itch.io

Thanks a lot, I'm really happy how well this game was received :)

I agree with your (and others') points. I think I will make 3 updates to this game as I want to keep this project rather small. 

1 - UI rehaul (I would prefer choosing what to build from a list of recipes and then placing it in proper slots in the world)

2 - fixing the mana gathering to avoid this dull waiting for the right mana moments

3 - content update with soft resets that allow you to keep meta upgrades.

Then it should be a complete experience I think

<3

Really well done!

- Art is a perfect example of "low-art but good looking" game. Everything fits together and sells the mood. Floating numbers and rolling score counter are also spot on.

- I liked the music with increasing intensity + SFX were very pleasant to my ear.

- Narrative elements hooked me in. I really wanted to learn about the system. Little text prompts were selling the vibe perfectly, especially that all menu's and even game description are kept within the lore. Awesome job. One thing I did lack was like an 'ending'. I finished a couple of soft-resets (got all upgrades until I had over 300 points to spend in shop and I didn't want to click 300x on the Trust upgrade lol). So I was waiting for the explanation of what this system really is and it never came. But that's also understandable in a limited time we're given during a game jam.

- Game was also really polished. Another example of 'less is more'. The graph was a cherry on top (although the signal graph was a bit buggy in my case - it was running crazy fast)

- As far as game design goes:

• Kudos for making the prestige system and both: active and passive play styles viable (and even encouraged)
• Popup descriptions were very handy. It was good idea to add them. That being said I still don't know what the 'signal' is for
• I think I had a bug where I had to hard reset the system during my first try, because clicks were not generating anything. I also had trouble finding the "click" button
• My biggest complain (that may come from a personal preference - I'm not a seasoned idle player) is lack of a sense of progression. Maybe that's the con of making a minimalistic game? In principle the only thing that changed during my playthrough was the number in the middle (and pace at which it was changing). Nothing else was added - no more options in the system to explore, no story progression... I get the idea behind 'numbers go up' but in idle games I'm familiar with it is usually coupled with other visual elements (new buildings appear, there are more characters on screen, some processes are automated and happen faster or whatever). I missed the 'reason' for making the number larger and larger.

oooooh it's a 3d tile map? Dang... I have no experience with that. I thought it's 2d map on top of 3D iles. I feel like there should be a known solution to that problem :D

Anywas - I will look forward to your updates! The premise is really cool!

Congrats of submitting the game! :) It is a bit bare bones concept so not that easy to rate. But I like the premise, gives a bit a of tycoon-like games vibe which is a good fit for an idle theme. I found it hard to force the intended direction when placing the track. Did you use Tilemap node? I feel like autotiles should solve that issue for you.

Pretty game and a pretty cool idea! :D

The art definitely stands out. I like how butterflies look like and how they navigate towards flowers. Making the wing flapping effect by changing the shade of pixels was super clever and looks awesome!  (BTW - what was the name of background asset pack? I think I would like to use it maybe with a bit of a twist at some point :D).

My biggest problem was figuring out how to increase the yield (which is imo the core of idle/clicker games). I cut down the intrusive plants, got most of the ground covered with the yellow plants and that gave me ~+20 NC/s plus whatever butterflies gave when landing on flowers (it's a pity I didn't get a feedback on how much NC butterflies yield). I wasn't sure if I should cut down dried out plants for the majority of my run (did they pop their seeds already? Much later on I figured out I actually have to cut down dried out plants).  In principle I couldn't get past the 20NC/s threshold. I also didn't particularly like the fact that the yield got worse over time when I didn't attend the garden (but that's maybe because I was expecting more of an idle game rather than a clicker, so that comment may be fully disregarded :D). I also don't know why the same butterflies were worth ~30 at the beginning and ~150 towards the end of a run. What did I do to bring their value up?
 
Gameplay wise I also did not like that there's butterfly identification cooldown. On one hand the game is more of a clicker game, forcing me to be active while attending the garden. On the other it forces me to be idle because I can catch only 5 butterflies and then I have to wait for 90s or so. But the butterfly-catching minigame was fun! I wish there was more species but it's fully understandable that jam games are limited content-wise ;)

I also really missed the music. Even a simple lo-fi beat would add sooooo much to the overall feeling of cozy butterfly garden. But SFX were good!

