Pumpkin Panic by HitchH1k3r
Reading the local newspaper for your pumpkin fixated town, you come across an ad for an old pumpkin patch. It's been closed for years, but maybe you can buy it and start growing pumpkins again.
Still questions about why it closed in the first place trouble you, Hopefully you don't find yourself in a Pumpkin Panic, and instead focus on...
Growing Gourds 
Keeping Up With The Local News 
Automating Your Farm 
Buying Upgrades 
...but you better harvest your pumpkins, before something harvests you.
Controls
- Interact - Mouse + Left Mouse Button
Helpful Info
- Every in game morning (60 seconds of real time), a newspaper will be delivered. The newspaper offers upgrades that will help you and your farm.
- You can hold up to 5 newspapers at once (so feel free to let your automated farm do some work while you stretch or go for a walk).
- The game has an ending, see if you can reach it.
Known Bugs
- None so far (Jan. 8, 2023)
Version History
Jan. 8, 2023 :: v1.0 - Compo. release
| Link | https://hitchh1k3r.itch.io/pumpkin-panic |
| Link | https://github.com/hitchh1k3r/LD52-Pumpkin-Panic |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/pumpkin-panic |
Ratings
| Overall | 121th | 3.587⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 114th | 3.587⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 274th | 2.87⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 36th | 4.261⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 159th | 3.543⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 177th | 3.13⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 165th | 2.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 173th | 3.25⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 9🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
**If there is significant interest** in a macOS port I could possibly setup a VM (if you are an Apple lawyer VM stands for "Voice Mail" -- as in I will have my friend compile it and they will call me to tell me about it).
At first the gameplay is simple and fun. The "helpers" sometimes wander on the water which I don't think is really useful. Later on it gets too repetitive and your hand gets tired of too much clicking. I see potential for adding more features.
The explanations on the newspaper were clear enough that you easily understand what each upgrade does. Nice work on that.
Thank's to the Reaper upgrade my hand finally got some rest... Really like your game, It's simple yet addictive. In the beginning I often forget to plant after tilling, maybe a better visual marker for unplanted, tilled soil would be a good addition to your game.
Good job on this entry ! :tada:
@gcake I'm seeing a lot about finger pain, so I guess my plan to make a Cookie Clicker inspired game was a success!
The graphics were nice and simple. Great job!
The idea to make newspapers 'forever lost' once closed was an interesting idea. It always kept me guessing how many pumpkins I would need before clicking on it.
In my opinion, the end screen is sort of in bad taste. Game James favor HTML5 games enough, and it would be terrible for some kind of malware to spread through an event like this. I downloaded and ran your executable in good faith, and I'm a bit disappointing what you did with that access, even if you intended it as a joke.
Would be nice to have a way to get the game into full screen. Would've been nice to have a clearer indiction that the pumpkins were planted after tilling - took me a second to realize they weren't at the start. The end screen didn't actually show me how many pumpkins I'd planted & watered :( both said 0
In other unrelated news, my doctor said I suddenly have carpal tunnel.
@oliver I am glad you enjoyed the progression of the farm and the simple graphics.
@island-jam-2-group-3 Sorry about that, the game currently does not have the option to be maximized. I was originally going to do the game a bit different (more pixel art) and I out hard coded screen size in the source. I will definitely consider changing that in any future updates.
@ayperosia If I do any future updates, I will look into adding a way to get the game into full screen and making a clearer indication that the pumpkins have been planted verses tilled soil. Now that you mention it I don't think I ever added the code to count pumpkins planted and watered... It slipped my mind in the bustle of the jam. I apologize for the confusion.
@phibian I apologize for any hand pain caused by playing the game. ^_^
@lzxh The flicker on your screen could have been a bug in my code (I think I may have seen it a few times in development -- when harvesting a pumpkin), I will look into it. I am glad you enjoyed the newspaper idea and the game overall.
@matank I apologize for the timing of the reaper upgrade in your game, it is mostly random. I did think up a better way to do it after the compo. (using a shuffled "deck" of upgrades that gets drawn from, and then reahuffled). If I do any future updates (and in future games) I will look into implementing something better.
Thanks for the entry!
Very nice game, though watching the automation bots felt somewhat frustrating due to their ineffectiveness