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Blooming Together's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #35 | 3.655 | 3.655 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
Nature is the greatest example of generosity. Not only does it give us everything we need, but when looking at the synergies in an ecosystem, every single organism benefits by sharing with others. Beyond that, the game incentivizes players to be generous with each other and donate resources and seeds to make all the ecosystems flourish.
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Comments
Quite addictive gameplay to be honest!! I think it is quite cool the idea of connecting paths and expanding that way. I could play all day :)
It's a very clever puzzle game and I'm so glad to see another game where you can give to other players! I would like to see more interactions with other players, like maybe you can somehow connect your world to your neighbor's. Connecting path with tiles is also interesting, though I think it could be better if path have some "functions", it reminds me of the game "Tsuro". Great work overall!
An enjoyable puzzle experience with satisfying audio. Newcomers beware, it really is quite easy to become completely entranced.
I thought this game was charming :) I know you've mentioned in replies that you were planning on doing another pass on the UI, which I think is wise - something cozier would suit the rest of the art style, which I quite liked.
The mindblowing gem of this game is card donation. I think it is worth more emphysis in gameplay, like someone can put up a "wanted card" in the list and people who donated it can watch it being placed and share some points etc. Love it!
The “wanted” card to help fill spaces is something I was already planning for. Sharing points with the donor of the card (which is already tracked) is a great idea that I’ll add to my to-do. Thanks for playing.
Super chill game. It's low stakes (as long as you don't worry too much about optimal placement) and relaxing to expand the landscape. There's good quality of life features like highlighting possible positions and suggesting one when you first click the tile. As other have pointed out, it immediately reminded me of Tantrix. The social features are neat, I often "donated" tiles to others as a way to get rid of undesirable ones - sorry to those who received them! I love watching the insects buzz about. Excellent work!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Any tiles you donated will have a point multiplier boost 😉
But I’m already thinking on how to provide incentives for better tile placement and mechanisms to craft or be able to trade with players that have tiles you are interested in.
Thanks for playing.
I love puzzle games, so I really liked this one. I didn't understand the mechanic of giving away tiles. How does it affect me. But I love the design of the tiles. I wish I new what possibilities I had beforehand because I really don't like leaving empty space behind. I also like that the game shows you the possible positions that each tile can be placed depending on its rotation. Very satisfying when you place them as well.
I might be nit picky, but the repetition of mother nature's sounds was a bit annoying. But that's just a preference. Also, I didn't like that she does not wear clothes. I know she is covered up, but I avoided playing your game because of that. I would prefer a different design for her.
Otherwise the gameplay is very satisfying and it must took you so much time designing the tiles. Well done!
I’m glad you liked some parts of the game. Giving away tiles doesn’t really affect you, it’s part of the generosity aspect of the game. The other players were probably not online and will receive the tiles when they log back in. I’ll log on a little later and send you some tiles and you’ll receive them (with a boost in points) as well. Placing tiles so the empty spots are not soft locked is part of the puzzle and some players use the giving away mechanic when they don’t like the tiles they have. The sounds are from an asset pack, maybe we can work with a voice actor for an expanded version but with the timeline and restrictions in the jam we just reused some sounds. And the character keeps getting covered in more and more flowers as you play and appears less frequently as you progress. Maybe we will include a disclaimer and an option to crop the view to the face as there are flowers in her head as well.
Very relaxing and addictive game, I like that the game is showing possible connection points, it makes the process much more smoother.
Game looks and feels very polished. The random cards and puzzle aspect makes it quite addictive I could spend hours playing this. The online feature of gifting cards to neighbors definitely suits the theme for the jam. Great job guys! By reading other comments I can tell that there was an even greater vision for the game. I am hoping that you'll work to fulfill this vision after the jam as I see a lot of potential for this project.
Nice and ambitious - I really like the online social games in this jam and you made a great one, too!
It really reminds me of this swiss tile laying game "Tantrix" if I remember right :D The game plays very nice. However the social feature didn't seem to work for me - I think I only got cards by nature and not other players.. Is it only current online players or do I also get cards async from people that donated while they played?
It is async and donated cards get queued in the server so you will get them when you log back in. I just sent a couple to all the recent players (the player list on the right is sorted by most recent interaction).
Thanks for playing!
