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A jam submission

Farmer KarmaView game page

Direct a swarm of locusts to desolate a farm
Submitted by PelicanPolice — 6 days, 23 hours before the deadline

Play game

Farmer Karma's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#453.9813.981
Graphics#654.1604.160
Overall#1173.6533.653
Game Design#1523.6703.670
Theme#2283.6423.642
Fun#3593.3493.349
Audio#4583.1133.113

Ranked from 106 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

In what way does your game fit the theme?
I'd say it's pretty chaotic

Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes except the music

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Comments

Viewing comments 38 to 19 of 78 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page
Submitted

Bit slow, but great animations for the locusts. Also couldn't hear the music, but thats probably just an issue on my end. Keep up the good work!

Developer (1 edit)

Hi, thank you so much for playing! I’m so glad you liked the locus animation!

I agree completely that the pace is too slow, I nerfed it last minute because it was too easy but I should have just left it. 

But I have to ask, if you couldn’t hear the music, how did you know there was any? 🤔

Did you have any other suggestions? (Other than to fix the missing music issue! Btw what browser and OS are you using?)

Submitted

I saw another comment mentioning the music so I assumed there was some, but I just couldnt hear it. Im on safari MacOS, so like I said, its probably my problem

Developer

Fair enough. I’m sure you’re not the only one to experience this, perhaps just the only one to notice. Thanks for providing your specs!

Would you be interested in testing future versions / projects?

Submitted

Sure, why not

Deleted 3 years ago
Submitted

Beautiful visuals the game is very polished it is satisfying to see the locust destroying every foods. an option to raise game speed or somepowerup that could increase speed would be great !

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I’m so glad you found the game satisfying! That was my end goal.

I completely agree that it should be faster, the reason it’s so slow is because it was too easy to make a swarm so I nerfed it last second, but I deeply regret that decision now. 

Do you have any other suggestions?

Submitted

Very fun little game, I cant believe how much life the two pixels of the locusts have from the animation, really good job :)

Developer(+1)

Hi! Thanks so much for playing, I’m so glad to hear you liked the locust animation! I’m very happy with how it turned out aesthetically.

Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Honestly the only critique i had was i didnt realise the ducks were eating the locusts so something to signal that was happening would have helped, other than that it was a really neat and well polished game

Developer(+1)

Ohh that’s a new one! What sort of feedback should there be? Perhaps some sort of red outline that flashes around the screen?

Thank you for telling me this by the way, this is really helpful!

Submitted

Yea that or making the duck flash  to show its them specifically, possibly some screenshake to just for fun :)

Developer(+1)

Oh very true! I always forget about screen shake. I’ll see what I can do!

By the way, would you be interested in testing future versions / projects?

Submitted

Amazing game! the crickets are a bit too slow in my opinion but else to that everything is perfect! good job!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I’m so glad to hear you found it to be amazing! I agree that the game starts too slow, it was a last minute effort to make it harder and it came at the cost of fun. I should have just left it!

Did you have any other suggestions?

Submitted

I don't have another suggestion I can think of. 

Developer

Ok then well thank you very much for the feedback!

Submitted

I am blown away

https://adarshvergis.itch.io/slippery-world

Developer

Thanks for playing! Did you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Not really lol.

this game is perfect

Developer

Haha thanks! Best of luck then

Submitted

Nice idea and implementation for a simple game like that

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you liked the idea! Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

I think the only thing to do here is make it bigger and maybe a little bit faster. But overall i'd say it's pretty finished and you should move on to a next idea

Developer

Could you elaborate on what you want made bigger? Do you mean the level?

I agree completely that the pace needs speeding up. It was really fast originally but I slowed it down last minute because it was too easy to create a massive swarm.

And I’m glad to hear it seems nearly finished, that’s always a good sign!

Submitted

a massive swarm.

Developer

ohhhh! Yes I’ll make sure you can create huge swarms!

Submitted (1 edit)

Great concept.  I loved the art style. Controls were a bit not responsive in my opinion.

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you liked the art style! 

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the controls not being as responsive as you’d have liked?

Submitted

My locusts went on a great pilgrimage to the south and many died along the way. Turns out there's nothing there so they all died in vain 

Submitted(+1)

I love the visuals btw

Developer

lol I’m sad to hear about the failed expedition. Do you have any suggestions? Other than perhaps a southern farm

Submitted (1 edit)

I'm always keen for mystery and "environmental storytelling" but I guess it can't be too crazy since the game is somewhat rooted in reality :D I guess you could have a trail of destroyed farms and a barren wasteland. Or maybe the swarm finds something and develops into a hivemind and becomes a sentient ball of locusts. That sounds horrific 

Developer

Oh I see so you’re suggesting the game is in need of some background lore, that is explained through a visual narrative? That’s an interesting idea.

I mean, the game isn’t entirely rooted in reality? How often does it snow around crop harvest time? 