There were some small issues that had impact on my gameplay:
1. I didn't win after catching the blue butterfly
2. Blue flowers gave me +5 when pollinated by butterflies, while yellow ones gave me +10. That was NOT expected given price difference between packs ;)
3. UI fell apart a bit on my end - I couldn't see other emails, text was falling out of the designated boxes. When on full screen I couldn't see the bottom panel with tools so I had to play in a windowed mode
4. I've got +105NC for a blue butterfly but +155 for a yellow one? What's up with the rarity then? ;)
5. I couldn't cut down leaves from the tree, nor buy them nor I saw any butterflies landing there. Maybe it's just not implemented yet.

While these comments may sound negative, please keep in mind that these are all solvable issues! The core of the game is unique, has it's charm and I think that with a bit more time this game would reach it's potential ;) And once again - the implemented system of butterflies wandering and landing of flowers is super satisfying to watch!

Ok, it is really hard for me to rate this game as it is like no other :D So first and foremost - congrats on completing this project! It's huge, especially if you take into account how much content you created! I ended my run with 12 trinkets collected :) Please find my 'review' below:

Music design

• Definitely the best executed part of the game. Creating music that does not bore the player during a long run is not an easy task and you made it work!
• Bonus points for making the music intensity reflect various events that happen during the playthrough. That was awesome experience :)
• SFX blips and pings are also pleasant.
  

Art

• Definitely unique, makes the game stand out. Art direction is a plus.
• I liked that textures scale with y-axis, creating this illusion of depth. Great idea, although the scale factor could be tuned as I felt the perspective is way too off.
• The biggest downside is that screen becomes cluttered. All elements lack clear distinction/separation and blend together too much. Screen becomes just a mix of similar colors 
• Also mixing a scale of textures is typically not a good idea (e.g.the 'grain' in the island's texture is much larger that the one of some plants. This makes it feel like these objects do not belong together). It's important to keep the art consistent style-wise (which you achieved) but also technical-wise (which I lacked here)

Narrative

• I definitely feel that there is a deep lore/story hidden in this island
• BUT I got lost in all the bits of information that were thrown at me. As a player I didn't feel like I was guided through the story well enough which made me not engaged in it as much I think I should be. 

Game design

• I liked all the popups that were guiding me to different parts of the UI. That's a good start.
• Introducing different upgrades one by one is also a good thing. I wasn't lost in options I had.
• But I was definitely lost in terms of 'what to do next'. 
• Things were 'just happening', I didn't feel like I was triggering certain events.
• Some 'barks' were like "try different options" while other "listen to the music". I don't know if these serve as a gameplay hint or just as something that highlights the mood.
• After I got 12 trinkets I had quite a long time where nothing was happening and I had no idea how I could improve my situation
• I think that what makes a game a game is that player action -> in-game consequence relation. I lacked that here. I could place more wanderers but they would still get trinkets at random. I used hope to create more things but I'm not sure if these serve a purpose other that decorative. I forgot what inspiration does at all. 

Haha, great idea! 

What I liked the most:

• vibe of the game
• game loop (grind - upgrade - grind - reset - upgrade more and grind better. 10/10 idle game design)
• with a couple of upgrades you start getting this neat idle tick
• while art was super minimal, it was selling the heavy vibe of it support well

Some obvious parts that I miss (probably due to time constraints):

• Music and SFX
• Content variety (I was running across like 3 emails or so with the same order of answers - I think this is a good example where LLM could help with generation of content in a short time frame.
• player's feedback (e.g. I was never informed if I sent the email with all right answers, was it fast enough, was manager getting happier or not, how much did I earn this day etc. Some flowing numbers and/or particles would go a long way here)

Other ideas

• I would love to see some curve-balls from time to time (e.g. similar e-mail but a bit different answers so I am not running on an auto pilot all the time).
• Once you change the job it would be awesome to have a different set of issues coming into my email. The I would have to 'learn' the right answers from the beginning when switching jobs, making it a trade-off scenario (I get a nice cash out but I will need to focus more for a first few days at the new job)
• I would like to see more emails per day, so I feel pressured as an IT help desk consultant.
• I would love to see more idle upgrades. Crypto farm clearly outperforms my day job. If I had to answer way more emails per day I could see some idle upgrades that would automate my tasks somehow.

