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In depth feedback! That's just exactly something we need now! We're thinking about updating our game to a post-jam version after the rating period, and your in depth feedback would be extremely helpful!

Our game: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4924289

The characters are so cute and the music is so fun! I have really a good time playing this game.

Just the interactions are not quite intuitive to me and it would be nice if updated in later versions. Some people have already said in their reviews. And as for me, since I'm the kind of person who don't quite read instructions in advance, not untill I'm stuck and can't find a way myself. So when I met the first dialogue, and found the space bar, the enter key, and left-click the dialogue box all didn't work, with the lack of audio in that scene, I thought it must be something wrong with my web so it's not loaded properly. After Ctrl R and re-enter the game three times and found it keeps happening. I read the tutorial and realise I should press E instead of Space bar or Enter key or simply left-click the dialogue box to continue the dialogue, which seems not that intuitive to me.

Also, I personally think it would be better if there're some sound effects when characters are speaking, and the text in dialogue shown word by word or character by character instead of the whole paragraph all shown at once, since the character avatar's all have very cute animations of talking, so the dialogue and the sound effects all have a hint of talking might be more consistence and more intuitive and more fun. And maybe help the players to be more concentrated while reading those really long paragraphs.

And something about the pause menu. It's very intuitive to use Ecs key as the pause menu. However, in WebGL build, press the Ecs key will also result in exit of fullscreen mode. I personally prefer play WebGL games in windowed mode so this won't happen but the font size of the dialogue text in this game is not quite big enough for short sighted person like me, so though start with windowed mode, I quickly turn into full screen mode, and accidentally exit fullscreen when I try to call pause menu a couple of times. I think it might be better if there's also a pause menu icon in HUD so that players who use fullscreen mode can click without having to press esc key which will accidentally exit full screen mode and may interupt the immersive experience.

Overall a very good entry, and I'm really looking forward your post-jam version.

Our bad, lack of instructions, will update after the rating period. Try start with default plastic pot and default 50/50 soil, and move the cuttings to where the soil can be just half wet.

A semi professional house plant killer got a flower? That's really realistic! XD 

Welcome back at any time when you are in the mood of some flowers :D

I think it would be a very bad game if someone have to have real life gardening knowledge to play a gardening sim game hahaha :( I prefer to believe that your girlfriend have a profound sensitivity to intuit the unspokens. That's why she knows how to take care of plants very very well in real life. Plants can't talk, unlike people, they can't come to us saying hey let's talk when they are drowning or in desperate need of water. That's also why she play this game so well, with me failed to write a proper manual. 

We do have some visual clue about the light level though. Aside from the curtains above (no curtain vs. thin curtain vs. thick curtain), when we place the plant in the darkest place, under the thickest curtain, we'll see the whole plant become a little bit darker, as if it's in the shadow. But I guess it's not visually obvious enough so people are very likely to miss it. Maybe change it much more darker? And I guess it's probably better if we make the other two places' sunlight level visually different as well. And maybe add some direct descriptions, like different numbers of water icons on each place with different sunlight value, showing they comsume different amount of water.

Besides places with different sunlight value, every changing visual element in this game also matters to the soil moisture thus affect a plant's survival: the weather, the pot, and the soil formula. I think it's probably everything's all mixed up at once at the beginning so it's hard for people to figure out which one causes what. I'm thinking about maybe lock some choices at first, unlock them after survive the first winter, but I personally don't quite like the idea of making people have less choices in hands. So maybe learn from some classic games like two point series or so, make a level by level unlock mode, aside from the sandbox mode?

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback, that's exactly what I needed to know. I'm the kind of person who don't quite read instructions myself, instead, I like testing things out. So when it comes to me to write a manual, I always have no idea where to start. (T_T) 

It's a great idea to start from one info, and then one by one more. Actually that's something I was trying to do (and failed). If we choose the default beginner friendly plastic pot, and then the default soil fomula which gets dry in a moderate rate, then the only thing that would determin a cutting's life or death in the first 5 turns' summer is only the different places with different sunlight levels. After that, in the 6th turn when autumn comes, we'll meet the second factor, the weather. It will affect the soil moisture as well, but that can also be adjusting through simply place the plant at a different place with a different sunlight level. And after sucessfully survive to the first winter, and maybe see one or two colors of flowers. If we'd like to see more flowers in certain colors, and we know in order to achieve that, we'll have to put them in certain sunlight level without killing them, we need now begin to try out the combinations of different pots and different soils that can make them both survive and thrive, in a certain color, at a certain place of a certain sunlight level.

