hangovergames 2023-10-02 18:40
Corruption man that sucks. We've also made our game about that. 10/10
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Hanabatake
By spica, Ynnon, SVahin, EinSof and FevralyDora
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 379 | 3.76 | 45 | |
| Fun | 610 | 3.39 | 44 | |
| Innovation | 531 | 3.40 | 43 | |
| Theme | 719 | 3.41 | 45 | |
| Graphics | 77 | 4.46 | 46 | |
| Audio | 73 | 4.10 | 44 | |
| Mood | 217 | 3.95 | 44 |
Corruption man that sucks. We've also made our game about that. 10/10
The graphics and audio is really good. I had hope to have more stories during the game after I saw the amazing introduction
I see that the "group of freshmen learning how to make games" has produced a wonderfull piece of art ! Really beautifull and interesting game thank you for this good time :smile:
PS: I love your tiny creature :heart:
The graphics! Amazing!
So I didn't understand everything, but I gained points, it's a very good sign :D
Maybe add a tutorial, with little explanations Otherwise the game is too beautiful, the atmosphere is so cute, so cute ! <3
Hey nice! Took me only a couple clicks to figure out the rules. I got to 20,000 points hurray! I found it satisfying, when your big fields of flowers get destroyed by new flowers spawning.
I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to never underestimate the importance of a tutorial! I flew through the first few sets of levels, thinking that the only rule was just 'connect the flowers', so I did that. However, I reached a level where I got stuck in a corner and couldn't seem to place any more flowers. I checked the book, only to realize there had been two huge mechanics I had been missing! And when I hit the arrow-circle icon, I thought it was just going to reset the level I was on, so I was upset to see the entire game reset and send me back to the beginning.
The gameplay was very fun, and very exciting, and I think your game does good of not throwing too much at the player too fast. However, I feel like it could've also benefited a lot from a more traditional tutorial. The first time a new color flower is introduced, it's far enough away from the others that it doesn't need to be engaged with for the level to progress, so there's nothing to make sure the player knows what it does before progressing.
Your art direction and sound effects were very good though! It was a very cute and well polished experience.
the fact that i had a PAW for a mouse cursor was a super amazing touch. my strategy of click on random bags and placing them in random tiles seemed to work out for me. nice game.
@falestress @iron-head @viktorthegreat @jcmonkey thank you for your feedback guys! Sorry for being greedy on the tutorial, guess we really couldn't release our first game without an oopsie :D Hope you still liked the rest of the experience!
Very beautifully drawn and cute graphics and animation 10, gameplay sucks
@festishin thank you for your feedback! Looking in retrospective, we've definitely made a big mistake by not spending enough time on shaping the gameplay loop idea right when the Jam started. We've got a bunch of feedback on what in particular felt underwhelming or frustrating, but if you could give a more detailed feedback on which aspect of the gameplay sucked for you, that would help us grow on our mistakes. Thank you!
I like graphics the most, so cute!! but also very fun to play
It was hard to understand the rules but your video helped a lot also cool music and arts so I think its good submission
I like graphics and music. Gameplay is easy and understandable. It is also simple
Georgeous graphics and very chilling music. I don't think the gameplay is bad at all. It took me a while to figure out what to do, but then it became so engaging. Good job!
Very well made game. One small user experience improving feature could be to have the connecting flowers chart be always visible on screen so that the player wouldn't need to spend time on opening the book for help.
@verttixpertti thank you for the feedback! Exactly after the Jam finished I stumbled upon a Switch "Suika Game" and there was a quite similar mechanic with "queue of items to put" and "map with interactions" and it was all visible on the screen the whole gameplay loop. medium-011f2a88ef860374c3d6c9a69b3e608a.jpg
That's when I realized we made a mistake :smile: We'll know better next time, thanks for playing!
@spica It's crazy you mention that game, because that was exactly what I was thinking about with my comment. That game has suddenly appeared in my life in such a weird way. At first I played an exact copy of that game previously in this jam, which I then thought was an original idea, but immediately after playing the game, I then open up youtube and see Ludwig streaming and playing the original game which made me so confused.
@verttixpertti lol, weird coincidence indeed! My friend sent me the link to a VTuber's stream saying "limited space btw" and then it just clicked with me!
@spica haha not like you asked but this https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/magical-veggies was the game I first played
@verttixpertti thanks for sharing!
Nice game and well done! Cute graphics and fun to play. Altough I got stuck here. What did I do wrong? Screenshot 2023-10-04 204757.png
@helen sometimes you have to plan in advance where to plant what in order to not get stuck! Blue flowers don't like to stay near read ones, so you're in a dead end. To learn all the synergies, please click on the book in the left upper corner! Try clicking the "restart" button and beat your high score!
@spica That makes sense :thumbsup:
Super cozy time-killer, very cute graphics and plesant audio. Great game for chilling out.
Unexpected psychedelic moment btw.
I guess the ratings of this game will be polarized. To me, it's a cozy and fun game, which I could play for hours. The graphics and audios are also wonderful! As for the gameplay, I have the same feeling with others. It really took me a while to understand the rules.
