Growth Sprout

A farmer holding a baguette, all in a day's work.
The Japanese drought of 1994
A rabbit enjoying some carrots made possible by some sentient raindrops
A recovering landscape

Inspiration

Being a senior, I aspired this year to put together everything I have learned during my time at Tiger Hacks, building something simple but creative. The background music alone (Pagoda) inspired me to research and theme the game around Japanese agriculture.

What it does

Growth Sprout is a 2D platformer where the player controls a rain drop to guide it toward the plots of soil in each level. The catch is that whenever you water a plot of soil, you have to spawn a new drop from your rain cloud back at the starting point. In exchange, however, the plants that grow this way introduce various gameplay mechanics such as leaves that you can climb or prickly hazards.

How we built it

I developed the game itself with the Unity game engine, utilizing third party assets from the Asset Store along the way. (Credits for these can be found in this page, in-game, and elsewhere.) I was originally planning to work alone, but someone else from College of the Ozarks was looking for a team, so I brought him in to fill a weak point of mine: graphic design. Aiden drew most of the game's art using Piskel. Ultimately, I'm glad I recruited him, because otherwise, Growth Sprout would not be nearly as polished or complete as it is.

Challenges we ran into

I originally had two project ideas. The other may have been more likely to win according to the rubric, but it was not as passionate or well planned. I believe I made the right decision with Growth Sprout, but it wasn't easy humbling myself with lower chances competitively, though this is also a good project, of course. As far as development, we had a couple setbacks. The most difficult thing to compute and program was the trajectory and shape of the twisting and turning beanstalks, especially the growing animations and precise positioning for platforming purposes. Graphic design also took time to figure out since it was new to both of us, learning Piskel and coordinating the nature of the assets for use in-game. Mistakes were made along the way.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Having brought together just about everything I learned throughout the years, I am proud of this beautiful project that we made together, surely the best Tiger Hacks project that either of us have worked on so far.

What we learned

The main thing we learned was graphic design. The experience was fun for both of us; for Aiden, learning to draw pixel art, and for me, coordinating with him for use of that art in-game.