Botanist Blitz by BrokenCogGames

[raw]
made by BrokenCogGames for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

bb_demo.gif

Your Goal

Keep those plants alive! It's hot out there, and those plants need some water! Refill your watering can and keep them hydrated. * Watch out for bees! * Squish the aphids attacking your plants! * You never learned how to swim, so stay out of the water! * Keep every plant alive until the timer runs out!

Controls

  • Keyboard
    • W, A, S, D or Arrow Keys to move around
    • SPACEBAR to both fill and apply water ​

Features

  • Unlockable Levels!
  • Supports HTML & Windows ​

Contributions

  • Developers
    • Bryant Hayes (dev)
    • Max Schweitzer (dev)
    • Colin Bond (dev)​​​
    • Travis Hermant (dev)​
    • Ryan Zmolek (music)

If you like the music check out Ryan’s Spotify profile! https://open.spotify.com/artist/5G2Ryf3A6nHBhODMZ46pnz?si=gtk4kCWFRn6iePqGVf69ZQ

  • Tools

    • Godot
    • Aseprite
    • Sketch
    • Logic Pro
  • Artwork:

    • Font used is from https://www.dafont.com/manaspace.font
    • Base tiles from https://alexs-assets.itch.io/16x16-outdoors-tileset​
    • All flowers, items, and UI elements are original!
    • All music and sounds are original!

Hints

  • Each plant has different maximum water amounts, drain rates, and are more or less susceptible to the aphids. Learning which to prioritize will be important for solving levels.
  • You can survive in the water for a small amount of time, use that to your advantage

Ratings

Overall 860th 3.64⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Fun 923th 3.465⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1312th 3.244⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 239th 4.163⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1119th 3.705⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 266th 3.886⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1039th 3.013⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1180th 3.417⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 57🗳️ 55🗨️

Feedback

CooperJKnapp
21. Apr 2020 · 01:44 UTC
Nice job! Quite fun and the music is an absolute bop.
JAzambuja
21. Apr 2020 · 01:45 UTC
good game, so fun! You should consider put some and particles on it! the player is a bit slow.
eonarheim
21. Apr 2020 · 01:49 UTC
I really enjoyed the music, really brought me into the mood of the gardener. It felt like I developed a rhythm with some of the levels, I felt somewhat trance like. This is very fun! The skulls floating in the water was a nice touch.

