LudumData

Pitchforks & Produce by Medow

[raw]
made by Medow for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

A roguelike boss rush game about harvesting ginormous evil crops.

Finally you’re old enough to help with this year’s crop harvest! Your parents are leaving it all up to you. If only you knew the deadly journey to come…

Defeat the enormous crops monsters by racking up crazy combos and dodging their many attacks! Use your little pitchfork to slice through the evil produce and come out alive!

Go through the years as the bosses get harder and harder to see how far you can get!

Description

Each cloud you hit adds to your combo, then dashing through a boss deals your combo damage to it. The higher your combo is, the faster you get it, so keep a high combo going to deal massive amounts of damage. You only lose your combo if you get hurt.

Screenshot (467).png

Screenshot (468).png

Screenshot (478).png

Screenshot (490).png

Source code and game downloads on itch.io (see below)

Download on itch.io https://medow.itch.io/pitchforks-and-produce
Play in browser or download on itch.io https://medow.itch.io/pitchforks-and-produce
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/pitchforks-produce

Ratings

Overall 64th 3.827⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 58th 3.846⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 40th 3.904⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 97th 3.942⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 160th 3.538⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 46th 3.88⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 64th 3.519⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 119th 3.519⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

Linus Lindberg
08. Jan 2023 · 21:30 UTC
I really like it, but it's very difficult. Took me a while to realize you needed combos for damage. Couldn't manage to kill the second boss even after a couple of tries. I'll have to come back tomorrow once I'm rested :P
FrederoxDev
08. Jan 2023 · 21:30 UTC
Cool game concept, I nearly managed to get to the end of the pumpkin battle, wish it has a bit less health so I would've been able to get to the others quicker
brandann
08. Jan 2023 · 21:42 UTC
Made it to year 3.
look me a try or two to realize you need the combos to ANY damage.
the broccoli was definitely the best of the bosses, it attacked with the clouds and felt like I was fighting it rather than working through it.

artwork was consistent and flowed well. the giant veggies were cool
glitchhh
08. Jan 2023 · 22:17 UTC
This is such a cool game with funny animations. I did find it really difficult tho haha
Loig
09. Jan 2023 · 11:34 UTC
Very nice game. I like the concept of having to prepare your combo to hit the boss, but with the risk of loosing everything.

In my opinion, the player is maybe a bit slow, I would have liked the game to be more fast paced. Also, having to restart from the very beginning after loosing to the third boss is quite discouraging (mainly because beating the two first bosses was already quite long).
muriel
10. Jan 2023 · 00:10 UTC
Wow, I love the art style, the music (it really fits to the action happening on the game), the controls, particles... Well to be honest I love everything about this game (the integrated tutorial for the controls it is nice as well), IDK what to say, very nice entry and very good job ;)
square wave
10. Jan 2023 · 05:17 UTC
I can honestly say that was the most tense I've ever felt fighting a giant broccoli monster. I was pumped.

Good action, hilarious art, appropriate music. Nice!
HayriCakir
10. Jan 2023 · 05:57 UTC
I love the game feel. Good job mate!
pazzi
10. Jan 2023 · 07:17 UTC
Difficult, but satisfying! I only was able to defeat the pumpkin with a combo of 30 something! This mechanic is so addicting! Very creative, very fun!
UkuleleFury
10. Jan 2023 · 22:08 UTC
:) Wow, really cool game! Nice pixels, nice sfx, great music! The mechanic is unique. It felt maybe kind of hard to get as high of a combo as I'd like, but maybe I just didn't figure out the trick to it. The balance was pretty good though! Not too hard to die like some games. This was a lot of fun!
Rezioz
10. Jan 2023 · 23:22 UTC
Cool game, I really enjoy the graphics and the music ! Couldn't beat the onion :/
Sikowny
11. Jan 2023 · 05:58 UTC
Awesome mechanic here. I don't think there are two many games that have you collect your enemies attack as your main source of damage. Very fun, a little difficult for sure, haven't passed Mr. Brokoli (yet) Great Compo game!
xfinktion
12. Jan 2023 · 02:46 UTC
Well, that gets the gamer juices flowing! Great execution on the mechanic, sound, and gfx :) A tad difficult but thoroughly enjoyable. Only quibble (a very minor one) is that after dashing into the boss, you can't quite walk out before the the boss can collide with the player again, depending on where you dash into it. Definitely enough chance to dash out again, just needed to remember to do that. Very well done :D
timon
12. Jan 2023 · 20:46 UTC
Had a lot of fun dashing around, so much that I forgot completely about WASD :) Felt mechanically solid and rewarding to collect combo and attack the bosses with it, but the minmaxer in me started wondering if it's really worth the gamble to gather a huge combo before attacking if it gets reset when you hit the boss anyway. Safer to go for a stab every so often. Would have been neat with a mechanic that made it even more rewarding if you take the risk to go huge on combo! (although I must admit I don't have any immediate suggestions).

