A Farmer's nightmare by streq

[raw]
made by streq for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

you are a farmer and you have to harvest crops but there's a catch!!! you are actually inside a nightmare devised by some devil that will only free you once you cut a certain amount of crops, also there's zombies that will turn your crops evil!!!! (they are the devil's friends)

might have performance issues.

HTML, Linux, Windows and Mac versions available in the itch.io link!

Font used: A modified zx-eurostile by damieng https://damieng.com/typography/zx-origins/zx-eurostile

Ratings

Overall 129th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 49th 3.9⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 102th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 73th 4.095⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 190th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 235th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 117th 3.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 117th 3.525⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Joel Davis
09. Jan 2023 · 00:54 UTC
This was pretty fun, and had a surprising amount of depth once i understood it. I liked the flavor text ("let me know if it's too scary"), it gave it a nice contrast with the dark theme. Neat mechanic too, harvesting without "painting yourself into a corner". Good job!
Justin_C
09. Jan 2023 · 15:05 UTC
Really nice game. That swing is so satisfying.
matimat
09. Jan 2023 · 17:19 UTC
I didn't understand everything but harvesting was fun.
Bravo
Cloughd
09. Jan 2023 · 18:14 UTC
Harvesting with the scythe animation felt really satisfying. Big swoops and all the crops floating up! The lore text in the beginning could use a little editing to present the lore in a less 4th wall breaking way. The art is pretty charming.
Rob6566
09. Jan 2023 · 21:49 UTC
Fun game! It took me a couple of goes to figure out that the mouse position mattered (I missed the text in the field). Nice art/animations, and the difficulty/length was about right.
LDJam user 315170
09. Jan 2023 · 22:20 UTC
Cool game! Harvesting crops with the scythe was surprisingly satisfying, which I did not expect. Some additional gameplay variety would be nice though.
cybek
10. Jan 2023 · 01:16 UTC
Simple but funny game, love the graphics and animation! But looks like sometimes the crops couldn't be harvested. Is it normal or just some collisions not detecting the scythe?
🎤 streq
10. Jan 2023 · 01:19 UTC
@cybek I just discovered this issue two hours ago while randomly playing! I have no idea what could've caused it, I think it has to do with the way the game resets when you die/win, though I'm not fully sure. Thanks for the comment!

EDIT: yeah, it's that, if you die mid slashing some crops those crops will be "invincible" in the next playthrough.
cybek
10. Jan 2023 · 02:06 UTC
Oh, it gives even more to being the nightmare of the farmer :D possessed, zombie crops from earlier lives of the farmer.
Thanks for fast debugging ;)
🎤 streq
10. Jan 2023 · 02:27 UTC
@cybek that is such a good take on the bug lol, it's canon now :P
Found Bow Tonight
10. Jan 2023 · 03:51 UTC
The game is very different. I first think it's just a planting game. But I finally find it't not simply that. Very good your game is!
DzejPi
12. Jan 2023 · 18:18 UTC
A lot of fun! You really nailed the harvesting now. It feels super responsive and satisfying, which not something a lot of games can accomplish, especially with such a time limit. Art style and colors chosen are great too! But I always got rekt by the blood wheat in the end. The nightmare never ends! Great game :)
timon
15. Jan 2023 · 16:35 UTC
Felt so satisfying to harvest big bunches of crops! I felt the pressure from zombies and evil crops, really got me invested in quickly moving around and harvesting. Super nice entry overall, my only regret is that I wanted more levels!
Skvader_418
16. Jan 2023 · 01:21 UTC
hey that was pretty fun, would have prefered if it was a bit longer, but its good as it is
HolySparks
16. Jan 2023 · 22:48 UTC
The game is pretty nice. The whole gameplay loop is very polished, with smooth movement and all.
JakobTheQuizGuy
18. Jan 2023 · 22:45 UTC
As others have said, very nice polish, especially on the scythe animation. I like how it swings from a different direction every other time. The harvesting sound was soft and unintrusive - which was very important seeing as how you harvest a lot of crops constantly - yet fitting. Difficulty-wise it's also well balanced, there were a few times I was almost cornered by the red crops yet made it out safe which made me feel engaged. The way the red crops spread out when you kill a zombie makes you have to actually use tacticts, something a lesser game would not have you do, which also heightened my engagement. And with funny text on top of it all you've got a great compo game! All that's missing for a better mood is a tune but I get if you didn't have the time for it.
🎤 streq
18. Jan 2023 · 23:30 UTC
@jakobthequizguy hey thank you for the comment! I actually took special care with the harvesting sounds so that it was impossible for more than one to start playing in the same frame (which would effectively double the volume). I set up a sound pool which decided whether to play a harvesting sound or not based on whether one had already started playing in that frame. I understand this is a somewhat common solution to this issue but this was my first time trying it out, glad it was appreciated :).
Sisyphean Games
22. Jan 2023 · 18:09 UTC
Harvesting the crops with the scythe feels great, love the animation. I also like the red crops idea. Kinda wish I could move through the crops without having to harvest them first, it would make dodging the zombies a bit easier.
Glaikunt
22. Jan 2023 · 18:58 UTC
Awesome little game to play through. I like the way you designed the enemy & that they created blocking points made it a lot more interesting to play through. A lot could be added to this idea as well with some creepy background music :D great job!
![a_farmers-nightmare.png](///raw/2bb/43/z/56b92.png)
🎤 streq
22. Jan 2023 · 20:57 UTC
@sisyphean-games Thank you for playing! Yeah I'm unsure myself whether the crops acting as walls was a good idea, maybe if they just slowed down the player a bit it would allow for more depth in gameplay.

@glaikunt Thank you! glad you beat it :), yes I agree!, I always struggle with music in jams because I always leave it for last lol.