Forest RTS

Edit:
Download link here (windows only).

WHAT
Grow a sentient forest in RTS style against unruly and grumpy humans who wish to dominate the land.

CONCEPT
The humans just mindlessly expand by cutting trees down. Each tree cut down contributes to the human expansion -- which would result in their death along with the forest. The forest can (as Moonmagic puts it) "dominate the humans Miyazaki style", though there's too much fun in trying to strike a balance with the expansionist humans. Think like a sort of economy simulator thing where the goal isn't the same old "command and conquer", but maybe some deeper meaning can come from something small yet open-ended.

Like tending a garden. Play the game, find a balance, come back later and see what happened. This kind of feeling we found refreshing and want to explore it more.

WHO
Myself and a few others attempted a single-day game jam. The jam failed miserably but we pressed on and want to finish in the next few days!

Major credits to Moonmagic (link to his website) for creating his Hungry Forest game for a Super Friendship Club JUSTICE Pageant sometime in the past. He never finished his game and thus we became inspired to make one.

PIX

Watch the humans cut down trees and use the gathered logs to make more houses. The idea is more houses allows another human to spawn. Tiles near trees become lush over time, and not near trees lose their lush-ness.

The bear paw is a placeable structure for the forest. The bear roams the nearby location of the paw and mauls any humans that wander by.

Humans walking by the swamp become poisoned and over time die. More notes in design ideas.

MUSIC
Music by our lovely composer:

DESIGN IDEAS

Player can plant new trees *only* in the lush tiles adjacent to their own trees. Lush tiles become lush over time as a full-grown tree exists in an adjacent tile. An action-pool acts as the only "resource" for the player, i.e. the player can (for example) only grow 2 trees at a time (since trees take time to grow).
Dead trees on the map. The humans can cut down dead trees, but the player cannot control them, nor do they produce lush tiles. These act like resources and let the level designer lay out a specific concept upon level startup.
Swamp can be placed [] that humans walk over. Once crossed they become poisoned and turn flashing red/eventually die off. Swamp implemented but can't build them yet. Maybe the poison should also transfer from human to human.
Tombstones upon human death, which will form a graveyard if enough cluster. Ghost spawns from graveyard looking for a house to haunt. Haunted houses turn grey (think spiderwebs and dust) and corrode into the ground over time (thus, making room for a new house to be built later).
Some defensive turret-type tree that shoots magic balls, or maybe eats people that come close enough.
Berry bush; humans that happen upon a berry bush gather a berry, and for a time are satiated and do not cut down any trees.
A few different levels? Maybe no levels and just a single skirmish/sandbox mode. In playtesting we found some players really just like to torment the humans, others like the demolish the humans, and other like to try to strike a perpetual balance.
Some kind of monstrous tree that mind controls a human with an infectious mushroom (like in Limbo with the white slugs).
Something with water. Maybe watering holes, or some kind of pond where butterflies and frogs come out spreading flower seeds as they go. Perhaps this could extend lush tiles in a direction.
Mine tile. If humans come across the mine they get access to spawning soldiers. Perhaps can construct a castle. The forest can prevent this before it happens, or the player can let it happen just to see what goes on.

THANKS

To Moonmagic! (see WHO section)
Richard Mitton for his TIGR library (used for all graphics/windowing/os stuff)
kiwinuptuo for his art style that I could mimic