Sanctuary

This game is a gift made over the course of the 2020 Secret Santa Jam, where you must build up a bird sanctuary using the cards provided, and try not to let the pests overrun your park...

... or at least that was the idea behind it! The result is close to a baseline of what I wanted, but there was obviously much more in it that I wanted to do. Thats how Jams work, eh?

Unfortunately, I ran out of time to fully flesh out some systems,  so it may feel par-baked in some areas, and missing in others -  but I hope there is some enjoyment out of it anyway :)

The game was written from scratch using the Löve game framework (which was probably why it was more work than intended!), with images, bird songs and information taken from NZ Birds Online and the Department of Conservation. 

I wasn't able to add an in-game tutorial, so here's a rough "How To Play". In the new year, I hope to add an in-game tutorial.

How to play

This game is designed to be played with sound on (however there isn't a nice way of tuning it, sorry!)

There is no win state in this game, the goal is to make the largest park you can.

Starting a game, you'll be met with a game screen, with Cards along the bottom, and some Tiles already placed on the map. Cards come in two forms

• Tile Cards, which allow you to add tiles to the game world
• Bird Cards, which allow you to add birds to your map.

Use the keys W, A, S and D to move the world around.

Tile Cards

Tile Cards allow you to add tiles to your map, and come in four variations: Mountains, Grassland, Forest and Water.  To add a tile to the map, left click on your chosen card, drag and drop it next to an existing tile on the screen.

You'll notice that some cards have orange squares on them, these tiles are infected with invasive pests! When you place a pest-infested tile down, a pest invasion occurs, and the infested area has a chance to grow every day.

Make sure not to have a pest invade a bird you have placed down, otherwise it will reduce their population until they can no longer exist in your sanctuary!

To clear the pests, you must buy traps on the bottom left. Each trap clears, and keeps clear an area of your map from pests. Each trap costs $3000. To learn more about the pest, click on a tile infested with a Pest to read up on them.

Bird Cards

Bird Cards are how you add birds to your Sanctuary. Each Bird has their specific requirement to their habitat. If you draw a bird card from your deck, and a part of your map meets it, left click on the card, and drag it to the location that matches the requirement on the card. If it meets it, congratulations! A bird has entered your park.

Once placed, the habitat is highlighted, and you can click on the tile to learn more about the bird, what its endangered status is, and listen to its bird call. In Sanctuary, there are Seven birds:

• Fantail
• Kea
• Little Penguin
• Saddleback
• Tui
• Kiwi
• Royal Albatross

NOTE: All birds require the EXACT match of tiles on the card, EXCEPT Kea and Tui, who require a zone with two mountains and two grass, or a grass and a forest respectively

Sometimes you'll have a hand full of bird cards, and a map that cannot fit them. In those cases, you can drag a card onto the Truck on the right, and take them to another nearby Sanctuary for $400.

A deck of cards contains 20 cards all up. When it's empty (regardless if you have cards in your hand) a "Refill" button appears, which you can do for $1000

Day/Visitors/Money

The information at the top of the screen shows the current day, the number of visitors to your park, and the amount of money you have on hand. Each day is 8s long, and you receive visitors four times a day. Each visitor pays $15 to enter.

Currently, there is nothing stopping, or preventing you to go into negative bank balance.

Other Info / Known Bugs

• The biggest known bug is that sometimes the game gets caught up in placing bird cards, to the point that you cannot place ANY bird tile, despite matching the requirement. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the bug in time for submission, and the only solution I could find was to restart. I'll have some time in the new year to fix it for real