Roots, for LD 54 by slimefriend
Chill out, plant crops, and help them grow while listening to some good tunes.
During the day, you can buy seeds from the shop, plant them, pluck ripe crops, and sell them at the crate.
At night, you have to guide the plants roots through the nutrient and water tiles to ensure that they grow to their next stage.
Day Controls: -Move Lilly Anne with WASD or the Arrow Keys -Press E to interact when prompted (to open the shop menu, pluck a crop, plant a seed you're carrying, or sell a ripe vegetable). -Jump with spacebar.
Night Controls: -Click on a plant to select it. -Grow roots with WASD or the Arrow Keys.
NOTES and TIPS:
If you fulfill your plants water and nutrient requirements, it will reach the next stage of growth in the morning.
You can pluck out a plant prematurely to remove its roots. You won't be able to sell it, though.
Code by Taylor Anderson https://slimefriend.itch.io/
Character and Vegetable Art by Johanna Morgan https://www.jovideogameshanna.com/
Buildings, Background, and Music by Frazier Krohn: https://on.soundcloud.com/wXmro
Music and SFX by Gage Bradley https://m.soundcloud.com/gage-bradley-1
Tiles by Haley Chaffin https://instagram.com/haley.chaffin.art?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Shop!
Plant!
Sleep!
Pick!

| Link | https://slimefriend.itch.io/roots |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/roots-for-ld-54 |
Ratings
| Overall | 478th | 3.655⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 858th | 3.052⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 357th | 3.603⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 263th | 4.086⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 208th | 4.207⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 122th | 3.966⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 475th | 3.638⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 29🗳️ | 36🗨️ |
Cheers
To be honest it could be my favorite game played so far but there was too many moment where I got stuck with no way to save my game and it became quite frustrating...
But btw, great code, great game, congrats !
instruction text keeps reappearing every day and on the store too. maybe move it halfway hidden down out of the way when clicked to close and if hovered over or clicked it would come back to view fully.
music is really fitting, relaxed and up beat.
I like the artstyle. Reminds me of those NES games.
There is a minor bug: you can pick up the plant and not sell it and go to the store buy new seeds and it will replace the plant. Maybe disable shop while you have the plant over the player.
Game fits with the theme very well. you kinda need to play tetris.
You could improve the game to not use mouse at all. Selecting seeds to grow them at night could have the first to the left selected at start and then you need to choose where to grow it. If you wanna plan routes carefully for rest you have to plan ahead, which in turn would be a game mechanic to challenge the player.
Growing plants further than their needs are maybe should move to selecting next plant to grow its roots. When all plants have needs met, night would turn to day.
Maybe add indicator when plant is fully grown and ready to be harvested. Then again knowing when to do that is one part of the gameplay also.
second bug: I had a seed on me and was planting it to the second from left slots. I had a plant in the first one growing and I picked it at the same time as I planted the other one. Maybe limit the action to planting when carrying seeds.
not sure what happens if you don't have space for seeds to go to. Maybe option to drop them somewhere?
One very minor opinion: I think allowing the player to undo changes to the root before committing them would add a lot to the feel of the game. It was a little frustrating to miss-press a direction and not be able to undo it.
Other than that, it's a very interesting concept that has a lot of potential to be expanded on. Well done!
Nice game & good job nonetheless!
Thanks for playing! These are all improvements that we have discussed for the post-jam version, so this is very reassuring feedback. Much appreciated :)