**Here is my understanding of the rules for planting new flowers** (correct me if I'm wrong): 1. **New flowers must be planted near a flower with the same color - totally hidden to players**:x: 2. New flowers can't be planted near a flower with incompatible colors - clear to players:heavy_check_mark: 3. "Near" means the squares two flowers stayed share one border - not fully clear, but could be easily reasoned:heavy_check_mark: 4. If two flowers are not next to each other on the book, it means they are incompatible - not fully clear, but could be easily reasoned:heavy_check_mark:
I think the gameplay itself is good, it just lacks clear explanation about **rule 1**, which could make **rule 3** and **rule 4** ambiguous. Once **rule 1** is clear to players, all rules should be clear, and it should be much easier for players to enjoy the game. Overall you guys group of freshmen made a really nice game! BTW, would you guys mind sharing how you made nice music like this one with AI tool?
@jamesw We had hopes first pictogram in the book would explain rule 1, but yeah I completely agree with collective sentiments in regards to rules clarity. Thank you for writing all your reasoning down, seeing player's perspective is really refreshing, as it's very prone to disaster when you're tunnel visioning as a developer thinking your rules are clear (in reality they're only clear in your head). As for the music, I hope @einsof will take his time to tell you the details. Honestly, we were really hesitant on whether to opt-out the audio category, but since we did all the SFX and drafts for the BGM from scratch, we were encouraged to not opt-out just because we resorted to AI.
Thank you for the feedback!
Given my username, I always appreciate anything Japanese. The artwork and audio is off the charts for this entry. And I think the idea is great too. As for feedback, there are some implementations that there weren't time for in the jam: a timer on levels, some sort of ending, and making the flower matching clearer. But excellent work overall.
@johnsensei I'm happy you liked the title!
Yeah, @einsof reached me and shared it, it's very helpful! Thanks for sharing it.
The first pictogram kind of explains rule 1, but players like me would expect you to write it explicitly in the "Notes" section. Also I would hope these pictograms could cover all necessary cases about what's allowed and what's not allowed (like to make new flower look different, and a "X" when planting new flower not near any flower with same color).
there is our best score at this moment! изображение_2023-10-06_162501776.png
Cool puzzle game. Only thing is that your run can randomly end if a flower spawns in the wrong spot. That randomness feels bad for the player because they didn't cause the game over and it makes the player feel like that it was unfair. I think taking agency away from the player makes the failure less enjoyable and makes them less likely to replay your game. Love the art style!
@binayas we tried to make the randomness as fair as possible, but couldn't eliminate all the edge cases in the limited time frame :sob:. Would definitely like to make the generator more intelligent at some point. Thank you for noticing!
Wow this artwork and sound - great work!
Игра красивая но играть в это я не буду
Beautiful art and music! They gave a really nice mood to the game. The gameplay is confusing though.
Omagad, this game so cute :cry:
Really cute and lovely game. I didn't play too focused, but I think I got into a bit of a pickle the second time I played where I all I got was 3 blue seeds and the game spawned a boxed in blue flower in the corner with no valid placements for it. Perhaps I had a chance with the knowledge at hand to play it differently before, but it did feel like I was actually just unlucky... so maybe the game just uses a simple random and doesn't check that there is some possible way forward given the information that the player has... if so it feels a little bit unfair.
But that would be hard to code for a jam though.
Graphics were stunning and mood very nice. The game was very clear except for one thing. It could have informed me that it was game over and that I didn't have where to place the seed.
And also, when I got my highscore, I accidentally pressed restart when I was about to look something up in the book... so perhaps that should come with a warning or something or not be located next to the book.
This was a amazing experience, the simple mechanic was work working and fun! The artwork is gorgeous! Considering that's your first game, it's a really great entry for the jam!
Nice and relaxing game, good entry!
The game looks beautiful (although for some reason it seemed like everything was drawn in low resolution, but oh well). And it took me a little time to understand how the game works - but I got it, haha). Overall it was fun.
Huh... when the board increased to 6x6, I was given this board that looks like it has no valid moves to start?
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This happened to me a couple times. I'll agree with previous commenters who said that a more traditional tutorial would have been best. I also could have used the color cycle displayed at all times — there were some unintuitive color relationships in there. I'm not sure I understood the meaning of the second flower growing in the same tile as already planted flowers? I came away with a lot of questions.
I did like the core mechanic, though: trying to organize your board for score and flexibility. It's a nice, puzzley approach to the theme. I did feel as though the constant resetting of the board was kinda interrupting my flow: some game type that allows you to build more on your previous moves would have worked better for me I think.
Great work on the graphics, audio, style, and vibe of the game. Everything is consistent.
It's cool that you developed innovative puzzle game mechanics. However, it lacks a tutorial and a clearer explanation of the mechanics.
Overall, the game seems quite simple and it appears that one can play it mindlessly, just placing flowers next to each other until you hit a deadlock, if you're unlucky.
This mechanic and level generation need further development.
But for a game jam, this is a good prototype. It can be further developed and polished, and has the potential to become an innovative puzzle game
Interesting puzzle game with outstanding concept art, and the core gameplay is also impress me a lot,nice job:)
Wow, it is so very cute! Great job with the graphics!
Very nice and relaxing. Lovely music, adorable creature. And an intro! I like how the book and the gameplay was enough to help me figure out how things worked. The animations and sounds were nice too. c:
A very cute and relax game, I love it!