Can I just say, I hate bees and I'm kinda glad it's a mini game of slaughtering them >:D MWAHAHA!
Oh but, ahem. I absolutely loved the story! The way you find out more about the tale of the gardener and the daughter is just so heartfelt! I loved it so much! I cried the whole time as I talked to the flowers. But of course laughed too with all the silly interactions too!
The Art was lovely as well, Everything felt so gloomy and grim but the flowers put such a nice touch to it. I love the cacti gang so much too LOL
I encountered a bug when I tried to do the end of the story with the bouquet, it kept telling me I needed more than 3 when I had 4 though! But of course that wasn't an issue at all :D
Thanks so much for making this game and I really hope to see more! Totally earned full 5 stars for me, because everything was super in place and lovely.
-Momo
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Locks and Lilies's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #1 | 4.789 | 4.789 |
| Concept | #1 | 4.737 | 4.737 |
| Overall | #1 | 4.526 | 4.526 |
| Enjoyment | #1 | 4.211 | 4.211 |
| Story | #2 | 4.632 | 4.632 |
| Audio | #3 | 4.421 | 4.421 |
| Graphics | #8 | 4.368 | 4.368 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
All the bees will MEET THEIR END as those evil things must >:) If Lily's leaf hands aren't enough, we will sic the cacti gang on them!!! SPIKES VS STINGERS! MWAHAHAHA!!!
But asdhfasdaskhgals THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm so, so happy you enjoyed the story and felt the FEELS WAVE as the story of the gardener's daughter came together. Glad to hear that all the heartfelt moments and the silly moments all came together!
So sorry about you encountering the 3 flower bug though! I still don't know what exactly makes it go off. Hopefully we will be able to get to the bottom of it after this jam. Did the bug prevent you from seeing how the game ends? If yes, just let me know! I'd be more than happy to DM you the ending! You sure as heck deserve to find out how it ends!!!
Thank you again, so so much for the kind words and ratings. So happy you had a good time with this one. And it was so great getting to know you during this Jam! Looking forward to seeing more of your works too! (and talking more about BEES AND ANIME!)
-Sasha
Thanks so much for playing! I’m glad we got the theming right. Sasha and Kati did a great job coming up with a cast of characters!
Do you think if the minigames had variety between them, it would have helped the pacing? Or maybe there might be a smoother way to go into the minigame outside of dialogue? I’m always interested at the intersections of narrative + dialogue and gameplay and how to make them work well together.
Thanks for the feedback!
- Josh
Awww thank you so much! I'm so glad the story got an emotional response from you! That sweet tender feeling is exactly what we were going for <3
To answer your question, yes, absolutely. :) This game actually has four endings you can get, depending on the bouquet you make. The true ending requires a specific combination of flowers, which you can find through the clues the flowers offer :D
With the shopping list, you're on the right track. However, note the last page of the description says "the last two words are crossed out" :)
So only one of those flowers is a requirement :) And of those flowers... color choice matters :3
Oh also, Son E didn't show up in the bouquet? that's really weird. I wonder if it's because there's a glitch with his player sprite. I think he might show up, but just not visually. I'll have to test that out. Thanks for brining it to my attention!
-Sasha
Thanks for playing! I'm glad the overall design and pacing of the game worked out well! It took us a bit to hash that out. I totally agree about the minigames being tedious. Our original intent was to have a little tutorial round and then ramp them up with some variety. We ran out of time to do that, but we learned a good lesson about managing our scope in this jam.
- Josh
First of all, from all of us... thank you SO much for taking the time to play through the game twice with such close attention and for leaving such a detailed comment. I'm so happy you enjoyed the game and the story enough to be willing to do this! It really really means a lot.
Your notes are incredibly helpful. All of them will help us develop this game and fix some issues when the game jam is over! I will try to keep this reply organized as I address them all.
