This Precious Land by Ishisoft

[raw]
made by Ishisoft for LD23 (COMPO)
"Learn the workings of nature, and make us proud of This Precious Land."

This is a sandbox construction game / toy, where the goal is just to make something you feel proud of. It works a bit like Triple Town, with some Settlers influences too. Use a bit of experimentation and trial-and-error to learn how the game's rules work, and then try and make whatever landscape you feel like.

Or, place tiles randomly and see what happens!

I was kinda worried for a while about not having a proper goal in the game, but I quite like how it turned out in the end. It's sort of therapeutic to watch the world come together. Hope you enjoy it!

Ratings

Coolness 54% 3
Overall 4.26 6
Audio 2.78 305
Fun 4.04 8
Graphics 4.51 4
Humor 1.97 566
Innovation 4.08 28
Mood 3.60 55
Theme 4.29 12

Feedback

Slooowpoke
22. Apr 2012 · 20:45 UTC
I love this. 20 minutes straight playing this. It's really fun once you understand it and really quite addictive. Good job!
madflame991
22. Apr 2012 · 21:02 UTC
+ very nice looking
+ nice puzzle idea
+ gets even nicer once you gain access to all block types
- I hate your grid; it should be on the bottom!
X-wing9
22. Apr 2012 · 22:18 UTC
Brilliant idea, and well-executed. :D
binary_girl
22. Apr 2012 · 23:17 UTC
took me awhile to get it but i like it :)
naxum
23. Apr 2012 · 02:59 UTC
I LOVE this game. Give it a better ending (what do markets do??), some different modes, and a score and I'd pay $5 for it on iOS hands down. I'd even help you make it.
nihilocrat
23. Apr 2012 · 04:39 UTC
Pretty fun to just fool around with, I wish you had the time to implement something to do with wood, rock tiles, and water tiles. You lose an innovation star 'cause Triple Town already did it :). Great job!
Jonathan Whiting
23. Apr 2012 · 06:47 UTC
I'm not very good at enjoying things like this, but the graphics and mechanics are charming as hell.
LukeRissacher
23. Apr 2012 · 08:22 UTC
Cool, liked this - nice pixel art. Need to play it some more, find out what else I can make :)
KungPhoo
23. Apr 2012 · 13:21 UTC
That's so amazing. It took a while to find out what you can make, but then it won't let you go. Ace game!
naxum
23. Apr 2012 · 14:06 UTC
MUHAHAHA NO END GAME, EH? http://i.imgur.com/O2EVw.png http://i.imgur.com/aUtkz.png
madflame991
23. Apr 2012 · 17:14 UTC
Oh yeah! I made a volcano :D
KevinZuhn
23. Apr 2012 · 22:31 UTC
Really fun to mess with, especially when there are resources to gather and 'recipes' to find! At times I really wanted a button to destroy misplaced tiles, but I guess there's more of a challenge in placing them correctly if I can't blow up the land willy-nilly.
🎤 Ishisoft
24. Apr 2012 · 11:12 UTC
Thanks for the comments so far everyone!

@nihilocrat All of the materials are useful!
jerombd
24. Apr 2012 · 13:30 UTC
Really impressive for a 48h entry: everything looks perfect! I'm going to play to this little game for a while.... :)
AdventureIslands
24. Apr 2012 · 17:17 UTC
This was quite fun to play around with, interesting entry. I liked the graphics a lot, but the grid was little confusing and it was pretty hard to perceive where the blocks fall in the end.
the8donut
24. Apr 2012 · 20:11 UTC
Sweet art style, clever puzzle game! Great job, loved it!
7Soul
25. Apr 2012 · 02:18 UTC
Nice game, finding out how it works is a good enough goal
MoltenMustafa
25. Apr 2012 · 03:36 UTC
Love the art style; It's really fun to experiment with different combinations to see what happens. Lots of fun!
Kendja
25. Apr 2012 · 07:14 UTC
Very nice. Played for about hour.
BubuIIC
25. Apr 2012 · 20:53 UTC
This is really interesting, I like it. But somehow I feel stupid, 'cause I couldn't figure out what to do with the wood and stone. Can somebody explain?
BubuIIC
25. Apr 2012 · 21:18 UTC
Um never mind, I got it. Planning before you put down tiles might helps a lot :-)
So the volcano advances things quite a bit.
ghRibacki
26. Apr 2012 · 00:17 UTC
At first I thought it was not quite a game, but then I realized what the real challenge was! I smell innovation. =)
deepnight
26. Apr 2012 · 18:45 UTC
A really GREAT game with good concept and execution! The gathering system works just fine and could open to a very good bigger game.

