The Seed by recursor

[raw]
made by recursor for LD28 (COMPO)
Three weeks after the passing of your grandfather you receive a package in the mail.
Wondering what it could be, you hurry into your office and grab the box cutter.
The box flaps give way and out comes a dirt-filled pot, a letter, and a strange looking
seed protected in a plastic box. You open the letter and read it:

Dear grandson,
As you know my affinity for all things botanical has lead me to many parts of the world.
Just before I became ill, I took a trip to India where I tracked down a man known
in the botanical world for having many fine seed specimens. He and I had dealings before and
he owed me a big favor for saving his life during the Indian creamsicle tramplings. I wanted
to do something for you to both encourage your interest in botany and perhaps better your future.
The seed enclosed with this package is very special. It is rare. So rare, in fact that there is
no other like it on all the Earth. It's properties and age are unknown, but my friend speculates
that it could have been around during the creation of the world. If you are able to make it
produce berries or fruit or whatever it has then it is quite possible you will posess something
that no one else has. Depending on the properties of the product of this seed, it could make
you very rich. I've enclosed a special pot for you to use should you try to grow
it. Remember, every plant needs at least 3 things to survive: water, light, and food. Depending on
how much you give or withold these three things during its growth it could very well
affect what it produces.
Love,
Grandpa


Instructions:

Ensure that the plant has enough of each of the 3 elements it needs to grow.
Note the 3 bars in the upper right corner. Each is divided into 3 zones that represents how long the plant has been lacking (below the left-most vertical bar), adequate (between the 2 vertical bars), or lavished (to the right of the vertical bar) in the particular element. Play around with getting the bars in different zone combinations to see what kind of berries you can produce! There are two stories behind each berry that you find.

Note:
There are 15 different kinds of berries and each can be identified by its shape and color.

Ratings

Coolness 77% 2
Overall 2.93 570
Audio 2.45 523
Fun 2.79 549
Graphics 2.71 611
Humor 3.17 164
Innovation 3.60 112
Mood 3.00 326
Theme 3.17 336

Feedback

Move127
16. Dec 2013 · 04:01 UTC
Pretty cool game. Fits the theme and is fun to play. Everything seems to work well.
GaTechGrad
16. Dec 2013 · 04:22 UTC
Having to balance between the three variables is a nice unique idea. I did manage to grow some berries on my second try.
postmodestie
16. Dec 2013 · 20:29 UTC
Very entertaining!
errorage
17. Dec 2013 · 00:47 UTC
Interesting idea. Fits the topic really well, as well as being entertaining.
minibutmany
17. Dec 2013 · 00:49 UTC
I like this game! Really funny!
Masadow
17. Dec 2013 · 00:58 UTC
Great concept. I loved to retry, but I found too often nothing :(
🎤 recursor
17. Dec 2013 · 01:35 UTC
@Masadow: Yeah. There are 26 possible Plant health combinations and I only had time to get 15 berries in the game (that is 30 different stories - 2 for each berry). That means that a bit over 50% of the time you will grow a berry. Not too bad, but I'd rather have it around 60% or so and make it possible to kill the plant. As always, I had other ideas to implement but ran out of time.
🎤 recursor
17. Dec 2013 · 02:22 UTC
Actually there are 27 possible plant health combinations :P
vinull
17. Dec 2013 · 03:07 UTC
The cat peed on the plant, I got sent to jail, the neighbor is poisoned - next time I'll just use some roundup and kill this weed! Very good use of the theme, and I love the intro music (should have it play during the game too!)
AnnaGavaldaKedavra
17. Dec 2013 · 17:11 UTC
Quite fun. Cool concept and funny stories.
_zulli
17. Dec 2013 · 23:44 UTC
Cool game! I laughed with some berry results like the gatorade one :P
Great job :)

If you have time, rate my game too! I would really appreciate it! :D
Und[0]ne Devs
18. Dec 2013 · 01:10 UTC
Very fun game!! Nice job with that seed ;)
Oli
18. Dec 2013 · 16:16 UTC
haha fun story and cool concept :)
xrm0
19. Dec 2013 · 12:25 UTC
Fun game.
I managed to grow berries having the watter always on (100% water). Shouldn't the plant rot?
🎤 recursor
19. Dec 2013 · 17:15 UTC
@xrm0: A regular plant would, but this is not a regular plant.
ThatGuy
19. Dec 2013 · 18:54 UTC
Interesting take on the theme and a nice story to go with it. Well done!
dylanwolf
20. Dec 2013 · 00:25 UTC
Neat concept, because I felt like I was playing for the chance to read the stories more than anything else. I wasn't exactly clear how the quantities matched up to the health meter, but I found around 4-5 different berries.
Moosefly
20. Dec 2013 · 13:30 UTC
The premise is quite similar to our game, but it would seem that our executions differ a lot from each other :P.

I think the text-to-gameplay -ratio could've been a bit better. I think I managed to get the same exact stories as vinull.
pkenney
21. Dec 2013 · 05:15 UTC
Cool stories! I never wanted to send it to the lab.
michail
26. Dec 2013 · 22:44 UTC
Very interesting idea. It takes some time to get the rules, but some of the endings are really funny. My favorite one is working as a statue in a museum ;)
Sebastian
29. Dec 2013 · 09:19 UTC
I cured alzheimer's :)
Pretty fun little game!
BradleySmith
04. Jan 2014 · 19:30 UTC
Nice simple idea, quite unique. Rated highly.