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Hey! Thank you so much for your lovely feedback and all your suggestions!

Seeing your screenshot and all those plants really made my day 😄 I don’t think anyone has played that long yet. Night 100 - that’s crazy!
I actually saw your comment the day you posted it, but didn’t have time to respond (mine got a bit long - so apologies!).

Crashes:

I looked into it a bit, and it seems like the Intel UHD Graphics 620 is a fairly low-end GPU? I’m not sure if that should be a problem in itself, but maybe something like the volumetric fog I used is more performance-hungry than expected.

Honestly, technical issues like that scare me a bit, because I’m not entirely sure how to prevent them in the future. I really want everyone to be able to play my games!

My best idea so far for future development is to implement a screen before the game starts with some basic graphics settings, so players can adjust things in case something causes issues.

Development:

As you may or may not know, I had just one month to make this for a game jam.
I’m currently working on a post-jam version with small improvements and additions (I just added controller support and an options menu).

After that, I'll expand the concept into a proper vertical slice - so your feedback is really appreciated.

Shovel visibility:

The idea was for players to discover the dryad first, and then “stumble” upon the shovel nearby. That's why it's a little hidden, but I agree, the shovel blends in a bit too well.
I’ll add a sparkle effect after the first interaction with the sleeping dryad to guide players more clearly.

Lavender seed drop rate:

Padding the gameplay wasn’t actually my intention — I was honestly surprised by how long the game turned out to be.
It works like this: every mouse hole spawns a seed during a specific moon phase, but as a player, you can't really tell.

I agree that the beginning feels slow. I’ll probably keep it that way for the post-jam version to stay close to the original, but in future versions I want the start to be more engaging.
I could increase the drop rates, but then players might have too many seeds and not enough energy/water(?). So it’s a matter of which “problem” feels better to play with.

Or maybe just add more mouse holes in different locations.

Shortcuts:

I thought about using the mouse holes as a fast travel mechanic! At least for that one moment when the special moon appears and makes you tiny.

I think it would be a fun and rewarding little secret, especially since you can get two extra lavender seeds pretty early this way.

Failure messages:

The feedback on failed interactions is definitely lacking.
Right now, each interaction has only one fail state, but sometimes multiple conditions are checked, which causes unclear messages.
That bugged me too, but I had to move on due to time constraints.

It should be easy to refactor, and I’ll definitely add that in the post-jam version.

Getting stuck:

I’ve experienced that too, but for now, I figured reloading is an easy enough fix (like you did).
It’s caused by scaling the player, which messes with the collision shape. This is actually something the Godot docs warn about, but it was the quickest and easiest way to implement it.

I’ll fix it by toggling between different hitboxes and adjusting the camera height accordingly.

Nightmare messages:

These were meant to be randomized quotes referencing other games (like Malenia from Elden Ring, who also talks about dreams).
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to implement them, though it wouldn’t have been a huge task.
I’ve already written out quite a few and will add them in the post-jam version.

Long-term, I’d love to include dreamlike scenes where the player reflects on recent events (planting the first seed, meeting a dryad, etc.) in a subtle, non-intrusive way.

Voice acting:

I’d like to add at least “letter sounds” like in Animal Crossing or Celeste, but more gentle.
Another idea is voice cues, like in Zelda (“ah”, “hmm”, “oh” sounds that reflect mood).

Music:

I wanted to give certain areas their own music, but I simply ran out of time. Instead, I went with ambient sounds to at least keep it from feeling too stale.

As for sound effects, I thought no sfx was better than something rushed or annoying. The most jarring for me is the bomb having no sound.

I’m not sure if I’ll add them to the post-jam version, but they’re definitely a priority for the future vertical slice.

Dryad animations:

For the vertical slice, I absolutely want to add more animations.

For the post-jam version, a small touch I’m planning is having Pyra and Ayla close their eyes and place their hands next to their ears during the final cutscene (as if they’re listening to the music).

Alternate endings:

At the very least, I'll add extra dialogue if you try to give the flute to Pyra or Ayla. A few people actually tried this. One even refused to give it to Syll (the first dryad) because she was too mean (lol).

Originally, I wanted each dryad to have her own instrument, which you’d find in the second cave. They would play together to ward off an enemy (more on that later).

Dryad interactions:

I definitely think there’s room for more dialogue and interactions with the dryads.

I like the idea of a simple friendship system where you do little favors for them, as you described.
Planting seeds and bringing the dryads’ areas back to life is something I also had in mind — just like you!

Future plans:

This wasn’t part of your suggestions, but I originally intended to include enemies that spawn during specific moon phases. So you’d need to defend the dryads and bring peace to the forest. I think this would also add a bit of urgency and purpose to the beginning, and make the gameplay more engaging.

Technically, I also want to add more verticality to the world. Right now, the whole grid system is flat, but I’d love for players to reach higher areas (using a special plant that grows like a ladder, for example). Of course, there are a lot more things I want to add and change. I'm really looking forward to it!

Thanks again for spending so much time with my game and leaving such great feedback!

I could really tell you engaged with it — and I truly appreciate that!