You mean a trail of already destroyed farms? What would the clues be of the back story?

And yes, a sentient locust ball is not something I’d like to see during my life! That would be very horrific.

Submitted

Concept is great, but there isn't really a whole lot to do gameplay wise, so overall I say this game is decent

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you liked the concept. I agree there should be more content but I’m not entirely sure what to add other than more things to eat and more enemies.

Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Fun and interesting, just wish there was more to do. 

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you found it fun and interesting! I agree that there should be more to do but I’m a little stuck for ideas on what other things could be done. Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Maybe like more farmland/a city to the right where there are more obstacles and the goal is to get across to cause a famine without losing your swarm. 

Developer

Interesting, so you mean like cars? What kind of obstacles would be in the city?

Submitted(+1)

Either that or like citizens trying to defend the city with torches or something. I'm imagining stuff where you can lose part of your swarm but not the whole thing instantly.  And the resources in the city are more scarce so you have to use the farm area as like a preparing ground before you go in. 

Developer

That’s fascinating, now I’m imagining a barren concrete jungle with the occasional home garden with veggies in for a little health top up. Is this what you had envisioned?

Would there be huge crowds with literal flaming torches setting fire to your swarm? That sounds very dangerous!

Submitted

Something like that, go wild with it lol. 

Developer

ok well then, will do!

Thank you so much for the suggestions, would you be interested in testing future versions/projects?

Submitted

Sure, add me on discord Riley Circles#2968

If you want some sound for your game I can help with that as well

Submitted

Funny little game even if I keep dying because the chickens are too fast for me c:

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you found it fun. I agree the chickens are way too fast, but I needed to do something to make it harder otherwise it was way too easy to completely destroy everything once there was a huge swarm.

I agree it needs fixing, but I’m not sure how.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Submitted

Maybe make a option to adjust screen size ? Otherwise anything else is very good c:

Developer

Ok well I’ll definitely look into that! Thank you for telling me.

Would you be interested in testing future versions/projects? 

Submitted

Fun game! awesome concept!

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad you found it fun! Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Very cool game! Definitely very original. Nice job :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I’m so happy to hear you found it original, that means a lot.

Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Not a lot actually,  making the swarm a tiny bit faster, in the beginning, is the only thing I can think of ^^

Developer(+1)

I completely agree that the beginning needs to be faster! It originally was but it was too easy so I nerfed it. I definitely should have left it how it was.

Thank you so much for the feedback. Would you be interested in testing future versions/projects?

Submitted

No worries at all :) I'd be more than happy to!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Sorry completely missed this reply! I would love for you to join!

Submitted

My decimation got decimated lol. Great job.

Developer

Thanks for playing! How much food did you eat before you got decimated?

Also do you have any suggestions?

Submitted

I got through most of the first wheat crop, and a few trees. I would suggest making it a bit easier to get away from the chickens. They were really fast chickens.

Developer (1 edit)

Sorry, completely missed this reply!

I agree entirely that the chickens were way too OP, they’re super fast and very very hungry. This will be fixed in the next version.

Would you be interested in testing it?

Thank you so much for your feedback, it is very helpful to me!

Submitted

Hey,

That'd be good. Just send me the link on this topic, and I will play it. I typically get back in a few hours.

Anytime. :)

Developer

oh ok sure, will do! Thanks!

If you follow me on itch you will be notified when I post updates too.

Submitted

Cool, I'll do that then. :)

Submitted

Wow! How did you do that so quick? 

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing! I’ve had a lot of experience with game maker so I’m pretty fast now! That said, I wish I’d been able to spend more time on it but I’ve had so much to do this week.

Do you have any suggestions? 

Submitted

simple, interesting, pretty

Developer

Thanks for playing! I’m glad to hear you found it simple, pretty and interesting!

Did you have any suggestions?

Submitted

Art is great, love the attention to detail on the objects being eaten, did feel a bit slow though, maybe locusts should spawn faster and chickens should be stronger to counter?

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I’m really glad you enjoyed the attention to detail! 

I completely agree that it starts way too slow. Making the chickens more OP is a really good suggestion, I’d love to find a way to make the swarm grow bigger without making it too easy once it’s large (which is the reason I made it start slower).

How would you make the chickens harder to counter? At the moment, they eat pretty quickly but once in a swarm, the locusts are quicker. Or should we just embrace machine gun speed chicken eating lol

Submitted

The chickens should breed too! Lay eggs near your swarm and just hatch into blazing fast chicks lol

Developer

Thats such a good idea haha! It also adds a time constraint because you want to get all the food eaten before all the blazingly fast baby chicks hatch!

Do you have any other amazing suggestions? lol

Submitted

Nope I'm all out on this one haha 

Good luck though this game looks awesome and I genuinely believe if you spent a few months on this you could release it on steam or any store for a fair price. Well done

Developer (1 edit)

Ok fair enough then!

