A Root Path

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 which give you spell charges (top-left) that you can use in the cavern.  What will you find on the third level?

Made for the 2021 7DRL challenge.

Playtime: 1h-2h

Controls

Walk over objects to get a description of them.

• "Space" to interact with objects under you.
• "Space" on an empty spot:
  • On the surface, bring up grow selection.
  • In the cavern, bring up the spell selection.
• "1-5" to quick select spells or growth.
• "Escape" to cancel a selection.
• "wasd" or arrow keys to move.
• "m" in-game to mute sound.

Goal

The goal is to reach the third level of the cavern and remove the source of the slimes.

Gameplay

Grow plants with water to gain spell charges.  You start off with 20 water,  and you get more by purifying slimy water in the cavern.  Every time you enter the cavern it regenerates.  In the beginning you won't have enough spells available to go very deep, but as you purify more water, you can use that water on the surface to grow more plants.

Tips

Can be left to be discovered.

• Plants cost only water to grow, and must be watered when returning from the cavern or they eventually die.
• Find water by purifying it in the caverns.  The deeper you go, the more water available.
• Every type of plant grants you spell charges of that type, indicated in the top-left.
• Whomping Wist and Water Vine both require extra space and can't grow directly next to other plants or objects.
• Only way back to the surface is by finding roots back up (or dying).  Make sure to find these before taking risks!
• A slime beneath you will kill you.
• When you die you lose half of your water.
• Only some spells can remove slime, otherwise avoid them and don't get trapped.
• Casting spells do not cause slimes to act and can continue to be cast in a row, but each cast after the firsts costs more and more water.

Post Jam Updates

Balance updates and tweaks which drastically improve the experience.

• Decrease growth time for plants so you get more of them
• Decrease number of charges each plant grants so you need more of them
• Make watering more forgiving
• 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
• Fix freeze for growing slimes
• Make it so you can't "bump" into slimes to remove them
• Minor tweaks to terrain generation and returning to island
  
• Add WASD and quick-select with 1-5
• Change color of pits so they're easier to spot
• Spell and grow targets are based off last direction moved
• Added something to do with the petrified tree
• Added a friendly slime

Credits

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