With skipping dialog, I actually did not know this... but there is a skip button! Josh just told me you can hold escape (ESC) to skip dialog or press it to skip sections. If you're in full screen, the first time you press it, it will bump you out of full screen. But once you're in windowed, it works. Apologies from us all! A bit of a miscommunication between us... probs the result of the final night cramming xD I'll go ahead and add that control to the itch page. Also, we did originally have a plan to have an option to just replay the bouquet phase, but ran out of time to add that in. But no, I totally agree with you that it's a must for replaying the game. I actually played the game 4 times before I found out about the skip button and I agree, it's really long haha, I understand (thank you so much for the kind words about the story on the first read though! :D ). I feel your pain with the space bar thing too. If you decide to try again, hopefully esc. makes it easier :)
With not being able to get the true ending... that's really really weird. The Lock saying you have to try harder happens when you don't have enough flowers. I think it's a UI bug that where the 4th flower's picture doesn't get added into the bouquet, making it seem incomplete. Out of the 7 playtests I've done, I've only seen this happen once, and for the life of me I can't figure out what makes it happen. My guess is it happens if you try to invite the same flower twice or talk to it after already inviting it... but I don't know. I haven't been able to replicate it since. Either way, I'm so sorry you experienced that after putting in so much time to get the true ending! I did test the true ending just now, and it did work for me...
Just out of curiosity, do you remember what flowers you added to the bouquet when you tried for the true ending (it's cool if you don't remember their names haha, just the type of flower :) ) I can tell you if that's right or wrong if you want, if you'd like to try again for the true ending with skipped dialog! But if you'd rather not, I totally totally understand, just let me know. I'd be more than happy to share the true ending's text with you (maybe over Discord DM if you're on this Jam's discord? if not, maybe I can put it in a google drive and share the link in a comment reply) because after all the time you put into playing our game, you sure as heck deserve to know the true ending :)
Omi voice acting this would be so fun. It would be quite the undertaking because of all the characters and implementation but who knows, maybe in the future! Thanks for the suggestion! :)
With having pictures for the Petunias and Cacti, that's an excellent idea! Or maybe their names can be colored in the choices. We'll have to see if we can figure out how to do that. But for reference, the order of name choices for the petunias at least is listed in left to right. So Penny = Purple, Tulla = Red, Nivia = White
And finally the music! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm particularly proud of how this score came out. It was so much fun to write.
But ehehehehehehe... that sound you mentioned is the sound that plays when you add a flower to the bouquet. And now that you mentioned it, you are absolutely right! It totally sounds like a cellphone ringtone. I couldn't stop laughing when I read that. I can't believe I didn't notice before. And you're right it totally does clash with the music. I wanted to do something that could clearly be heard above the soundtrack but I think I went a little too far. I'll think of something different! Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention.
Thank you again so much for leaving such detailed feedback. I hope this reply addresses all the concerns! Let me know if anything I said is too confusing haha xD
-Sasha
So, I tried playing again with the help of the Esc button - it works! :) I thought the key turning point in the story was when Lillian has to decide to be included in the bouquet or not ... But I got the same story ending both times. So yes, I'd be happy if you could reveal the end mystery to me. ;) I joined this jam's discord, so you can find me there (same name as here).
And about the situation when the lock wouldn't let me through... I don't remember which flowers I choose, but I know that I went back to the lock after collecting only 3 flowers and the lock said I could do a better job, so I went to get another one, but then it kept on saying the same thing ... Even though the picture of the 4th flower was added. I can explain more on Discord if you want. ;)
Hey thanks for playing, and for the detailed feedback + suggestions! I see that Sasha told you about the ESC key to skip. I honestly took it for granted while testing the game and totally forgot to mention it to anyone (lol.) I remember that if I do another game with multiple choices/endings. We've experimented with dialogue voices (more like the sounds the play when the dialogue is being written) in a previous game and had to delay that for the sake of finishing the jam. It would be a really cool way to add even more to the different flowers' unique personalities. Thanks again!
- Josh
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