Froot Labs by Knatterton

Grab you Froot Hoover!
In this Ludum Dare game jam entry, you take on the role of a stressed-out lab operator making Froot Juice. Froot Labs Inc has provided you with a Froot Hoover which you can use to suck up GMO Froots and then either plant them to grow more Froot - or juice them directly!
Manage your time, plants, and Froot in order to make enough juice to advance to the next stage!
Made by Axel Marelius & Edward Sedelius
Art is Interior Laboratory Low Poly Pack
Audio grabbed from Zapsplat
UI elements from thenounproject
| Game | https://edwardsedelius.itch.io/froot-labs |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/froot-labs |
Ratings
| Overall | 184th | 3.836⭐ | 69🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 138th | 3.853⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 134th | 3.743⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 299th | 3.853⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 384th | 3.677⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 201th | 3.629⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 290th | 3.197⭐ | 63🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 268th | 3.669⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 95🗨️ |
The music and sound design fit very well together and give a nice groovy vibe :sunglasses:
Really cool and fun game, great job !!
We'll make sure to test out your game now!
I liked the spins each level had on the concept, with the increasingly complex level design and the final level.
However I found it a bit too easy, surprisingly the first level was the hardest one for me to complete because the game refused to drop the colours I needed to complete the colours.
The controls could do with a bit of a tweak as well I feel, having to alternate between right and left click was a bit confusing for me, having it be just left click to interact with everything would make things a bit more smooth to play.
Overall, good work, I enjoyed it
But where is my red fruits,i waiting them for years :(
The camera was moving too fast for me but it's fine
Good job !
I had a hard time finding the fruits on the first stage. I didn't realize they'd spawn above the start button, and spent a while feeling frustrated trying to find out where they were while watching the jars pass me by.
Overall it had a very Slime Rancher vibe going with the Froot Hoover which I really enjoyed (although I wish the fully harvested plants would decay faster / suck up quicker or just automatically fall away to save time), and I appreciated that I didn't need to keep the colors in perfect ratio - a tall green jar could be 3 yellows and 1 blue for example.
However, dunno whether I missed anything or not, apple color generation seems to random? During playing I feel like struggling in anxiety hoping next apple could be the one I needed but in most situations it wouldn't be. I think a color generation algorithm do helps to control players' experience flow. That's my opinion.
Anyhow the concept is really attractive and I bet I would spend even more time on it if it produced apples with some determination of what color I needed. The present game is good enough.
I liked the final "boss fight" though :)
I also liked the attention to detail with the level decoration.
- Satisfying sounds and plops, though some controls and balancing needs a lot of work, since level looks too random.
- Tutorial could use some enhancement as well.
- The face that you cant get rid of unwanted color without trashing it is pretty frustrating.
This concept can be developed in something interesting with a proper work, well done!
Maybe a little controls tutorial in the sheet form like the one with the juice would be a nice addition
impressive work that's a 5* for me
Visually, the amount of motion blur + the lab color palette + the weird, unconventional "gun" reminded me Portal, in a good way. Overall it felt very snappy and responsive, and placing froots around felt pretty good.