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A jam submission

Mind GardenView game page

Sometimes managing your mental health can feel futile
Submitted by Atiya Nova (@Atiya_Nova) — 55 minutes, 25 seconds before the deadline
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Play "Gardening Simulator"

Mind Garden's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#464.3384.338
Presentation#3004.0954.095
Overall#8623.4193.419
Fun#23552.6762.676

Ranked from 74 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
This game is about a person whose emotional state is "growing" out of control. The objective of the game is to try and maintain those emotions, before it's too late.

Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all art during the game jam

Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

No

We used pre-existing audio

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 51 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

Pretty unique experience. Never saw a jam game that is about mental health, and this one has a nice immersive presentation. Good job!

Developer

Thank you! :) 

Submitted(+1)

I really like the art! It's a pretty interesting and creative idea and fits the theme well. It has a fitting atmosphere and I like the idea of using growing plants to represent emotions. Good job!

Developer

Thank you! :) 

Submitted(+1)

Really creative and interesting idea, I felt the game managed to convey the characters emotions through the garden and facial expressions very well. I probably think that eating and sleeping should be set in the timetable everyday since in reality if you had the option between the activities, you would just pick eat and sleep every time since not doing so has huge negative impacts. Despite this, the game was still very atmospheric and an original take on the theme, great job!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

That's a very good point, thank you for the feedback! :D 

Submitted(+1)

I think you created a very effective, introspective experience. I think the visuals and the control scheme worked well for me, and felt kind of foreboding as the vines grew closer and closer each day. I think if going further with this, I think having more varied visuals and effects for each of the options  might have helped me try them more than once. I think once I tried everything, I just kept trying Exercise and Meditation over and over, and avoided medication because it only made me marginally more happy. Only once Meditation stopped working did I try branching out, and then I noticed while everything else stopped working, Exercise and Medication seemed to keep saying that they were making me happier, although the visuals didn't support this so I wanted to mention it in case it was a bug. Great job on this, it felt like a really unique and clever take on the theme!

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! :) What you've described is actually the mechanics of the game working as intended, however we really should've made it clearer how all the different activities affect the garden haha. Thanks for pointing that out and taking the time to play! :) 

Submitted(+1)

The concept of managing your emotions from getting out of control is really interesting (and I really like the art that accompanies it as well!) One thing to note was that despite the text, I felt like a lot of the options were superfluous and weren't having an impact (doing stuff for happiness (exercise, eat) was still making the sadness plants grow). Perhaps it's a theme of existential nihilism? Either way I enjoyed myself! Well done to you two :) 

Developer

Thanks!! :D

Submitted(+1)

Saw it on the Taco stream, amazing game!

The great visuals and music make it very touching!

Love your game, great job! :)

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the praise! :) 

Submitted(+1)

This is difficult to rate, it touches on things one does not usually seems on games, the ui could use some more polishing but the art and music works well.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! :) 

Submitted(+1)

I really like the idea behind this game. As soon as I entered, the soundtrack really set the mood quickly. One major flaw here is that the book seems to be having some serious screen scaling issues. I think I am seeing only a fraction of the book. I tinkered around in the properties on my win10 to no avail. Please fix the issue, I wanna play this game.

Developer (1 edit)

Sorry about that, it was an oversight on my part--I'll have the book scaling fixed as soon as updates are allowed. Thank you for trying to play the build, and sorry it didn't work out!

Out of curiosity, did you try running it through the itch.io app?

Submitted(+1)

Gorgeous game, and you bring the intendet feeling across really well. Top marks there.

And I realize that that's the point of the game but I feel like I wasn't able to accomplish anything, no matter what I did. So it's a cool experience, it's really creative and looks great.

But it's not that interesting from a gameplay perspective.

But creative ideas is exactly what game jams are for, so great job!

Developer

Thanks for your insightful feedback! :D 

Submitted(+1)

I appreciate how this game aims to create emotions other than accomplishment. The lively graphics and theming are an interesting way to represent some difficult topics. Good work!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! :D 

Submitted(+1)

Uff, I didn't expect to find such a submition in a game jam. Your game is a sad and bitter, but also really fitting, comment on life and feels awfully relatable.

Well done!

Developer

Thank you so much for your praise! It means a lot

Submitted(+1)

Really heavy game in the emotional side of things, missed a clear consequence for your choises, though.

Submitted(+1)

I think it's part of the concept, that your actions don't really make a difference. You try to hold yourself together, but the limited time you have is not enough. In the end your actions don't make any difference because you can't make a real difference with the recources/possibilities that are availableto you.

Developer

I just saw your stream (I was sleeping when it came out haha) Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback! :) 

Submitted(+1)

Please help me, i don't understand the controls ! I just have been able to read the "my emotions [...] of control" text followed by the three emotions but i don't know how to go further !
i love games about mental health (maybe you'd be interested in my game, it's about panic attacks) and i want to play it !
(maybe i'm just dumb)

Submitted(+1)

You can click on the blue tab at the bottom of the book. There you can drag activities into the two empty slots of your schedule.

Submitted(+1)

Cool game!

Developer

Thanks! :D

Submitted(+1)

Really great experience

Developer(+1)

Thanks again for playing it ^_^

Submitted(+1)

Very unique and original, haven't seen many other games in general tackle these concepts, much less a game jam game. Great job!

Developer

Thank you so much for your praise :D 

Submitted(+1)

im glad to see another entry that relates to mental health - great job!

Developer(+1)

thank you! :) 

Submitted(+1)

I love your idea and the originality of your work. Nice experience .. Great job;)

Developer(+1)

Thank you, glad you liked it! :) 

Submitted(+1)

I like it.  Good art and great idea.  It felt like there was only one way to go...

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! :D 

(1 edit) (+1)

I hope you are doing ok, it is a great expirence

Developer

Thanks! :)

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 51 · Previous page · First page