The Little Life by Lucy Z
Good news! We've finally fixed the WebGL version! Now it should run smoothly (hopefully).
Oops, looks like we failed again. The web version is still acting up, but everything works fine on Itch! Please use the link below to start playing.↓↓↓
"The Little Life" is a strategic card game which depicted a tale of three unique tiny creatures—the Crystal, the Fungus, and the Flora—striving to prepare themselves to explore a vast world. With the goal of constructing a new body from the remnants of a fallen "giant", each species possesses distinct strengths and weaknesses. Your mission is to reach the perfect balance between cooperation and competition, leveraging their abilities to thrive in this enchanting adventure. Will you guide them to success after 3 years?
The Flora perform photosynthesis, the Crystal are solid, and the Fungus? The Fungus are very active. (relatively speaking).
Meanwhile, the roots of the Flora can damage the Crystal, the areas where Crystal grow are unsuitable for Fungus, and Fungus erode plants.
At the end of each round, these little creatures will try to expand their territory.
- In the spring, everyone is equal;
- the scorching summer sun gives Flora an advantage;
- autumn belongs to the Fungus;
- winter is the favorite season of the cold-loving Crystal.
Starting from the second year, players will have a chance to see upgraded versions: - Moss—pacifists that can coexist with any race; - Rocks—absolute defenders that even abandon expansion; - Mold—crazy fighter of Fungus, but they bring high rewards. Of course, they aren’t invincible either.
Upgraded versions can only be planted on their base forms.
Additionally, from the second year, players will be able to see visual scales to help guide these little creatures towards achieving wonderful harmony, Lets taking that Tiny step forward.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us.
Remember to download the latest version—We are hard at work fixing bugs!
10/11 update：Fix WebGL version.It's almost the same as the version submitted by the jam deadline, but with more user-friendly balancing. Yep, it's now easier to take that tiny step forward!
developer:
Programming: Iven, Akatsuki
Art: Lucy-Z
| Link | https://iven-enyou.itch.io/the-little-life |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/the-little-life |
Ratings
| Overall | 239th | 3.873⭐ | 69🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 624th | 3.303⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 41th | 4.125⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 119th | 4.206⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 199th | 4.235⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 562th | 3.017⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 261th | 3.871⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 39🗳️ | 108🗨️ |
Tried to run the web version but it never finishes loading.
Now we've fixed it! But it's only on Itch, please check it out there![https://iven-enyou.itch.io/the-little-life]
The Flora perform photosynthesis, the Crystal are solid, and the Fungus? The Fungus are very active. (relatively speaking).
Meanwhile, the roots of the Flora can damage the Crystal, the areas where Crystal grow are unsuitable for Fungus, and Fungus erode plants.
At the end of each round, these little creatures will try to expand their territory.
- In the spring, everyone is equal;
* the scorching summer sun gives Flora an advantage;
+ autumn belongs to the Fungus;
- winter is the favorite season of the cold-loving Crystal.
Starting from the second year, players will have a chance to see upgraded versions:
- Moss—pacifists that can coexist with any race;
- Rocks—absolute defenders that even abandon expansion;
- Mold—crazy fighter of Fungus, but they bring high rewards. *Of course, they aren’t invincible either.*
Upgraded versions can only be planted on their base forms.
Additionally, from the second year, players will be able to see visual scales to help guide these little creatures towards achieving wonderful harmony, Lets taking that ***Tiny step*** forward.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us.
Remember to download the latest version—We are hard at work fixing bugs!
loved the game!
I guess I'm bad at biology, heh
The main advantage of the game is that it has a very original concept, it is very interesting to watch how this skeleton changes
@ruben01 @dongdong @oldzombie14 @cirno @dahliainosensu @gudkova-ds @yufan-lu @wzjo @ruiqianzhang @aripize @corrochano
The gameplay was conceived by my partner and me. We thought for a long time about how to create a unique game. We're both really happy that you appreciate it so much!
@vector3cat @grut607 @game-dynasty @rsheepdv @corrochano
p.s. I wish there was some music
But wow, this is such a gorgeous game! The idea is ingenious and it's so beautifully implemented! It's so satisfying to see life striving. Thank you for making this game!
