Harvest Noon by dod108

[raw]
made by dod108 for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

It is high noon and your time is limited. Harvesting crops replenishes lost time and helps you survive longer. However, demons want it back. Kill them and get healing rowan berries.

Supports keyboard and controller, controller is recommended but not necessary. All assets are mine, except: - fonts: Owre Kynge by jeti, Alagard by Hewett Tsoi - sound effects: GDC bundle - music: Jason Shaw

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Ratings

Overall 530th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 474th 3.262⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 688th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 464th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 490th 3.432⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 499th 3.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

smashcrate
09. Jan 2023 · 15:30 UTC
Cute game. Nice mechanics and visuals. Good job :)
fc85057
09. Jan 2023 · 19:04 UTC
Fun game! The simple pixel art style is great. I really like the presentation overall and brings back fond memories of older games- makes me want to know more about the game's lore and what exactly is going on!
I did find that if I just focused on one direction, I could go that way indefinitely while continuously ignoring enemies.
🎤 dod108
09. Jan 2023 · 20:06 UTC
@fc85057 Thanks! Regarding the lore question, the enemies were inspired by Slavic folklore (I'm Polish): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Midday

I'm aware that you can kinda cheese the game by going constantly to the one direction. But when I tried this I made a mistake after some time and died anyway and given the time constraint I decided to leave it as it is, since the additional balancing required to completely fix that could be time consuming. I hope it won't be too game breaking.
HFSEvans
09. Jan 2023 · 23:48 UTC
There's a lot of scythe, soul harvesting games, but I think this does a lot right. I love the depleting health which forces us to scramble for resources, and it takes the concept/theme beyond just harvesting souls.
Unentokku
10. Jan 2023 · 07:11 UTC
Very cool, the graphical style is nice and idea is neat(considered doing something like that myself).
Something about movement doesn't feel great though, I feel like I keep getting stuck against things.
syudzius
10. Jan 2023 · 18:48 UTC
Good game, fits the theme well! I also liked the art style and atmosphere :)
Keep up the good work!
Big Cyckos
11. Jan 2023 · 00:00 UTC
Solid gameplay there. Visuals are simple but effective. Hooked me for a lot longer than I thought it would. Super giera men ;)
Pfannkuchen
11. Jan 2023 · 10:27 UTC
Cute game. I like the idea, but the controls are not very convenient. JKL are okay, but there's a problem with WASD, I wish I would be able to press two buttons simultaneously to move diagonal
🎤 dod108
11. Jan 2023 · 10:50 UTC
@pfannkuchen this is meant to be like this, because diagonals would require another set of sprites and I'm not good at drawing and didn't have time.
Pfannkuchen
11. Jan 2023 · 11:04 UTC
@dod108 okay, anyway this is nice. Especially for one developer
LDJam user 120290
11. Jan 2023 · 12:01 UTC
Harvest is nice, art style is good, but not too innovation
osh.studio
11. Jan 2023 · 12:11 UTC
Very cool style and intro, I felt like I was missing the ability to move diagonally but that was my only gripe. Good submission!
MarcoMing
11. Jan 2023 · 15:55 UTC
I really liked the pixel art, and the gameplay is simple but effective, the font was cool but a little hard to read, a suggestion would be to use the fancy font for the title but a more clearer font for the instructions. Nice Work!
n.feofentov
11. Jan 2023 · 20:42 UTC
Nice little game. It's funny that demons look the same as you but pale :smile: Gave me Noonwraith from The Witcher 3 vibes. Berries seems unnecessary as long as you replenish your health from harvesting. Also collision with crops feels odd. Maybe it would be better without it.
🎤 dod108
11. Jan 2023 · 21:47 UTC
@n-feofentov I'm not surprised that it gives such vibes, because the enemies are inspired by exactly the same folk creature.

Yeah, I didn't have time to balance the berries and harvesting better. As for the collisions, I think it would feel better if there was some depth rendering system implemented, again unfortunately I ran out of time and wasn't able to do that :(
deadjolly
13. Jan 2023 · 02:27 UTC
![364.png](///raw/74d/c4/z/56542.png)
Got a score of 364 after a few tries. I liked that the declining timebar contrasted with your movement going forward. Movement was a bit iffy, getting stuck at several times, but the dash felt solid. Simple art aesthetic gets the job done, could have used a bit more atmosphere.
Bastienre4
20. Jan 2023 · 11:02 UTC
Nice entry, a little bit easy as I scored 390 on the first try. Definitely the most stressful game out there haha.