One small tweak I'd suggest is to make the water meter more prominent, it took me a moment to notice it.
🎤 BrokenCogGames
21. Apr 2020 · 02:02 UTC
I'd love if people could comment on whether or not they were able to beat all the levels! :)
Travis Hermant
21. Apr 2020 · 02:15 UTC
Just going to throw it out that the last two levels are supposed to be fairly tough, but they're beatable I promise. Might take a few tries but I figured it'd be good to take it up a notch for the end
Trexxak
21. Apr 2020 · 03:12 UTC
oh you can drown :D
great work on the assets! Very clean and pretty visuals!
doodlebrisk
21. Apr 2020 · 03:14 UTC
I couldn't get past level 6 :( Awesome game. I had a lot of fun playing. The music is great!
xbcw
21. Apr 2020 · 04:21 UTC
Fun game! Pressing the space bar seemed unnecessary though.
MegaHana
21. Apr 2020 · 04:22 UTC
Love the concept and the sample but effective graphics! Really had a lotta fun playing this game. Very curious about the little white creatures (?) in the water.
My only critic would be it's too easy to fall into the water, and I kinda wish it's more forgiving there? But also may be just me not very good at playing games ;(
techsec
21. Apr 2020 · 04:25 UTC
Fun game, it feels repetative tho, the introduction of the bees was a real nice touch. Good Job!
HireMeDeveloper
21. Apr 2020 · 04:27 UTC
i like the concept, but couldnt make it far since the triggers are very small and hard to interact with, great job tho.
bufalloo
21. Apr 2020 · 04:27 UTC
Love the music and assets!
tater-hater
21. Apr 2020 · 04:29 UTC
Impressive amount of levels!
Matthew Bond
21. Apr 2020 · 04:29 UTC
Very clean gameplay loop and great art. Love the different obstacles in each level. However, I found myself falling into the water a lot when I thought I was going around it. Great game!
loginaut
21. Apr 2020 · 04:29 UTC
This is very nice, I especially like the the music is both chill and fast-paced simultaneously. I also love the little skulls floating in the deadly deadly water. It seems a little bit punishing that you can over-water the plans, but I suppose that's all part of the challenge.
Shadowmyst
21. Apr 2020 · 04:39 UTC
Excellent music and mood. Still kept refreshing by the vareity of levels.
21. Apr 2020 · 08:01 UTC
Cool game! The music is really good and the gameplay is nice. My only problem is the area to apply the water.
Flamus
21. Apr 2020 · 10:24 UTC
Cute little game! Very nicely designed with simple graphics, and great esthetics! Congrats!
Nodlehs
21. Apr 2020 · 13:50 UTC
Fun! Some issue on at least the first level with clipping into water when clearly not, but solid!
PythooonUser
21. Apr 2020 · 15:45 UTC
Nice idea and art. I liked the drowning sounds for some reason^^
Sergei
21. Apr 2020 · 20:19 UTC
I liked the gameplay and mood of the game! It was a little bit stressy experience sometime (was in a rush to the plants!) but calming music helped. = ) WASD keys were not working for me (I'm on Windows/Opera playing in browser), so I used arrow keys and had fun playing the game! Nice game!
Dorblin7z7
22. Apr 2020 · 00:49 UTC
There's a special kind of irony when you drown trying not to overwater plants.
Bongooo
22. Apr 2020 · 07:05 UTC
Just played! very nice! Probably I will tweet about this in the next day on this page https://twitter.com/Free_IndieGames !
toxicon
22. Apr 2020 · 08:49 UTC
i like the idea and the mechanic very much. i would recommend, to use a key for entering the next stage. overall, very well done.
Rusty Jim
22. Apr 2020 · 12:53 UTC
Mate, that music is GREAT! Well done with this. I had fun playing it. A lot of people have gone for the watering plants theme this LD and this is a great execution of it. My only complaint is that it was too easy to drown in the water! Some of the times it felt as if only on pixel of the character's foot was in it. Overall though, a good game with GREAT music and a satisfying core gameplay loop.
RiccaStudio
22. Apr 2020 · 17:24 UTC
The music war great aswell as the graphics. I like Puzzle games sooo... Keep up the good work
Zivfo
23. Apr 2020 · 05:39 UTC
music is short but so good and fit, i even kept the page open for a while to listen. The game is fun too, quite a man keeps drinking and peeing to plants so hard. XP
Lakrits
23. Apr 2020 · 05:51 UTC
WASD doesn't work for me (tried the HTML version in Firefox).

Why are there skulls floating in the water? o_o This gardener doesn't mess around...
Andre Fremaux
23. Apr 2020 · 08:30 UTC
Great game! Unfortunately I couldn't beat the second to last level, its was just too hard. Other than that I have no other gripes, its a very solid entry! Awesome work team!
Jarithius
23. Apr 2020 · 14:15 UTC
Good job on making a fun little micro management game. I enjoyed the concept and game play, the Music and sFX were spot on and entertaining, the mechanics were simple yet fun, and the progression was a good curve. I honestly could not get past stage 5 bottleneck, though i tried and tried. welp from what i have played here are my thoughts.
For my feedback i would like to suggest a few things ( i am sorry if others have said this before I didnt read the comment).
1. The angle at which you have to be to connect with the plants and water spout are a bit rough, especially on advanced stages where time was crucial.
2. the x shaped stage has a misplaced drowning Death trigger in the middle of the platform on the sandy area. I died just stepping near it, but none of the stages before had that sharp of a danger spot near the water.
![Botinist blitz-sm.png](///raw/a0e/32/z/32c54.png)
3. The bees area nice touch as a repeatable obstacle to slow the players progression or make them plan their moves. However I feel there could be something like a Stung timer or visual indicator to help the player with visual feedback of their actions and the consequences.
4. Add a feature like extra items/tools to help the gardener, even if they are temporary buffs, like a temporary pesticide or speed boost or something for later could give the player a increased engaging experience.
5. maybe its different per device, but WASD did not work for my laptop.

Over all a very good jam game, Well Done!
🎤 BrokenCogGames
23. Apr 2020 · 16:21 UTC
Thanks for the really detailed feedback @jarithius! We've gotten a lot of feedback about the drowning areas not being optimal, so we will likely try and fix that after this is through. Great idea on adding extra tools as well.

Thank you to everyone else who is providing us feedback as well, it's great to hear people are enjoying this game :)
LuCecyl
23. Apr 2020 · 23:53 UTC
Nice game! Had fun playing! Liked the various elements you put that add a nice touch to the lvl design, the bees, the water and moving logs.