PUMPKING RISING by peringo

made by peringo for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

After a grueling 3 day period of little sleep and hand cramps we present to you:

It's a bit buggy and we apologize for any of the remaining softlocks should they waste your time, but we are pretty proud of what we accomplished this time around.

A quick download link if you DESPISE reading: https://sn4pi.itch.io/pumpking-rise

THE GAME

There is a cult in these woods attempting to ressurect the Pumpking. An old god said to require 10.000 souls to blossom. Where do we get these souls? By growing some monsters and fighting them, of course!

Pumpking rising is a game about raising monster crops at day and harvesting them at night and buying some upgrades and doodads with the money earned doing it.

Some small tips:

Traps are pretty strong, especially against bigger foes
Mandrake seeds are free
Don't get too greedy with the kind of crops you grow
Be a little greedier so the coins don't disappear

Controls:

WASD to move.

Left-click to use item.

Right-click to open certain inventories

Mouse Wheel to scroll through item wheel

E to interact with the shop, the bell or any weeds and rocks

Credits

Graphics and design by Jakob Naumann ( @Peringo )

Programming by Danilo Borchardt ( @Sn4pi )

Music and sound effects by Vlad Kvochkin ( @Vladislow )

The beautiful mx5x7 font by the magnificient Managore

Mimpy from the GMS discord for helping with GMS problems when our programmer went to work

Itch.io	https://sn4pi.itch.io/pumpking-rising
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/pumpking-rising

Ratings

Overall	115^th	3.942⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Fun	155^th	3.82⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	201^th	3.62⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Theme	104^th	4.2⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	138^th	4.212⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Audio	46^th	4.08⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Humor	176^th	3.477⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Mood	209^th	3.78⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Given		30🗳️	31🗨️

Feedback

ThorPalsson

09. Jan 2023 · 14:06 UTC

There is no link to a game :O

Sn4pi

10. Jan 2023 · 01:14 UTC

@thorpalsson Now you should be able to play our game :smiley:

Tsamf

10. Jan 2023 · 02:15 UTC

The controls were a little hard to figure out. When I selected the seed to plant in the tutorial it did not do anything. I skipped the tutorial to play around and the battle phase seemed cool. The art and sounds are really good.

daitli

10. Jan 2023 · 02:16 UTC

The link on the description isn't working. All I could think of during the intro was the amount of works you guys put into drawing the pixel art then the game began and I was mind blown by the amount of work you guys did lol. Thanks for sharing, I had fun playing it! :)

Erivas_Soulares

10. Jan 2023 · 02:24 UTC

I didn't saw there was a Scroll Bar use to swap itens.
Get stuck on the tutorial (Maybe was my own miss).

But i've replayed it later and it tottaly worth it.
The game is nice, the art is Crispy, and i sells his story pretty well.

Amazing game!

JudJudson

10. Jan 2023 · 02:31 UTC

I can never be trusted with metering my own difficulty. may the pumpking forgive my soul.
![ohno.png](///raw/76a/d2/z/55c49.png)

Yubs

10. Jan 2023 · 02:32 UTC

Incredible game! I can't believe the amount of mechanics in here! Although I think I got soft locked because the teleporting guy might have tp'd out of bounds. Super fun game though!

Lucasgamedesigner

10. Jan 2023 · 02:33 UTC

First link its broken btw

- I could not pass the tutorial because it said "right click to open seed menu" but i clicked everywhere and nothing happend
- The pixel art its great
- i wish i could have played more but i enjoyed what ive seen

Adam Gallina

10. Jan 2023 · 02:34 UTC

This looks really creative, but I got softlocked - some enemies spawned and didn't disappear in the daylight, and then I had no way to fight, entered the death animation, and it just kept playing the death animation and moving to the next day:(
Other than that, the artwork looks amazing! The game loop looks really creative and rewarding

Fuzzy Lobster

10. Jan 2023 · 02:36 UTC

Incredible pixel art. I'm blown away that your team was able to pull this off!

craigalancarroll

10. Jan 2023 · 02:40 UTC

That was a beefsteak of a tomato when it grew! Quite entertaining.

🎤 peringo

10. Jan 2023 · 12:03 UTC

@yubs Argh, can't believe it happened again, thought I fixed that. Thanks for giving the game a shot.

🎤 peringo

10. Jan 2023 · 12:05 UTC

@lucasgamedesigner It was a fatal mistake no not have the text for swapping tools on the same slide as when you need it, haha. I struggle with tutorials a lot because usually I don't want to put them in in the first place and just design the game more intuitively, but I goofed.

