Botany by Steven Miller

made by Steven Miller for LD34 (COMPO)

Made in 48 hours by Steven Miller for Ludum Dare 34.

Theme: Growing

You are a plant. The military is coming after you. Defeat them in order to stay alive. Bite, shoot acid, and create plants to fight them off.

Tools Used:

GameMaker Studio (Code and art)

Audacity (Sound)

Hydrogen (Music)

Features:

13 Enemy types

3 Bosses

9 Sections of dialogue

21 Levels of combat

A true heart-warming story about hope, perseverance, and the triumph of the human spirit

Some audio

Controls:

WASD/ Arrow Keys - Move
LMB - Bite/ Advance dialogue
RMB - Shoot Acid

Hold Spacebar + LMB - Shoot seed

Hold Spacebar + Hold RMB - Shoot Water (to grow plants)

Escape - Pause

Game Jolt (Game)	http://gamejolt.com/games/botany/113641
itch.io (Game + Source Code)	http://steven-miller.itch.io/botany
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=57518

Ratings

Coolness	100%	1
Overall	3.98	52

Audio	2.92	354
Fun	4.02	26
Graphics	3.44	304
Humor	3.68	66
Innovation	3.67	188
Mood	3.54	148
Theme	3.97	272

Feedback

Evannex

14. Dec 2015 · 07:02 UTC

Love this! I had a good time with this game, Great job!

Tensoplast01

14. Dec 2015 · 07:05 UTC

Great game! Like the pixel art :D

Bogden

14. Dec 2015 · 07:09 UTC

Oustanding! My favorite entry so far. Really awesome job in only 48 hours!

et1337

14. Dec 2015 · 07:14 UTC

Fun gameplay, although it's a lot of buttons to remember. I think a mode toggle would help, rather than holding a button. I enjoyed the writing as well.

ambi

14. Dec 2015 · 08:24 UTC

The text was pretty hard to read and the game got really difficult towards the end but other than that, pretty solid entry. With a bit of fine tuning this could be a solid product.

vegapomme27

14. Dec 2015 · 08:43 UTC

Such a nice one here. Gameplay gave me really good surprises. Nice one. The seeds mechanic just makes it crazy, you can troll bosses around. Nice story too.
I wish it was a bit more polished on the graphics and effects.

ondrejbalas

14. Dec 2015 · 08:49 UTC

Great game - my favorite so far! I played all the way to the end and wanted more when I was done.

pinion

14. Dec 2015 · 09:22 UTC

Brilliant. Really polished. Gameplay was good (liked planting the seeds then kiting enemies round them), dialog was good. Liked how a little intro set the scene too.

rosden shadow

14. Dec 2015 · 09:40 UTC

great game

Slashee the Cow

14. Dec 2015 · 11:02 UTC

Text got a bit hard to read and I'm not sure I ever really figured out what planting seeds and shooting water at them really did.
Graphics were good though. And was there sound? There's a volume control on the main menu but I turned it up all the way and I couldn't hear anything.

🎤 Steven Miller

14. Dec 2015 · 15:06 UTC

There is sound, but it is very quiet.

gene-z

14. Dec 2015 · 22:20 UTC

great job,, congratulations

Reggianito

14. Dec 2015 · 22:56 UTC

Amazing concept, very well executed. I'd love to see this expanded into a full game.

I feel there was a lack of feedback when biting enemies.
Also the music was a cacophony, but that's understandable considering most devs aren't musicians.

Ben Allen

15. Dec 2015 · 00:33 UTC

Fantactic game! Love how it can be played as a top down shooter or a pseudo tower defense and support game. I think it would have made sense to can one of the normal attacks and made the controls: spacebar - normal attack, left click - seed, right click - water. Just to make things a little simpler. The intro was a great touch by the way!

