Mushroom Maestro

Originally created for Global Game Jam 2023.

How to play (UPDATED FOR LATEST BUILD):

Use arrow keys.
Up and Down: moves between mushroom selection (top), camera panning (middle), and soil location (bottom); pressing Down again while already along the bottom will either pick fully grown mushroom(s) or will otherwise plant the currently highlighted mushroom if over an empty, healthy plot of soil.
Left and Right: cycles mushroom selection, pans the camera, and cycles soil location selection.

A planted mushroom will slowly grow to full size and then, if visible on screen, will alert the player both audibly and visually that it is ready to be picked. While growing, mushrooms consume nutrients from their surrounding soil; and at full growth they become a harsher drain on the soil while yearning to be picked. If a fully grown mushroom has been left unpicked for an extended period, nature will rebalance and the soil will drain nutrients back from the mushroom, which will begin to rot and eventually fade away.

After picking a mushroom, it may communicate to the player a variety of desires including: where in the garden it would like to be planted, a mushroom type it wishes to be planted within view of (i.e. currently on screen), and a mushroom type it will absolutely refuse to be planted within view of.

Mushrooms may not be planted over existing mushrooms nor on spoiled soil still healing itself. Additionally, each mushroom type can only have three active mushrooms growing in the garden; leaving a mushroom type unplanted for too long, as well as allowing a mushroom to fully rot, will deplete the max available stock for that mushroom type. Meeting a mushroom's desires for location or the type it wishes to be within view of will replenish lost stock.

Currently there is no game over condition.

Team Credits:

Pixel Art by Olivia Toiber.
Music by Corrin Coffey.
SFX by Gray Samuelson.
Programming by Roh (aka Pete Vellucci Jr).

Notes from the jam team on the original GGJ submission build:
*the itch build has since been and will continue to be updated*

We intend on developing this game a bit further than we had time for during the window for Global Game Jam 2023. At the outset we brainstormed the idea of a mushroom management game where the mushrooms would communicate back to the player their own desires for where to next plant them -- which other mushroom type to next be planted near and which type to next avoid being near. You can see the beginnings of implementing this communication in the current build, however, the mechanic needs to be more finely tuned and also currently has no gameplay relevance. Ideally, upon further development, this game will feel quite a bit more arcade-like to play, as the player is meant to be consistently rotating around the garden, planting new mushrooms based on their respective desires, and picking fully grown mushrooms before they begin to decay (which is also not currently implemented). For now, you may consider this just a cute, casual experience for planting some adorable lil' mushroom pals!