Great job, you are my fav :)
schattenkind.net
26. Apr 2012 · 19:16 UTC
I like Tripple Town and i like yours! Very good pixel art and good handling. All in all own of the best for me!
Jhelle
26. Apr 2012 · 19:20 UTC
Loving your pixels, enjoyed your game even though its almost the same as triple town :)
cornedor
26. Apr 2012 · 19:50 UTC
This is one of the best games I have seen.
ChronoDK
26. Apr 2012 · 19:53 UTC
The grid-on-top thing confused me to begin with, but getting past that I found the game really enjoyable. Played it for quite some time. Not all that close to Triple Town really - definitively original mechanics here.
rvmook
26. Apr 2012 · 20:08 UTC
Was planning to do some work tonight, instead I played this. Thanks a lot!
ratboy2713
26. Apr 2012 · 20:31 UTC
Fantastic, would have liked to know that there was more than those initial four things in the beginning so I knew what to shoot for, but still very nicely done.
MoltenMustafa
26. Apr 2012 · 22:16 UTC
LOL, I forgot to rate it. M'bad.
Vladp995
26. Apr 2012 · 22:49 UTC
So cool and challenging!! Love it!
Shigor
26. Apr 2012 · 23:08 UTC
I love it. Excellent work, you win. I'd give 6 overall if I could :D
There is only ONE problem and that is that grid :/
Otherwise really excellent game I expect I'll play more and more.
This is one of the reasons I love LD and gamejams, because sometime really good idea manifests itself.

You know, this almost doesn't need anything else (maybe except that confusing grid and some music) to be declared full game. Some hints for player would be nice, but finding it out by myself was very rewarding.

I suggest you take this idea and put it on ipad/android to get some money rewards for your idea :)
Shigor
27. Apr 2012 · 00:19 UTC
Checked the Triple town, there are some similarities here, but I like your take better. You still rock.
Evil Cult
27. Apr 2012 · 04:37 UTC
[Comments and ratings from this account come from various team members]
I was surprised how addictive this was! Great graphics and sound as well. I didn't get too far (About 3 mana tree things), but what I played before I gave up I really enjoyed.
chambers
27. Apr 2012 · 08:46 UTC
Most addictive game in the competition, by far. Spent litterally hours playing it. The balancing is great!

At first I was a little disappointed to see it played a lot like triple town. But then when I had no moves left and tried right-clicking the forests, I saw there was more to it, and that the triple-town-esque mechanic was just a base for something bigger.
Couldn't wish for a better polish in a LD game! Shouldn't there be some kind of score though? The experience was fun but kinda pointless if there's no way to evaluate my progress (or is there?)
Tifu
27. Apr 2012 · 09:29 UTC
I don't see what's wrong with the grid, looks good to me. Game is fun, though I feel I need some kind of guidance as to what I'm meant to be doing, I saw mention of markets in the comments and I'm like "what?! how!?". Most interesting things I built was a giant tree and a volcano. Had good fun trying to achieve other things even if I failed :D
If anyone posts any tips I'll try again.
dx0ne
27. Apr 2012 · 11:18 UTC
Spot on. Liked mechanics and graphics. I like it way more than Triple Town.
Julian Spillane
27. Apr 2012 · 20:20 UTC
Wow, just fantastic. It's a lot of fun and really well-executed. Love the visual style, as well. I really enjoyed just messing around trying to figure out different combinations.
BNeutral
28. Apr 2012 · 01:55 UTC
This is amazing!
Endurion
28. Apr 2012 · 06:08 UTC
Looking very nice!

As others said, the grid is confusing, maybe have a selection box instead of a rectangle. I only managed once to get a mana tree and worked from there. Sooner or later your grid is full though and you have to restart. I'd love to keep on clicking ;)
Jiggawatt
28. Apr 2012 · 10:33 UTC
I got lost in this game. Absolutely love how there's inherent puzzles in discovering the game mechanics and placement patterns. A rare case where a tutorial would hinder the gameplay.