Yazara

15. Dec 2015 · 00:51 UTC

Awesome game! Quite a lot of content for 48 hours, I really liked the dialogues as well!
The only thing I missed was an option to hold down your button to keep shooting/ biting.

euske

15. Dec 2015 · 09:23 UTC

It is a nice tower defense game. I beat one boss but the later levels were too hard to me. The creepy music was oddly fitting to the atmosphere. Liked the cutscenes too. Good job.

Pixelaborate

15. Dec 2015 · 22:19 UTC

Really a great entry, at first I played it kind of like a tower defense, but eventually I came to realize it felt better as a twin stick shooter-ish game.

Peekotus

15. Dec 2015 · 22:20 UTC

Great game!

Bloodyaugust

16. Dec 2015 · 00:35 UTC

Wow, fantastic job. The concept was pretty unique, the puns were on point, and the gameplay was smooth and interesting. Nice entry!

lucentbeam

16. Dec 2015 · 00:40 UTC

The chorded input was a little difficult to get used to, but by about half way through the game I got the hang of it and felt proficient. I enjoyed the humor and the final boss fight. Really well done!

Henez

16. Dec 2015 · 08:15 UTC

Fun game. Varied ways to take out enemies was nice. I enjoyed planting then sustaining them with water. Dialogue was a great touch. Well done.

nunesbarbosa

17. Dec 2015 · 02:21 UTC

Great work on the game. Loved the AI and the part where I though I was playing with the businessman.

The game get boring really fast without some fresh mechanics.

candlesan

17. Dec 2015 · 07:41 UTC

Art and humor were great! Found the control scheme a bit hard to get used to but the levels had a nice feel.

tyrants.not.found.team

17. Dec 2015 · 12:23 UTC

Pretty awesome game here, nice art, well executed!

skripteriant

17. Dec 2015 · 15:32 UTC

awesome, the game play was great and the pixel art was very good, I hope you continue working on this.

Krafty

18. Dec 2015 · 06:06 UTC

This was a lot of fun! It looked good and the story was interesting!

x92rwzb

18. Dec 2015 · 13:51 UTC

+ Unique game.
+ Fun gameplay.

- Graphics could be better.
- Lack of audio.

🎤 Steven Miller

18. Dec 2015 · 18:44 UTC

There is audio!

OnlySlightly

19. Dec 2015 · 04:55 UTC

Loved the planting mechanic. I loved how each plant had it's own qualities, and combining the run and gun with almost tower defense gameplay was really interesting. Very funny writing, and surprisingly large amount of content for a compo entry. Great job!

speciesUnknown

19. Dec 2015 · 15:41 UTC

Excellent, I'll probably be keeping this game to play later, which is not usual for an LD game - my favorite so far. I liked the mechanic of growing other plants to help you.

eric777

19. Dec 2015 · 19:37 UTC

Amazed at how much content is in here. Dialog/puns were fantastic. I also saw you on OnlySlightly's stream when your game was played - you're obviously an amazing talent. I look forward to your next LD 35 entry.

Taffaz

19. Dec 2015 · 22:26 UTC

Enjoyed playing this. The artwork was great too.

AthenaOfDelphi

20. Dec 2015 · 10:14 UTC

Possibly the best game I've played from this competition. Very polished, very funny... just great :)

Weeping Rupee

20. Dec 2015 · 18:14 UTC

Great job man, this one really stands out. It uses teh theme well, theres a decent amount of gameplay and story here for a 72 hour game. Also pretty good use of enemy placement for your mechanics-- alot of guys hiding around corners so you have to plant your random plant monsters and then bite and kite. Awesome.

I was surprised to play as the plant, I thiought I was gonna be Joe (or whoever) and the plants were gonna be bad guys. I am glad I was wrong.

hyperscope

21. Dec 2015 · 18:08 UTC

The transition from certain levels ending to "exposition" was to abrupt. Example you kill a boss and it immediately transition to the text. Art and music was on point. I did find it funny but also forced and cheesy at times. Everything else I didn't have any issues with good work!