Both times I played I got a similar result to @risminator - had good balance and some upgraded areas, but perhaps not enough?
Either way - I really enjoyed my time with this game - the concept is fantastic and the visuals deeply pleasing. Great work!
Oops it seems like i've achieved the perfect balance in my first attempt!:) Looking forward to your future works~ c:
@sviborg Thank you for your support! I will continue to improve in this area.
@risminator Theoretically, as long as you maintain a balance among the three species, it should be a success. However, I’ve found it quite challenging to achieve that. We are working on addressing these issues and adding clearer prompts in version 003. Thank you for your feedback!
@iwant-pizza Although pixel art may be everywhere in the jam, this is still my first attempt on making pixel art, and it’s the most efficient style for me (plus, I'm a fan of pixel art). Nonetheless, thank you for your feedback! If I can improve my efficiency next time, I might explore other art styles.
@wesel Thank you! My partner and I aimed to give players plenty of room to think before the prompts show up. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
@zastegnushka I truly appreciate your appreciation, thank you!
@klaus-peter Haha, throwing stuff at the skeleton is also part of the game. Strictly speaking, there’s no “good” or “bad.” You can throw stuff at the skeleton as you like and observe their changes. I understand the game rules might be a bit hard to grasp, and I completely agree with your thoughts on the "best" situation. We'll try to add clearer guidance in version 003, but don't forget our jam version is 002!
@ugly-robot Thank you for your appreciation and for your patience while playing! As the artist of this game, your support is a great encouragement to me, and I will work even harder to improve! I understand that some aspects of the gameplay may be difficult to grasp. I’m discussing these issues with my partner and plan to address them in the upcoming version 003 (we welcome you to experience version 003, but please remember it’s just an upgraded version; our jam version is 002).
@hanarioi Perhaps it's because of that sky light. ☀︎
@13chan You’re a gaming genius! I think my partner would be very happy to see someone succeed on their first try.
@wy1111 If possible, we will add animations in version 003. After all, it would be a bit underwhelming to only display different text after going through so much effort, right?
I'm still impressed you could get the overlay to look so natural, did you just draw what each layer would look like for each bone or did you write some kind of spawning algorithm.
The pixel art is truly amazing and it's quite fun! Well done!
I can see this with a soundtrack, perhaps a bit like a slightly melancholic lo-fi. It would transform into those cozy games you keep playing on your second monitor while you work, watching the progress of your terrarium.
It took me a little bit to figure out exactly what was going on, but I had a good deal of fun once I understood. I liked finding out that there were more and more bones I could put the types on, and adding the balance slider at 2 years is a great touch. I would have liked to know ahead of time that the game ended after 3 years, but not a big deal.
Very creative submission. Thanks for sharing!
@mikeandtherest Thank you so much! My teammate and I put a lot of thought into the gameplay, so it's amazing to hear that you enjoyed it!
@vivyhasadream Thank you for your support! We'll do our best to make this game as complete as possible！
@ibluebirdi The music is already in the works! If all goes well, that is. ；）
@mackelvin Thank you so much! I bet the artist must be really happy right now.
@oliver-day Haha, it's not that complicated. I'm just a beginner in game development, so yeah, that’s right— just drew different layers for each part of the skeleton (hardworking artist here!).
@mibi88 Oh! That’s a new issue. I’ll start checking right away to see what’s causing it, but I think the download version shouldn’t have this problem. I probably messed something up while tweaking the values.
@velvetlobster Great music suggestion! Now I want to go find some tracks like the ones you mentioned for the BGM.
@jdeedubs Thank you so much for your support! We're planning to add some animations to better showcase how amazing your efforts are. It’s still a work in progress!
@loveschach This is my first attempt at game development, and there’s still a lot I don’t understand, but thank you so much for enjoying it! The little creatures would thank you too!
@megurt Haha, you saw that post! Everything comes from me just being an amateur programmer—but an animator, haha!
@zimny11 Oh... looks like you ran into that issue too. I'm trying to figure out what's causing it! The downloadable version should work fine (though it might be a bit harder). Music is definitely part of our update plan!