The Forest Grows Back!

v0.2a - The Game Jam Submission (Mobile Update!)

A strategic incremental game about trees, taxes, and cosmic ambition.

Plant, grow, and harvest your way from a tiny patch of land to a vast 8x8 pixel forest empire—all while managing exponential taxes and dreaming of the ultimate arboreal achievement: a forest full of Cosmic Trees.

🎮 What’s It About?

Start with just $25 and a 2x2 grid. Plant basic trees, expand your land, unlock new species, and climb the forest economy from humble saplings to billion-dollar lumber supremacy as the TFGB Lumber Co. As your empire grows, you’ll face an increasingly complex web of growth timers, tax brackets, and strategic tradeoffs. Can you fill your forest with Cosmic Trees?

🚀 Features

🌱 Core Gameplay

• 🌲 20 Custom Tree Types: From Young Sycamores to the Cosmic Tree

• 📈 Logarithmic Pricing: Tree costs range from $1 to $1,000,000,000

• 🪓 Strategic Harvesting: Harvest early or wait for max profit

• 💰 Tax System: Exponentially scaling taxes make every harvest a decision

• 🌳 Forest Expansion: Upgrade from 2x2 to a full 8x8 grid

🛠️ Advanced Systems

• 🔁 Auto-Planting: Unlock automation and never click an empty cell again

• ⏱️ Speed Controls: Play at 1x, 2x, or 3x game speed

• 🌌 Cosmic Victory: Your grid glows purple as you approach the endgame

• 📊 Performance Stats: Track your best runs and highest earnings

🎨 Pixel Art Meets Idle Gameplay

• 🎨 Gorgeous custom pixel trees from Karsiori's Tree Pack

• 🌿 Smooth animations for growth and harvest cycles

• 🔁 Three themes to swap between!

🔊 Immersive Audio

• 🎵 Menu Theme: "Sing To Me" by Ari Bradshaw

• 🌲 In-Game Theme: Original "The Forest Grows Back" track by Ari Bradshaw

• 🎚️ Independent volume sliders for music, effects, and overall audio

• 🎧 Sound effects for planting, harvesting, expanding, and more (Splice-obtained)

🧠 Under the Hood 

• ⚛️ Built in React + TypeScript

• 🧮 Efficient State Handling via useState, useEffect, useCallback

• 🎞️ Smooth Animation Loops using requestAnimationFrame

• 🧰 Modular architecture with components like Game.tsx, GameGrid.tsx, and soundManager.ts

🏆 How to Win

• 💸 Scale wisely: Don't go broke expanding too soon

• 🌲 Unlock trees strategically: Faster growth or higher yield?

• 📉 Watch your taxes: Every harvest makes the IRS stronger

• 🌌 Finish strong: A full grid of Cosmic Trees means victory!

🐛 Known Issues

• 🎵 Music loop currently buggy and may repeat awkwardly on Apple devices (may be fixed - haven't verified yet)

• ⚠️ Phantom TypeScript or linter errors in development—game still runs great!

📅 Roadmap

• 🔲 Harvest early toggle

• 🔲 Balance is a little iffy right now