The tricky part for me is, I just don't know how to write it simple and clear in the manual, or even better, make it intuitively known by people without having to read a manual. I tried but it just dosen't seem to work. Thank you so much for your suggestions, I think I'll probablly try start with a vague instruction about places and sunlight levels, how they would affect the soil moisture, and how too dry or too wet soil would kill a plant. Maybe start with certain numbers of sun icons and water icons on each place to put the plant. And make soil moisture level be seen through both visual clue and some text descriptions using the magnifying glass tool. And maybe some warning tips about how too dry or too wet soil may make a plant sick and wilt move it to some place else through a popup when the leaves turn yellow for the first time. We may think it through during the rating period and try update the game after that to see how it works. Thank you so much for your constructive advices, would be very appreciated if there's more feedbacks in future.

Congrats! And thank you so much for your feedback. It's great to hear you really enjoy this game.

There're seven colors of flowers in total, from the warmest red to the coldest blue, based on the places with different sunlight value you put them. More time under the direct sunlight, the warmer, more time in the shadow, the colder. For a while I was thinking of making it twenty-one so that each and every choice one made would make a difference. But then it occured to me that downsize it to seven would be better, 'cause in this case, some survival choices one have to make won't inevitably change their preferable color of the flowers.

It's not you doing anything wrong, but the game's lack of instructions. I'm horrible at writing instructions cause I rarely read instructions myself. I just try out things with intuition (which turn out to be wrong many times though T_T). So when it comes to write one, I always have no idea where to start. I wish I can make the infos to be received intuitively by people without having to read instructions, but I always fail. However, a very good thing about games and game prototype making is, there's no real price to be paid, no real cutting gets hurt when doing trials and errors, we can try as many rounds as we like, think as longer as we need, to figure things out. 

Really apprieciate your feedback, wish you can find your favorate flower :D

Yeah, the artist I work with is extremely talented, I adore her art as well. And thank you so much for your feedback about the instructions, would definitely add some in future. 

And also thank you for the feedback about text color, I didn't realise it untill submit, maybe it's because I always turn the the system's night light on. XD We have changed the text color now, and would update if after the rating period.

You're a very lucky guy to have a girlfriend who knows how to love and care a plant. I rarely envy people, but I do envy you. XD

And thank you for your feedback about the mechanics might be too realistic and the plant maybe too easy to die. Think we should add a soil moisture status tooltip on the magnifying glass tool, so that people don't have to know its importance until the plant's death.

Really appreciate your love to this game. And thank you so much for your words, that's something I never expected. 

I was quite sentimental before making this game. Then I put myself in this busy busy game making week. I thought I made a calm game, I felt calm designing mechanics and writing codes, like I always do. Never thought someone would see it, and felt the same sentimental while playing. You yourself trully have a very beautiful soul, incredibly empathetic, and incredibly good. I did't even realise I was still sentimental myself, not after the jam began, I thought it was over, but that's not true. Now with your words, it's all back, washing over me. 

I'm so lucky to have you playing this game, and your words really means a lot to me. It's a fortune to have a chance to know myself better, knowing what's deep in my heart, knowing that I still care.

When I submitted my entry and saw this game on the front page, I thought I should definately try this, it looks like a fun game that I would really enjoy. And now I know I was right.

The concept is so genius, remind me of the Crusader Kings series. In the way of beating the game, you get a clue why ridiculous things may happen. 

Great idea, and excellent implementation. By far the best entry I ever played in this jam.

The building process is super relaxing and fun. I spent quite a while to figure out I need to use the drill instead of line up things perfectly though. And I didn't realise there is a manual untill I'm kind of stuck on level 5. Good news, I'm not misleading by the instructions, I didn't realize it exists! XD

Yeah, every now and then, from the place where the wolf is located from the dog, there's a deliberately queit but still heavy breath, just heavy enough to give it's direction away. I think it will change the whole gameplay strategy as well. Before that I would try to herd the sheeps in one direction, to the pen. Now I'd herd them in all directions first so as to find out the wolf, and then herd them all together to the pen. Glad to see you'll try to implement it. Can't wait to play that! And yes, dogs are the best!

Attracted by the dog image on the cover and then found myself spend an hour listening to dog barks. 

Very interesting concept. The controls are extremely smooth and responsive. And the sfx works perfect with the arts, especially on scene changes.

