LudumData

Grim Gardener by xfinktion

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

A bullethell where you play as a retired grim reaper named Grimothy out to harvest plants for his new gardening hobby. Be careful, the plants that he is after do fight back! Use your scythe to defeat them and take them back to the garden!

The first screen after the menu is a level select. 3 dirt patches each take you to a different monster. Beat them to get a Soul Seed for your garden! (Doesn't really do much but gives you a kinda cute version of the monster)

On the level select screen, there is also a yellow hat in case you just want to just see the every the monsters have to offer. It will turn off collisions for you against them. Use the red hat to take it off if you want :)

Controls:

WASD to move

Right Click to Throw Scythe

Left Click to Teleport to Scythe

Edit 2: I GOT A WORKING WEB BUILD! Thanks to danmerey for the comment (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/night-harvester/unity-webgl-build-not-working), it helped me solve my problem!

Edit 1: Had some issues with the Web version, unfortunately I only have the standalone..!

Title.PNG

Link https://github.com/sfink45/LD52
Music, Web, Windows Download https://gamejolt.com/games/Grim_Gardener/777843
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/grim-gardener

Ratings

Overall 209th 3.316⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 156th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 285th 2.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 194th 3.553⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 282th 2.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 109th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 135th 2.912⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 207th 3.132⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 262634
09. Jan 2023 · 00:09 UTC
Good job ! the game is cool and works well, the scythe tp is also nice
The bosses are quite unbalanced but that's to be expected for 3 bosses in a 2 day jam
I had a few glitches where ennemies spawn after the 2nd boss is dead or my scythe tp bringing me to the wrong spot sometimes but nothing too game breaking
Also the first boss likes to spawn in front of me so I take a free hit
Sounds are not only there but also cool, graphics are very Ok nothing to add, a very clean game jam once again good job
pushmepullyu
09. Jan 2023 · 08:46 UTC
Always love a good bullet hell :D
jaonewguy
10. Jan 2023 · 09:25 UTC
Scythe-blink so cool! Epic music too.

Would be nice to have some words or tooltips to guide a new player at the beginning. But your description does a decent job atm.
🎤 xfinktion
10. Jan 2023 · 10:00 UTC
@jaonewguy
Thanks! I wasn't sure if I was gonna compete in this jam, saw the theme, and started making the title/level select music. I was too happy with it to not share!

The tutorial was on next my list, but some gamebreaking issues cropped up at the last minute that I figured it would be more time efficient to use the description to explain what I wanted while I wait for builds to finish. This will teach me to manage my scope better and not refactor too late :)
Najimi
11. Jan 2023 · 00:44 UTC
I had fun playing this game, and the green thumb took me even a lot of tries but I managed to! For a Compo I think you did a really good job. Would be cool if there were more bosses! I liked the mechanic with the teleport, because at first I was like how am I gonna survive this :D The bosses were kinda cute and also hilarious. But what the hell were those things that the green thumb spawned?
KlinsmannHengles
11. Jan 2023 · 00:51 UTC
Good bosses and good soundtrack :)
🎤 xfinktion
11. Jan 2023 · 01:08 UTC
@najimi

Thanks! I was particularly happy with how the Green Thumb enemy art turned out :) As for the things the thumb spawned, they were originally a placeholder for a tutorial I had planned to show off the dodging/attacking mechanics. Then I made the thumb boss and needed something for him to spawn and I only had the Scaresnip as the other enemy made. Eventually, the deadline made my placeholder art not so temporary. I called them SpitterPlants in the code :D
timon
11. Jan 2023 · 21:19 UTC
The music has me in absolute awe, genuinely so good! You really nailed that feeling of excitement down with the tombstone movement + epic music just before the boss spawns :D Gameplay was solid and had me invested in no time, and collecting trophies from the bosses was a nice touch too. Awesome job!
Jason Wilson
12. Jan 2023 · 16:10 UTC
I found this game punishingly hard. I'm not very good at bullet hells to begin with, so take that for what it's worth. I don't know if I missed it, but I didn't see any kind of indication as to the player's health. It seems like they can take 3 hits, but I'm not 100% sure.

The music is epic and very well done. The character art is super cute. Great work!
🎤 xfinktion
13. Jan 2023 · 00:46 UTC
@jason-wilson

Thanks for playing and the feedback!

I did have a small healthbar for the player next to the enemy healthbar. I didn't have the chance to make sure it was labeled properly (or at all), so it's understandably missable. But 3 hits was the player's health.

I did question if I had made it too difficult, though. There were attacks for the Scaresnip and the Corn bosses that I did rework to make them slightly easier and more predictable. The Scaresnip had a delayed projectile that spawned on the charges that flew toward the center of the screen and the number of projectiles spawned from the corn's exploding ones were randomized. In hindsight, I should have either buffed player health, decreased player hitbox size, and/or lowered enemy health. Would have been a relatively quick change that could have made the game feel more balanced and more forgiving.
automatonvx
14. Jan 2023 · 01:26 UTC
Too hard for me i'm afraid. i think it could have done with a bit of tweaking to make the feel better, faster player movement, more range with the scythe, the game fading out when I die but still allowing me to move also feels odd.Basically was just missing all the standard juiciness tricks you can find in something like the well known "art of screenshake" by the vlaambeer guy video you can find on youtube. The music does a pretty good job of giving an epic vibe, which is nice. The art is a bit variable, the player character is kind of cute, just lacking in animation, but some of the background textures seem a bit harsh on the eyes. Anyway solid effort for a compo.
🎤 xfinktion
15. Jan 2023 · 04:13 UTC
@automatonvx
Thanks for the feedback! Absolutely could have used some juice; never really got to the "polish" part of the development, unfortunately. Pretty much the fade out and some particles were as far as I got in that regard. I had planned out some on hit fx for the bosses, like a "white out" flash on the enemy sprite and a subtle screen shake.

I'm by no means an artist, so any sort of positive feedback on the art is a gold star for me :D

Once again, thanks for trying it out! I will keep these suggestions in mind when I do jam #3 :)
jk5000
19. Jan 2023 · 10:20 UTC
A pretty well made little game. I really love the music, and the visuals is fun. Overall a well made and fun little game. Well done.
commanderstitch
21. Jan 2023 · 02:58 UTC
This is a solid entry. Even the description is amusing. Gameplay is nice and the fact that i can put on a yellow hat as god mode is one of the goofiest things to come out of 2023. ;-) :D
Sheepolution
22. Jan 2023 · 13:36 UTC
Nice game! The mechanic of being able to teleport to your scythe is cool. Only problem is that it goes so fast that it's hard to use properly. It's nice that you added the yellow hat to be able to just check out the bosses. Good job!
Kelvin Mulungu
22. Jan 2023 · 17:17 UTC
Pretty good! I managed to just barely beat the thumb, but I had to yellow hat my way through the other two because they were a bit too hard for me. Loved the teleport mechanic, felt pretty damn good teleporting past waves of bullets on a mission to deliver some garden-variety pain to them. I'd almost forgot I was farming for a second there. Would love to see this concept expanded, like if the teleport were just a bit more plannable, but overall, excellent game. Much love :two_hearts: