Really enjoyed figuring out how to play & the design was charming. Well done! Thank you so much for participating in the jam!
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Juicy Tree's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Interpretation of the Theme(s) | #4 | 3.478 | 3.478 |
| Overall | #16 | 2.826 | 2.826 |
| Design | #21 | 2.652 | 2.652 |
| Game Mechanics | #25 | 2.348 | 2.348 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Good visuals and concept for the theme! Took a bit to understand how to play correctlybut cool game!
Submitted
POINT OF NO RETURNNice game, good concept, and nice visuals (even thought I cannot really tell which of the visuals you did yourself for the game from the credits, but nonetheless nice choice of sprites). Good interpretation of the theme too with your tree growing, thus in some sense expanding.
I have a couple of suggestions and problems I encountered while I played that may be helpful to you if you want to keep improving the game:
- Make instructions for how and when I can adjust branch directions clearer: it now says "You'll have limited time to determine the branch direction", but in reality, what happens is that you can adjust the branch direction only when the branch is a "dead-end", and cannot adjust it anymore when the branch has attached children branches;
- Make it clearer how much of the surface of your leaves is contributing to produce energy, as right now, I feel like sometimes my energy meter goes to 0 and I can't really find a way of making it go back up, no matter how many leaves I have, how many water I contribute to each leaf, and how covered leaves are (i feel like there may even be a sort of "bug" where your energy meters keeps decreasing more and more, but the UI does not reflect this change by letting the energy bar stay fixed on 0 for the current level you are in, so you can't really see how much energy you currently actually have or have lost).
- There is a duality of relaxing/chaotic aspects in the game's design: from the visuals, the sounds and the atmosphere, it feels like the game has a chill, relaxing vibe to it, which could make the game feel like a cozy idle game to play to take a break, but it's gameplay, on the other hand, gets very chaotic and a stress-inducing with the need to decide where to direct the water to not make your leaves die... I don't know if this is a conscious design choice, aiming for the "don't let the relaxing vibe fool you" effect, but I think sticking with one between relaxing and chaotic gameplay may be a better choice, and obviously the relaxing aspect would be a better fit given the sound, atmosphere and visuals already being implemented. A quick way of making the game feel more cozy and relaxed in its gameplay too would be to add speed controls (or slow down the game directly, but speed controls would be a better fit), so that the player has time to think and relax.
I played the game without worrying about score and just growing my tree as much as possible, but I got stuck on level 8 and then I couldn't really get past that point (I guess I was not able to come up with a better tree design or strategy), so I couldn't really enjoy seeing my tree grow further with this relaxing playstyle in mind, but nonetheless I still had fun.
Good job on the game :D
Submitted
CARD DRAWThanks for such an extensive feedback.
All of the graphics were designed by this team's artist (only binocular is an exception, it's a free asset). 2 fonts are from Adobe on which she has licence, one is Unity's default).
ad 1. At the last minute i decided that branches locking in earlier were too punishing, and I didn't design a way to restart or revert growth so I decided to let player change branches according to the rules you exactly defined. I didn't have time to change hints accordingly.
ad 2. What I intended to leave as a text hint is that overshadowed leafed gather less sun. But also couldn't slip it in, also I was hoping that casted shadows will hit that enough. Those shadows however are also still not as fine-tuned, as I'd like them to be, since those shadows should add up and stack.
ad 2.b The sun bar is something I had a real issue designing because I still don't know how to present it clearly. What I did first was just a bar with scale [0 - currentGoal] but in that case when level requirements go up from say 15units to 18units you would see 15/15 change to 15/18 or 50/50 to 50/60. So basically the bar was always full. What you are seeing now is after a change (that was, again, done at the last minute) which makes the scale of bar go to [previousGoal - currentGoal] so when you hit 15/15 goal what you see next is 0/3 actually, because 15 is new baseline and its only 3 apart from next goal. This is why you may see 0 so often. I thought about extending the bar but I also don't think that would be good solution, because goals goes from 6 to >100. If you have any ideas how to do it better, I'd love to hear them.
ad 3. Heh, yeah... I expected it to be a reflex/action game, but the theme bound it to being more cozy. It's hard to imagine watching a tree grow being so intense, but here you have it ;D. The solution to this I think would be splitting game into 2 game modes, since free play can be really relaxing (I know that from tests of mechanics before game had any levels or goals). I made the levels with goals the main gameplay because i did't want to make 100% idle sandbox game - this wouldn't feel enough game-y to me.
You and other players being stuck at level 8 or so is yet another manifestation of last minute changes. There are 9 levels + one semi-infinte, but it appears I left one value in level design not reevaluated.
Again, thank you, I really appreciate your opinion.
A pretty neat idle-puzzle game! I only payed a while and couldn't figure things out though lol
I guess a bit of criticism would be have a bit of music and nicer visual/sound effects? But overall I think the gameplay is already pretty fleshed out, just needs a bit more polish
Submitted
Scoopers!Wasn't able to pass the 7th day, but this is a great, cute and relaxing idle game. The mechanics are very convincing, picking up some real life concept of the growing up of a tree.
Nice job, mate! :>
Submitted
Thermal TrailCool game! Quite confused at first, but when I got it, the game is cool! Nice idea! Try out my game BTW, let's rate each other game!
Submitted
You Carrot See ItHi, I played your game. At the start it looked like it will be boring, but later I enjoyed playing it. The only thing I would change would be the way you can control growing new branches. But very cool idea. (I would be grateful if you would try my game as well, even though it's not completed at all). Good luck on other game jams :).
Submitted
Weed Cutter
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