Fairy Tale 2: Big Trouble in Pixie Hollow by Matt Green

made by Matt Green for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

Fairy Tale 2: Big Trouble in Pixie Hollow

On a mysterious plateau nestled in the mountains, three industrious fairies discover that a baby giant has somehow made its way into their peaceful home. Without considering any other options, the fairies decide their best course of action is to feed the Giant for years* until it is large enough to climb out of The Hollow all on its own.

A Baby Giant is trapped in The Hollow (beard and all)

Grow food to feed your new "friend"

Once you're happy with your layout, the fairies will take care of the rest

Watch out! Giants get big

Developer Notes:

I was immediately struck by the idea of a creature outgrowing its surroundings. I considered a few ideas but kept coming back to that. I don't know why I settled on giants and fairies. Maybe because Folklore was another theme that didn't get selected, so it was just in my head.

This is the first jam where I feel like I "lost time" to a particularly difficult problem so I didn't get as much polish done as I would like to, but I'm ultimately happy with the result.

Let me know if you beat Hard mode; it might not even be geometrically possible

Thanks for playing!

Link	https://matt-the-green.itch.io/pixie-hollow
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/pixie-hollow

Ratings

Overall	164^th	3.6⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Fun	218^th	3.325⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	77^th	3.85⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Theme	10^th	4.525⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	171^th	3.525⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Audio	131^th	3.417⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Humor	39^th	3.667⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Mood	122^th	3.525⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Given		14🗳️	16🗨️

Feedback

PowerOfSin

03. Oct 2023 · 07:47 UTC

A fun little stacking exercise. Very thematically appropriate, and hard mode does seem nigh impossible, seeing I barely got through easy mode.
While it's fun looking at the fairies do their thing, there is not much need for our input once the initial layout is settled. I wish there was an auto-done button so we can just see the whole thing play out until conclusion.

🎤 Matt Green

03. Oct 2023 · 14:17 UTC

@powerofsin, honestly I knew that was going to be the main criticism haha. I had originally planned some more mechanics that either were scrapped for time, or took away from the main goal of 'limited space'.

I think there's a kernel of something here. Maybe I'll expand on it somehow in the future :)

Alis

03. Oct 2023 · 15:22 UTC

Fun little game! I agree with the fact that once the layout is done, it's pretty much done for the year, which is a bit sad.
The game is guided, which is cool, but you never introduced the concept of store which took me two years (in the game, not IRL) to understand.

Solid entry, I liked it :)

🎤 Matt Green

03. Oct 2023 · 15:24 UTC

@alis the fairies should have alerted you in winter 1 if you had too much food and no storage.

I'll bring it up in their next annual review :)

LDJam user 239490

08. Oct 2023 · 18:40 UTC

This is an interesting idea for a game. I think it might be cool if there was a way to increase your tillable land every so often. I like the use of the theme. It would be more interesting for the player if there were some more ways you could interact with what is going on during each season after the initial layout is done.

justking144

08. Oct 2023 · 18:53 UTC

Feels like this has the potential to be a very interesting idle game where things run in the background while you're away with notifications each time the giant crushes one of your structures

kiv

08. Oct 2023 · 19:09 UTC

Very good approach on the theme! Also I like the idea with 3 active fairies, it adds more deepness to the gameplay.

real_flamingicecubegames

08. Oct 2023 · 19:48 UTC

This is an interesting concept. I'm actually a fan of the gameplay here, I would've liked some more options regarding what to farm and when, but for now this is pretty good.

The writing was great as well, especially that ending. I was not expecting that.

It was a little hard to figure out what to do and my giant died multiple times before I figured out what I was doing wrong. I feel like a better tutorial would go a long way.

And I tried hard mode... yeah. That might not be possible. I almost made it, but I just couldn't produce enough.

I really liked seeing the ai on the fairies move around the screen and doing all of the farming. It was quite satisfying to see happen.

Overall this was a good time. Could've used a bit more, but whats here is good enough.

henk

08. Oct 2023 · 19:52 UTC

This was a challenging puzzle, and took me a couple tries to beat (especially since at first I didn't realize there was slightly more space there when you zoom out). One thing that confused me was that it looks like the fairies aren't pulling everything out of storage on each turn, even when the giant is still hungry. For example, on hard mode I had 420 satiation, 450 storage, and four fully-grown plots on the last turn, which I would think would have been a win, but the fairies didn't pull anything out of storage and the giant died anyway.

Ruben Rosenmeyer

09. Oct 2023 · 15:03 UTC

Really impressive what you managed to make for the Compo! I really like the idea, didn't managed to run into bugs, and the artstyle and music really fit the game. The only point of critic I could find is the input: Having to press wasd each time to move for a few pixels is tiresome, and using the mouse wheel to navigate can be messy if the game is not run at full screen mode. I liked how you used the shortcuts for plan[t] and sto[r]e tho!

Germdog53

09. Oct 2023 · 17:43 UTC

This is a really neat puzzle game. It thoroughly enjoyed it.

gilborn

15. Oct 2023 · 20:24 UTC

Exactly on spot with the theme!

The graphics, especially the giant are nice, and the mechanics work. Although I managed to get the required stores till the end of hardmode, I was (closely) ranning out of food...

If I want to critisize, I would mention, that you only have to place things in the first season and then you press on "done" and hope for the best... at least that was the way that seemed the most reasonable to me :-)

Overall, a very unique entry where I had much fun :-)

Manjari

15. Oct 2023 · 20:25 UTC

The game was really fun and music and graphics were so cute! Loved it!

🎤 Matt Green

16. Oct 2023 · 01:36 UTC

@gilborn I appreciate the feedback! When I submitted, I knew that was going to be the main criticism but it was too late. There were some more mechanics I had planned that were either scrapped for time, or because they detracted from the main theme mechanic of running out of space.

That's the magic of game jams, I guess. Live and learn.

LDJam user 372350

19. Oct 2023 · 00:01 UTC

Game was super fun. Hits the nail on the head with the theme! Definitely love the graphics (logo especially is very cool). The fairy mumbles sfx are great too! Fun game loop, and great mood. Overall, very fun entry!

croze

19. Oct 2023 · 03:25 UTC

Cool start to an idea, but without a money/shop system I think this game lacks much, well, gameplay. Not sure what the difference between hard and easy are, but on hard I just placed 24 farms around the giant, fit like 12 storages on the top and bottom, and spammed e until I won. Graphics were cool, and again I think this is the start to a cool idea, just didn't get much gameplay out of it personally.

unless games

19. Oct 2023 · 19:07 UTC

I couldn't build anything after the giant started growing, felt like I wasn't playing much after the first setup. Nevertheless the concept was cool and it could be extended with a more active Giant and more nuanced building/managing choices.

Blazejmg917

19. Oct 2023 · 19:18 UTC

This is a really cool concept for a game! As others have said and you've responded to, adding some more mechanics like a shop or better ways to interact with the world after the very start would be good if you ever wanted to continue this beyond the jam, but I feel like "I wish I could add more mechanics" is the compo curse haha. Overall a really cool idea! good job!