{"author_link":"\/author\/heychinaski\/","author_name":"HeyChinaski","author_uid":"11211","comments":[{"author_name":"Danvil","author_uid":"5851","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 4:55pm","epoch":1335199800,"text":"Nice game concept! A minimap would habe been helpful."},{"author_name":"JustinMullin","author_uid":"3128","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 9:36pm","epoch":1335216660,"text":"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."},{"author_name":"Monomer","author_uid":"11275","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 9:40pm","epoch":1335216900,"text":"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."},{"author_name":"arhpositive","author_uid":"11575","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 9:42pm","epoch":1335217020,"text":"A cool game. :) The original concept fits with the theme perfectly imo. Graphics are also great. You should keep on extending this game. :)"},{"author_name":"Wyzfen","author_uid":"87","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 9:47pm","epoch":1335217320,"text":"Those aliens are mean! I found that sitting in the middle of the planet gave protection :)"},{"author_name":"HeyChinaski","author_uid":"11211","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 10:50pm","epoch":1335221100,"text":"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."},{"author_name":"the8donut","author_uid":"10453","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 11:15am","epoch":1335265800,"text":"Smooth gameplay, cute graphics. Liked it :)"},{"author_name":"Tifu","author_uid":"7793","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 11:29am","epoch":1335266640,"text":"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 :)"},{"author_name":"wgemigh","author_uid":"8239","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 12:07am","epoch":1335312120,"text":"Man, those aliens are jerks.\r\rThe 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.\r\rThe 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.\r\rThe theme is spot on.\r\rOverall, I enjoyed it. Good job!"},{"author_name":"davidllanos22","author_uid":"10692","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 12:11am","epoch":1335312360,"text":"Interesting game, I like it :)"},{"author_name":"Pixelulsar","author_uid":"10737","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 7:24pm","epoch":1335381540,"text":"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."},{"author_name":"Zamando","author_uid":"12041","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 9:26pm","epoch":1335475260,"text":"Nice game!"},{"author_name":"steamgirl","author_uid":"12097","time":"Apr 28, 2012 @ 11:25am","epoch":1335612000,"text":"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. ^_^"},{"author_name":"piterlouis","author_uid":"10856","time":"May 1, 2012 @ 9:34pm","epoch":1335907740,"text":"Good game and original idea!."},{"author_name":"tfendall","author_uid":"3275","time":"May 1, 2012 @ 11:43pm","epoch":1335915480,"text":"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 :))."},{"author_name":"Endurion","author_uid":"103","time":"May 3, 2012 @ 7:31am","epoch":1336029960,"text":"Not bad :)\rIt would help to make the beginning a bit faster to build, it takes quite a while to fly about."},{"author_name":"Datamosh","author_uid":"10942","time":"May 3, 2012 @ 8:16am","epoch":1336032660,"text":"Lovely graphics! And I really dig the idea! Entertaining result overall :)"},{"author_name":"robcozzens","author_uid":"10944","time":"May 11, 2012 @ 3:42am","epoch":1336707420,"text":"That was pretty cool, but also confusing."}],"images":["ld23\/11211-fac4182eed0a29a6a643c999fae1bba0.jpg","ld23\/11211-c2ca22dbd7df8af3890b995d47306e2c.jpg","ld23\/11211-584e2137cbd6d1f8b7a2243b7ee31a8d.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"http:\/\/heychinaski.com\/ld23\/game.jar","text":"Windows"},{"url":"http:\/\/heychinaski.com\/ld23\/game.jar","text":"OS\/X"},{"url":"http:\/\/heychinaski.com\/ld23\/game.jar","text":"Linux"},{"url":"http:\/\/heychinaski.com\/ld23\/game.html","text":"Web"},{"url":"https:\/\/github.com\/tom-martin\/LudumDare23","text":"Source"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"30759","g_author":"11211","g_event":"LD23","g_eventkey":"10","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"30789","g_title":"Astro Gardener","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"273","g_commentcount":"18","g_site2_node_id":"0","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":[],"node":null,"orig_images":["http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/11211-shot0.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/11211-shot1.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/11211-shot2.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"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.\r\n\r\nInstructions:\r\n 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.<\/p>","title":"Astro Gardener"}