The Teeniest Seed by Jezzamon

The Teeniest Seed is a puzzle-platformer storybook about a little seed who needed to find a patch of soil that's just right!
🌱 Play it here! (Web, HTML5) 🌱
Controls:
- Arrow Keys: Move the seed
- Up Arrow: Jump
- Down Arrow: Plant yourself
- Space: Select in menus
- R: Reset level
- M: Mute music, press again to mute all sounds
About
I took this Ludum Dare a little more relaxed than previous ones, which was nice! This was originally going to be a compo game, but at the deadline I decided I wanted to polish it a little more, so I entered the jam instead. On the third day, my wife jumped in and helped create the background art.
I enjoyed making it, and I'll definitely be releasing a post-compo one with more levels, so stay tuned for that. Let me know if you have any ideas you'd like to see in the game :)
Porting / Bug fixes:
- Fixed WASD support
- Fixed the seeds looking the same in Safari
Known Issues:
- Sound doesn't work in Safari :(
| Link | https://jezzamon.itch.io/the-teeniest-seed |
| Link | https://github.com/Jezzamonn/LD52 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/the-teeniest-seed |
Ratings
| Overall | 139th | 3.909⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 85th | 3.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 106th | 3.818⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 638th | 3.25⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 285th | 3.864⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 161th | 3.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 422th | 2.853⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 226th | 3.727⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 12🗨️ |
The puzzles are intriguing yet simple enough to finish every level in just a few tries.
Story is short and cute.
Everything seemed to work as expected.
The only thing I would add is support for WASD/spacebar as well as the arrows.
Also maybe a mention somewhere that R resets the level because I found it through an educated guess.
The music track is seriously awesome!!
I actually intended to add WASD support in the game but never tested it, turns out I used the wrong name for the buttons haha. I'll have to publish a bug-fix version with that added. I was considering adding space as a button for planting the seed, but removed it so someone wouldn't accidentally plant if they mashed it on the select screen.... but using it for jump is a good idea! I'll add that :)
Glad you liked the music :) And yep, I was going to add those controls in the description, once I actually got around to writing a description!
- The way the seeds plant themselves feels so satisfying!
- I wish there was a way to get an overview of each level. I don't know if you intended it like this, but I feel that every puzzle game should be able to be solved flawlessly if you know what I mean
- I love the character select options!
- I see in the comments that there is a reset option, I was about to suggest to add one ^^" Maybe instead giving the player a notice in-game would help. As you need to reset a lot. Ofcourse there is a retry option among the character select screen. I used that a lot ^^
- I like the controls and how effortlessly the gameplay is as a result of that. I can learn from that.
- The music and graphics fit together very nicely. Well done!
This is a great gameplay concept, I'd love to play a bigger game based on this. @Piko suggested a co-op mode! :)
I didn't really like having to guess which seed you would need first. And the camera controls felt too tight for my taste, and followed the character rather quickly, which got uncomfortable to look at on a big screen.
It'd be cool if the seeds looked a bit different in seed form! Another thought, it could be interesting to have levels in other seasons, where the plants and environment (and challenges) are a bit different!
One little thing about the movement, I felt that the camera was turning around a bit too much when I moved the characters, and it made me a bit dizzy :dizzy_face:
The fast camera movement is a bit dizzying, especially in the smaller levels, I would have liked a bit more space to turn around before the camera starts to move. And the texts showing a bit earlier would have been nice too.
It would also have been nice if I could go back to the seed selecting screen if I picked the wrong one, without completely restarting the level. But as the levels were short enough, that didn't bother me too much at least.
I wonder why there is more than one of the flower seeds in the last level, if you can only plant one anyway and then it automatically returns you to the first level again...?
I was sad when I finished the final level and it just restarted...I was hoping for more content lol
The only (minor) issues I had were that the glowing effect of the ground was sometimes hard to see in front of the bright backgrounds, and aligning the seed felt a little off. Sometimes I'd press down to plant on the cell I thought was below me, but the seed would move slightly forward and plant itself in the cell right in front of me. That was mainly a problem in the longer levels since losing a seed means having to restart the whole thing.
But overall this is a really great submission. Nice job!!
That's also why the result when you win is a little anti-climactic.
Note to self: Try to make the ending of the game satisfying for people!
Glad you liked it! I content was the thing I skimped on during this game and would've definitely like to add more!
my only criticisms design wise are:
- 1: I would like to be able to view the level first zoomed out before I choose my first plant
- 2: the camera snapping so far to your forward direction when you're just trying to stand still or realign is a bit too much. I think the camera distance is fine but it should get there gradually when you're walking and not snap there instantly
- 3: camera in general also doesn't catch up with your velocity either when you fall down a big hall and accelerate faster than it. I think the camera should just be based on your pos and then have an additional factor of your velocity that it then lerps to that gets added on to fix all of the above
- 4: the level that is essentially hole roulette. I get the gameplay is information gathering at that point but I find it a little bit antithetical to the rest of the gameplay to be like that, but different strokes for different folks
but those are minor gripes, in general I found it thoroughly enjoyable and look forward to more jezzamon entries