Deep Space Lawn Mowing by HexStart

[raw]
made by HexStart for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

DSLM_ludumBanner.png

The worst enemy of a lawn mower? Obviously an unexpected, ordinary rock. But what about a SPACE lawn mower. Well, that would be a space Rock. Wait, did it just move...?

dslm_bar.jpg

Deep Space Lawn Mowing is an action game about collecting grass in space. Grass in an extremely rare and valuable resource that far into the void, and selling it can fund numerous upgrades for your lawn mower. It's a dangerous line of work, but if you won't manage to keep it going for long, you can at least share your yield with fellow lawn mower operators on the global leaderboard.

Can you discover an upgrade strategy to make you into a galactic grass leader? Only one way to find out.

(If your score fails to upload for some reason, just post it in the comments and we'll add it manually)​

dslm03.jpg

Controls

  • WASD or Arrow keys - movement
  • Space, Q, E, F - use unlocked abilities (controls are displayed in the game)
  • ESC or P - pause menu with settings

The game also supports gamepad, but it doesn't display gamepad input prompts. Here's a cheat sheet:

  • Left stick - movement
  • Right trigger - extend
  • Button east - absorb
  • Button west - shred
  • Button south - jump

dslm02.jpg

Created by

Together we create Tano Collective - Bluesky, Itch

Attribution

Original music and sound by Hex.​

All credits are listed inside the game's Credits widget.

Ratings

Overall 50th 4.125⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 19th 4.208⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 51th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 103th 4.167⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 92th 4.375⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 24th 4.283⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 309th 3.214⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 190th 3.875⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

zexurge
Oct 07th · 02:45 UTC
lawnmower survivors! really well built game wow!
raysplaceinspace
Oct 07th · 02:52 UTC
Wow, you know, this is a great concept! The idea that, unlike vampire survivors, the goal isn't to kill the enemies but to just cut the grass, but these rocks keep getting in the way, is a great twist on a familiar concept. The graphics and sound are great too! Well done!
TomPendergrass
Oct 07th · 03:37 UTC
Very satisfying, I wish there were more ways to increase the speed of leveling up or fighting back against the rock horde. That grass grows like crazy
ThatmanRobin
Oct 08th · 18:38 UTC
This was fantastic! At first I was trying to destroy rocks but the jump mechanic made a huge difference! Overall it sounded great, was fun to play, looked good, and was very on theme!
runningopenloop
Oct 09th · 00:13 UTC
Good job! it would be nice if you could get more levels of sharper blades and speed power ups and have more
powerful versions of the jump power up. overall Great game!
-J
Blue Pin Studio
Oct 09th · 06:53 UTC
Really nice entry! I loved the sfx, the gameplay and the art, it was all very good. My only gripe with the game is i wish i could power creep more. I want more upgrades, more blades, stronger grass, etc etc etc etc
HaaYaargh
Oct 09th · 11:05 UTC
Tano once again delivers a banger :sunglasses:
LDJam user 379026
Oct 10th · 19:51 UTC
Hello fellow cleaning robot game! what a fun concept and I can see with a few tweaks how fun it can get. As it stands I don't feel like I'm able to compete against the sheer number of rocks that are hunting me down.

Maybe balancing the game with something like traps and a rewarding "gold" grass alongside lower damage rocks might help reduce the pressure and give the player a better feeling of success vs inevitable destruction.
🎤 HexStart
Oct 10th · 20:04 UTC
@leo115 thanks for the suggestions! Getting the jump upgrade early really makes a difference (maybe we should just have it enabled from the start).
Adam Konig
Oct 11th · 00:59 UTC
Awesome entry who doesn't love a number go up game? I think the theming was very clever being a lawn mower cutting grass and avoiding asteroids instead of rocks. Overall very strong entry visually, gameplay was really smooth and fun, the high score board was a nice touch, and I had a very fun time and greatly appreciated the controller support!
Jvdwijk
Oct 12th · 14:26 UTC
Really cool game so far! Nicely executed and keeps you coming back because of the leaderboards.
Only thing I'd change is up the balance each time you upgrade, since you also have to wait longer for each upgrade.
Andreadbx
Oct 12th · 16:48 UTC
I'm really bad at it, but it glued me to the screen for like 50 minutes without even realizing, great idea! Technically very polished (not a surprise :P), the game loop is nice, its imho a little bit confusing that the top bar is Grass but then in the shop the currency is money, maybe would have been better simplifying and merging the two? idk, great job as always, go Ta No!
Magalix
Oct 13th · 10:14 UTC
Solid entry ! Good music and sound design, satisfying gameplay and no visible bugs or unfinished features.
Congratulations
MAR Zockmeister
Oct 14th · 22:06 UTC
Wow, very polished games with really good graphics and nice idea - I've never played a lawnmower. :smiley: As someone else mentioned, would be cool to get some more upgrades to really fight back, guns etc. :smile: But might not really fit into the setting.
ne40k
Oct 16th · 15:46 UTC
realy nice game,very good idea
megalukes
Oct 22nd · 12:31 UTC
I thought the game was really well made and polished, especially considering the short time we had for the jam. Great idea, and I had a lot of fun collecting upgrades for the lawn mower haha. Great job!
PhilStrahl
Oct 26th · 21:45 UTC
Wow what a polished entry! The balancing is a little of but there's never enough time for something as time consuming as that. For your reference, here's my archived stream 😊🦄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSB7Re1M8Jo