And yes, my original inspiration was https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne but I really like hexagonal tiles. It was only later that I learned about Tantrix and Kaliko. Both of these reward “path” length with I wanted to do as well but I ran out of time.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4178/kaliko
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/79300/tantrix
I may have spent a little too much time playing this lmao. The gameplay was really fun, I like getting to fit the different pieces together and watching as the fauna expanded. I especially like the visuals and looking at the plants I've grown without all the intersecting segments. I will echo what faedoll said in the comments, I think the design of the puzzle pieces doesn't go super well with the nature aesthetic. Maybe if they were vines instead of tubes? Aside from that, I really enjoyed playing your game, kudos to your team!
I see you also did a flora/fungi inspired game!!
I had fun playing this. It was satisfying and relaxing to place the cards around. Nice work!
I really liked how you visualized the root interactions in your game. I ran out of time on the mycorrhizal fungi, the plan was to have a full ecosystem where we can see the interactions between all these organisms and maybe add some educational content. We need to spread the word about fungi!
I had so much fun with this game! One of my favorite parts of playing was that even though there was a points system, I found that just looking for the placement that felt right to me was even more rewarding. Like placing a tile in the middle of 6 other tiles and watching it snap into place perfectly! I also really appreciate the game showing me where a tile could go because it helped ease the placement process. The multiplayer features were really cool. I loved receiving a gift from someone and sending one back like a little thank you card.
Sooo relaxing and satisfying! I found myself trying to give away all my tiles just to see what it does, collecting the flowers from different players is super neat! The paths and placement reminded me vaguely of the board game Saboteur, perhaps also from the cute lil prototype tile pics you guys included. Ironic, because in that game, you sabotage each other from collecting the treasure, while this one is encourages sharing. A potential takeaway from the board game is that there could be "areas" or "special tiles" you try to build towards. Just another way to incentivize the players to keep expanding.
Your efforts with this one really shines through! Reading all the planned additions makes me excited to see where this goes. Psst, this would be such a great mobile game ^^ Yay team!
Thanks for playing. I think I missed you while you were playing but I sent you a couple flowers that you will see when you log back in. Hopefully someone else sent you some of theirs!
Oh, by the way, the special tiles are there! These are the seed caches. They are initially “hidden” and you were supposed to follow the pollinators there but we scrapped that.
Spoilers: They are marked with some yellow blobs and there is a 90% chance you will find a new flower when you get there. It’s kind of a surprise element. Maybe I should include that in the game page now that there is less traffic to the game and you may not overlap with another player.
And yes, better touch controls and a mobile build is definitely in our plans.
OMG I have white, purple, and red flowers now YAY. I'll check back again tomorrow haha ^^
Great job on the visuals and gameplay, the social stuff was super impressive! I loved seeing your prototype tiles included at the bottom of the page too :)
Ahhh very addictive! I kept on playinggg. Really nice implementation of the theme as well. At first, idk why I couldn’t understand, but as I kept on playing, it became much more clearer, easier and fun. Visuals are really beautiful as well.
Very cool idea and theme. Nice incorporation of generosity with the multiplayer bit too!
Great art and really interesting UI/ visualization of the experience! I would love to see the beautiful visualization applied to all the UI. But overall really fun, unique and cute experience!
I love love love the art for the main cutie with the green hair, but I am Autistic as hell and something about the grey boxes felt too mechanical for the UI/UX if going for these lovely organic-based experiences. I abandoned ship before I could truly get into the game. But! I do intend on coming back and seeing if the d/l version is different as there are screenshots that look different than what I saw!
I understand. The plan was to revamp the full interface to make it more friendly for touch devices but we ran out of time. I’ll keep you posted on that but updates are locked during the voting period.
By the way, before I started working with an artist on this project I was considering this free asset pack to build the UI around. You brought up some good points so I thought I’d ask you, what do you think about this one? https://coarsecurve-art.itch.io/leaf-branch-ui
gorgeous!!! And a very good fit!!! I’m excited to recheck it out tbh!!
I did not realize till later, but I really like the giving mechanic where you give cards to other players. Nice work.
I was still asleep. I wish I had seen you, I’ve been trying to send a few cards to other players when I see new people online. They get queued on the server and you’ll receive them when you log back in.
Don't worry, while you were sleeping, I gave so many cards to many players because I can't get the right cards to finish the board lol