Haha it's not a coincidence! :D 

hey. Thanks for the comment! It's really nice to hear all the good impressions you had! :) 

Yeah, some kind of time indicator should be there! I was trying to convey the time-left with the increase of music intensity but it's definitely not clear during the first couple of sessions.

Looking forward to play our game as well! Will give it a shot after the weekend once I'm back home! ;)

yay thanks a lot for the kind comment! :) don't want to promise a specific timeline but I think I'll improve upon the game in the future ;)

Hey, thanks for the remarks, these are really good ideas!

I'm really happy that you picked up the lore - I like to throw in a bit of background story in my games. So a fun fact - a demiurge was originally a good entity (in Platon's view) that is like a god-craftsman/creator being. Then it was skewed towards an evil being that does not care about the world it created (maybe due to Christian views, where the God should take an active participation in the world's/humanity existence).

Anyways - glad you liked it! And the "great flood" idea is awesome!!!

Oh yeah, sorry about the bugs.

It is a game jam entry so I didn't have time to polish everything as much as I would like to... Will come back to fix those things once the jam's voting period ends. Thanks for reporting the issues! :)

Haha thanks for pointing that out! 

Since it was a game jam game I couldn't nail down the balance in the limited time I had. Will come back to fix those things once the jam's voting period ends. 

I'm glad you liked it tho! It means a lot ;)

Hover over the tiles that are above the ground - it should show you a list of available things to build. Click on them to build. If anything is grayed out it means you cant afford it yet - go back and get more essence ;) try to focus on getting water and earth at the beginning with a bit of fire mixed in. It will get you going.

Thanks a lot for the comment, im glad you liked it! I really appreciate that you tried it out and shared your thoughts. You are definietly not slow  on the barrier - Zack had the same issue in his stream and made a good point about adding different SFX when enemy is hit and when barrier absorbs the dmg. Also some VFX to show when barrier is on and then it's being broken.

We also want to redesign the cauldron a bit and make it more of a spell upgrade mechanic rather than a spell-from-scratch one. I believe it will help to keep a better game pacing, will help new players learning the game, ensure that each spell is unique and make the world map choices more relevant. So in our heads it's a win-win-win-win idea :D If you want to be notified about the update I suggest joining our discord https://discord.gg/jBfrC8yq :)

Thanks for the feedback!

oooh, now I see the broader picture! So "Don't Starve but Roguelike" is huuuuge idea! Now you got me really curious how it's gonna turn out! 

It will take some time amd playtesting to nail pacing down. It's also something you don't typically do at the beginning because every future change will throw your balance off again and again. So don't worry - it was a general comment for the future consideration. I think this game is already packed for a game jam project! ;)

I'm not particularly into physics-based/puzzle games but still managed to yoink 44 coins! :D

I particularly liked your level design - new elements were introduced one by one, allowing me to get familiar with different mechanics one by one. Adding checkpoints was also a very good idea, although I think that sometimes the velocity vector is not zeroed after respawn (i.e. respawned ball moves in some direction from the get go).

One thing I had trouble with was controls - I often forgot where is "up" and where is "left". But it will always be an issue with isometric view and WSAD controls...
Overall a very solid prototype/base for a game!

Great work! You managed to implement a lot of different features in such a short time span - impressive!

What stood out to me:

• Music and SFX (!): didn't get boring throughout my gameplay, set the right mood, SFX also felt very responsive.
• Artstyle felt very consistent - both on UI and gameplay side. While being super simple, I liked that a) day-night cycle was clearly indicating how much time I have left, important pickups were glowing and motivating me to try and get them, enemy attack animations had clear indication phase which was super important to nail these rolls. 

