World Flutist

Hello and welcome to World Flutist!
A game developed for GMTK's 2021 Game Jam.

In this game, you shape an island's ecosystem by playing your magical flute!

Each note on your flute represents one of the five elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Life.

To shape the island, join together two of the notes on your flute and the resulting magical song will help bring life to the island!

Each turn, you choose a song to play.  The magical song will have an effect on the island. After that the animals will interact with each other, and their population will change according to the ecosystem.  If all goes well, the population on the island will increase. 

Win Condition:

You win the game when you have achieved full population for every animal species (represented by more than 4 icons of the species)!

Credits:

Khaze - Music, art, population mechanics
Cedar - Programming, flavor text

Game Jam Theme:

This game highlights the "joined together" theme in several ways:

• Mechanics: Actively joins together music and gameplay - by playing the game, you are composing a song and vice-versa.
• Gameplay: The player must join together two notes on the flute to summon / conjure magical effects.
• Ecosystem management: The populations of every living creature are co-dependent on every other population and element in the ecosystem.  In this way, all elements of the ecosystem are joined together.

Here are all the possible magical songs (spoilers):

Summoning:

• Vegetation (Water+Earth): summons vegetation
• Insects (Life+Earth): summons insects (eats vegetation)
• Fishes (Life+Water): summons fishes (eats vegetation)
• Birds (Life+Wind): summons birds (eats insects)
• Ground Animals (Life+Fire): summons ground animals (eats fishes)

Conjuring:

• Terraform (Wind+Earth): Terraforms the island for it to be able to develop a lake. The movement of the earth frees up some insects.
• Rain (Wind+Water): Makes a lake if there is a hole on the island. Allows birds to feed extra on bugs.
• Wild Fire (Wind+Fire): Covers the lake, damages ground animals and vegetation.
• Thunder Storm (Fire+Water): Makes a lake if there is a hole on the island. Damages birds and vegetation.
• Clear Skies  (Fire+Earth): Dries up the lake if there is one. Supports vegetation growth.

Default (by not selecting notes):

- Does no magical actions and let the animal interactions continue

Animal interactions during the magical songs:

• Birds eats insects
• Ground animals eats fishes
• Insects and fishes eats vegetation
• Vegetation gets nourishment from the environment
• If any of the species gets enough nourishment their population will increase!