first impressions, the presentation is quite good, while the art isnt exactly the mona lisa, its good enough to show what it wants to show, and other than the art, the extra animations in the scene transitions and background are very nice.
besides the presentation the smaller features are also quite appreciated, especially in a game jam game, like a fully functional pause and settings menu!
now for the game, i REALLY WANTED TO BE INVESTED, as strategy games are quite my jam, and this one had a botanical spin on it, so i was a little invested going in, BUT, its just a few steps short of being an interesting strategy game.
as i tried playing the game i found that, the only way i could win was to spam the growth card from the first turn, until i could max out every plant which highlited two problems for me:
1. the RNG
2. the card limits
i cant say exactly how i would fix these problems but the randomized boards while they can provide a challenge, your hand size does not offer you enough options for you to be able to actually make any meaningful choices and, more importantly, actually win against those challenges.
and at the same time, if the intention was to have the limited hand, then the randomized boards make certain (if not most), layouts impossible to win against, where in this case it would probably have been better to make set level layouts that the player would have to figure out the solution to.
overall, the game does so much right and i really want to like it but the gameplay falls just short of success