Interesting game! I only got through about 40 cards before I got bored though :(. It felt bad when I placed a card down, and it immediately changed to something else, or my super-rare water disappeared and turned into dry land, felt like there was nothing I could do about that. It wasn't clear exactly what animals needed to not starve, all of mine seemed to starve eventually. Best score I got to was 20pts, though I ended at -5 =). If there was a little more going on, or if it were a little clearer, I could totally see myself sinking a bunch of time into a game like this =).

Nice boardgame-cardgame game!
Nice UI! Even without images it served the game very well!
A quick question: Except the score is there a definitive end? (I always prefer an end even in high score style of games)
Make a web version (much easier for players to play) since it look like you used Unity.

@jimbly
Thanks for playing. Yeah, there is a minor bug in the code that makes terrain tiles change way to often. I am also looking to make some improvements to the game, post Ludum Dare. Ability to play smaller maps with fewer cards, add some graphical effects to show the player better what is going on, as well as improve how information is displayed so that you can make informed decisions when playing your cards.

@negator2vc
Thank you. Glad you liked the UI despite it not having anything but programmer artwork :) Yes, there is an end, but you need to play all the cards - at that point the game will tally your final score. It was a mistake, though, to have so many cards to be played. A future version will allow you to play on smaller maps with fewer cards to play. The idea was that you would fill the entire world with land, so that's why I ended up with so many cards.

This is really unique, would love to see it expanded into a fully fledged game. I think carnivores should just spawn randomly or something cause I just avoided placing them to keep everything smooth, but I do think this is a game with loads of potential.

This is the foundation for a really great game. At its current level, I was really having fun figuring out where to place things and how to maximize the score. I think expanding on the concepts already present would make a really entertaining and engaging game!

Awesome! Can't stop playing. I'm at 71 cards now with almost 1000 score.

I must admit that I had no idea what I was doing, but I managed just under 10000 points. I think you have an off-by-one error in the "cards in the deck" counter, it ended at 1.

Overall, very well done for an "Oh no, this isn't working, let's restart!" game!

@whatnamegames
Thank You for the feedback. Interesting that you mentioned the carvnivores. I didn't think of them as something to avoid - but rather a part of a functioning eco system. Carnivores are needed to keep the herbivores from overpopulating the world. I think in a post Ludum Dare version I'll look into a way of rewarding the player for keeping carnivores in play.

@iconocatstudio
Thank You. Glad you like it. Yes, I am planning on doing a Post-Ludum Dare version of the game, which should introduce a few new features as well as making it a little more clear what is going on (as well as improving the graphics, of course). One of the new features I'm planning on are Disaster Cards that you can play on existing terrain to change it.

@ryzy27
That pleases me to hear. The can't stop factor is what I'm always striving for in game development. The score is a bit random, I realized after publishing. Never had time to playtest a full run, so I had no idea what the scores would be... end bonus points don't really make a difference :)

@frank-gevaerts
Yeah, I didn't have the time to make things clear for the player on what was going on. I also noticed that the deck counter doesn't go to zero - I think it is because I doesn't update when it draws the last card - will be fixed in the Post Ludum Dare version. Happy to hear you managed to play 'til the end.

That's a very interesting concept, and I think it fits the theme very well. I think gameplay could be spiced up a little bit, maybe with some mini games or faster play mechanics. The music was very charming (shout out to the vibraphone parts), and I think it created the atmosphere of a quaint little environment. Nice Job!

Very interesting concept and cool card game. Good job :)

The UI is great, but could have some visual improvements, ex: improve the short blurry text. The game itself is cool, I like the gameplay mechanic and the music is great.

Really unique concept, I liked the idea of keeping a balance. It might be nice to grey out the cards or add a put away animation or error message when the world is being simulated. I kept trying to move the cards during that period.

Very cool game, got so engrossed in playing that I managed to use all the cards. Got to a final score of 12064. The music is very good and makes it very relaxing to play. The only issue I can think of is that mountains just seemed like a pointless tile, while I didn't get enough animals to put on dry lands. Other than that I really like playing it, well done.

This was really engrossing and I enjoyed it a lot. I would have loved a shorter version, but I managed to spend my deck and get a score of 5k, which doesn't seem all that great. My poor carnivores felt a little lost and were dying out in a sea of herbivores multiplying like bunnies.

