting the keys matched the music, too. That was inspired. The writing was especially humorous, and the different endings (KNOCK OUT) were also an unexpected treat. Fantastic work as always!
blubberquark
18. Jan 2023 ¡ 19:00 UTC
Beast take on the theme so far!
Simon Rahnasto
25. Jan 2023 ¡ 17:42 UTC
What a glorious entry! the animations are fantastic, the voice acting is phenomenal, the entire premise is so silly that it becomes a master piece. I always have high expectations playing your games, but this time you have out done yourself. This may very well be my favorite Sheepolution entry (and for sure the best Jam entry I have tried this LD), and that is saying a lot. #SheepMagic
alexrose
26. Jan 2023 ¡ 01:57 UTC
Okay so first, I love the title screen, I love the art, the carrot guy is GOATed and it's very funny as usual from a Sheep game. I thought it played well but I also felt balance wise it was exploitable and it just felt like the broccoli exploit was the clear solution. I also found that the farmer detection was very fast and the best solution was not to react to him but to preemptively be a coward and dig in

I really love the idea. That carrot tunnelling sprite is amazing. I think in principle though the idea got last in the execution of the kind of.. ddr-ish input, and it probably would've been fun if you spent more time engineering the stealth system rather than the pulling system. I also don't think having 3 characters was really necessary considering how iconic the carrot guy is, I think if you'd just done the carrot guy running around stealing vegetables and hiding from an increasingly difficult farmer who beats the shit out of you it probably would've been a better game and with a lot less dev effort. it's easy though in LD to just go down a rabbithole on one design choice and then realise afterwards it could've gone better, I think I had the same thing happen this jam

nonetheless it was still a fun game and it was funny and quintessentially Sheepolution ish. It reminded me a lot of Mr Bank's Journey
alexrose
26. Jan 2023 ¡ 01:57 UTC
also 5 for audio just because of those dialogue barks
Ava Skoog
27. Jan 2023 ¡ 17:38 UTC
Was really excited to play this one when I saw it on the front page! Not disappointed, just a little confused 😅 Amazing in terms of gameplay and polish but I never seemed to be able to find any sort of win state, nor any way to cash in and increase the money counter. I scourged this page and the one on itch.io to no avail. I searched the entire level and I tried and failed to return through the starting gate. Based on the comments it seems it's just me, so what am I missing? â˜šī¸

Regardless, it's really well done! 💜 Characters have lots of personality for what little we see them express in the intro, which like the gameplay itself provided a lot of humour. Sound design is on par, changing the music when you're discovered etc. and the harvesting sfx match. The animation of the farmer going in for a swing is fantastic.

I liked that the arrow patterns repeated so that you could get through the longer strings quickly once you picked up on them. Not sure I liked that you couldn't abort harvesting to dig down straight away, seemed hard enough as it was 😅 Pretty much always failed to dig anyone back up because the farmer felt omnipresent. Does he teleport or genuinely just walk around?

Overall super cool game!! Just minor grievances, some of them probably on me~ Nice work!
🎤 Sheepolution
27. Jan 2023 ¡ 23:49 UTC
Thanks for playing @ava-skoog and the long review.

Digging one of your partners back up is how you get cash, as they'll return to the start with the vegetables they picked up. The farmer has certain paths it can take, and will take another path once in a while. That's all there is to it, honestly.
Ava Skoog
28. Jan 2023 ¡ 00:22 UTC
@sheepolution: Ahhh, that explains it, since I was so bad at digging them back up that I pretty much didn't catch on to it. I tried again to greater success and now I'm enjoying the banger of a song on the end screen 😍

![Skjermbilde 2023-01-28 kl. 01.18.03.png](///raw/4c/z/56dc2.png)
Dyl K
24. Apr 2025 ¡ 17:24 UTC
Great job! Your guys' game is so polished, thought the gameplay hook is a perfect jam game idea, easy to pick up and not overly complicated. The ddr -style prompts reminded me of similar mechanics in Mark of the Ninja and Nine Sols but elevated to being the main player interaction with the game world. The aesthetics are so well done all around, particularly loved the main menu and sound design, the simlish/nintendo-style 'voiceover' is incredibly charming.