Thank you so much for the kind words! What would you say a fair price would be?

Also would you be interested in testing future versions / projects?

Submitted

Hell yeah i'd be interested. Hard to say what a fair price would be so early on, 

Although the concept is unrelated, it reminds me of a game called hidden folks, not sure why. That game has loads of levels with hundreds of things on screen and stuff, I think i paid about £10 for that, its now $13 on steam not sure which currency you use, so i'd say if you had enough "levels" or mechanics etc it could go for around 7 - 15 dollars / pounds / euros etc, but if you want to move to other projects you could just add more features and upload it somewhere for free with ads, or even to itch with donations enabled. Not sure! 


I haven't released a game myself so I shouldn't be giving you advice :)

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

I’ve had a quick look at Hidden Folks! I really like the art style, but what in particular reminds you of this? Maybe I can incorporate that aspect into it too.

And thanks, that’s really useful information to know! Doesn’t matter if you haven’t released a game, because neither have I!

Submitted

Hidden folks just has that "stuff all over your screen in a nice way" feeling, all the characters remind me of all the locusts and how the game is incredibly hand made, like its hand drawn and the noises are clearly people using just their mouth to make the sound. It feels professional but also unique, and it's often played very zoomed out. 


Your game is zoomed out quite a lot and everything is really small which makes the buildings etc quite cute, I can picture a level with some old Egyptian Town and you just swarm over it destroying trees crops and all kinds of things.

Developer

I see what you mean! I will definitely lean into the hand made style and clutter, perhaps that will make it more satisfying to destroy it all.

I love the idea of an Egyptian town, google is coming up with some very blocky and Sandy imagery which should be easy to create in this style! So thanks for that tip.

Is there anything else?

Submitted

Love the simple clean art style and the gameplay really interesting for something made in only 10 hours : D

 Great Job!

Developer(+1)

Hi! Thank you so much for playing, I’m really glad to hear you found the gameplay interesting!

I wish I’d been able to spend more time on this because there’s so much more you can do with the concept, but there you go!

Do you have any suggestions?

Submitted (1 edit)

Oo well I loved being able to control a bunch of insects/animals so I think expanding on ways that can play out would be really interesting to see.  Trying this mechanic out with fish or another animal could also be really cool. One  suggestion could be to really focus on interactions between the locuses (loci?) since the game can get repetitive quickly

Btw all your games look really unique wondering if you use a game engine and which?

Developer

Thank you for clarifying! What sort of interactions would occur between the locusts? (Or loci?).

I agree that swarm mechanics are really fun! Fish would be an interesting concept to explore as well, I wonder what they’d be swarming? Smaller fish? Kinda like an agar.io but with a swarm! But for the moment I’d like to focus on improving the loci as that’s a whole other game!

And thank you! I try to make my games as unique as possible, so it means to hear you say that. I use game maker studio as my engine.

Submitted(+1)

very simple yet interesting idea! i think it captures the theme of chaos perfectly! Also i love the artstyle and the colors! the simplicity of this game is just perfect! good job!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I’m really glad to hear you liked the artstyle and colours.

Did you have any suggestions?

Submitted(+1)

Looks great, but gameplay is really slow. Also for some reason my locusts dissapeared even when there's no chicken nearby.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Hello, thank you so much for playing! It sounds like you’ve had a rough experience! I apologise for that.

I completely agree that the gameplay starts out way too slow, that’s something I really need to address. The reason for this is because once you get going, gameplay is way too fast. Once you have a small swarm, it’s too easy to completely destroy everything instantly. I’m not sure how the best way to nerf this is, so I just went with a slow start. I know it needs improving, I’m just not sure how.

As for locusts disappearing, that is very strange. Is it possible it’s a layering issue and they’re going underneath the ground layer of a tile (e.g. exposed dirt of a crop).

Or were they disappearing out in the white open?

Thanks again so much for the critical feedback, it really helps. Do you have any other suggestions?

Submitted

No need for apologise, it's just a gamejam!
If dissapearing locusts was a layering issue they would've returned when away from crops, they didn't.

About suggestions: I think exaggerating can help make the game more interesting. Increasing eating speed and amount of locusts spawning after fully eaten crop will fix slow start, and making bigger crops with large groups of chickens further on map will force player to avoid them until swarm is big enough to eat everything and run away. This is the way I see it.

Developer

Oh, actually it’s possible the locusts disappearing was to do with starvation! Each locust has a limited number of jumps before it dies. Eating replenishes this but there wasn’t very good AI so it was way too easy for them to miss out on the feast despite being in the middle of it!

Thanks for pointing out that this looks like a bug, I will need to address it somehow to make it clearer or change it entirely.

And yeah, I definitely need to speed up the start, it’s just way too slow. Large groups of chickens is a fantastic idea, you’d have to be very large to survive in a cage with them!

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