Was super fun to play overall, prbably giving brokoli another stab (heh) after this :)
Antsa
12. Jan 2023 · 21:27 UTC
The dashing mechanic worked really well. It was easy to control and getting the combo up was great fun.

One suggestion I'd have would be to make the screenshake and also maybe the hitsound proportional to the combo when hitting the boss to increase the impact it represents. I didn't really feel any difference between low and high combos other than the rising combo sound pitch.
🎤 Medow
13. Jan 2023 · 04:14 UTC
@timon Thanks so much! Actually there is a system where when your combo is above 25, you start getting 2 points from every cloud rather than 1. Same for 50 where you get 3, 75 for 4, and so on. However this is not clearly communicated in the gameplay.

I also think the number should be lower than 25 but I can't change it now :cry:

Might update it after the jam is fully over
🎤 Medow
13. Jan 2023 · 04:15 UTC
@antsa Ooo I really like that idea!
MachWerx
15. Jan 2023 · 03:29 UTC
The combo mechanic was something I'd never seen before. I feel like going all the way to 0 when you get hit is too harsh, though. It made the game feel more frustrating than fun and I didn't want to continue past the pumpkin. It might have felt more worth it if each combo was exponentially more powerful than the previous one (up to a max of something like 5). Then there'd be a specific goal to hit. Neat concept, though!
ssh.randy
16. Jan 2023 · 03:17 UTC
super cool game concept! i think it was a little weird to get used to, but loved it. great work!

i think a bit of "invincibility timer" in between combos, or making combos a little more spaced out (spacing out the clouds) might help. or perhaps a faster combo (kind of like hyperlightdrifter) could be interesting. the idea itself is super cool though!
kir Pow
17. Jan 2023 · 19:19 UTC
Really nice game. I like how the cloud?! near the house at the beginning acted as a mini dash tutorial before the arena battles. Also liked how you could button bash or play start with combos. One of my favourites so far!
CheeseHead games
19. Jan 2023 · 05:06 UTC
super interesting mechanic, loved the risk vs reward system of building a combo but having to use it before you get hit. really fun but it's pretty hard, I never made it past the 3rd boss, I feel like a save mechanic that let's you return to the last boss you fought would be good, sending you all the way back to the beginning seams pretty punishing.
mr_lazy
21. Jan 2023 · 19:59 UTC
its reallya nice game the game mech is simple but really good enough to play... i really love the souund added while the combo is increasing...and i could have something to have collect to increase the HP...good work!!
benskca
22. Jan 2023 · 17:43 UTC
Loved this, keeping your combo up introduces great risk vs reward that makes for some super satisfying moments when you finally cash in on your combo and do a tonne of damage. It's a great idea to have the game loop but get progressively harder too, it lets you build on the content you've already made and add new challenges which is super smart when there's limited time to make the game.
Ratrat44
25. Jan 2023 · 03:33 UTC
This game has the best music I've ever heard in a game jam game!
It's also very fun!
I like how the plants do a little jig before some attacks, it's quite funny and it goes along with the music nicely
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