A Root Path

Made for the 2021 7DRL challenge.

Play as a water spirit purifying a spring using the help of the plants you grow, and dare dive into the treacherous cavern full of slimes and maybe even worse. Grow and water plants to gain spell charges (top-left) that you can use in the cavern. What will you find on the third level?

Controls

• "Space" to interact with objects under you.
• "Space" on an empty tile:
  • On the surface, bring up grow selection.
  • In the cavern, bring up the spell selection.
• "Escape" to cancel a selection.
• "Arrow" keys to move.
• "m" in-game to mute sound.

Tips

• The numbers on the top-left indicate number of spell charges you have of that plant type.  They are refreshed when returning from the cavern.  Grow plants and make sure to water them to increase charges.
• Purify water in the caverns.  More can be found the deeper you go.
• Plants need to be watered.  Older plants grant more spell charges.
• Only way back to the surface is by finding roots back up.
• You die if you stand on a slime at the end of your turn.  You lose half your water and return to the surface when you die.
• Spells are "chained" until you move.  Slimes do not spread while casting spells, but after the first spell  they start costing water.  The number of current chains is indicated by the top-left frame turning yellow. You have a maximum of 11 chains.

Post Jam Updates

Mostly balance updates and tweaks to improve the experience and progression.

• Decrease growth time for plants so you get more of them
• Decrease number of charges each plant grants so you need more of them
• Balance enemy health and spawn rates
• Adjust animations to be cleaner and more consistent
• Add death animation for more clarity
• Balance spells so they each carry their weight
• Make it so you can't "bump" into slimes to kill them
• Improve and fix some slime spawn mechanics
• Minor tweaks to terrain generation and returning to island

Credits

• Art: helpcomputer
• Code: gruebite
• Sound: jestbubbles
  
• Font: https://damieng.com/typography/zx-origins/halfling