🎤 peringo

10. Jan 2023 · 12:06 UTC

@adam-gallina This one sounds especially bad, but I guess there is nothing we can do. That didn't happen for any of the last minute testers or us, but I can see how that would break the run instantly.

Dannyk1994

10. Jan 2023 · 20:38 UTC

Enjoyed playing your game on stream! Thanks for submitting. Really love the graphics ( especially the GUI ),
like the risk vs reward of plants the monsters and then having to fight them. Great submission!

TRUEchips

10. Jan 2023 · 20:47 UTC

The game was very fun. I especially enjoyed the "Pick your own enemy wave aspect of the game"

My only complaint is that there is no real incentive to do plant higher-tier enemies, as you can easily just finish the game with the free plants. Maybe make the easier ones cost more?

🎤 peringo

10. Jan 2023 · 20:57 UTC

@truechips Thanks for giving it a shot and even beating it!
Mandrakes are free to avoid softlocks.
Technically due to the water limit, the higher tier enemies are more optimal for reaching the 10.000, but it's for sure not a good reason.

Cloughd

10. Jan 2023 · 23:31 UTC

The art is really good here. I died a few times because I got a little too greedy growing to many enemies at once, but I think that's perfectly fair lol. I liked that a lot of the items also had upgrade paths, I wasn't expecting that considering time constraints for it added a lot of replay.

picross

11. Jan 2023 · 02:00 UTC

Very nice stuff! I love how much depth there is to the game. Lots to figure out. Really enjoyed the art and sound design. Great work!

jitspoe

11. Jan 2023 · 03:32 UTC

Very polished jam entry! More ambitious than I would have tried given the time frame. Cool project! May main complaint is that the battle music is so much louder than everything else.

LDJam user 320211

11. Jan 2023 · 05:20 UTC

Wow, the is a very impressive submission! There are so many features, it looks amazing, sounds great. Having a tutorial at the beginning was incredibly helpful (though I too struggled with switching to the seed bag for a bit), and the ability to kind of choose your own difficulty is unique for sure - I definitely went in over my head a few times, but it was still fun. I was longing for maybe one more type of weapon, but as I said, there was already more in this than I expected for a jam!

iesnihS

11. Jan 2023 · 14:26 UTC

It's very impressive, I had a lot of fun when I was killing my own seeds ^^ I'm just disapointed about the end I was expecting a boss fight against the pumpkin god XD Let me know if you introduce something like this ^^ GG <3

Meyoji

11. Jan 2023 · 14:28 UTC

Cool game, just sad we can't figth the pumpkin boss at the end.

Beeb GameCodeCompany

15. Jan 2023 · 16:52 UTC

Alooot of polish, games that feel nearly complete or have alot of polish I think are always the dream with contests like these. Graphics were good, music good, and the loop was good. Nice work and it kept with the theme...Kinda feels wrong planting something and killing it instead of loving it lol, but that's what makes this game different I guess.

Geckoo1337

19. Jan 2023 · 18:50 UTC

Polished and neat aesthetic. Impressive submission. The tutorial is clear - however I guess that I mised some keys in order to play until the end of the game. I suck. However you made a solid entry - and I cannot imagine that you did that in less than 3 days. Thank you for your comment. I wish you the best ++

Aes1

27. Jan 2023 · 07:58 UTC

I really enjoyed playing this game, I liked your tutorial, for some reason maybe it was because I'm a bit sleepy, I didn't think to scroll to get the seed bag then right click because I was in reading mode and saw right click to open seed bag but the seed bag wasn't selected, but even while sleepy I found everything super intuitive and the amount of content was pretty cool, especially with upgraded versions of stuff. The progression felt great aswell with a single playthrough I didn't feel as if anything took to long to get or complete. ty for the game :)

Remco

27. Jan 2023 · 18:27 UTC

This game gave me _very_ good first impressions. Graphics, audio and scope of the game are phenomenal. Polish is also evident in most matters (there are a few little annoyances, such as the shop not also closing with 'e', the seemingly somewhat large hitbox of the character, and the way you can't place objects anywhere in a big radius around the bell, right clicking for the seeds feels takes a bit getting used to), but otherwise, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a full game instead of a jam one.

I do however have a little problem with the balance. Most of the fun 'buy upgrades', 'discover what this wacky new seed does', etc. is in the beginning. If you've seen everything twice over, you're not even half-way to the goal. While it's satisfying to see that you placed your traps well enough to stop the bulk of the attack, this also leaves you with the combat, and the farming. Both are quite repetitive in their own way, and most of the driving force, except for the end, is now gone.

Some other random stuff I enjoyed: I do really like the way you implemented the mouse-wheel menu. The short music loop you play during the intro and story is just really well done. The expression on the main character, and the way the people are also pumpkin 'themed'.