Some minor technical issue is that the UI goes over the board (on my laptop's screen anyway), but that could be easily solved with some redesign, and really wasn't an issue.
I didn't mind the mountain blocks, they felt more like breathers, and more welcome than having to discard cards.

It reminded me very slightly of Carcassonne hunters and gatherers, any inspiration there?

I had issues fighting against desertification (water is way rare and those stupid herbivores keep eat all my grass), but i ended my cards having circa 40.5k points.

6.915 Points

@thepiratenun
Thank you for playing. I'm looking to speed up the time between playing cards in the post-LD version. I don't know about mini-games, though. Can't think of what that would be.

@toxiccomputer
Thanks. I've long thought about making an eco-system type of game. Never envisioned it like this until this Ludum Dare weekend though :) Glad the idea came to me in desperate times.

@p-r
Glad you like the UI. Most of it will be the same in the post-LD version, and I'm looking to improve it graphically - including the font for a more crisp text.

@trusty
Thank You. I like the idea of doing something to prevent the player from trying to play cards during the simulation period. I'll definitely look into a way of doing that for the Post-LD version.

@wevel
Happy to hear it. Don't believe I broke the 10K scoring mark myself yet. The mountains will be a little more involved in gameplay in post-LD version - I plan on forcing tile placement adjacent to other tiles, which means you need to place mountains in a way that doesn't prevent animals from reaching food and water. Also looking to balance the animal and land types a little better.

@hajden
I'm happy you enjoyed playing. I will be adding smaller maps to the post-LD version, which will play with fewer cards. As for the UI - I would assume you played the WebGL version? I don't think that Unity's "scale to screensize" UI works correctly in that one, which is probably the reason it didn't scale correctly for you. If you played the executable let me know, so I can look into it.
As for the resemblance to Carcassonne - that's interesting. I didn't think about that, but I've been playing the digital version a bit lately. That doesn't have that particular DLC though.

@ioleoso
Wow that's a lot of points! Well, I'm definitely looking to do some work on scoring for the Post-LD version. I just randomly decided on points. And as for "desertification", I have already lowered the chance of terrain changes quite a bit. May do some more work on that as I playtest the game.

@kromeboy
Oh, you can do better than that ;) Thanks for playing!

I did play the WebGL version.

As for Carcasonne Hunters and Gatherers, it's quite fun imo, but it's not a classic DLC for the base game, more like a different take on the base game

Nice game! As already said, it's a lot of cards to go through. I think a small visual effect for when carnivores eat herbivores, or an animal dies, would go a long way.
I love the concept, and would love to see more.


i actually played through twice. super fun! i had a hard time with too much dry land and not much water until about half way through the deck.

I spent a very long time without any water in my deck :o thanks for these few minutes of play :)

Wow i spent a super long time playing the game, it got sort of addicting. Final score was 7967 but could not for the life of me figure out how to breed dryland herbivores, perhaps those are just doomed to fail? Really fun and simple game with a lot of potential

Really cool game ! i love game like this ! nice work ! need a little more type of cards but i know that take time x)

@hajden
Figures. I did notice that the UI got messed up on the WebGL version. As for Hunters & Gatherers, hopefully it is released for the PC version since I don't have the physical board game. Would love to check it out.

@hydezeke
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, I'm working on some visual representations of what is happening on the map during world simulation. The Post LD version will also offer smaller maps to play with fewer cards. Currently I'm struggling with the terrain tiles... I am NOT an artist :)

@scalliondelight
That pleases me to hear. Getting a player to play through twice on an LD game is an accomplishment. If you play the Post LD version when I release, you should not be getting too much dryland. I've done some tweaks, and right now dryland is instead very rare... still more tweaking to be done.

@firebender
Thanks for playing. There is a fixed base number of cards of each terrain type in your deck - but a portion of it is randomized each time, so that sometimes you'll have more or less of certain terrain types. But, it should always have enough water for a functioning eco system. But, yeah - it gets frustrating when you can't expand with water tiles, because of their importance for the animals survival.

@xephrys
Thank You. Happy to hear you enjoyed it. It isn't very clear how to breed your animals in game, but there is no secret recipe. Just allow them access to water and their natural habitat, and they should take care of themselves. Herbivores can only eat when standing on a terrain tile that matches their habitat. Carnivores, of course, need to hunt and eat herbivores.

