Hello peeps! My game I’m working on for this jam is called Bit Bonsai and it’s an idle game developed in PICO-8. It will be playable as a webgame on Itch and also a standalone app for Mac/Windows that you can run idle for days at a time.

The concept is growing and trimming a bonsai. At time of this post, I am working on developing the growth algorithm and trimming feature. Things I’ve decided to wait till later, and even possibly after the jam ends, include watering and feeding your tree, but I’d like to have many options for players to trim their bonsai to their liking.

I typically like to get player feedback during development, but to keep some of the game a secret I will be posting screenshots. Lmk what you think!

Have a great jam everyone!

This is a very nice idea. I'm looking forward to your updates!

An idle bonsai game seems so chill! Can’t wait to try it out

Looks great! That visual style is really charming and seems to fit the vibe you're going for perfectly.

Thanks everyone for your kind feedback 😭 I will keep developing this then!

Hey guys, so I went ahead and just fixed the screen to 64x64 (removing the border). Also had to add a toolbar bc it wasn’t actually square when I designed [everything] so I guess there will be tools.

Plant tools. Plants AS tools? Maybe.

Little update:

• the background now changes with time of day
• refactored the growth algorithm through day 25
• we have background music being made! by JaviCKP!

Update: You can now perform safe and legal tree abortions in game! Decoupled the growth algorithm from time of day to grow independently, so your tree will begin to regrow 2 days after a trunk chop.

Hey guys, thought you might like to hear the music I’ve added to the game. I composed it at 60 bpm to coincide with the in-game clock tied to realtime seconds. I also added a little sound effect when trimming leaves. Music can be turned on/off with Z button.

Also, I’ll be releasing as a beta with the goal of finishing all the features post-jam.

Lmk what you think!

Link to YouTube

THE GAME IS FINISHED!?!!?!?

Probably some bugs I’m missing, but it’s in it’s final state. I added one final feature which is lopping off branches to add further tree customization. (Tip: lopped branches wont grow back)

I am planning to release tomorrow I think around 12p EST :)

Have a great rest of jam!

UPDATE! The game is now published! Enjoy!

(Tomorrow is still the official Beta release date)

Congratulation on finishing the game ! We'll play ASAP.

I started trying to crunch in one final tool: Flower Tool.

This is a w.i.p. and I have a backup build in place until I can get it working.

You should expand this more. I really like it!