i was very excited going into this and the game did live up to expectations. 6 videos, 5 of them being post game jam had my expectations through the roof, and i was not disappointed. the game is so great and i love to see you go back after the game jam to polish it into the great game it is now.
i didnt understand nodes at first and was confused why my production wasnt increasing from me making one long root. but once i got the hang of the game i got hooked and went overboard. the win condition is a 400/400/60 fruit. i currently have 2300/4680/0 and counting. yeah kinda went a bit overboard on production and storage.
did start to notice the game having issues with that. first of all going above 1000 of a resource will make the last digit fall down a row, so i constantly have a 0 in the storage bars. also those neat little black lines that separate your storage into fractions start getting out of hand the higher storage you have. then at 2300 something strange happens. all the lines are gone. what i think has happened: the game started compressing so many lines, that they started merging into one, as they got too small for the game to recognize. but the lines didnt just disappear, they started merging with the storages color, turning it darker. like at a certain point the black lines gave way. the original storages color turned into the lines and a new darker color, i assume a merge of the black lines and the original storage color, took over as the storages color. the lines then went in reverse, decreasing in number, until none were left and the original color was gone. this cycle repeats every 2300 storage and will seemingly keep turning the storages color darker, until it eventually becomes black. now im not crazy enough to do that, but id guess it happens at around 15000 storage.
broo sunlight boosting leaves and nodes is such a cool detail. idk why it took me so long to realize.
light criticism, but flowers dont say, that the increase pollen storage by 10. now there is nothing else that increases pollen storage and they are the only thing related to pollen so its kinda the only thing you would try to increase pollen storage, but still.
another small issue i have is water production. energy gets nodes and then leaves. water production only gets nodes. now there are water bubbles, but they act like sunlight, which energy production has. it is also worse, as water bubbles are limited in number and only last for a short time. an idea would be to have them periodically spawn in in a wide radius to encourage making a wide root network to catch them. right now the best root network is a straight line with a bunch of nodes on it. but hey, im begging for increased water production while sitting on over 4000 water with +50-100 water production at most times.
the sound design is so nice and the music is great. transitioning between underground and above ground music is such a nice touch. thank god for the slider though, as i put that to the lowest possible setting. my volume is set at normal and yet anything above the lowest setting is too loud.
why there is an option to not toggle fullscreen idk. it was literally unplayable without fullscreen for me. the storages were off screen and so was the information on the different growths.
the hotkeys were amazing options. they made expanding so fluid, it was so relaxing to use them.
the screenshot option at the end is nice, though sadly the game cant zoom out enough to capture my plants full glory., i.e. a water storage root about 3x as long as the screen can zoom out storing 7280 water. also i couldnt find the screenshot so rip.
and then i thought of something: "hey what if i make a cursed plant that has roots above ground and leaves below ground. im sure he hasnt thought of stopping me from doing that"... you did. cant grow stems below the ground. but then i tried it with roots. i was expecting the same error message of not being able to grow roots above ground, but the game let me. and then i realized: " oh my god you can grow a second plant" its obvious in hindsight that that could be possible, but that blew my mind, that the game recognized what i was doing and switched from roots to stems. now it is a bit wonky, as as soon as a root goes above ground, the entire root turns into a stem, even the below ground parts. the nodes dont though, or else the below ground plant could have become a reality. it does create the cursed stem with root nodes though and does allow for stems to be below the surface.
all in all a great game. this was so much fun to play. the gameplay felt smooth and there was lots to do. the fruit is easy to get, but that is pretty much a side objective. the real fun comes from making the plant.