@radonraph
Happy to hear it. I like those kinds of games too. I'll probably add a few other cards in the Post LD version. I'm planning on some "Disaster" or "Weather" cards that you can use to change specific terrain tiles.

This is a unexpectedly good simulation game. I enjoyed my time playing it!

My only problem with the game was the drag and drop controls. I think the game would be better with a different way of placing tile. One that is faster than drag and drop. For example the game could enforce a single random tile to be placed every turn, then the player could use a click to place down a tile. If the player needs a different tile then he could discard it with right-click. With 4 tiles to choose from the discard mechanic isn't that useful anyway.

The game has a lot of potential for improvements like global events, a goal system like "you need to sustain X amount of dryland herbivores for 10 turns" for bonus points, etc.

I really liked the game! Thank you for making it!

Cool game. Simulations are really interesting, and I really like seeing it integrated with card mechanics. I would say that there are way too many cards for how complicated the game is. It feels like maybe it should be smaller and denser, with more things going on on each tile but on ~25 tiles to work with or something like that. As it is there isn't much driving a strateegy (at least that I noticed). Great job!

Interesting little game, it did start to get a little boring towards the end, but I blame the simulation time. If that was faster I would have liked it better. I'm also happy that the music didn't get annoying.
Nice work!

Wow 大佬！I love boardgame! And this is an solo board game,so nice! Still trying to figure out how these wild and environment balance! I like the idea, and it's done in less than 24hours?! Unbelievable! There must be a ton of math calculations!

I got completely sucked in by this game! What a great concept and execution. Music was very nice. If there was some nice graphics, it would be pure perfection :wink:. Thank you for this experience.

I'm not sure if it's a bug or intentional behavior, but I didn't get the last card, the game just ended and my world had a hole in it. Also, carnivores seemed somewhat overpowerd to me. For example, I had a herd of 6 dryland herbivore circles grazing happily away. So I introduced one carnivore, thinking "Hey, there is enough of them, they can outbreed the appetite of one circular predator!". Nope, he happily ate them all and proceeded on his merry way to die of hunger (or maybe of loneliness, after all he was all alone in a vast dryland).


This is a really cool game, although as mentioned by others (including yourself), the map is too big/there are too many cards. I found it really hard to keep anything forest-related alive, if it's intentional that Forests are hard to keep around, maybe associated creatures should be worth more points?


In any case, nice game!

Really great game! I love yout interpretation of the theme. It was very original. Visuals can get improved, with more visual effects. I suggest less cards too. I got bored after some time. But overall is a really good game. Good job!

I played through the game twice. It's a really interesting concept that's not hard to play and engaging to watch unfold.

That said, it could really stand to get a few more dryland/forest herbivores in the deck. I had a hand of four forest carnivores on multiple occasions...

This was alot of fun! I actually found myself playing it for a while. And will probably play it again.

I didn't run into any bugs, which was great! However i would have loved volume options so that the webgl version wasn't so loud. Other than that, great job!

Keep up the good work!!

@mrerdalural
Thank You for the kind words and feedback. I am working on the Post LD version of the game and will be looking into some of the suggestions I've gotten through feedback here. The drag and drop is staying, though, but I have changed it so you must place tiles adjacent to existing tiles from now on, and removed the discard option completely... forcing you to play all the cards. I really like your suggestion for the goals system, and will be looking into adding that as a scoring system.

@kleinzach
Thanks for playing. I enjoy simulations too - it's awesome to watch things unfold in a somewhat realistic fashion. And, yes - the amount of cards were too much. In the Post LD version I'm working on there will be smaller maps to choose for less cards - and even the largest map is a little smaller than this one. There isn't really a ton of strategy, but there is some. I think the Post LD version will bring a touch more, but I do look at it as more of an idle, casual simulation.

@barkergames
Thank You. Yeah, the simulation times are improved in the Post LD version. Especially at the beginning - towards the end of the game it does slow down, but that is intentional to give the player a chance of following what is going on. There tends to be a lot more stuff on the map in the current version I'm working on.

@nickykendy
I love boardgames too. Don't get to play too often, except for on the computer. Glad you enjoyed the game. There isn't much explanation given in the game as to how things work - I'll try to make these things a little clearer for the Post LD version. Not too much math going on, though ;) Mostly supply and demand forcing the animals decisions.

