adam-konig 2020-04-19 19:36
PLEASE comment if any of the builds are not working!! Thanks yall! <3
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Pollinate
By adam-konig
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97 | 3.94 | 30 | |
| Fun | 265 | 3.62 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 92 | 3.98 | 30 | |
| Theme | 919 | 3.09 | 29 | |
| Graphics | 37 | 4.38 | 29 | |
| Audio | 30 | 4.09 | 29 | |
| Humor | 657 | 2.44 | 21 | |
| Mood | 10 | 4.39 | 30 |
PLEASE comment if any of the builds are not working!! Thanks yall! <3
I tried to run the game within my web browser but it crashed with a JavaScript execution :( The game looks really cool though!!
@mrvarren Try it again now! I was making some last minute changes earlier but they should be resolved now :)
The sound was excellent, soothing, great guitar. The visuals were beautiful. I enjoyed this a lot, I had two kids around and they were in love with the bee and finding out what's the next color mix going to be. My computer slowed to a crawl shortly after the first few flowers. Minor bugs were that hitting "P" never felt good, I don't know if it's a toggle, or that I have to keep it pressed, it always did something different. Another minor issue was that it was hard sometimes to pollinate with the color mixes I wanted because the pollen expires which was a bit of a bummer.
mygarden.png
@ubershmekel Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm so glad your kids loved it!!! I agree with the "P" thing, I even debug logged the input to find that sometimes unity would register input.getkeydown twice in a frame, and once other times with no explanation :( I didn't want players to be stuck with pollen they didn't want for too long but thats good feedback so thank you again!
this game is so relaxing to play, I really enjoyed the satisfaction of pollinating all the flowers and watering them to see what colours emerge! really cute, loved it :D
This is such a calm and relaxing game. The music is very nice, the fact that the bee waters the flowers with his lil bucket is adorable, and mixing colors is a lot of fun. The tree and rock placement is a bit too uniform and pulls you out of it a bit though. I think I would have trees bunched up in groups. The empty space between decorations is just as important as the decorations, otherwise it becomes noise and uninteresting. :)
Super impressive for a compo entry too. Well done!
This is a really pretty game, the visuals and graphics are lovely. I adore the concept behind the game and think it's a great idea for the brief. I agree with the lifespan of the pollen as mentioned above. and it would be nice if the well was a solid object so you couldn't fly through the roof or maybe the bee couldn't dunk under water for too long. I'd just like to also say the music was so lovely and peaceful. All in all it was a really pleasant game to play. :) x
Very pretty! Music is great too. Gameplay was neat, very chill. I would personally remove the scoring element and lean into the creative side of the game. Or alternatively add more mechanics to make it more of a game experience. Either way though, a nice polished game!
Nice original idea!
I appreciate the simplicity and the charm. I wasn't massively fond of the controls, but such little time in the JAM, it's understandable. Overall, I really enjoyed it. :smile:
Thanks for sharing your game!
@bbkate98 thanks so much! @rk3omega Thanks! I totally agree with the environment. It's hard to place random rocks and trees randomly but also intentionally to make them look natural. @ponypen It's funny you say that I spent a good 30 minutes trying to angle a box collider to make the roof a collidable object and got so frusterated I just left it out but good feedback! @keanutah I love that! I wasn't sure if I could call it a "game" without some object like having a score, but you're so right that I should lean into the creative side. @rixium Thats fair! I had a friend say he also struggled with the controls and would have preferred mouse aiming and just strafing WASD controls, but I was afriad that would be even harder. Thanks everyone for playing! <3
Very unusual to see working tutorial on LD) Nice original mechanic and pretty good visuals.
This game is so beautiful, I am in love!! The graphics are lovely, the music is soothing, and the tutorial sequence is really well thought out. The movement is a little cumbersome but it feels fitting for a small bee in a large world, which I like! Amazing job especially for a compo game!!
Really pretty game with great sound design to back it up. I was particularly impressed that you were able to make so many 3D models during the compo!
The only bit of constructive criticism that comes to mind is that the web build had a some performance issues once my score got to ~80k and had almost filled up the available land. I'm not sure if webGL supports this but I would look into GPU instancing as a potential fix for future LDs.
I am wondering how you got that nice sky glow effect, I might take a peek at your source code tomorrow :)
@deniskazantsev thank you! I try to make a quick and dirty tutorial for game jams because I know people don't love having to read a paragraph on the game's page before they can play. I'm glad you appreciated it! @makkurataichou Thanks so much! Glad you loved it! @daniel-alhadeff Thanks! By middle of saturday I realized I had only done 3D modeling and no programming but I think it paid off. I definitely hear you on the performance side. I tried super hard to go back through my models and reduce poly's and have a bunch of objects not create shadows to ease the load but I know for many the game slows down as you get more flowers. Will definitely look into GPU instancing! The sky glow was a result of some tweaking of Unity's URP post processing bloom effect so definitely look there while you're checking out the source code!
I really love this, it's very soothing and the sound and visuals are excellent.
The little tutorial at the beginning is a nice touch too.
Anything else I can say others have already said! Great job!
@seriouslycrunchy thanks so much!
As others have pointed out, this is really impressive -- particularly the 3D modelling work! It doesn't look or feel like something that was created in 48 hours, and you should be very proud of it.
