NOTE: Because of the Theme tie, we allowed everyone to pick either Theme. Using both was optional. To keep things simple, there will still only be one Theme category. Every category in Ludum Dare voting is an opinion, so you’re welcome to rate them as you see fit. But we encourage you to be fair in your scores to people that chose only one Theme, and not both.
ALSO: Itch.io has an experimental game downloader over here. You may find it useful.


Two people are lost in the desert. Will they survive the wilderness?
#LD34: Growing, two-button controls
REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R3YVwt2Jbs
UPDATE: After some helpful feedback, I found cases where the game would get stuck. Pushed a fix for that. Both the original and the new source codes are included.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
#12 | Theme | 4.47 |
#33 | Overall | 4.08 |
#41 | Innovation | 4.06 |
#55 | Mood | 3.88 |
#71 | Fun | 3.84 |
#261 | Graphics | 3.53 |
#2373 | Coolness | 10% |
Comments
Very cool game. Unfortunately I didn't manage to beat the dragon :( I survived 356 weeks, explored 100 square kilometers. I loved the aesthetic and the way the game combined storytelling and gameplay.
Also, I wonder what the statue/tower option does?
Really additive with lots of branches, will keep playing to find the good ending. Well done!
Errm.. If you made it to the end there's only one ending :(
Wish I had more time to do some branching XD
Superb! I love the graphics - I have a weak spot for old RPGs aesthetics (especially the first 3 Ultimas). Would be great to have some music, but I played the game while listening to atmospheric black metal and it felt kinda right. :D
Kudos for having complete and relatively complex survival game controlled with just 2 buttons.
The simple building mechanics were surprisingly addictive! Great game.
Fun game, took 3 tries but beat it and enjoyed playing the game.
Very well done story. I enjoyed having the choices pop up every so often for what they should do next. It definitely pulled me in and I was sad when my first farmer died :( I'll be coming back to this one later. Nice job!
Nice little game, love the minimalistic controls and the resource management mechanics!
Very nice entry ! I am always astonished how good a game can look with just few pixels and a handful of skills ! Well done !
Awesome! The story bits were capturing, and the gameplay kept me keen.
I was heartbroken when the newborn farmer was slain by snakes, haha.
Awesome game.
I think I've messed up somewhere, as I'm out of materials, but have enough farm, foods and towers to live indefinitely (I'm already past week 400 with only 2 farmers, 1 warrior and 2 towers).
I might try again later.
Whoaw pretty great game, i enjoy playing narrative games and this one was really fun to play (althought it is a bit too easy for my taste). Also cool graphics, nice retro vibe.
I really love the game idea. =)
The story is great and you have a lot to decide which makes the game interesting...
Wow! What a really nice blend of narrative and the two themes.
It feels like an Age of Empires with only two buttons and simplistic graphics.
The choice between warriors and farmers really added depth to the decisions you make. If you are unlucky and the warriors are out of position during a snake or wolf attack then you can quickly lose the game.
All in all, you made a really well balanced and paced game with a lot of surprises. I wonder if you could add more elements to it and keep it going forever? Keep it up!
5/5. deep, entertaining, clever... perfect entry. some sound would have been the cheery on the cake ! amazing work
Awesome game, one of the best I've played. Really simple but the story was great.
Wow, what an awesome game. The best one I have played so far. I liked the story-telling a lot, reminded me about Superbrothers, Sword and Sworcery, which was one of the greatest Indie games around.
Well done. Really, really good :)
This was fantastic. I too was sorry when I reached the end after beating that Dragon. I was also a bit confused as to where some of the resources came from but that didn't bother me too much in the end. I will play it again no doubt. In fact, I want a continuation of the game. The story was captivating and the only thing that I really can complain about is the graphics but that's mainly because I am missing some animations, but understand that the focus is not with the graphics nonetheless.
Very well done. Will keep playing for sure.
5 out 5 humps for total awesome.
Beautiful! Great gameplay and some really great graphics as well! I beat the dragon first try, but didn't get a chance to see what statues do. Or what would happen if I climbed the tower. Definitely should replay this one!
Ohhh It is fantastic. I really love this game :D I survived for 201 days ^^". This game is just beautiful!!
Fantastic! I would've liked the option to kill the travelers, destroyed all my food! Overall fantastic, an interesting take on gamepaly
Really nice game, but seems to be a bug as I ended up with the following state very early after restarting the game: 1 farmer, 1 warrior. 4 fields, 5 shelters. But no children are born, no snakes show up.. at day 1900 and got 260 food.
Wow. This in 48 hours? I'm amazed. I hope you win. Darn snakes though... Killed me off.
Whoa! So good! Really enjoyed that you hit both themes so well with this, despite meh graphics that actually works pretty well. I started the jam with a somewhat similar idea (build a town through Y/N decisions), but I realised I didn't know how to implement big interesting systems quickly. Yours works out great!