@fabula-rasa
So happy to hear that. Been doing some graphics work this week (though I pretty much suck at it) so the tiles look much better now, and I'm quite happy with the animal icons as well. Still keeping things simple. I'll put a sneak preview of the graphics update below. About the carnivores - they did have a tendency to clear out the map. I never got around to balancing anything, so I had to submit the game pretty much untested. I'm currently working on having the herbivores generally breed faster than their counterpart carnivores. Grassland Herbivores (I thought of them as bunnies) are spreading like wildfire right now.

@philomory
Glad you liked it! Yup - the map size was a problem. Still playtesting on an almost as big map, and enjoying it more now that I've fixed some AI and balanced things a bit - but the Post LD version will definitely have smaller maps to choose. All creatures in the LD version have the same chances of survival, so that was probably just a coincidence that you struggled with forest creatures. But, I am looking to do a major overhaul of the points system.

@rodrigo-denubila
Thank You. Hope you check out the Post LD version when I release it on itch. There will be smaller maps, and many visual improvements - as well as some balancing and a few new features.

@coda-highland
Wow - twice! Thank you so much for taking your time to play my game. I do like it myself for the very reasons you mentioned. Easy to play and enjoyable to watch things happen in the world. I never really looked at it as a deep strategy game, but rather a casual experience. As for the imbalance in creature cards - yep - the LD version has no restrictions... theoretically the game could give you a deck with 0 herbivore cards. Things like that will be balanced out in the Post LD version. I do hope you check that out when available.

@chambre19
I'm happy to hear you liked it. Do play again when the Post LD version is released. Would love to get some feedback on that. While there weren't any gamebreaking bugs in the LD version there were certainly a lot of them hidden in the code - I've been banging my head trying to solve some of them for the past couple of days :) And, yes - there will be an options page to change the sound levels... though I doubt I'll be making a WebGL version for Post LD.

For those interested... here is a tiny sneak preview of the new graphics for the game:


This is a very promising game, especially for just 24 hours' work. I always love these kinds of world-building games, and being able to place animals as well and watch them eat, breed, and die in the world as you build it around them adds another layer of strategy and entertainment.

Of course, the limited development time means there's a few issues to address, most of which I think have already been raised. First off, 256 cards feels like too many; I can see I'm not the only one who got bored before they were even halfway done. Secondly, land turns into dryland far too easily. I thought for a few turns that adding enough adjacent water tiles to a grassland/forest tile would keep it livable, but then half my world (including half my water!) turned into dryland in the course of a single turn. Thirdly, and I dunno if this is just bad luck, but I kept drawing animal tiles and having nowhere to put them, partly because of the expanding dryland and partly because everywhere was already occupied by animals. Those herbivores breed fast.

I'm glad that you're continuing to work on it and come up with improvements, because despite its current problems, it has a lot of potential and could end up as a very entertaining game. It's just not quite there yet.

WHOA ! nice job ! played it a bit too much x) even when you don't know what to do its just fun placing stuff and seeing what happens !

@f1krazy
Thank you for the feedback. Glad you liked it, despite it's current flaws. I'm happy to tell you that all of the issues you mentioned have (or will) be fixed in the Post LD version. There were some miscalculations in the Compo version that caused the dryland to spread so much. Dryland in the current version I have is much more rare. I hope you check out the new version when released on itch.

@drcheetos
Happy to hear you enjoyed playing my game. Yeah, I too find it oddly fascinating to watch stuff happen as you place down different terrain tiles and creatures.

Pretty impressive amount of content! It was frustrating not to be able to control what type of card (animal vs. tile) I drew --maybe drawing+playing 2+ cards a turn would help. Would definitely like to see possible expansions on the idea. Maybe "effect" cards like rainstorms?

Liked it. I think events should have more feedback (like grassland gradually turning into dryland), it's a little hard to follow what's happening.

@sorlok
Thanks for playing. I already have on my ToDo list what you call "effect cards" - I call them disaster cards for now - these will be playable cards that you can use to change ground tiles (i.e. Torrential Rain will transform dryland to grassland). I have also changed things so that you will always have playable cards in hand.

@igor-kingamer
Glad you liked it. Yeah, it is quite difficult to keep up with what is happening. Hopefully this becomes easier in my Post LD version once I put in some effects and animations to show what is going on.