Harvest Golem

hoh the music is amazing. not even done anything and im already lovin it. the gameplay loop is very nice. i love the little details of the dots going from the cards. hotkeys are an amazing here and make the game so much smoother. 

one card has confused me though. the onion. it puts a random rare in the discard. then the next round i get to use that card. but not every time? like some cards it gave me are now a permanent part of my deck, others i get every few rounds. im confused. i cant plan around specific cards, when they only show up every few rounds. are the cards it gives permanent? are they temporary? idk it seems like a 50/50. some cards stay, others go. i think its a fun card, as it spices up the deck and surprises you with different cards, i just cant figure out why im losing and gaining some cards.

now the ending. hmm. kinda torn. i like the story of a golem making another golem to make an army of golems eventually. i just have questions and problems with this. the pumpkin is the only legendary that you can get from the kohlrabi. so then why bother with the kohlrabi? why make it an extra step that takes an additional round to get to? also the pumpkin should kinda also make it clearer that it is the ending. i knew it was important, as it had a special grow condition and talked about making a golem, however i tossed that up to it just being a legendary. i always thought the ending was restoring the wasteland. the condition of sacrificing 7 plants also wasnt severe enough for me to think it was the ending. i could have chucked all my plants at it, however i was still playing it safe, as i wasnt expecting the game to end. do you know how little of a cost 7 plants is? i could have beaten the game like 20 minutes before i did with that knowledge. in my opinion the goal of making more golems should have been stated at the beginning, as to show that the pumpkin was the ending, instead of eluding to a goal that we are working towards. making the pumpkin cost like 20 plants would have also made it more of a challenge. like whats the problem with sacking half of your cards, when that beats the game? its not really a challenge to grow the pumpkin. its more of a challenge mentally, because its not obvious that the game will end, and as such that you can sacrifice anything you want, so you will be cautious, not wanting to sacrifice too much, despite that ultimately not mattering. so yeah story wise its a great ending, gameplay wise it undermines a lot of the work you put in, as you will most likely get way more cards and spend a lot more energy, than ultimately necessary to win.

like fully clearing the wasteland costs 1000 energy for the max upgrade and 5500 energy in total. the pumpkin costs 500 energy and a few of your cards. and what do you get for clearing the wasteland? NOTHING... like wha? i was expecting something for all the extra effort. it makes no sense to get an ending from spending 500 energy and sacrificing 7 cards, but getting nothing from 5500 energy. there is also no point to get the last like two wasteland clears. due to collard you only really need a useable 3x3. anything else is extra. starting at the 600 energy upgrade that is already  always a given. clearing more wasteland doesnt help you in any way.

also with enough cards the card shuffle noise sound starts to get a bit overwhelmed. but other than that it seemed to handle it well. i was very much expecting some issues when the game tried to shuffle my deck of 252 cards, but it went pretty smooth.

also for some reason the game still detects inputs, even when you are in another tab. the game doesnt save meaning that you cant do anything else on your pc unless you close it and lose all progress. its a short game, so its not much of an issue, but it was a bit annoying having the game do stuff, while i was doing something else in another tab.

maybe a bug. watermelon is able to water unusable soil, turning it useable.

also i found a way to completely lock your game out of the ending. the kohlrabi can only be used once to get the pumpkin. now im not sure, if just having the pumpkin on the field or having it grown to the max is necessary. then ironically using the anti softlock with the pumpkin planted will delete the pumpkin from your deck with no way to get it back... I WENT THROUGH 220 CARDS TO FIGURE THAT OUT.

so all in all a great game. good vibes and a simple gameplay loop. im a bit unhappy about the ending and the gameplay loop that collard promotes though. as the base plant and easiest to get plant it promotes a boring way to play. the most efficient play is to plant 8 of them in a circle and then to plant everything else inside. that makes the game slow. other plants either just work in that configuration or can be saved for last. im not sure, what a better plant would look like, but making the game revolve around collard did pretty much ruin creativity. this was not helped by the lack of another plant to build around. when the most efficient way to play is to plant one plant at a time in the same spot, then there is a problem. but that aside the game was fun to play. 

very cute! very engaging mechanics

I love your work keep it up!