Ludum Dare 52 - Farming Combos

It's time to hit the fields and farm some points in this fast-paced action/puzzle game!

Plant and harvest matching chains of crops in quick succession to score points and build up a monumental multiplier. An array of difficulties stand in your way: field space is limited, your satchel of seeds is jumbled up, and soil quality can grant rapid growth or slow maturation to a snail's pace. 

Careful planning just as important as good timing, and only a clever farmer can truly make a bountiful harvest from every field. 

Features

• High-Octane Reaping and Sowing: lay down rows of plants with just a single swipe of the mouse.
• Strategic Scoring: find ways to extend your chains of crops to secure the highest multiplier possible.
• Gold Stars: just like in preschool days of yore, get rewarded for a job well done with gold stars! Even when there are no more stars left to get, you're free to compare your high scores with your friends and enemies.

Jump into the action right away if you're tired of reading, otherwise venture onward for additional information and occasional witticisms.

How to Play

Click the mouse, press Spacebar, or press 'z' to switch between *Planting* and *Harvesting* modes (represented by a green bag of seeds and a sickle, respectively)

Move your mouse over an empty field while in *Planting* mode to place a seed. Later, move the mouse over that field in *Harvesting* mode to reap the crop & score points. 

Gameplay Tips

• Crops can be harvested as soon as they finish sprouting, but the greatest rewards (both score and multiplier growth) come from harvesting ripened crops.
• Harvesting several of the same crop in a row (a "Chain" of crops) exponentially increases your progress toward the next level of multiplier. There's no direct difference in score because of a chain, but reaching a higher multiplier is essential for achieving high scores!
• The crop combo multiplier will decay over time. Planting a few crops can stall the timer temporarily and harvesting plants of any quality might help. Harvesting fully ripened crops is the only surefire way to refresh it, though.
• Planning ahead is your greatest asset - check the list of crops at the bottom of the screen for the order and count of each type that will appear in the level. The three crop-badges on the left side of the screen change dynamically show the next three crops that are ready to be planted.

Credits

Farming Combos was created with the Godot engine in 72 hours and includes original code, sound, and art. 

The full team included:

• @Doctor_Zeus - lead designer, programmer, misc. goalpost-moving
• Noah Bumgardner - designer, programmer, composer
• Alex Mullins - artist, created the harvest / plant symbols and crop-tile graphics
• Tom Bumgardner - artist, made a painting for the thumbnail / menu screens

NOTE

The lovely pixel-art tileset used for the background of the levels was purchased in an asset pack:

7Soul's RPG Graphics - Tiles - Grasslands

by Henrique "7Soul" Lazarini - @7SoulDesign

And we also relied upon the *Roboto* font, created by Christian Robertson 

Given their external source, please don't consider them when rating our team's artistic work (the rest of which was made within the confines of the jam).

Feedback Wanted

This Ludum Dare entry features original art, music, and gameplay, and we are welcome to all kinds of feedback, especially related to how fun *Farming Combos* is to play! 

You can also check out the open-source code on GitHub (gaze upon our spaghetti, ye Mighty, and despair!)