Plant + Birds by TerraCottaFrog

[raw]
made by TerraCottaFrog for LD36 (JAM)
***this game was made in 48 hours, despite entry to the jam***

You breed plants.

You are the planets only hope.

The bird king rules the skies with an iron claw, and it is up to you to stop him.

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Build up your plant with new sections and turrets, selected from the bottom left.

Collect fruit from your plant to pay for these sections and turrets.

You have a limited inventory. **Manage it and don't get stuck without green fruit!**

Kill all the birds. Click to Kill.

If they take 7 or more pieces away, then you lose.

The king lives at 500m in the air. Beat him to win. (use the flamethrowers, they work wonders)

Collect sunshine with your plant to clear a miss (represented by birds in the upper left of the play area)

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Use right click to place, left click to kill birds and collect fruit.

1,2,3,4,5 switch what you are building.

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Music by Ben Powell, my brother.

Feedback

ZQMony
30. Aug 2016 · 03:41 UTC
Fun and addicting game. It certainly is unique building turrets on a giant plant.
TeamKawaiiju
30. Aug 2016 · 04:19 UTC
fun game with good music. its a bit addictive clicking the birds and watching them explode took me a while to figure out how to make the turrets i think that could use more directions.
Kitkom
30. Aug 2016 · 04:36 UTC
The pixel-art and 8-bit music impressed me much.
I really enjoyed it
Diptoman
30. Aug 2016 · 05:31 UTC
Should have really read the instructions first time around, otherwise it would have just been Duck Hunt for me. :P Very fun game, and screenshakes always seem to have this positive effect.
Senor Salty
30. Aug 2016 · 05:41 UTC
the laser beam is fair and balanced
iMer
30. Aug 2016 · 05:56 UTC
Fun game, was quite hectic for me though
Very nice music & art
yotam180
30. Aug 2016 · 11:18 UTC
The pixel art and 8 bit music are great! The game is fun to play, but I got stuck after some time when it didn't let me collect fruit nor to place blocks. Besides from that, I really enjoyed!
Damdoshi
30. Aug 2016 · 22:15 UTC
The concept is awesome and the game is really well done.

I've plenty of fun playing Pant + Birds, and I think I will share it one with some of my friends.
DaGamesta
31. Aug 2016 · 00:31 UTC
Interesting concept and fun once you understand how it works. On another note, even after closing the game, the music is still looping for some reason.
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
31. Aug 2016 · 00:36 UTC
@DaGamesta Was this after a crash? When did you close it? How far were you?
ciaodavinci
31. Aug 2016 · 03:22 UTC
Really great concept. I had trouble understanding how to build onto the plant at first but it was fun after reading the instructions. I got stuck at a part where I could only build turrets because all I was growing was red apples - did I do something wrong?
Mettra
31. Aug 2016 · 09:54 UTC
That was rpetty fun, building the plant was a little confusing at first. after losing like twice I finally got a grasp on it. When fighting the Bird King, I could barely see what was going on. Though defeating him was super satisfying.
qikcik
31. Aug 2016 · 11:12 UTC
nice game , good music and art :D
fusionnist
31. Aug 2016 · 13:37 UTC
Fun and simple. I like it!
urielgamedev
31. Aug 2016 · 15:03 UTC
Really fun and addictive game ! The art and music are simple, but it fits with the whole atmosphere :)
mato26
31. Aug 2016 · 16:38 UTC
Great :D I had a lot of fun playing that, at first it was a bit confusing for me but my mistake I haven't read the description :D I really liked how what atmosphere the art and music together made. Great work! :)
Xakkar
31. Aug 2016 · 16:56 UTC
Cool game)
Leroyii
31. Aug 2016 · 18:08 UTC
I enjoyed it! Even without reading the description, I could fairly quickly tell what was going on. The music got a bit repetitive. By the end I couldn't even find my mouse pointer!
suimisu
31. Aug 2016 · 20:30 UTC
Great mechanics and good work on the low pixel art. It kept me going for a while. Is there a rule how I can build the plant? Sometimes it didn't let me connect things.