What were the weakest point in my view:

• The game progressed too fast at the beginning. I didn't have time to explore surroundings nor think about different recipes/components I could combine. I felt like I have to already know exactly what I have to do to progress further. When I think of Don't Starve - they didn't introduce hounds (or whatever was actively attacking you) by night 4 or 7 (can't remember). The point is - player had a bit of time to prepare in advance and explore what's around. Here I must really quickly gear up and get ready as the first night proved to be lethal in my first 3 attempts :D
• Day/night progressed too fast in my view. I didn't have much time during the day to gather my thoughts. Night also progressed so fast that by avoiding enemies I had the highest chance of surviving.
• I lacked the clear goal. It's connected to the two points above - I didn't have time to explore surroundings to get familiar with a closed portal nor the vendor. But also a little bit of guidance would help a lot in my case (as an example think of a dropped note to self that tells you that you have to find a way out of there OR survive as long as possible OR find something specific). I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to defend by fireplace or run as fast as I can so the creatures won't get me.

In the end I managed to get to the giant scorpion which wrecked me without questions asked :D This game gives me Don't Starve vibes which is both a compliment (the vibe is great and I see a potential!) but also a warning (at the moment it falls too close to DS - I would love to see some unique elements that are not present in similar titles). I'm really interested in what post-game-jam dev will bring to the table! :)

On the second playthrough I got the "Goodnight, Nightmare!" ending... GOD! Was not expecting to feel so crushed and cold by a 2-minute game! Really good job - evoking such a feeling with such scarce assets!

haha exactly :D thanks for trying it out! 

Ah yes... this is a known issue. We will look into it in the future, sorry for the inconvenience! (although clicking too fast in game jams builds is like asking for troubles, lol :D)
Anyway - congrats on beating the game and thanks for the comment! Keep an eye for updates, we will shake things a bit so the experience (strategy-wise) will be deeper :)

thanks for trying out our game! :) 

Yup, the earlier waves are easier so players can get a grasp on different mechanics. But the game is definietly beatable! (At last by me :D)

Hey, thanks for playing and for the feedback!

The game definitely lacks the self-explanotary factor (which takes time). For instance - you CAN level up you devs. By hiring the same dev that is already on your team you add up stars to their portrait. Collect 3 stars and you'll level up Junior to Mid or Mid to Senior. It's explained in the Manual but who in their sanity would actually read that lol :D

Beside that - what kind of features/game mechanics would you like to see in the full release of such a game?  Do you have any ideas?

One more thing. Your comment about board games - this is the niche that I really enjoy (like taking designs from board games and enhancing it with advantages that computers provide i.e. automated rng and numbers crunching, easier balancing, additional layers od experience like VFX and SFX). So I feel flattered by this comparison as I see my future self specializing in this kind of game design! Thanks!

Thanks for giving it a second chance! :)

And for the feedback as well! Actually these are things that are in my backlog, I didn't have time to finish it yet :D That's also a valuable lesson for me - I thought I am able to estimate time effort for the project more accurately. And that's reflected in the quality of tutorial and the lack of items that affect your gameplay. Lesson learned! :D

And yes, it was done in Godot (even though I could SWEAR I changed the icon to a non-generic one, lol)

Just to make it clear - I think that the puzzles that you designed are very good! It's not trivial to make such a level that it feels natural but has only one way to solve it (which is not obvious from the get go). It's just the fact that if you make them one-by-one it starts to become overwhelming. Players need some room to breathe (I believe Zack talked about it in one of the episodes... maybe the one about pacing? I'm not sure).

I also understand what you say about the tweaks. On one hand - I'm on your girlfriend's side on this one. Dropping by 2 to be lifted by 4 was not intuitive and felt more like an issue than a deliberate feature. On the other hand - yes. Changing this rule would require you to redesign your levels. I guess that's a bit of a drawback of puzzle games  - level design is tightly coupled to game mechanics. That being said - maybe correct process of developing such a game is to get extensive (and I mean EXTENSIVE) feedback and playtests on core game mechanics (is it fun to begin with) before you design more than a handful of levels? I don't know, just thinking out loud.

