Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD58 → Butterfly Gathering
By EklBirifine, uniowl, PaDo, pacelin, Tryam, MatiMay, hideyzzz, the-spinning-sofa and k_Metz
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 247 | 3.69 | 56 | |
| Fun | 587 | 3.01 | 57 | |
| Innovation | 348 | 3.31 | 57 | |
| Theme | 49 | 4.30 | 57 | |
| Graphics | 116 | 4.31 | 57 | |
| Audio | 291 | 3.42 | 53 | |
| Humor | 664 | 2.06 | 49 | |
| Mood | 209 | 3.83 | 56 |
well-crafted game! love the idea of planting flowers to attract the butterfly, perfect music and new-player-intro. it'll be better to increase the difficulties, a little easier to unlock all the flowers. However, it's amazing for a jam game :)
@peggy404 thank you for your feedback! We tried very hard and we'll try to do even better next time!
Very good game, it was very pleasant to plant flowers, I also liked that the butterflies are different and they are included in the collection.
Pleasant visuals and sound design. The theme is immediately clear. It's a good game for relaxation. There are a couple of things that could be improved:
1) After unlocking all the flowers and planting them all over the field, I started getting new butterflies and just pressing one button to collect them. I didn't need to plant flowers or use a shovel anymore; I just sat and caught them. It gets boring. I would recommend working on your flower planting mechanics. For example, make it so that some butterflies only appear after you plant flowers in the right pattern(Draw a circle of flowers, for example). You could also add random events, like rodent attacks that need to be spent from the field.
2) The economy is draining too quickly. I get a lot of money from butterflies, often and in large quantities, but the field is already completely planted. I have nowhere to spend it. Perhaps you could add a way to expand the sowing area for money, or something similar.
3) I encountered a bug where the buttons didn't work at the very beginning. (I couldn't confirm the name). By the way, why is this mechanic necessary? I also encountered a bug where after a long period of Alt-Tabbing, I returned to the game and the pause buttons stopped working, preventing me from continuing.
In any case, you did a great job, well done!
I wasn't even a minute into the game, and I already felt like leaving a comment, that’s a first for me in this Jam. I don’t know who on your team worked on the UI elements, but they’re incredibly clean and polished to the point of satisfaction. I'm definitely taking notes there.
The character designs for all the butterflies are beautiful. I tried collecting them all, but it starts feeling a bit repetitive and RNG-heavy, even when experimenting with flower mixes to spot patterns. The money system feels like it’s missing a stronger purpose, though.
The world record concept is funny in a good way, it actually reminded me of the size mechanic in Monster Hunter. It's a nice detail of the game.
I loved it, very cool, very clean, very inspirational, and surprisingly relaxing, even though this isn’t usually my type of game.
Nice and chill experience, good work!
Really great atmosphere and visuals, the lighting is brilliant. Planting was satisfying and I like the shortening effect on the sprites around the cursor. The journal was a nice touch and I liked reading the entries and world records haha. I planted the field and after that I tried combinations of fully planting it with a type and then adding clusters of other flowers and I think that helped find more species but there was no way of really knowing. Congrats to the team because all the parts fit together very nicely into a relaxing style :smile:
@esh-k thank you!
@korzhik Hey, game designer here!
First of all, wow, thanks for detailed feedback! I'll try my best to answer on some important parts
I mostly agree with your points. Although or game is about collecting in the first place, economy and short-term goal planning here is pretty mediocre
The shovel and flowers are still useful (kind of?), but their goal may either not be entirely clear or just enough. Players are still need to remove old plants and try different combinations (if they want to collect all butterfly species in a reasonable amount of time)
Yes, combinations. When game decides what butterfly to spawn, it picks random flower and looks at its neighbors, so there are some kind of combinations present (but simple enough for a jam)
Maybe I, as a GD, need to be more precise/strict when designing game systems like that and not leave all of their problems on balance/level design itself. Still don't have enough competence there, but I am definitely planning on improving my skills there, and your feedback is very useful, so hopefully on next LD I will be prepared better 😎
Thanks again!
@maghwyn, thanks a lot for your feedback! Glad to hear that you liked ui and art design!
Actually, world record idea came to mind accidentally, and the size was perfect fit for it! (actually, I personally was inspired by WEB FISHING)
I talked about economy-related issues in a huge message above, but your point about too much rng and repetitiveness is useful too. That is not the first time I face similar problem, still don't know the best way to solve it in a jam game 😪
@artificer thank you! Lighting is actually very simple and consists of two things: 1. Shadowmask (I asked our artist to draw a texture, where white=light, black=no light), which I overlayed over the game field, so butterflies and flowers are "lit by sun" 2. Post-processing. Our artist made four lookup-texture (LUTs), that we then used in color grading effect (essentially it is like photoshoping game image every frame), then we blended LUTs based on time of day
Glad that you liked the names, it was actually harder than lighting lmao. The thing about "combine flowers to get some species" is kinda hidden from the player, but that was the point - to make him/her experiment. Maybe, however, that is a little bit too much to ask for a game jam players 🧐
Hey, nice entry — the vibe is super chilled and the artwork of the butterflies is awesome. And I'm very addicted to the hover effect of the mouse when you move over the flowers. really good work!
