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Taking root. Literally.'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme: Does the gameplay/story fit the chosen theme? | #2 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Originality: Does the game have unique mechanics or design? | #2 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Replayability: Would you play the game again? | #6 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Graphics: Does the game look good or unique? | #10 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
| Fun: Does the game bring you joy? | #11 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game interpret the theme?
Literally
Which Haxe game engine or framework did you use?
openfl/jiga
Link to source code (GitHub/GitLab/Gitea/BitBucket)
https://github.com/pecheny/haxejam2025summer
I confirm that my game was written in the Haxe programming language
Yes
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Comments
Neat take on traversal and resource management mechanics. The mind-blowing thing I was realizing as I was playing is that real life plant roots probably engage in similar kinds of "decisions" when pushing through the soil (there's interesting research on that, look up the "root-brain hypothesis" for more info). So yeah, really great job capturing the theme, and it's educational, too!
Thanks!
Of all the jam games this was the one where I had the most fun. I really like the concept, it's fun to strategize, and the upgrade choices are great. I like how there's usually a way to get to water in more difficult places, but also some randomness involved in the angle of new branches. I wasn't really sure if it mattered how much of a branch was touching a square, some instructions would have helped, but I understand there wasn't enough time. Still, a very solid entry.
Thanks! Each branch has it's own capacity/bandwidth taking a part of water from the cell. At the end of turn you can see how much water remains in the cell. As long as there is some, each new branch would utilize it. If there is no water in cell at the end of turn, new branches would have no impact at this cell. At this moment (end of simulation) you also can select each branch and look at it impact during last turn in the side panel.
I see, so even if a branch is barely touching a square with water, it's the same as if the branch goes through the whole square?
Yep. Each step of simulation each branch iterate over cells that highlighted green when the branch is selected and take equal amount of water if it remains in the cell.
UI is broken at least on Firefox? During the live stream it had some really neat mechanics though, keep it up!
Thanks!
Firefox is my main browser so it's probably not just it. As long it not just a game but my own engine (Opengl wrapper – flgl and UI system based on domkit) and i plan to use it in many other games, it is very important to me.
I suppose it somehow linux-related and maybe gpu related issues.
May I ask you to assist in finding the issue? Is it ok if i try to make a plan and DM you later? At first i'd rather try to test a HL build on your side since it should be also crossplatform and in theory i can build it under windows. But I'm not sure since i should find compatible ndll. Or look for cross-compilation. Or install a linux myself...
I also have a hypothesis it can be related to gl scissors i use to implement scrollbox. I should also look to the stream again. Is it accessible?
Yeah hit me up! I haven't uploaded the stream yet, but I can give you a copy in DMs.
It also took me so long to fully grasp what was going on lol, but I am actually quite fond of the concept here, and the mechanics are SUPER creative and unique!!
Perhaps a more visual wrapper around things & some sort of tutorialization would have gotten me past the confusion. Like a preview of what each card will do if you apply it, on hover, for example.
In terms of balance, once small change I'm thinking about is, maybe the total mass of the root system would be a better metric to use to track the progress towards flowering?
I would love to see the flower sprout at the end, atop my final root system! Perhaps different decisions the player makes would lead to different types of flowers, or something.
But gosh this simulation environment is so neat, I want to build a whole garden from it!
Thanks! Yeah, I had a plan for step-by-step tutorial; display information about each root segment and its impact to the whole system.
But even the balance – i put real values of income, prices last hour before submission just by feelings and suggestions. I didn't plan schedule well this time and many important things had done last moment.
The idea of current balance – is distribution of water. Spend it to develop the root towards juicy cells or keep it for the next turn if there is no useful cards at this one.
The former idea I figured out first day of the jam was way more complex: it consists of 3 type of resources, 2 of which get by the root from the ground and third recycled by the flower according to its level. The roots had have to form transport network and player should upgrade bandwidth of certain segments along with absorbing ability.
But it's just a jam and i had trim all exceeding the time limits. The flower visuals also gone under feature cut.
Very cool idea but the game is not easy to understand. A tutorial would have been nice.
Yeah, thanks, i know. I completed the game and wrote instructions last minutes before submission so tutorial just didn't fit in the boundaries.