Guarding the Garden

Cover art of "Guarding the Garden"

"Guarding the Garden" is a 2021 action and adventure game released for Windows Desktop and MAC. It is the first major game released from NKBANGERS.

## Gameplay

"Guarding the Garden" is an action adventure game set in a closed world from a top down perspective. The game features 4 main areas, being inside an anthill, outside the anthill, the boss lair, and the garden.

## Synopsis

### Characters

#### Eensy

The main character and protagonist of the game is Eensy, a Queen Ant. She's the queen of the colony and sets out to protect it by defeating the main antagonist, Itsy Bitsy, who's attacking the garden the colony resides in.

#### Vespy

Vespy is a bee who helps to defend the garden. Vespy's been friends with Eensy for years but is cautious about fighting, as he'll die if he uses his stinger.

#### Lepidopta

Lepidopta is a butterfly that's friends with Eensy. She started as a caterpillar, but evolved into a butterfly.

#### Cucu

Cucu is a ladybug who's very timid, but gives Eensy advice.

#### Geir

Geir is a stickbug who joins the fight against Itsy Bitsy.

#### Itsy Bitsy

A spider who wants to take over the garden, and the overall antagonist of the game. He previously resided in a water spout in a gutter until the rain washed him out. He's much larger than Eensy and her friends.

### Setting

The game starts off inside ant hill, where Eensy is in her room. The next setting is outside in the garden. The third setting is the boss's lair, where Eensy fights Itsy Bitsy. The final setting is the epilogue area.

### Plot

Itsy Bitsy, a spider, wants to take over the garden after the rain washed him out of his home. Eensy, a Queen Ant who is leader of the ant colony, embarks outside to defeat him, while her friends assist in any way they can. Eensy can only defeat spiders by biting at them, or using explosives. When Eensy is feeling weak, she can eat croissants to feel better. When Eensy defeats Itsy Bitsy, she goes to the garden and celebrates with her friends and the other insects. A single spider can be seen, who has been orphaned due to Eensy's efforts.

### Development

As part of the Github/Itch.io GameOff Game Jam, development for the game started on November 1st of 2021 as soon as the Game Jam rules dropped the theme that night, which was bugs. Travis, Lucas, Lindsey, Justin, Bee, Kennan, Nick R and Colin got together in Good and Nice to start brainstorming ideas for the game. They had to decide what kind of bugs they wanted to do (ie. insects, computer bugs, etc) and ultimately decided an insect game would be the best idea. A general idea for the perspective was then decided, going with a 2D top down perspective. The plot was fully designed by Lucas, but was heavily shortened and edited due to the restrictions present. Bee started to work on the art while Travis and Kennan programmed the game. Lindsey worked on the UI Elements while Nick R worked on the music. Justin had no task in the development of the game but still attended the meetings. When there wasn't enough storage for the development, Colin paid for extra storage for the team, thus making him part of the team and technically an executive producer. The game was completed in under a month as per the rules. A majority of NKBANGERS tested the game, and thought it worked well.

### Music

Nick R composed the music for the game, who already was musically talented. There's no official release for the soundtrack.

## Reception

"Guarding the Garden" overall had good reviews, and came in 38th place out of 527 entries in the Game Off.

## Trivia

* Tessa helped come up with an idea for the game off, but was deemed not fitting for the theme, as it was too far off.
* Colin technically became an executive producer near the end of the game.
* Zavier uploaded a full game play video on one of his private channels.