It's just so hard for me to find the wolves. I'm not very good at noticing subtle visual differences. I think it would be more fun if there's also some audio clues to identify a wolf, like a heavier footstep, or a deeper breath. 

Thank you for your feedback. Should really add hints and tutorials in future. 

I personally love the trial and error mechaniques in games though. Maybe it's because I'm the explorer kind of gamer, and explore the unknowns through experiments is great fun to me. Of course, as long as the experiments require me think instead of using brute force.

The trait is completely random so you're very lucky to meet one same trait for three times. Possibility for that is below 5%. Time for lottery! XD Maybe we should consider make it less random so that these kind of things won't happen.

Both too dry and too wet soil will cause plant sick and dead, the best time to water it is when it's half wet, and the best place to place it is where the soil can be half wet. 

Thank you so much for your feedback. I think we really need to have a hint system.

Thank you!

Thanks! Really appreciate that you enjoy the trial phases where the nos become the knows.

That's really awesome!

Thank you! I think we'd add some hints and tips on tools in future.

The sfx is so fun, and fits the artstyle so well, making the whole game an enjoyable experience.

Thank you so much! She tries and finds out she can rate other games now.

Hi there, it's my first time participating brackeys game jam, and have just submitted our entry a few hours ago. Just now, my teammate found her cannot rate any game entries, saying "You are unable to rate this project because you have not submmitted your own entry. You can leave a comment below though." She is listed in the authors of the game entry we submitted, I added her to the game's admins and chose "display as contributor" before we submitted it. Not knowing what happened, anyone knows how can we fix this?

After losing or winning and unlock a plant trait, if you meet a plant with that same trait in later rounds, you can see that trait with the magnifying glass tool. Just click the magnifying glass, hover over the plant, and see the popup.

That's also where to know if it's a plant that have never seen before. If the traits are locked, then yes. If you can see the trait, then it's someong you met before.

Thank you so much for your feedback! Guess we should really add a lot more functions to that magnifying glass, hints, tips, soil status and all. 

Great! Thank you so much for the update, and for taking time to test it again. I'm really glad to hear you enjoy the game despite the confusing!

Hi, S, I just tested it and the WASD keys work fine with me. When press WASD, I can hear footsteps indicating I'm walking, and with Tab key pressed I can see the distance number changes. Could you please describe what happened when you press WASD?

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback! It really helps us a lot in improving the game in the future.

As for the movement, we've added a hint system since version 2.0. When you hold the Tab button, there will be flying bees to guide the way. But it seems we forgot to mention it in the game! Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. We'll add a help button on the HUD to indicate that in the next version. 

And also, thank you so much for reminding us about our lack of mentioning the phone. We'll revise some of the monologues to make it to be noticed more natural. And we'll also try to improve the AI behavior to make Leona's responses more suggestive. We're really sooooooo appreciated for all your feedbacks!

Thanks so much for your feedbacks! 

The "connection error" is a real connection error, sometimes chatgpt doesn't reply, and we display that "connection error" to maintain a certain level of ambiguity, make it almost like a game plot, in order to avoid breaking the immersive experience. I guess we did not handle that ambiguity well, and instead of bringing fun as intended, it in fact causes confusing. Thanks so much to let us know, we're try to come up with new ways to handle it in the future.

Also, thank you for your feedback on movement. We'll add a hint system in near future to try to improve the experience in this area.

Yes! We didn't want to see players who happen to have the same birthday as the protagonist feeling uncomfortable when playing through scenes where the protagonist's loved ones leave her. So we set her birthday on a day where no one else would have the same birthday as her on that day!

Thanks very much for your feedback. Yeah, we noticed that  the responses generated by AI NPC are often very different each time. Sometimes it can provide answers just as or even beyond our expections, but other times it may act as if it had no clue what it was doing. We're trying to find a way to make AI NPC provide more consistent and expected responses. Thank you again for your feedback, and if you have any other thoughts, please let us know. They will help us a lot in improving the game in its upcoming next version.

Thanks for reporting the bug! We really appreciate it and  will get on it right away. Let us know if you have any other thoughts or feedback. XD

In trash bags!

Hi, jfkEO, happy new year! Thank you so much for your feecback. I've never tested it in BRAVE browser before , though I tested it on Chrome browser, but obviously it doesn't help. (Totally agree with you about Unity webGL... (TдT)

Yeah, you win! Congrats! :D