Submit a high score screenshot in the comments to get your time and username included in the level select screen!
Version 1.0
- Two new levels
- Scene transitions
- Added titles for levels
- "Congrats" and "return to menu" messages after victory
- Little menu updates
Don't think I'm making any more changes to the game for a while (unless you submit a high score, in which case I'll put your time/username in the level selection screen)
Version 0.4
Various changes:
- Two songs and mowing sfx by David Carney/DVGMusic (we're long-time collaborators!)
- Two new levels
- Main menu renders thumbnails of level layouts
- Basic pause menu options (restart level + return to menu)
Feel free to post a high score image for any level in the comments - I'll put your score/username in the level selector.
Version 0.3
No gameplay changes this time, but I added a faux-3D stick figure dude to push the mower around. I like him. He's got little nubs for feet, and he sways around with the movement controls a bit.
(Also I removed that "dark pixel" thing from the spray particles, to save some performance.)
Version 0.2
Small update. Better update soon.
- Main menu with world record shoutout
- Grass is now green/yellow instead of orange/pink
- Round starts with the player at the bottom, timer doesn't start until you move
- Nicer spray particles (dark pixel added below particle position, in certain cases)
- Changed the title
Version 0.1
I saw "Advanced Mower Simul8or" by deKay and remembered that I've been vaguely interested in making a little lawn-mowing game for a while now. There are aspects of lawn-mowing that I think are weirdly satisfying, and I wanna capture some of those things. Pico8 feels like the perfect place for this type of stuff.
You play as Mowerman, who is a lawn mower. Mow every pixel of the lawn. There's no fancy victory announcement or startup countdown yet, but your timer locks in when you're done.
doh! 2:45! first try :P
I was mostly watching the mower though, wondering if it's 3d or layered sprites or something. looked at the code, I'm stumped. bravo! :D
where's the grass though? felt more like rototilling my burnt lawn :)
1:20.
I don't know what it is about lawnmowers and video games but they are always an excellent combination. Love the faux 3D.
I would like to see what it looks like with with a shining green lawn. Or why not go even further and reskin it as a snow blower?
This is pretty great! The fake-3d mower looks fantastic! You should add some zombies to mow down! :D
So close but so far... can I get extra points if I mow it all nice and diagonal :)
Ayy, thanks for the comments, y'all.
qbicfeet's time has been added to the game as the current high score.
Some info about the mower rendering:
Generally, it's based on this trick, but it uses the drawing functions and some trig instead of sprites. The wheels are positioned in a circle around the player's position (they're usually drawn as tiny "plus" marks, but if the mower is facing nearly-up or nearly-down, they're drawn as vertical lines instead). The main body of the mower is a few circ and circfill calls, with gradually-increasing y offsets. The handlebar is a few line() calls, where the endpoints are positioned like the wheels (using trig to rotate points around the player position). The handlebar points are also raised off the ground, so in some sense, they have a "3D local position" relative to the mower, and they get mapped into screen-coordinates each time they're rendered. This type of faux-3D has a delightfully simple projection method (x/y are ground coordinates, z is height):
screenPosXY=(3Dpos.x, 3Dpos.y-3Dpos.z) |
...And then you just have to make sure you draw the objects with low z-values first.
There are two places where some extra pixels are drawn in manually to imply some extra detail. Can you find them?
I was actually most impressed by the cool 3D rendering of the player, down to his sidestep shuffle and bending knees when walking
I can't find the extra pixels unless you're talking about the orange front of the mower?
Thanks, I just added the stick-figure today!
The orange bits on the front are definitely one of the two places - the other is a grey nub on the side of the mower body, where the grass sprays out.
This is really good. Espcecially like the mower and the man which look great and and are fluidly animated...very clever. The general feel is great too.
I'm sure you've got plenty in mind already but I can imagine different shape lawns and obstacles (garden gnome surely!). Also maybe a ride-on mower variant...faster but larger turning circle...
Nice work!
That stickman is hilarious, great addition. Now all that is missing is the satisfying buzz of the mower blades striking the grass.
This is so spiffy it hurts. Especially the dude. Yeah, the mower is great but the physics on the guy is so wonderful to watch. Great easing on the push/pull and everything. That's some crazy math to get all that just right...inspiring.
This is awesome! Very addictive game play. If only real world mowing was this much fun. As mentioned the physics and 3D effects here are great. Although, I feel like there should be a penalty for mowing over the "islands." Maybe a reduction in speed perhaps?
Can't seem to get my time on level 1 below 1:50. Kinda makes it feel less "zen". I should chill out and try to get a really clean mow instead of speedrunning it.
Beautiful work on the faux 3D art! I need to study how this is done.
!!! Holy shit, what a close one! Updating.
I'm loving it that the high score screenshots have nicer-looking tracks than my runs
You're kidding me. >.>
I will nab that record time. Eventually. Hopefully.
EDIT: Not the same map, but sub-1:19 so I'm happy with it
EDIT 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: Another one
Final Destination 1:27.5
A perfect on any other level should be at least this fast.
Am I doing this right?
The movement is satisfying, because it allows me to act like an over-caffeinated idiot child. The legs really help sell the feeling of weight in the mower.
Wowow, congrats on the new high scores, kleril and triplefox! I added your times to the level select.
mattematics, your MownaLisa.png is beautiful - but wait, is she smiling or scheming?
Great game 2Darray, it's incredibly addictive! I think it could make an awesome little mobile game, maybe with tilt controls!
Not sure if you're still updating the game but here are some scores I got nonetheless. Pretty sure I beat a few of these but didn't get screenshots so I know some are beatable! Hope someone can beat them then i'll get back to mowing. :)
Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
Level 4:
Level 5:
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High score updated, after three years we've got an official world record for all five levels! lol
Adding a new world record for "Hypno-Mower" from Preston B, who submitted his screenshot via twitter
Pretty happy with this time, it's faster than the ingame WR but people have faster times down here?
Not sure, still a fun game!
Holy shit I missed the world-records for ALL FIVE LEVELS posted by TP3!!!!
Good lord, they've been here for a long time...huge apology to TP3. Updating the ingame board now...
Ha thanks appreciate that, just came back across this.
Got very addicted to this back then (5 years ago now, wow). Hopefully one day someone beats these and I'll try and reclaim some highscores!
Surprisingly deep strategy with the routes to takes on each level. A small Steam/Itch.io release with a few more levels & leaderboard, would be great imo. Fantastic game!
There are so many golden nugget PICO-8 games that shine.
Here's another one.
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