Ozera by alexrose

───── ❝ Welcome to Ozera. ❞ ─────
"Here, all your needs are within reach."
Everything is just as it seems.
Just keep farming.

───── Team. ─────
Alex Rose - Game code/design/physics animation - AlexRoseGames
Angela He - Art/art code/design/animation/VFX/Lighting - zephybite
Atmospherium - Music/SFX/sound code - Atmospherium
| Link | https://zephyo.itch.io/ozera |
| HTML5 (web) (Post-Jam version) | https://zephyo.itch.io/ozera |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/ozera |
Ratings
| Overall | 48th | 4.128⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 286th | 3.569⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 210th | 3.608⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 112th | 4.192⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 28th | 4.538⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 8th | 4.446⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 9th | 4.474⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 33🗳️ | 37🗨️ |
it does make it challenging, but if the day is lengthens it becomes a dull experience where it's essentially a stripped down stardew valley where you go to sleep at 6pm every day, and I didn't want it to become a hollow version of what it could be, so I made the decision to keep it challenging. Usually this is a bad call in terms of getting ludum dare upvotes but I felt the philosophy of the game design is too important to throw away for brownie points. I appreciate the feedback
I won, though I wish I understood more of the story, it was quite intriguing.
It also reminded me of Oxenfree a bit, both in the artstyle and ost but also in the mysterious atmosphere, which is cool :).
Great job overall!
The gameplay had some well-thought-out mechanics, like cooking to restore energy (and losing some if you stayed out too late). In the end, I was able to make it through :) Can't wait to see more from you all!

Also, this detail is usually low on people's task list, but you had such a beautiful start menu :heart: and those button animations! Such a strong introduction really adds to the overall polish.

Visual is so nice and cute, gameplay is interesting and relaxing.
I'll wait for more games!
The plants-turn-to-pets mechanic was also incredibly clever and ingenious, and a pretty nice surprise at first. Also the stamina gauge was pretty well balanced with the sprint cost, time it took to use objects, plant and water seeds, and the time where the music kicked in and the creature came out to hunt you down. It never felt too punishing but just pressing enough that you were not wasting time and got the job done quickly.
And holy cow the music was SO good. When it transitioned to fatigued, then hunted, then fatigued AND hunted oh my god I had chills every time. You nailed it with the overall atmosphere and I loved every second of it.
Plus the notes laying around, general lore behind it all, the dialogues, radio etc were all extremely intriguing to follow and added a touch of depth that I didn't expect to the whole thing. I would be SUPER into a full-blown game like this one honestly, with a complete, fleshed-out story and additional harvesting-petting mechanics.
If there is ONE piece of feedback I have is that the aiming square for placing down stuff and do actions felt a bit imprecise/inconsistent and it would be a bit frustrating at times to water 3 squares in a row. Other than that this is a stellar game, and impressively so considering the time limit. How did you do it?! Bravo!
once again, really loved the art style and the easy-to-understand gameplay. very polished and fun to play!!