I think the only thing that would have improved the experience for me would have been if there were multiple levels (progressively bigger gardens, or something like that). I feel like I didn't really get a handle on how cross-pollination was working right away, and trying out a few different approaches on some small gardens would have helped me understand the score system better.
What an awesome game! It looks amazing, and it works, so that's always good!
A very relaxing little game. The sounds and graphics is all pretty good. I would have liked a bit more gameplay. Overall a pretty good jam game. Well done.
Nice and relaxing game. I remember playing your otter game last time and again, I was surprised by the innovative idea! It would be nice to save some water if I fly over flowers that are already watered, but that's just a minor thing. Awesome graphics, and I hope to see a another game in October :)
Very amazing 3D modeling, and all of the colors are incredibly vibrant and beautiful. The game proved to be a very relaxing play and ability to create new colors by mixing pollen really made the game very fun to play. For me the game ran rather well except for a few minor slow-downs when there were many flowers and I clicked the "o" button, but for a compo game its a very impressive creation.
@pennycook thanks so much! I definitely get that. I had my family playtest and they too were a bit confused even after the tutorial on how pollination worked. Great feedback @rich , @jk5000 thank yall so much! @greendinogames I'm so glad you remember Oh Dam! I'll be sure to participate in LD47 in October. That's idea totally makes sense thanks for the feedback! @nate-wert thanks! I hear you on the slow downs. I tried super hard to reduce poly counts and do some perf improvements but it just wasn't enough.. I'll have to take some time out to learn things like GPU instancing and other ways to improve performance. Thanks for the feedback!
It's a very relaxing game and it's really enjoyable to mix flowers to discover new colors. Controls and camera are nicely handled with the camera replacing itself higher when you water flowers. Plus I've always appreciated the ability to fly in games, especially games with that kind of mood.
Graphics are a bit too shiny to me but really nice. Sound design accompanies the mechanics quite perfectly and the overall feels very polished and complete. The only problem i had is a performance issue when there are too many flowers on screen (despite having a heavy config). Maybe it's only in the browser version, I didn't test it on downloadable versions. Anyway this wasn't a game breaking problem.
Although the theme doesn't really appear in the mechanic of the game, the way you use it to deliver a message is moving.
Very nice jam production =)
Good stuff:
The graphics are beautiful: I have absolutely no idea how you made everything it 48 hours. The music helps make the game as relaxing as you intended it to be. The camera work really helps, particularly when watering the flowers. The tutorial is helpful without being jarring. Honestly, it all just works together to achieve something pretty unique for a game jam.
Areas for improvement:
Not much. The turn controls feel a little floaty-- slightly more precision there could help navigation. It might be worth removing the point system-- it breaks the immersion a bit and doesn't really contribute to the mood you're going for. Some framerate issues, but that speaks more to the scope of your game than anything else.
Overall:
Really fantastic, super relaxing game. Absolutely incredible for 48 hours!
Very nice! I was initially concerned about the number of controls, but it was not a problem. The game is so peaceful and calm, and never puts any time pressure on you, so the phase where I was awkward at the controls didn't matter.
I thought I was done, and then I spent more time with it trying to create a smoother gradient between a red and blue flower.
pollinate-gradient.png
The graphics, gameplay, and sound all created a very peaceful and moody entry, really well done!
Simple graphics and relaxing gameplay held together by a great choice of color palette. A truly unique entry, well done!
@francescopanini thanks! I'm glad you appreciated the camera change! And yes, sorry about the performance issues!! @snail So glad you thought it was beautiful <3 I totally feel the score thing. It was a last minute addition because without it I didn't feel like I could call it a "game" necessarily, but I agree that it doesn't really fit the feeling of the game. @pkenney thanks so much! I wanted to make a game where you go at your own pace instead of feeling rushed so I'm glad that paid of in learning the controls. @zesix Thanks so much <3!
Gotta say you exactly achieved what you set out to achieve: A very relaxing and serene experience! The little bee carrying a bucket that's 3 times its size, diligently working on bringing life to this initially barren garden, is just super cute. :D
I wanted it to succeed on its quest, so I didn't stop until the entire garden was covered in flowers: dilligent_bee.png I probably missed some poor little saplings hidden beneath somewhere, but couldn't find any anymore. :(
The music and sounds, while simple, do their job perfectly. It wouldn't have been nearly the same without. The whole package feels really polished for a 48h game. The change in camera perspective when watering and the overview mode to see the entire garden are nice details.
Looks good! Feels good! Mood is a 5/5! Congratulations for an overall great jam entry! :v:
@jamessauer Thanks so much! I think you might be the first person to actually fill the entire garden!
This was a really nice game! The graphics were absolutely beautiful, and the calm music added to that to really make a nice mood! The movement was pretty tough at first but got easier over time, maybe you could control looking around with the mouse? Overall I really enjoyed this and I hope to see this expanded and added to in the future!
very very nice, i love games like this. i don't have much to add beyond what others have said, aside from maybe having clearer feedback when buttons are pressed so that the controls don't feel quite as mushy (aka 'juice'), but at the same time there's only so much you can do in 48 hours. thanks for giving me a relaxing and pretty experience for 10 minutes or so :)