The sort of LD game I'd want to make, it captures the joy of discovery/creation while also fitting the theme and having a polished presentation.
hungyg
28. Apr 2012 · 12:01 UTC
amazing! I have played for about an hour, really REALLY good job!
summaky
28. Apr 2012 · 13:22 UTC
Very addictive! I had to force myself to stop playing in order to continue rate other games, but I'll definitively play it again later.
orgarus
28. Apr 2012 · 18:05 UTC
Without a doubt: a winner!!
Congratulations! CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!!!!!
Vogie
28. Apr 2012 · 18:26 UTC
AMAZING game, my only complaint is that it could use hints because i got stuck quite a bit(e.g. large trees enjoy lots of water), kinda cheated by looking in the textures to see if i had gotten as far as i could. still don't know what markets do.
wgemigh
28. Apr 2012 · 18:29 UTC
I really liked this, even more than Triple Town. The grid seemed fine to me, but I did keep forgetting a step (oops, grass comes before trees) so I would have liked an undo option.

The art is charming but I'm still not sure what all of them represent. The first time I played through, I missed the 'gathering' option and didn't think it was that fun. Perhaps you could add a reminder or a notice the first time a 'gatherable' tile is available?

Overall, amazing job for 48 hours!
alexlarioza
29. Apr 2012 · 02:45 UTC
I spent far to long playing this game...great job!
jwolf
29. Apr 2012 · 03:12 UTC
This is really good! Some combinations / results seem like a dead end, but that doesn't always seem to be the case...
🎤 Ishisoft
29. Apr 2012 · 16:51 UTC
Thanks everyone for the comments! Wonderful to hear you're enjoying it.

@wgemigh Yeah it could have probably done with that; I didn't want to hand-hold the player with game mechanics tutorials, but making double-sure they know how to interact with the game would have been a good idea. As for the undo, it would be nice to have in order to rectify mis-clicks, but on the other hand I quite like for tile placement and experimentation to be permanent.

@Endurion Good idea, a transparent full 3D tile might be clearer than just a rectangle. Also if I made the sides of the tiles fade to a darker colour, and change the height of the tiles so they're clearly not placed on the grid, it would be more obvious how the 3D space works.

@chambers I thought about a scoring system. I found that it was interesting to set my own challenges though, for example making a nice forest (with no dirt or chopped-down trees) using nothing but nature tiles, or making a peaceful non-military village. A scoring system would have basically defined what the perfect landscape should look like, but I think that's a matter of the player's own tastes.
robcozzens
29. Apr 2012 · 18:45 UTC
I would try it if there was a Web or OSX version.
MrDanH
30. Apr 2012 · 18:35 UTC
Brilliant, I really love the economy of building certain tiles so you can purchase others, that's much more interesting than Triple Town. I just wish the game could've kept going for longer (I presume reaching the coloured squares that cost 6 gold is the end since they didn't seem to combine together)
Vogie
30. Apr 2012 · 19:42 UTC
seriously, this game is good enough that im still coming back to it trying to figure out what those damn markets do!
🎤 Ishisoft
30. Apr 2012 · 21:02 UTC
Just to clear it up, the markets were a last minute addition I did just to add a final secret after the castle. In-keeping with the spirit of the game, they're there to make your town look more lively, if you want to make a big town! In terms of game mechanics, they don't do anything.
Danvil
30. Apr 2012 · 23:05 UTC
Excellent game! Played it for a long while. Really like the sandbox evolving game mechanics. The grid is a bit confusing.
ilo
01. May 2012 · 02:18 UTC
Superlative effort.

At first it was a toy - as I wondered how it would react to my input, then it was a puzzle to reliably place the tiles in the right order to get things to evolve, and then there was the strategy of sharing a relatively small area between each of the various resources you need, and finally there was the pleasure to be had from designing your small spot of land in an aesthetically pleasing way (mine cradled a river with two castles by the bank on one side, as if they sat on a frontier, overlooking a yet to be tamed wilderness of deep forests and in the distance, a smouldering volcano).