@uniowl I really appreciate you guys goin through and giving such thorough replies! Thanks for the secret sauce, that's a clever technique! Cheers :smile:
Very chilled game, reminded me of an early 2000 game I played. Wasn't quite shure, if there was a goal :D
A very relaxing game, nice music, beautiful art, but the only thing is that in my opinion, earning coins is too easy. I understand that it shouldn't be difficult, but it's just too easy.
The graphics in this game are truly beautiful, especially impressive considering they were made in such short time. Overall, its a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. thanks!
The game is very clickable and relaxing. I think they not only thought well about the narrative of "Collector," but also didn't forget about the visuals and music. I'd play a game like this just to relax, you know? :)
The graphics are excellent, with beautiful lighting and shadows. The time-lapse sequence looks great as you wait for the sun to rise after a dark night. The interface is user-friendly, the gameplay is engaging, and the soundtrack is a truly surprise to be sure and a welcome one.
Referring to the 1.0.1 version
A nice game to play for relaxing with very beatiful art and chill music. The flowers bobbing when hovering over them gave me almost the same feeling as drawing rectangles with the mouse on the desktop or in paint when i was a child - just very satisfying to watch.
Unfortunately the game crashed several times at random actions. Once after trying to open the journal after all flowers were unlocked and once after selecting a flower after closing the journal.
Hope you got that fixed in a later version.
@amunonra thank you for playing! In 1.0.4 version or in Web version on itch critical bugs were fixed, so 1.0.1 still crashes but 1.0.4/Web don't
This game is very chill with great graphics, I was honestly surprised by the quantity of butterflies (48 if I'm counting correctly) and that it has a server that keeps track of best scores from the whole playerbase. I have found an odd bug where only every odd character can use capital letters thanks to the unusual capitalization that I use in my username.
It's very pretty, and relaxing. Though... you can very quickly unlock all the different flowers, and most of it then becomes a waiting game where you try different combinations hoping to get more species or variants to appear. I also didn't quite understand what the different symbols in the book mean and if I could use that information to complete the collection.
Such a relaxing and super polished game! I caught myself drawing little pictures with the flowers and was rewarded with beautiful butterflies :) Lovely entry!
pleasant
The game has interesting concept, unlike anything else I've seen on Ludum Dare, and I really liked the visuals :butterfly: It reminded me of Dredge :ship: in some ways
smooth
The artwork is incredibly beautiful! The game is so chilled and relaxed. Sadly not much to do after unlocking all flowers, you just sit and wait for different species to appear. Unless you try to paint something on the field with flowers you have haha Definitely some potential.
A meticulously crafted game with extremely impressive graphics. I had a great time and i like butterflies!
The scene design is really beautiful, and there are so many types of butterflies! You also did a very thorough job with the tutorial! Great game! I love the blue butterflies! By the way, I wanted to ask, is the world record updated in real-time?
@aqtun thank you! We found the issue you wrote about, and we'll look into it in next jams. Unity very weirdly processes nicknames by default
@catusfelony thanks for feedback! The symbols are elements. Each butterfly has one or two elements, and each flower gives one element. In order to get a specific butterfly, player needs to plant specific flowers close to each other. Free flower is sun/moon (we only have two butterflies with those), latter four is water/fire/earth/air
@feodor thanks! Dredge was among other games as a reference of our journal
@yuriscat glad to hear that you liked the game! Yes, records are updated in realtime
@tardis2snej @catusfelony yea, the issues about boringness, mid- to end-game short-term goals and balance is what I want to take a very close look after the jam ends. Thanks for pointing this out though, this kind of feedback is very useful too!
Would have loved a way of knowing quickly what triggered what kind of butterfly, drawing symbols to "summon" them or what percentage of what flower should be next to what percentage of another flower type. Either way very clean and calm game appreciated it ! I had no problem other then having troubles because i'm color blind and that the top of the screen lacks brightness which in my case means I can't catch butterflies bc of my tv setup but it's quite normal for a jam, you provided an option menu and a basic tutorial at the start which is already really cool and takes time too. Congrats !
Fantastic art! Overall it's a nice game.
A nice game, I especially liked the lighting mechanics, where the butterflies depend on the light and time of day.
