Astro Gardener by HeyChinaski

[raw]
made by HeyChinaski for LD23 (COMPO)
Requires java. Will perform better if you download and run the jar file rather than play in the applet. Another reason to download is that the aliens are pretty mean so it plays better in full screen as you can see them coming earlier.

Instructions:
Use w,s,a and d to move around. Use the left mouse button to shoot and throw things. The red rock (follow the red arrow) is your seed rock. Throw other rocks at it to create your planet. You can get rocks by destroying meteors (follow the brown arrow). Be careful not to let any meteors hit your planet when it is small as it will break apart. Once a planet is finished you can start another one. A planet is finished by adding five clouds to it. Clouds are added by finding ice blocks (follow the blue arrows, they are only available once your planet is a certain size) and throwing them at your planet. Clouds will cause grass to grow which will earn you more points. The is no end game so the aim is just to get a high score.

Ratings

Coolness 50% 3
Overall 3.24 273
Audio 1.92 630
Fun 2.83 422
Graphics 3.41 207
Humor 1.86 625
Innovation 3.59 135
Mood 2.69 424
Theme 3.66 119

Feedback

Danvil
23. Apr 2012 · 16:50 UTC
Nice game concept! A minimap would habe been helpful.
JustinMullin
23. Apr 2012 · 21:31 UTC
Definitely a cool idea! The massive space in between everything, combined with the close-in camera made it kinda hard to do much of anything properly (and I kept smashing into those spikey red aliens...rude little buggers) - a minimap/radar is definitely seconded. Pretty cool though! I like the art style too.
Monomer
23. Apr 2012 · 21:35 UTC
Neat idea and the mechanics are cool/implemented well. Art looks nice as well; not a whole lot to go on with audio, definitely could have used some music, but a solid effort.
arhpositive
23. Apr 2012 · 21:37 UTC
A cool game. :) The original concept fits with the theme perfectly imo. Graphics are also great. You should keep on extending this game. :)
Wyzfen
23. Apr 2012 · 21:42 UTC
Those aliens are mean! I found that sitting in the middle of the planet gave protection :)
🎤 HeyChinaski
23. Apr 2012 · 22:45 UTC
Thanks everyone. I figured the arrows would do in place of a map which may have made it too easy (also I thought they'd be quicker to code). The aliens are definitely a bit overpowered. If I work more on the game I'll add some more enemies, some cool power ups, improve the graphics and performance and add some more greenery to the planets.
the8donut
24. Apr 2012 · 11:10 UTC
Smooth gameplay, cute graphics. Liked it :)
Tifu
24. Apr 2012 · 11:24 UTC
Great idea, spot on with the theme. The only problem with it is those dang red spiky things... you need some better way to avoid them, they're just on you to fast when you're speeding around with a vital ice rock in your hands,if the camera zoomed out, or at least moved ahead of you a little, that would improve things greatly :)
wgemigh
25. Apr 2012 · 00:02 UTC
Man, those aliens are jerks.

The idea is great and I really enjoyed tossing chunks of asteroid at my planet and seeing it grow. I felt like I spent too much time zooming through space and not enough time growing my asteroid. The aliens didn't help, of course.

The art works for the game, although I think it might work better if it were a bit smaller. The enemies are sometimes hard to see with the dark red on black, so adding a white outline or something on them would help too.

The theme is spot on.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Good job!
davidllanos22
25. Apr 2012 · 00:06 UTC
Interesting game, I like it :)
Pixelulsar
25. Apr 2012 · 19:19 UTC
Cool idea and it was fun, and used the theme very well. It would be cool if you could start a civilization on a planet, and get them to help defend you.
Zamando
26. Apr 2012 · 21:21 UTC
Nice game!
steamgirl
28. Apr 2012 · 11:20 UTC
I enjoyed trying it out even though I wasn't very good at it. It has a nice sense of speed. A mini map would have been helpful and I would've liked to be able to turn the aliens off as I found them a bit annoying, but I appreciate that's part of the intended game experience, and for that it's a job well done. ^_^
piterlouis
01. May 2012 · 21:29 UTC
Good game and original idea!.
tfendall
01. May 2012 · 23:38 UTC
This was really fun! I like the procedurally generated world that's created as you add pieces. I had a lot of fun playing this one, but I wish the meteors were closer to the planet to start or you could carry more than one piece at a time. A lot of the beginning involved floating around searching for meteors (and running into those red aliens :)).
Endurion
03. May 2012 · 07:26 UTC
Not bad :)
It would help to make the beginning a bit faster to build, it takes quite a while to fly about.
Datamosh
03. May 2012 · 08:11 UTC
Lovely graphics! And I really dig the idea! Entertaining result overall :)
robcozzens
11. May 2012 · 03:37 UTC
That was pretty cool, but also confusing.