This is a game about helping a small seed grow into a magnificent tree by tampering with the sun and moon, the rain and the wind. It's a small, chill game you can relax to for 4 to 5 minutes.
This is the first Game Jam I've ever done (last LD I tried but got the flu the first day). I'm incredibly proud of Fenshan, myself and our friend (@carnelones on IG) who helped us just because we managed to finish the game on time (and also because it's cute as heck :3).
Credits:
@JDK2209 : Programmer and designer. @Fenshan : Music, sound and a bit of programming. @carnelones (on IG, doesn't have a LD account) : Art.
I REALLY liked the way music smoothly transitioned between day and night, and how more layers of instruments were added as I played. It felt weirdly... System Shock'ish xD Overall, that is pretty interesting concept for a game, maybe I would change the "wind" mechanic. Where shaking clouds to make it rain was fine, dragging the wind button gave no feedback, and I was not sure if it works.
Loved this game, especially how you've managed to make an engaging loop with such simple mechanics. Music was great, very much added to the very chilled atmosphere. The art style was cool as well; again, simple yet effective. Initially I also wasn't clear on how the wind worked but I worked it out on second play. Thank you for a gret game.
The title of this game didn't disappoint! It was really fun to experiment with how the different things interacted with each other - after that, there wasn't much challenge, just a relaxing good time.
It wasn't clear to me how much it mattered where things were on screen, such as did the sun have the most effect when it was directly overhead, and did the rain have to fall on the tree directly?
I can definitely see how this would really excel with touch controls.
@rjhelms Thanks for playing our game ^^ The rain doesn't have to fall on the tree directly, but the clouds have more water in them the darker they are. And the sun does have the most effect when it is directly overhead, and so does the moon. Thanks for the feedback
Really liked the game. I love how all the systems affect each other. I wish some of the systems were easier to use, I can see that the game is made as a mobile game but it made playing on PC really difficult. Making the wind blow was really hard and I had trouble getting the rain to start falling. But small nitpicks aside it was a pretty fun game with nice music
The idea is really good and has great potential. I think you should continue working on this. After a while there could perhaps be some added mechanic than comes into play. Maybe thunderstorms that cause fires, hurricanes or something else.
The lack of visual feedback on the air control with a single swipe was certainly an issue. I'd swipe and nothing obvious happened. (In fact, the issue would be the same on a tablet.) I'd suggest adding a gauge or a gust flag near the wind control to clue the user into the need to swipe repeatedly. Aside from that though, this was very well done.
Fun game to play, and it really fit the theme. Some parts of the game seem like they might need balancing, I never really had to worry about temperature, but I still did get a feel of urgency when certain resources made others drop quickly. I don't entirely dislike the wind control button, but because it is an unusual mechanic, I felt like it needed more feedback and an indication that it could be swiped even if there were instructions in the menu. Other small points were that the clouds took a lot more shaking to "stick" on a 144hz monitor and I wish there was some sort of progress bar for the tree between stages, but overall it was still fun to play and I think everything worked together pretty solidly, with a nice extra menu screen to boot. Great Job!
This game was great. Easily one of the most original interpretations of the theme that I've played so far this jam. The music reminded me heavily of SimCity 2000, which is a great soundtrack IMHO. Really great little game, although I didn't find it as "chill" as described as I was frantically trying to balance the the entire environment to keep it alive.
Would have helped with an in-game tutorial, but I found the instructions and figured out my problem with the CO2.
Good game, I really struggled to understand or see the effect the wind was having on my plant. Would like to see this be worked on a bit more however with other added features to make it a full sandbox relaxing garden simulation thing. Great job!
The main menu items auto closing when you move your mouse out of them is a nice touch. Would be cool if you could open up the instructions page while inside the game, and if there was a confirm button when you press escape while in the game before going back to the main menu. Great little game :) The balancing is done well - I found it pretty relaxing. The plant is alive and healthy :confetti_ball:
@exilegl Thanks for playing and the feedback!! We are coming up with some player feedback fixes post-jam, so we will add a pause menu while we are at it ^^
Cute little game, and I loved the way the gameplay revolved around handling the elements. It took me about 5 tries to figure out how to actually get the wind to work in the html5 version and then it was still really unbalanced and required constant attention (so I was repeatedly swiping but my tree always suffocated), but I see it was designed with a mobile platform in mind. But overall the concept was nice, and the atmosphere was very relaxing.