I also I had a bug that it did not transition from the intro text to the actual gameplay or is the waiting time really long?
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
31. Aug 2016 · 21:49 UTC
@suimisu how long did you wait? it should only go a few seconds.

also, the plant placing cursor will be more transparent in areas where you cannot place. You can't build solid blocks of plant. The rules are hard to explain, so experimentation is necessary.
csanyk
31. Aug 2016 · 22:53 UTC
I like the game but I think there's a bug. When I quit the game, the music continues playing. Nice tower defense, and I love the ultra-low fi pixels.
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
31. Aug 2016 · 23:29 UTC
@csanyk When did you exit the game? The music works properly for me.
csanyk
01. Sep 2016 · 02:19 UTC
I couldn't figure out a proper way to exit, so I had to hit esc to switch to windowed view, then right-click the tab on the task bar and select close. Some audio player running in its own process didn't get cleaned up, and I had to find it in the taskbar and kill it.
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
01. Sep 2016 · 02:40 UTC
@csanyk I have no problem with the exit button placed on the window, and yeah, I forgot to make sure that everything cleaned up in all cases.
suimisu
01. Sep 2016 · 06:54 UTC
@TerraCottaFrog I could shoot (with sound) but it stayed for ~30sec. I had just started the .exe again after my first session.

About the building rules, that's what I have recognised while playing. I tried to go 2 blocks left/right to get the sunshine, but that was not allowed. So next time I have to plan better:)
Sabina Lis
01. Sep 2016 · 23:36 UTC
Fun game! I liked the mix of turret defense and building, really nice, congrats!
cottontrek
02. Sep 2016 · 05:29 UTC
Good stuff!

I love how on one hand, it's almost like a zen plant and seed management sim but then, on the other hand, you have evil birds getting sniped out of the sky by turret plants.

This game was great - I think this could actually be an example of a pretty innovative tower defense game, I don't think I've played a tower defense game that has such a focus on user expression and creativity like this one - great job!
AlexLamarche
02. Sep 2016 · 14:38 UTC
Had a lot of fun playing this game. I got stuck at 300m because I kept buying turrets and there was no room for other fruits to grow...I just couldn't stop killing those birds. Super fun. The music and graphics were also very nice.
pixelpotions
02. Sep 2016 · 16:14 UTC
Interesting concept! Loved playing your game and I beat the bird king. Fantastic mechanic of having to manage how you grow your plant vs placement of your turrets combined with the inventory management. My only problem is that eventually all the particles block your view so its hard to see the fruit.
pixelpotions
02. Sep 2016 · 16:15 UTC
Oh and btw our entry is updated if you want to try it. :)
AlexLamarche
03. Sep 2016 · 17:04 UTC
@TerraCottaFrog Beat the game. It was awesome. At times I had so many flamethrowers that I could barely locate the cursor. Nice work.
Headmade
06. Sep 2016 · 03:20 UTC
It took me a while to understand how play the game. More instructions ingame would be nice.

Once I got it though I had fun. I like the growing mechanic. However I do not see the connection to the theme.

The game did not shut down properly after game over, had to kill it in the task manager.
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
06. Sep 2016 · 12:22 UTC
@headmade The connection was agriculture. The game drifted away from it and I decided it was more important to make the game that I wanted than follow the theme, especially considering the lack of ratings.

The game was inspired by it, though.

(and I do realize that it was better suited to growth than Ancient Technology :P)
Jupiter_Hadley
06. Sep 2016 · 19:22 UTC
Interesting, challenging game! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/lT_5Gj1NQIo
Daniel
06. Sep 2016 · 22:00 UTC
Interesting concept, I found it hard to play the game at first as I was unsure of what keys to press, so by adding instructions in game would be nice, the art and music are simple and work with the game well done.
🎤 TerraCottaFrog
07. Sep 2016 · 03:34 UTC
@daniel

I'm assuming you read the description first.

Is there any way you think I could do to improve the instructions in it?
Frump
07. Sep 2016 · 17:11 UTC
Very creative and well made. I enjoyed it.
Omiya Games
14. Sep 2016 · 02:19 UTC
Thought it was fun, but I really would have appreciated a tutorial of sorts. It was difficult to figure out how to play the game, and I struggled to keep track of everything that was going on (such as losing sight of all green-cell resources). To me, the most difficult thing to understand was when one *can* place a green cell, and when one *can't*.
puppetmaster
19. Sep 2016 · 20:50 UTC
What a cool game!
Took me a while to figure out how to grow the plant. Cute art style.
The birds a a little to fast for me taste.
Congrats, for your cool entry!