Hey everyone! 

I've been reading all the feedback that people gave me from LudumDare and Itch, and by far the most glaring issue with the game is the "Nigh unreadable" font. Unfortunately, I don't think updating this is within the rules for LudumDare - so I've decided to make a little guide here to help people learn the mechanics :)

It's quite a long read, but I wanted a lot of this to be learnt during gameplay, so please consider taking some time to figure it all out for yourself - but if you're struggling you can use this to learn all you need to have a good time in the game!

Controls:

WASD - Move

Left Mouse - Click UI Elements

E / Spacebar - Skip text, Interact with NPC, View Creature stats

Q / Enter - Drag / Drop Creature

Mechanics:

Interacting and Dragging:

You can interact with characters and props with E or SpaceBar. This will do different things depending on what you interact with:

• Your Bed - This will put you to sleep, and skip to the next day.
• A Creature - This will bring up a page containing all the Creature's stats. When each stat reaches 100%, the Creature is ready to become the King's Heir.
• An NPC - This will bring up the NPC's shop page, refer to the Characters section of this guide to see what each shop does.

Dragging is done with the Q or Enter. Dragging can only be done on Creatures, pressing it on a Creature will start dragging it, and pressing it again will drop it. While dragging a creature, you can use any shop - you can't use the Farmer, Alchemist or King's shop while not dragging a Creature!

Growth Stages:

The first mechanic to know about is sleeping - it's simple but it's quite important since we're growing plants, and they take time to grow! When you sleep, your plants will grow a bit closer to the next growth stage, from stage 1 until stage 3:

1. The Seed Stage - 

This is how new plants will start, the plant you start with starts here, and any you buy will also start here - that's any plant you can get your hands on!

I made a mistake here, when you buy a seed, the knight calls them sprouts - they are called seeds in the code, but sprouts in game (maybe saplings too)

2. The Sprout Stage - 

This is when the plant will start to look a little strange, you will see a head peeking out of the dirt. This stage is mechanically the same as the seed stage - but just looks different.

3. The Grown Stage - 

This is when the plant is finished growing and will resemble a living, breathing creature rather than a plant. They can now be taken to the Farmer, the Alchemist or the King - where they can be killed, buffed or given away. This stage is where all the gameplay happens with a creature, so be sure to plant new seeds each day to get a steady influx of new, fully grown creatures.

Sleeping:

You can interact with your bed to sleep, it will play a HORRIBLE sound effect and the screen will fade out and back in. When you wake up, each of your plants will have grown a little and the Alchemist will have a new stock of potions. 

If a creature is fully grown, it's stats will also improve just a little bit.

Characters:

The Farmer - 

The Farmer can be found in the top-left of the map. He will take a creature and give you gold in exchange. This is a good way of getting rid of creatures you don't like and making some extra gold.

The Alchemist - 

The Alchemist is located in the top-right of the map, they will sell you potions that  can be used to improve yourself and your creatures. The Alchemist will restock each day.

Potions -

• Blood Potion - Improves Blood stat of the creature you are dragging.
• Phlegm Potion - Improves Phlegm stat of the creature you are dragging.
• Yellow Bile Potion - Improves Yellow Bile stat of the creature you are dragging.
• Black Bile Potion - Improves Black Bile stat of the creature you are dragging.
• Chum Potion - Improves random stats of the creature you are dragging.
• Holy Potion - Improves your Holy stat, this makes any new creatures you buy start with better stats.

The Knight:

The Knight will be found in the bottom-right of the map, by the King's side. He will sell you a new seed when you talk to him, this is how you can make more creatures, and by extension, more money.

The King:

The King is found next to the Knight. You can bring the King a perfect creature to finish the game!

I think that's about it, I hope this helps clears up a lot of the problems caused by my awful choice of font, and my terrible tutorial design. 

I hope this helps you enjoy my game <3