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Sky Gardening

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This is my entry for the first part of game jam 9, where you have to make a mock screenshot, for others to turn into a game. This can be a game about gardening, on a sky island. Or maybe something else entirely. It's up to you. Not as complex as I first intended, because simple is often better, and it isn't yet messy or crowded. I hope someone will pick this, because it'd be an honour, and I'd like to see a game like this. Good luck.

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SourJovis responds:

That's quite a compliment you made a song inspired by my artwork!

This is a very nice piece of art, here. :) I love the feel to it. Guy-unger is working with this screenshot too and his game seems to be even better! :) I won't spoil anything for you about his game, but i think it will win. My game will be an ok game, nothing to great, i think. I have redone the island in my own style. Keep up the good work and check Guy-unger out!

SourJovis responds:

Yes, Guy-Unger too. I noticed that later, because he announced it later. Guy-Unger's team used to be 3 times as large. Now it's split up in two teams and only the team with Guy-Unger himself will base a game of this image. A bit of a pity. We'll see which game is best next week, but it doesn't really matter. The most important thing is they're both good, interesting and different. Just try your best. Looking forward to the results. Btw if you need music let me know. You can use any of my songs. I'm not allowed to help you or be in your team, but perhaps it's still allowed for you to use a song by me. If someone else makes good songs for the game that's fine too. What kind of music do you have in mind?

I happened to stumble upon this while I was looking through some Game Jam 9 stuff. It really got me thinking how cool it could be as a number of different genres. It could fit a puzzle game in that you discover the Shadow Side at the same time the Shadow Side discovers you and you maybe have to find a way to stop it, or possibly end up switching places. It could work as a mini-RPG or platformer or even a simulator game, but puzzle would be the ideal.

It's a really cool little concept that you've got going in this picture and I hope a game based on this (I believe somebody in the game jam is trying it) really turns out well. Nice job!

SourJovis responds:

Food for the imagination. Many options on how to turn this into a game. EcoPipe is working on it yes. I hope it will turn out nicely. It probably will. He had some nice ideas, i won't spoil anything, There are many other possibilities though. Maybe it will inspire people outside the contest as well.

i rated this one 4 the first time i saw it, and after reading your respond to Squidly, man this has so much potential with that shadow farmer down there, it adds that 4th dimension to it, if i was to made it into a game, i would make it either an action platformer or a point and click rpg. with some zoom in and out.

SourJovis responds:

It's much more interesting when there's some dual sidedness about it, than when it's just about gardening. I was afraid the shadow gardener wouldn't be so clearly visible. I wanted to make the farmer and shadow farmer larger, but the island looked better and more interesting with everything small. Good idea to have a zoom function, or to have some scenes parts of the game closer by. I had a lot of things in mind that I couldn't realize because of the large pixels. I wanted to make the water circulate like Escher stairs. But it was too difficult to pull off. Also I wanted to make a device that keeps the island afloat, like propellers, balloons. Add some mysterious steam machines. Add birds, fish and bees. But I ended up not doing any of that. Everything soon becomes too cluttered. It's probably better if there aren't too many details. The unclearity caused by the pixels leaves more to the imagination, and makes it more mysterious I hope.

That's some damn good pixel art. Fantastic job, screams SNES JRPG in my book, but that's never a bad thing.

SourJovis responds:

Thanks. It looks like a jrpg. But it doesn't have to be. If I'd turn it into a game, it'd be a puzzle game like "time fcuk", where everything you do is mirrored by the shadow side of the island. If you look closely at the farmer with the watering can you see there's a shadow farmer below him at the other side of the island, dripping a black ooze at the clouds from another watering can. My idea was the farmer goes about his businesses for years, oblivious to the shadow side. He plants his flowers and trees, and herds the sheep. Perhaps he keeps bees, because flowers need bees. He could go fishing. Catch birds. Make flour for bread with the mill. Etc. Than he by accident discovers the shadow side. How I don't know. Could be there are shadow bees on the other side, that go to the top side at night and fertilize the plants there to create shadow flowers. Maybe the farmer falls off the island and lands on the shadow side. What will the farmer do there? Will he try to fix the shadow plants and sheep? What consequences does that have for the surface. If the shadow farmer falls of the island to the lower side, will the shadow farmer fall to the upside. Will the shadow farmer plant shadow plants there? Or don't shadow plants and sheep exist at all? Perhaps when the surface farmer causes new life, the shadow farmer drips his ooze to the earth below and destroys it. Or it's the other way around. When the shadow farmer destroys life on earth, the light farmer reincarnates it on the surface. Those are just some ideas. There can be many more. Where's the island going? What's in the cave the river leads to? Where does the water go? Why is there a dead end in the road? Did it used to connect to something? Was the island part of a larger land that got disconnected? Or is it just a way out for the farmer? Are there more people living on the island? Is the island closed off, or does anyone visit it? What does the totem pole mean in the background? I don't want to answers all of these questions. I just hope people in the game jam will think about them and come up with answers of their own.

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Faves:
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Votes
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Score
4.89 / 5.00

Uploaded
Jun 15, 2013
2:34 PM EDT
Category
Pixel Art

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