The red spider lights in the Jungle make me think of Helldivers 2. Great work!
Play game
Atlanta 2173: Flowers vs Robot Spiders - BIGMODE2025's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #206 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| Presentation | #331 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Theme | #397 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Fun | #480 | 2.458 | 2.458 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game represent "Power"?
Flower power:
"Power is a tool to reach goals, not the goal itself"
Use superpowered flowers to fight enemies.
Gathering:
"Power begets power"
Gather power to challenge intruders and protect your home.
Emergence
"Synergies between powers can create more than the sum of their parts"
Find ways to combine your increased power with flowers and their strengths.
Power of Nature vs Power of Metal.
Game start is a rough, unclear how to play - please view main page for demo gifs.
Gameplay Video: https://youtu.be/soauF7iegT0
Controls
WASD - movement
Space - jump
hold Shift - sprint (while not planting)
Q - Gather surrounding flowers
Hold E - Plant flowers
ESC - Pause menu
Normal spiders have 10 health
Elite spiders have 100 health
Boss spiders have 1000 health
First flowers are combat-ready - gather them only after defeating the ambush.
Most others need to be gathered and planted before they start producing energy orbs.
Comments
There's a lot of beautiful visuals in this game, I had to turn off some of my lights to be able to see everything properly as a lot of the default textures and lighting are a little on the darker side. This isn't inherently bad, it can lead to a really intense and cinematic experience with the right setup.
My only major issue is the lack of feedback when planting, picking, and taking damage. I didn't even realize I was "dead" and just thought I encountered a bug for a second until I realized the same as another commenter did where you can just keep unpausing and playing haha. No worries, temporary fixes are temporary and I see you guys are still working on it and have more permanent fixes ready for after the jam. Very exciting! Can't wait to see how the game evolves and gets closer to its intended form.
Very ambitious within the time frame, but I think it paid off. Great job!
24 days ago(+1)
Thank you for the review and interest, we really appreciate it! We kind of intentionally left the lights off, but new version does have sun and moon cycle, looks quite different during day, but not as impactful. Best in evenings/mornings.
Lack of feedback is also addressed in updated version, but still not where we want it to be - need to implement a few more things. Also menu, death state, etc. :D Code is a mess, naturally, but things that can use existing systems are surprisingly easy to add now.
We will see where that leads us - this was really first zone out of 5 in the jungle(earth) biome, also have rough designs of sky(air) and magma caves(fire) biomes, as well as the final boss area/fight. No idea how water biome would work, but can wait until other zones are done :)
I will post more videos/gifs after voting is done (Current build has ally spiders as mobile flowerpots - they help you fight off the first wave)
25 days ago(+1)
Thank you! More sound effects are definitely on the way, we were thinking of just adding a sound to both sides of the hit, on the colliders
25 days ago(+1)
Thank you, appreciate it! Can actually bump down big ones too once you gather enough pickups for increased speed. We already have an improved version of the game ready to go, and will continue to polish it a bit more before returning to our main projects.
I went nuts.
I noticed that dying currently just pauzes the game, so I kinda cheated and just kept going until my pc could not produce more than 5 fps.
Some more player feedback when grabbing/planting flowers would be nice, because I did not even realize i was planting stuff for the first few minutes.
Nice - what a view! We are working on more player feedback - updated version makes flowers more visible while they are growing. Also want to get flowers to fly into the player when gathered, but code is a mess (obviously), so have a bit of debugging to do before its ready.
Performance is also addressed in the patch, to varying degrees of success :D
25 days ago(+1)
Thank you very much! We have an update ready for after the jam - it addresses some performance issues, makes start more cinematic and less dangerous, flowers faintly glowing even when not producing orbs, etc. Still a lot of work left, but there is definite progress.
Here is a sneak peak:
26 days ago(+1)
Thank you very much! We are working on a new build with smoother start, but still need a few things to make the gameplay more intuitive. Few patches will be ready after voting ends, with a little bit more polish down the line.
Here is a sneak peak of the new version:
26 days ago(+1)
Thanks, it kind of evolved through jam into what it is, just lacked time to make the gameplay clearer, as tends to happen in jams :)
27 days ago (+1)
Thank you! We ran out of time to add more visual indicators, but are working on it right now.
If interested a sneak peak video of the new build-in-progress can be found in this devlog
Or watch two minute demo video here:
We would like to work on it for a few hours a day/week while releasing small touch-ups, and after about a month of sustained progress release a big patch. Then take a bigger break, work on main projects, rest for next jam.
I am glad to hear you are interested in the game, thank you!
Will you keep working on yours?
Also, would you like to choose the next flower and robot to add and maybe even their effects? :)
- You can choose pretty much any plant - walking plants are on the table as well.
- For robot, something with a lot of legs/segments works best, since our animations and movement are procedural.
Sounds nice :)
Yeah I will. I had many more ideas I wanted to add, but only was able to implement the basic functions/systems. So I am going to fix up some bugs over the Weekend and maybe some new Content (More Rooms, intractable, Enemies).
It's gonna be a different name and game tho, because the finished game is basicly just stuff scrapped together. Not sure how I should communicate that to people. Maybe I am going to make a new Page and write on the current Page a new link that says: "hey if you liked the GameJam Version of the Game, here is a new one. With bugfixes, new contend and much more to actually do."
I always liked orchids :)
as an enemy... I think a centipede would be an fun idea.
I like the way you think! Spiders were originally tests for centipede segments, so it is definitely on the way :)
Glad to hear you will keep working on it!
We might also move to a new version after that month - release this as a demo and work on our main projects taking some useful scripts and what we learned from this one.
This has truly been trial by fire - it was intense, but learned SO much...
Thank you very much!
We are trying to address the rough start with instructions, videos and gifs.
Also been tinkering with updated start area, I think it feels a bit better now, will keep working on it. Definitely more spectacular...
Build will be updated after voting is over
Regarding frame rate, in new build we picked a few low-hanging fruits of performance optimization, like turning off dense tree colliders, lowering amounts of lights and ratios on particles, etc. Should feel significantly better now.
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