I didn't mind the grid. The only problem I encountered was occasionally getting stuck when learning the game, as it took me a while to work out how to plan the order of placing tiles to get them to evolve fully, and without ending up with lots of wasted space.
gritfish
01. May 2012 · 11:24 UTC
Seems like a simple triple town at first (two moves instead of 3) but it just keeps getting deeper, and with no objective, it's a really zen experience. I wish there was some kind of music but it almost doesn't need it.
smvilar
03. May 2012 · 20:35 UTC
Awesome mechanic! I'd like to see it developed further!
Thotep
04. May 2012 · 12:50 UTC
Surprisingly entertaining! I like the graphics and would gladly play a full-blown version of this, where I could spend gathered resources.
marudziik
04. May 2012 · 18:06 UTC
I've spent so much time on this! It looks great - for some time I didn't get that there was so much to do, but now, as I've seen most of it (I think!), it's just awesome.
Krisjet
05. May 2012 · 11:27 UTC
I fooled around with it for some time, but I didn't fall in love with the mechanic. It just felt a bit too complex to do what you wanted to do :P
It seems like I'm the only one though, and it was very polished for an LD entry. Good job!
Robert Swan
05. May 2012 · 14:18 UTC
One of the few games that I've come back to and even now my girlfriend wants to play. Very nice!
TenTonToon
06. May 2012 · 16:26 UTC
Beautiful! The only problem I see, as I think it's already been pointed out, is the way the top of the tiles align with the grid, instead of their bottom; it's kinda confusing.
Other than that, a real gem!

Congratulations!
thegreystudios
07. May 2012 · 04:51 UTC
Really nice game.
I also found the grid to be confusing. But still this game could work well on mobile devices. :)
zhatt
07. May 2012 · 06:46 UTC
Awesome game, but I was hoping the markets would do something at the end.

The should give you a coin every few turns when next to a castle in the same way tress grow next to water!
Dr.Pingu
07. May 2012 · 15:02 UTC
Graphics are great and the game mechanism is really interesting.

With music it will be even better :D
Allyally
08. May 2012 · 16:04 UTC
I am now officially addicted to this game.
Tomalla
10. May 2012 · 18:33 UTC
Oh boy, that's the most time I've ever spent on LD entry. I just had to unlock all of the possible tiles! Amazing execution.

However I don't quite understand how does regrowing trees work exactly. When surrounded by water, the stomp regrows once and that's it. Maybe I have to replace the water ...
🎤 Ishisoft
11. May 2012 · 09:10 UTC
The trees should regrow again and again after being harvested. Unless there's a bug, of course.
JustinMullin
12. May 2012 · 19:05 UTC
Spectacular. It's tough to judge innovation when the game is so similar to Triple Town, but you did add a ton of quality to the game, and it's clearly the superior. Nicely done, and I love the art!

By the way, your goal succeeded: if you play to the "end" you definitely have a work you're proud of. =) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52019586/veryPreciousLand.png
🎤 Ishisoft
12. May 2012 · 19:26 UTC
That's lovely! :D I want to go to there.
akro
15. May 2012 · 21:41 UTC
Hi
I’ve just discoverd your game this evening and I find it amasing ! Can’t stop playing it!
Discorvering myself all the feature was a real pleasure (what will happen, what can i do with wood, will the right click erase every-thing, can I make a combo of 2 Volcano…)! Never give tutoriel or tips, the player must all alone find the solution/possibility!
Thanks a lot for this great moment ! We need games like this!

PS: The grid was ok after few try – no need to improve it
PS1: I’ve found everything during my first “map”, quite proud of me ;)
Morusque
19. May 2012 · 16:31 UTC
Great game ! Here's my land : http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/images/divers/thisPreciousLand.png
NeriZ
03. Oct 2012 · 19:06 UTC
Fascinating! I played this a lot!
NeriZ
04. Oct 2012 · 17:41 UTC
I thought of posting my newest result here: http://i.imgur.com/ms8Is.png my best one so far
NeriZ
05. Oct 2012 · 10:41 UTC
I actually got an even better result, I'll post it here, I want people to know where can they get: http://imgur.com/4L2Yo
RodrigoAbreu
11. Nov 2015 · 18:53 UTC
Awesome work Ishisoft. Can I make a game based on My Precious Land? It will gonna be for mobile, will be stage based and will also include a multiplayer mode. Is the game opensource?
fedmich
09. Dec 2016 · 18:24 UTC
Good job Ishisoft. This is quite fun to play, makes you think carefully before putting blocks in