And don't be sorry for making me feel dumb. This is something I need to live with :D (By saying that I wanted to emphasize that with puzzle games you typically aim to evoke feeling of accomplishment... yet, paradoxically, if puzzle is challenging you can evoke frustration instead. On the other hand you can evoke boredom if there is little to no challenge... I guess it's a tough nut to crack! And you did amazing job, especially that the most feedback for you game was related to mechanics or visuals rather than level design!)

Anyways - to answer your questions.
Yes, I did use the help button and I found it helpful. I liked that the help was a clue rather than a level walkthrough.

I did not click the "watch tutorial" button, sorry :D Mostly because I felt like clicking the second button and getting 1 life back was faster.

Woah! It's really challenging! I was surprised how much! :D
Simple rules, very good level design, beautiful art style... It's outstandingly mature submission for a game jam! Made it to the second world!

What I was lacking:
- some cozy music in the background, maybe some wind blowing sounds... Other than that SFX is in place!

What I think you could work out better for a full release:
- It's very challenging and I didn't have any breaks between levels. I completed first world and felt genuine exhaustion.
- I like the challenge in game, but got frustrated at 1-10. When I finally figured it out I didn't feel accomplished - I felt rather "oh God, it was so simple.. what a stupid level" kind of feeling (which was of course reflection of myself :D) THE POINT IS - It most likely means that this game is too hard for younger audience (which could be targeted by looking at graphics).
- By looking at color palette and the miniature I expected a really chilled-out experience. I wanted to relax after work. Well... It wasn't really relaxing :D So there's a dissonance... Don't take me wrong - I think that the level design is brilliant and these are great puzzles that this game needs... Maybe letting a player just enjoy flying for a couple of beginning levels (or in-between harder puzzles... or in a separate mode like Easy mode) would be a good idea? For instance I felt satisfied when I managed to get height of 6 (woah! I can do that!) - it's funny that it's one of the stronger memories that stayed with me after playing this game.

All of above could be resolved to some extent with e.g. levels with more than one route to complete... just so the player (i.e. I) do not feel stupid all the time ;)

Congrats on finishing your game!

I really liked those explosion effects and the boss fights! Also some details added a nice depth (ambient lights, this ceiling fan shade - cool!)

What I find worth improving are:
- Game pace. I felt like it was very slow for an action shooter game. I'd like to everything be twice as fast. It is also connected to the corridor sizes - you have quite a long breaks between fights, which makes this game a bit less intense.
- Art consistency - those semi-transparent blood puddles looked much better than gradient ones. Some assets looked like out of place. Also - there was a bit of jittering, especially at wall edges when moving
- Keyboard and mouse controls - I don't have a pad for my PC :)
- Uniqueness - maybe it's my personal preference, but I really enjoy when a game brings something new to the table. This one feels a bit generic (although I'm sure it could stand out after some work  - the mood is good!)

Overall - even if the game is basic, it is complete - with art, gameplay and audio components. Good job!

Thanks for the comment - I didn't have time to get all the Apple certificates for Mac build, nor to optimize the game for a web-build. During tests the web build loading times were awfully long - after Jam is over I will make it work in browser for sure!

Thanks for trying out the game :)
I know the game is missing a proper tutorial - you can hit the TAB button to view rule book with different tabs.

Did you add (drag-and-dropped) hired devs to proper projects? Make sure to assign devs with high GFX stat to Graphics, devs with high GPL stat to Gameplay and GFL to Game feel. Then - after hitting ROLL - your fate will be decided by dice :D
- If you hit required number of 4+ rolls - you will level up given game component.
- Remember that your overall game quality is dictated by the LOWEST quality of game components. I.e. you need to level up all 3 components to at least Prototype so that your game will be received as a Prototype.

Game is a bit complicated at the beginning but once you get a grasp on core rules you can try to actually beat it (although it is a fair challenge!). I encourage you to give it another shot! :)