Cactus Corner by Millefey

[raw]
made by Millefey for LD35 (JAM)
This is a mini wannabe-children's game about helping a bunny to water cacti. First LD project and also first game put together solo. I wasn't able to code or even understand code before this so during the weekend I've learnt a ton (can't wait until next jam!). It has been a slow process though, speckled with panic and intermittent yelling (from both frustrations and breakthroughs). Who knew you had to actually choose which of the event sheets to use for a particular layout? Sheesh how embarrassing!

Because I was so new to the mystical language of something called variables, I couldn't really experiment, hence my interpretation of "shapeshifting" consists of (some) "evolving" cacti throughout the stages (not that it's obvious). So of course I dream of redos and nice-to-haves but at the end of the day, I'm hyped for finishing it!

Resources: Construct 2 & kittiewan's Memory Match tutorial; music from Rengoku Teien; fonts from DaFont & Google Services; all graphics by me.

P.S. The game does have some resolution issues that I couldn't fix. I had to enable fullscreen in order to host it at Scirra so the card sprites refuse to scale to screen.. If anyone knows how to fix that, I would be very, VERY grateful for advice!
P.P.S. Oh, and anothing issue I was struggling with is that flashing Arial font. Are there perhaps some easy solutions to prevent it from appearing?

Ratings

Coolness 44% 1416
Overall(Jam) 2.76 957
Graphics(Jam) 3.72 329
Mood(Jam) 3.43 293

Feedback

wg_phancock
19. Apr 2016 · 10:11 UTC
Fairly straightforward matching game. Really enjoyed the graphics and music.
Matzigon
19. Apr 2016 · 10:23 UTC
Congratulations on your first LD! :) Nice game, a bit too simple, but next time will be better.
Reisen
19. Apr 2016 · 11:26 UTC
A good job for your first coding project!
EdoMiyamoto
19. Apr 2016 · 12:07 UTC
Good mood, very relaxing, quite playable for kids as well :)
MintArcade
19. Apr 2016 · 14:56 UTC
Now my children gona play this all-day-long... Nice game, thanks for making.
ployer
19. Apr 2016 · 16:04 UTC
well done, simple and effective
GrooveMan
19. Apr 2016 · 16:56 UTC
A really cute first entry! That working on it has already given you ideas of how to take things further is great - I'm sure your next Game Jam will be a knockout!
mikekreein
19. Apr 2016 · 17:52 UTC
Relaxing game!
Klaas
19. Apr 2016 · 20:39 UTC
I love the design of Bun Rabbington!
Le_Sarus
19. Apr 2016 · 22:41 UTC
I like the graphics, nice first Jam piece
cakeknuckles
20. Apr 2016 · 01:55 UTC
i liked the character design and art style, it was super cute! the gameplay was pretty simple but still really good for a first project.
nextreality
20. Apr 2016 · 06:40 UTC
Very nice graphics, very clean and stylized! I enjoy match 'em up games so this was pretty fun for me, good job!
Naca
20. Apr 2016 · 13:13 UTC
Congratulations for your first LD! It is my first time too!! This is a really good project for someone that is learning to code while jamming at LD. Nice graphics too.
BubsyPoochies
20. Apr 2016 · 13:44 UTC
Nice game, not super original, but nice in the end :)
ezombort
20. Apr 2016 · 17:27 UTC
Nice music :)
QuestionableQuality
21. Apr 2016 · 11:59 UTC
First off, the style is adorable! It gives off a 'Sanrio' vibe which is brilliant for the kid's game sort that you want. (the character would make for great merch. too)

The game is very basic and has some layout issues (it would look better centered, personally) but for a child this would be a fun little time-waster. I know I was addicted to match 2 when I was a kid.

The overall mood of the game was absolutely lovely too. The music was relaxing and reminded me of games like Ragnarok Online or towns in JMMORPGs.

I personally couldn't get the shapeshifting element of it- I had to check if this was an entry to the previous LD for 'Growing'- but overall it's so cute!

- Alice (the artist)
🎤 Millefey
22. Apr 2016 · 21:44 UTC
@Everyone Thank you so much for the comments! You've all veen very kind to me, haha. I hope I'm able to learn many more things before the next LD so I can up my game dev'ing a little. So excited already! :D

@Alice (the artist) at QuestionableQuality
I'm glad you liked it! Sanrio is a big compliment to me. I do have a weakness for cute (& chubby) things (& Ragnarok Online). I'm sorry for the layout issues, it's certainly supposed to be centered. I think I will eventually manage to fix that.

I see! I actually wasn't aware of the past theme(s). You're totally right, "growing" would've suited this one much better since it only has growing sprites for the cacti. For some reason I didn't think about using werewolves or demons but I should've!
tomlum
23. Apr 2016 · 03:11 UTC
Fun art and music design, but the mechanics could be a little bit more ambitious.
Yakka
23. Apr 2016 · 15:33 UTC
I am personally not a big lover of this kind of games but it's a good work and the art/mood are lovely ^_^
demogorgon
23. Apr 2016 · 19:52 UTC
I really like the art.
StrayCat
23. Apr 2016 · 23:25 UTC
Congrats on your first ludum dare!
The graphics are super cute! The game is nice and it feels complete, though going a bit closer to the theme would make the rating be better. Good job!
Alphish
24. Apr 2016 · 18:38 UTC
The art in this game is lovely. The mechanics work well enough, too; the gameplay is simple, but functional nonetheless.
Good choice of audio, but since it's not yours, I won't rate it. That, and you already opted out from that, anyway. ^^'

Also, don't be afraid of variables; they don't bite, and once you get to know them, they're really helpful. ^^
(too bad I don't know Construct, and thus have no idea how to help with cards scaling or weird Arial appearance...)

Oh, by the way, I think you should change your "Web" link, as right now it points to the downloadable archive containing the HTML5 game. The thing is, browsers are mean and won't let people play HTML5 directly from their disk, so you would better replace it with link to page where the game is playable, or a non-browser version. ^^'

Keep improving! :3
puppetmaster
24. Apr 2016 · 20:39 UTC
Very well polished game! Lovely art with cute factor!
Congrats!
🎤 Millefey
25. Apr 2016 · 08:10 UTC
@Alphish Ooh. Thank you for pointing that out! Didn't know that at all. The link should be fixed now. :) As for the variables, they are pretty intimidating since I'm much more of a hobbyist artist but I'll keep at it. Maybe eventually I might level up enough to try the C languages..!
team_disposable
04. May 2016 · 11:03 UTC
Great art for the rabbit!