I really enjoyed the narration that made it super clear what was going on all the time.
Sometimes things seem to appear before the narration, which was a bit weird (like a chest would lie there for a long time before the chest thing said anything).
Love love love :)
Oh one more thing, waiting for a long time with nothing happening was a bit of a bummer, because you literally had nothing to do and sometimes watching your people mill around just isn't interesting anymore.
I love this little game! It is nice to just seat and watch what happens after every decision :D Cool concept and execution!
Nice little game, with an original use of the themes. I really enjoyed it.
I loved the way you managed to do BOTH themes really well, and i like the thought that a simple decision of this or that can affect life or death of a whole town.
The lack of audio reminds me of text games like Zork and in my opinion adds to the attmosphere.
I lasted 503 days, amazing work :D
Great game, I like the style of storytelling, You magaged to make me care for these little blue guys. 519 days.
after 53 days a message said "after surviving 36 days"
maybe a bug ?
i liked the retro aesthetics
This is so cool. The indirect control of the villagers and the building strategy is so interesting to me. The aesthetic is fantastic also, would be even better with some sound. One of the best games I've played this jam.
Really nice entry! I ended up playing way longer than planned! Seeing the stats at the end of my first try and seeing the building and interaction possibilities definitely gave me motivation to try again until completion
Great use of both themes and I like that it can be played over and over again.
wow, quite hardcore gameplay and amazing to have done this in such a short time :)
This was really fun and the story was great! Everything about this was good, although maybe a very simple soundtrack would make it better =D
Amazing, I spent so much time on it. Didn't beat the dragon :/
A very nice little retro throwback. Gave me some vibes of old school roguelikes/RPGs and the sparse graphics and the text really gave me sort of Zork-vibe going on.
The meld between mechanics and narrative was interesting and it did make me interested in seeing what potential branching opporotunities could be found here.
Some of the situations were slightly unclear for me though on how I was supposed to manage from a mechanic standpoint (particularly the dragon), but it still made me intrigued and did make me want to replay.
Very aesthetically pleasing and nice job :).
I would have liked a fast forward button to skip to the choices on my subsequent runs, but a superb game all around.
I really enjoyed the simplistic graphics, you made great use of the color palette. And I personally don't think the lack of audio hurts this game in anyway, great entry!
I love this game :D such an original concept, love the strategy component mixed with adventure, unique and awesome, well done :)
This was great! I've played through it a few times now, my best is only 472 days though :( Excellent job man, I had a lot of fun!
Great game, beat the dragon on the first try but it almost got me, didn't get to build any tower. Not sure how to.
What a great game! Perfect implementation of both themes! I survived 510 days :)
I survived 491 days. The dragon is tough!!
Great game man! I really liked!
My only problem is that the game starts right away, I didn' understand at first.
It neede some music in the background.
Great work man!
Amazing all the rich content and gameplay with only two choices questions. Well done !
Wow awesome game and quite a lot of content for 48h hours. Survived for 443 days and beat the dragon, but no farmers left.. I guess my village is doomed. Needs a sequel :).
I really liked the idea, it's really interesting!
However, the execution didn't live up to it, in my opinion... It's simply too random.
Days would pass and I rarely could take an action. I felt like I had no control of the game at all, which is a pretty bad thing on a survival game...
One way to make it less random would be to allow the player to circle between action targets (e.g., the shelter, the crops etc) and after X days the action would take place. Perhaps each action could have its own cooldown, which the actor would have to wait until doing something else...
So... I apologize if I worded myself in a discouraging and/or impolite way. I really liked this game's idea, so much that I really wanted to give my sincere feedback/criticism...
(I only played twice, but I already spent quite some time playing... Perhaps if I played more I'd have a different opinion. I'll try to play it again later and say if anything changes, for me :) )
Really lovely game, didn't seem like you could defeat the dragon but the graphics and the the story are very nice.
Really nice game, loved the idea and the very two touch controls suit it well.
The game seemed easy for me (maybe rngsus was on my side lol), I just spammed all the newborn into warriors and the dragon was slain. But I really liked the concept! Good work, hope you'll continue this :P
Fun play! Never beat the dragon, but I think I'll be coming back for more sometime...
Wow, this is probably my favorite entry I've played so far. Really a fantastic idea, and executed very well. I get a real Black & White feeling from it, which is cool. I would love to play an expanded version, and I feel like this would be particularly suited as a mobile game as well! Fantastic job.
Great all around. I think I'd have enjoyed the game were it not so tightly bound to the two button theme though. Regardless that mechanic made it super easy to play. I'm a fan of these types of village building games.
Nice one. I only survied 342 days but it was really fun! With sounds it would have been even better!
Killed the southern dragon with my last warrior and then he died fighting a snake :( Great game!
