Lichen Whisperer

Lichen keeper, go forth and pollinate other worlds.

Lichens, the lifeforms which man so commonly passes by without a second thought, have ironically become our most important ally in the space age! We send experts such as yourself to seed these planets with lichens. Despite our technological prowess, we have yet to replicate a bio-indicator as robust as the lichen. 

You have 85 different lichen specimens to distribute across 85 earth analogue planets. Once the lichens take hold, we may interface with surviving colonies from afar and monitor those worlds.

Throw some lichens out there and see what sticks! Lichen whisperer, we owe you a debt of gratitude!

Created by Tyler Wright (Outgrabe) for Bitsy Jam #91 (theme: lichens); Out of the Box Jam (theme: out of bounds); and Out of Context Jam (normal object into abnormal).

How to Play

Your mission is to populate the galaxy with lichen, humanity's method for monitoring planets from afar. There's really nothing to it! Hop from world to world, leave some lichen behind, and check back to see how they're doing.

The ‘eye’ icon in the upper-left provides general information on the lichen species and the current planet that you find yourself in. You may reference this at any time. There are three types of lichens (crustose, foliose, and fruticose) and many species targeted for specific planets. We cannot guarantee their successful grafting into alien environments, but one can hope.

Navigate with up, left, down, right or WASD.

Features:

• 85 planets with unique terrain
• 85 lichen species across the three main terrestrial varieties (crustose, foliose, and fruticose)
• One cosmic soundtrack that is out of this world!
• The art of the glitch (it has a purpose)

Special Thanks:

• Adam le Doux for the Bitsy game engine and host of Bitsy Jam #91 (theme: lichens), of which this game is featured.
• Sean S. LeBlanc for the Itsy-bitsy game hack and AYolland for Borksy used to implement it.
• aloelazoe for the Bitsy Savior desktop tool.
• U.S. Forest Service for the many lichen photographs used for rendering.
• janosc, creator of RGBitsy.
  
• SourdoughGames for the glorious Bitsy Cartridge Template.