there are a lotta ways i like how u structured the game
- i really liked the idea of a quota bc it encourages u to play at your own pace; often i found myself finishing a level and i was like hmmm i THINK I CAN DO MORE, I WILL DO MORE
- and it feels GOOD to get 23 points on a level with 12-point quota HAHA
- the different flower traits really make u think in a pleasant way, good on that. i like how they make you think about relative placement of water and other flowers
- i like how how u set up initial layout of the levels to introduce concepts like the waterfall mechanics
- it felt really organic way to learn the concepts and often gave me a starting idea of how to approach the puzzle
- all of the 6 out of 6 puzzles i played made me go like "AHA" or "...heheheheh i seee..." so thats really cool
control nitpicks
the controls felt a little clunky. i wonder if there's more visual feedback that could be given to give me more confidence in what i was doing as a player
- deleting: i did not know i could delete at first, and wish there was more visual feedback when i did delete
- placing: can be hard to see where placing a water because the water block covers the tile i am trying to place it on
- along with the current drag n drop system, would have been cool if i was able to first select the flower, and then select the tile to place it on
- rotating: i really wish i could rotate the water block before placing it. would feel SLICK
- clicking on placed flowers/tiles currently does nothing; it'd be cool for it to do something, whether that be to
- display the info for that thing,
- or display the actionable controls you can do on that thing,
- or rotate that selected thing,
the introduction
when reading the helpful tutorial text i was feeling "get on with it already, give me the real game!"
i wish the reading could have been spaced out while i was playing the first level, but that may have required a hearty tutorial system that was probably out of scope for this 7-day jam, lol.
- e.g. like maybe after placing a water tile, then the tutorial prompt shows up to tell me how I can rotate it?
if not for a more interactive tutorial, i would also consider having the respective key controls like "Q/E: Rotate" be just there in the first level, so I don't have to click the ❔repeatedly while player is still learning the controls
the systems
- very thought out,
- splendid,
- and i love how they build onto each other
i do also wanna say that my comments on the controls and introduction mainly apply to new player experience; by the 3rd level, i felt I knew enough and had gotten used to the controls to play and think smoothly.
all in all, oken probably has the most impressive gameplay, content, and "would play more"-ness of the handful of games I've played in this jam, so yippee to you! yipee!