Nice idea, and story. But movements of the units are too chaotic. I have the impression that the game lives its own life. Good luck ^_^
Nicely done, however it kind of felt unfair that the rng could screw you over pretty hard sometimes :P
This game is incredible! Easily one of the best games I've played so far.
Very clever entry. It kept me hooked from the start :D Needless to say, some sound would have a gone a long way to making this more atmospheric :X
Amazingly done! I really like the style and the whole idea of growing a village vis simple decisions.
Too bad that all my warriors died to wolves :(
Outstanding. I found this to be very addictive. The simplicity of the controls made this very accessible, and realising that it was up to me to choose wisely between warrior and farmer to let the tribe keep growing added unexpected depth.
I love it, maybe one of the best entries I saw so far! It would have been excellent with some music ;) I'm curious to hear what kind of sound would match that game.
I found the mechanics of this game very interesting. I got used to the idea of the game very quickly, which is to me probably one of the most important aspects of a game. Didn't have much time to play, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game for the time that I had to play it and will definitely come back to it at some point after the judging has finished. Well Done :D
Stellar game, love the simplicity of decision making, while still having a surprising amount of depth. The narration was spot-on too, had a nice storybook feel to it. Love this game! :)
Just a heads up though, there's one typo that I saw: at one point 'Sotuhern' is used instead of 'Southern,' specifically after the big battle. Doesn't detract the from the experience, but thought you might want to know about it.
Wow, The asthetics is unique as is the gameplay. Never seem nothing like this before. This will hit TOP20 for sure, if not higher. Well done guys.
I couldn't see the graphics and also only one option all the time, I'm not sure if that is a bug or I just didn't understand it. I'm not rating yet and will come back later. keep on! :D
Well done! I really enjoyed the story and the automaticness of the villagers. I'm going to play it again now.
The shame was that the village stopped growing after a while, and the only decisions left were whether to raise a farmer or a warrior. I like how the story is told though.
This is really quite a fun game! I beat it the first time, and then the second time I played again just to see what happened if I chose almost entirely farmers and chose to build shelters most of the time... turns out you win!
Nice job! Probably the most fun I've had with a Ludum Dare game this time round, which is interesting as I usually like platformers or other games with immediate feedback.
Sound effects would have made a big difference in this game, even simple ones made is sfxr
So much content and depth. Great entry. Would love to see it grow.
I really liked your game. The artstyle is really nice.
One thing I didn't like, is that my village died of venom suddenly, without me even expecting it, or being able to do anything about it...
This is great!! You totally nailed the two button controls, the game looks super good, it feels polished... Congrats!
Very nice,
Just missing a good music to be very very nice ! :)
Nice Theme combo btw. ;)
Very nice graphics! The narrative worked nicely as the game progressed. I didn't get very far though. Something about having only 2 people thus why they would require more than one hut and when the snakes came everyone died. That part felt a bit too sudden. The first encounter should basically be safe I think, and if huts produce offspring independent of population size, then that kind of needs to be explained I think. Great entry though.
wow this was absolutely amazing. it felt like a whole story i was living through, and it really felt like my decisions mattered! Super impressive for 48 hours, one of my favorites so far
Really loved the mood! Great aesthetics, and nice concept. Kept me playing for a while!
Very neat Concept I lasted 64 days! I liked the choices you had to make!
Very well done, this is the best approach to the two-options-at-a-time mechanic I've seen so far (most other games just restrict your options at random, you've ensured that any one choice only has two options). The writing's really nice and atmospheric.
Main complaint I'd have is that it seemed like foraging the trees gave me enough food to cover all my needs until the end of the game. I did build farms and farmers, but having 10 food at regular intervals from the 2 trees in my village would've covered what was consumed by far.
The game could use a fair bit of balancing in general. I pretty much never saw a use for my [non-food] resources except for rock carving, and neither the statue nor the tower seemed to do anything.
You did make up a lot of the balancing issue with the rust and the fact the game ends after the dragon's killed, though. Good job on those.
Very nice game.
When I got the tower and chose "lookout" and the map zoomed out, that was a great moment. Well done.
Very solid & fun, but at some point it gets a bit boring when all you have to do is watch & wait.
Beautifully scripted. I liked the story and the game mechanic. The gameplay completely hides away the spare graphics. Loved it and managed to defeat the dragon :)
Really neat game, would be fun on mobile for the odd wee game.
The zoom-in effect was tiring and I don't think it added anything.
Very engrossing game.
Very awesome! Wish I could keep building! I beat the dragon too.
Great little entry. A little bit of audio would have helped, but it's was still really enjoyable.
I pity the poor villagers who live on/inside an onion pile, however famous said onions may be.
Brilliant 2-button hands-off city manager. I loved the look, the tone, and the gameplay. Well done!
Really neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/jZIKMICuSkI
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Fantastic! The spare aesthetics are spot on, I loved the story moments. It's a little mechanically unclear where your resources are coming from, but that didn't bother me much. When 'The End' came, I was bummed that there wasn't more!