I got it! And I got the ending! So, it's much easier to activate if you click the item and click what you want to interact with. (Click Key, then Click the Lock.) From the description of "double click," I thought it meant double click the item (click twice) while standing in front of what you wanted to interact with.
Thank you for the game! The visuals are nice, and I liked the mixture of beautiful aesthetic/imagery with grotesque (the flower disease, for example! and the description of how the flowers were overtaking one's body + the pain). I look forward to the full game, and learning more about the disease, the world, and what happened to the village. (I'm very curious!) Thanks for the experience!
(Some bugs: After leaving the lab after getting all the items, there's another lamp again in the map. But you can't interact with it.)
AHH I'm so glad you got the ending and enjoyed the visuals!! : D We really wanted to make a twist on the standard grimy horror RPG games and turn it into something visually aesthetic, which was quite a challenge. Also thanks for the feedback! The clarity of the initial tutorial is definitely something we need to change, especially to differentiate between double clicking and clicking the item then the environment. We would really like to explore the story further and update the game after the contest as well :>
I think you guys succeeded! It is visually pleasing, and one reason Everbloom caught my eye was the nice art. But I stayed because the world and the story was interesting. It's also interesting to learn that the Main Character, Aster, is a coward. I want to know more about what he's running away from, what is it in the past that he's trying to leave behind, and more about the world of Everbloom. Not just more about the disease, but the characters + the world itself. Why did the world turn its back to the village? What is Aster's and Iris' significance to the flower disease? Etc.! The more I play, the more questions I get (even if we learn more information!). I like that about Everbloom. It makes one curious, and makes one think to try to speculate what happened and such. (I hope you don't mind the constant messages! I just liked it a lot! ; w ; ) Congratulations to the Everbloom team! And good luck with the contest! (Also yeah! I think a little more clarification for how to use items would help a lot!) I'm excited + looking forward to the final game!
A note that we actually have a lot of optional flavour items in the game that supplement the story, they're just very easily missable ;;
Hopefully in future builds we'll be able to add clarity to what is interactable and not, which should also help gameplay quite a bit!
Anyways, thanks for playing the game! We had a lot of fun making it, so we're glad you enjoyed it despite the issues you ran into.
Oh! I think I got them! [SPOILERS AHEAD] I just meant I'd like to learn more in-depth in the full game! I want to meet his parents to see what they look like, meet his uncle, and meet the other child! (There's Aster + Iris, and from the text I'm believing there's probably a third...? ) I want to know what his past life was like, learn more about his friendship with Iris when they were kids, and etc.! And ofc, more about the flower disease. (I know they were experimenting with it in the lab, and they brought it in the test with mice. But I'd like to learn more!) Also, I liked the ending: An unknown carrier of the disease leaving to try to survive, and unknowingly spreading it to the rest of the world. I can't wait to see it more fleshed out in the final game! (Also yes! I think knowing what to interact with would help! Also making some entrances/doors a bit easier? Like, knowing what's a door/what's another way through. The first time I played, I kept trying to go to the right of the first map, not knowing I had to go down on the white spot. And in the lab, I didn't notice the bottom left door. Just making it a bit more noticeable would be good!) Overall, the game has a lot of potential and I like the world already!