I suffocated the plant several times and have no idea how to avoid it :D My favorite thing in this game is the music at night! REALLY nice mood there! Melancholic stuff, I like it! The music also had quite a bit of the old PC Adlib and Sound Blaster soundcard feel which was great.
It's a fine little game. Everything works as expected, the graphics are pleasant if simple and the sounds create a relaxing atmosphere. Overall, a fine piece of work.
It is very easy for the tree to suffocate. It feels like you need to drag the rain all the time. The controls feel like they were designed for touch screen and don't feel really natural on keyboard and mouse at all.
Relaxing game, like the concept, like other has mentions I found the air button almost impossible to use. Even when the wind effect triggered it seemed to do nothing. Looking forward to try the game again when that is improved.
Didn't like that the "how to play" windows closed when you mouse your mouse of off. At first I thought it was timed, should just have a back button.
The art is simple, but effective, it looks very nice.
Hey, this is really a nice, relaxing game as you promised. The sprites are simple but nice. The dynamic music is interesting and you actually need to balance the 3 parameters quite a bit.
The first two times my plant suffocated. But then I realized, that you actually need to drag from the wind button multiple times to the right to really have an effect. But then everything worked smoothly.
Well done! You really did well for your first entry!
It's a really chill experience! I love this game, the presentation is wonderful and the gameplay is satisfying.
There are two things I had issue with: - The air / CO2 mechanic. You say that I should drag it to generate wind, the faster the drag the stronger the wind. For me, if I drag it too fast it does nothing (or generates a very very weak breeze). I had to drag it quite quickly, but not too quick, usually dragging the windmill two or three times to generate a strong wind. I've played it on full screen, so it wasn't an issue of mouse leaving the game area. Not sure what the problem here is. - The growth takes a little bit too much time. On the first or second stage it's quite OK, but later on it gets a bit too long. I see that the progress bars get longer on each stage, but it really felt like their progress slowed down on higher levels of the lifecycle.
Overall, it's a wonderful entry. I enjoyed it very much. Well done! ;)
hey @lcstark Oh, thanks for reporting the air mechanic problem, we'll take a look at it. And that's true about the progress of the tree... we'll discuss it as well. Thank you for the valuable feedback and playing our game
Neat game! Really cool for a first game, the gameplay has all the necessary parts to be understood naturally, for exemple I learned by myself that you can move the cloud and was happy about that!
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It wasn't clear to me how much it mattered where things were on screen, such as did the sun have the most effect when it was directly overhead, and did the rain have to fall on the tree directly?
I can definitely see how this would really excel with touch controls.
*Edit* I couldn't make the build work on Linux, sorry about that :C I'll try using the WebGL build later.
The idea is really good and has great potential. I think you should continue working on this. After a while there could perhaps be some added mechanic than comes into play. Maybe thunderstorms that cause fires, hurricanes or something else.
Regardless, this is a great entry! Well done :)
Would have helped with an in-game tutorial, but I found the instructions and figured out my problem with the CO2.
Great entry!
It is very easy for the tree to suffocate. It feels like you need to drag the rain all the time. The controls feel like they were designed for touch screen and don't feel really natural on keyboard and mouse at all.
Didn't like that the "how to play" windows closed when you mouse your mouse of off. At first I thought it was timed, should just have a back button.
The art is simple, but effective, it looks very nice.
The first two times my plant suffocated. But then I realized, that you actually need to drag from the wind button multiple times to the right to really have an effect. But then everything worked smoothly.
Well done! You really did well for your first entry!
There are two things I had issue with:
- The air / CO2 mechanic. You say that I should drag it to generate wind, the faster the drag the stronger the wind. For me, if I drag it too fast it does nothing (or generates a very very weak breeze). I had to drag it quite quickly, but not too quick, usually dragging the windmill two or three times to generate a strong wind. I've played it on full screen, so it wasn't an issue of mouse leaving the game area. Not sure what the problem here is.
- The growth takes a little bit too much time. On the first or second stage it's quite OK, but later on it gets a bit too long. I see that the progress bars get longer on each stage, but it really felt like their progress slowed down on higher levels of the lifecycle.
Overall, it's a wonderful entry. I enjoyed it very much. Well done! ;)
Well done!
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