Came here from the bad apple video, absolutely in love with your art! Gameplay is chill, not too much to do, but if you check my game... i'm not the one to talk about this LOL, great job!
Chill game, I really liked the visuals! The butterflies give a lot of money though, I unlocked all the flowers super fast, then the game got a bit boring, could be quickly fixed with some balancing. Still, it’s a really nice and relaxing experience, great job!
This is a very nice game. I love your take on the theme ^^
I have to echo the other comments: The game is visually beautiful and the music is nice. The sound effects are mostly okay (though I've never heard a butterfly buzz before). However, the economy doesn't really do much for the game -- it's not hard to build a plot that has every possible combination of flowers right off the bat. Still, it was a nice experience. Don't let the critique get you down!
Awesome game, played it on stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/schmonutz
Awesome game. Went to play after seeing it on @gonutz Schmonutz's stream. I really enjoyed the depth of the "field building" aspect of the game. Made a horizontal vs vertical stripes field to ensure all flower types touch each other. This is a very good entry!
@faby thanks for the feedback! We don't have much experience with color blindness, but we'll definitely think how to improve our design to make future games more accessible!
@leparlon thanks! I think balance adjustments alone are not enough though, as our current game design is just lacking of something (as players already mentioned above), and the game will be either boring or about grind (and the latter we don't want more). We'll try to improve that in future games
@coda-highland thanks! For me personally it's better to hear clear negative feedback than to hear "well, I don't know, is it good or bad, I'm not sure". With clear feedback I at least have a rough understanding on where I can improve later
Very relaxing and there's something that scratchers the collecting itch when you see fancy holographic butterflies. The world record for sizes was a very neat extra touch! I must admit that the money does seem very very generous.
@nondev Thank you for your comment! You're right, we are well aware of the issue with the in-game money. Our original goal was to prevent money from being a barrier for players, but as a result, it has become essentially useless :)
We are considering a few options:
The simplest solution: Remove money from the game entirely so players can focus solely on collecting.
A popular suggestion: Make flowers more expensive and add a progression system. However, in this case, the initial butterflies would lose their value over time.
My personal preference (as a programmer): Introduce an alternative way to spend money. For example, a "pollination" feature for flowers that increases the butterfly spawn rate or the chance of finding large or special specimens.
I would really like to refine the game a bit later (most likely after the jam ends), so I would love to hear any other ideas you might have :)
@pacelin: I think a progression or unlockables system would be interesting way of making money useful. Depending on which manner of play you want to lean into. For relaxing/calm gameplay maybe that's just enabling rarer butterfly spawns through fancier flowers of different tiers, making them easier to catch and so forth. I forgot to mention, it would be very nice to see percentage collected of each butterfly type without needing to open the book!
@uniowl @faby Re: color-blindness, you've made a pretty good start already by having the flowers differ by more than just color. You could make another good step by improving the contrast, because especially with the shadows it can sometimes be a little hard to distinguish the details even for me (I have good color vision, but my eyes are getting a little old). Applying some lighting effects or particle effects to distinguish different classes would probably do the trick for the butterflies -- you've even already got element symbols that you could use for visually-distinct particles, and that would tie together the information that you already have.
Very nice and relaxing game, I liked playing it on stream. Thanks for submitting ^^ Here's the VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2588456381
I really like the atmosphere and visuals in this game, well done!
Wow! Really relaxing and good looking game!
A nice and simple collecting game. There were some things that I took note of: Selecting a new flower didn't seem to be plantable until interacting with a butterfly (something to do with focusing on wrong layer?), music cuts very hard when entering the book (to be expected when just hard starting a song but very noticeable), and the game seemed to just throw money at me which meant all of the flowers were basically free to unlock at the very start (making the money system pointless). Nothing major but could've used a bit more time in the oven.
Gives nice vibes.
The economy inflates rather quickly though, so you as a player soon won't have much to spend your money on - so it would resolve to you waiting for the new butterflies to appear and hope they'd be big.
Still, nice game!
Game has good graphics, especially the background. Game loop is very simple - it leads to waiting for new butterflies and clicking on them.
I like the idea and graphics! Gameplay is simple but definitely scalable.
Very calming game, love the butterfly journal idea! I agree that it gets a bit boring after you've planted all the flowers. I wonder if this would have worked better as an idler game? I.e. make butterfly collection automatic and instead focus on the upgrade system that increases their quantity, rarity chance, etc.
Beautiful and relaxing game! Love the butterfly art and the general vibe. Wish there were more unlocks to spend the money on
I really enjoyed the art style and music of this game. It gave it a really chill vibe. Like others have said, after unlocking on the flowers and planting everywhere it just sort of becomes a mindless clicking game. That said, it's very well done. Nice work!