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wow that's fantastic then!!

aah you're so sweet!
I can see that you've been intending a lot more, happened to us too :') Also I suppose I might've not had the correct trust level for the item but I swear I also used it first time so I'm a bit confused. Would need to sit down for another playthrough (after Develop tomorrow). 
I'll DM you my details, would love to know more! - nvm DMs don't exist, you can find me under luciusrat on disc, my pfp is a shocked nikki rn :x

Really intriguing and creative take on generosity, really love the real-world impact you've considered. 

Unfortunately I had a similar issue to others, that "IJKL" didn't seem to do anything - sometimes my little critter would catch up, sometimes it'd just struggle in the snow so pressing the buttons was a gamble and I had to release and press again many times to try see if it would work that time. Picking up embers and all that was intuitive and I love love love the atmosphere you've created with how nicely the golden light burns away the cold creeping into the screen. The simple soundtrack also adds to the desolation of the area and generally you just nailed the atmosphere and visual. I also didn't have a clear idea of where I was meant to go next, resolving to try get the critter back to the first camp fire proved too difficult since the IJKL keys don't provide their desired effect. 

One thing I'd like to see would be the player physically carrying the creatures, possibly travelling slower with more critters attached. This would also be a great indicator of the permanent button press working since there's a significant difference between press (critter climbs onto player) and release (critter gets off/falls off). A visual indicator of how much time the player has before a companion freezes beyond saving (i.e. they would "shrivel up" and start laying down) would also add some context and desperation to the situation.

I do absolutely love the concept and I hope to see a full version of this! 

Was very interested as it uses a similar concept to ours - love how much map you managed to get out, I've spent some time just jumping around the rocks at the sea front. The timer disappeared shortly after a cruise boat came in? I wasn't quite sure where to follow the story or how to help some of the NPCs out - maybe a small tutorial on controls would be good! 

The animations are very fun and I appreciate the see-through guy at the docks too with his totally funny joke :')

The visuals are amazing!!

I had a lot of fun forging letters for each person! There was one where I would've preferred not using the word twice and using a synonym instead but the game's linear nature became apparent that one time. I did also experience 1 NPC sneaking out ahead of me delivering a letter to her just as I delivered it to her, so she ended up showing up twice haha
There's also a couple inconsistencies in terms of pixel "thickness", which can't be helped for sourced art and it still looks better than if you were forced to just leave a placeholder there. I did also like the disclaimer of the game being developed entirely within the game jam period because this is my first jam and I've come to realise there has been a few sneaky submissions that have been submitted elsewhere before and/or developed outside the period. And TGC didn't even have any rule for this in place so it felt a bit like a grey area that made it unfair to us who only took those 3 weeks of game jam period, so I was thinking we should've added that kind of tidbit as well :')

Overall it showed me again, how I shouldn't be overthinking writing letters and it's better to send something out, even if it's just a couple sentences, because just knowing someone thought of you is enough. Gonna send some post cards next week!

Incredibly charming design language and while I know the player is a child themselves, I did get reminded of my days working with some big personalities in daycare, hehe. I'd love to know more about the thought process when coming up with the narrative and how much of yourself you've put into these experiences! :)

Brain doesn't go brrr anymore it goes swinggg now
Fun once you get the "hang" of it!
Really interesting take and cohesive design!

I didn't get time to play much but I love the little guy.... just a little guy... and then, more little guys!!! (simple yet cute designs can be so impactful for real for real)

The sound and visual design really made the atmosphere come together!

Incredibly charming, love that you tackled the idea of generosity coming back around and preventing the mouse from generosity burnout/giving too much!

Love how you really brought the atmosphere together with sound and visual design, I really enjoyed how you played with contrast!! Didn't have time to finish it but oh I do really want to come back to it :nodnod:

Really cohesive visual design and the title peaks intrigue right off the bat! I'm not a great platformer player and didn't have much time but I had a fun experience and would love to revisit :)

Rushing to review some more games from my list of interests - This one's is really cute, such a polished art direction as well! I hope you'll implement all the stuff you didn't have time for so I can revisit it :)

Trying to get some more reviews out from the list of games I really loved the look of (been really busy unfortunately!) While I didn't have time yet to finish it, I can say this game is a very charming experience!! Definitely want to come back to this :)

Incredibly creative concept! I'm not sure if it was my hardware but my camera image updated frames inconsistently - not sure if it's meant to show a fluid camera feed or if it grabs frames every few seconds?

It's a bit disheartening to see that there weren't a lot of ratings despite it being such a unique and cool concept. Maybe people are just very shy about showing their face :')

Sound and visual design really add to the atmosphere. I could see this being on display in an exhibition setting, tracking multiple people even - that'd be super cool, a room filled with the sounds bouncing off the walls, and a big screen where visitors can make the flowers bloom with their faces. Definitely worth looking into getting this out there for other opportunities/exhibitions/award programs in the creative industry as an interactive medium in general, not just games focussed. Keep it up! :)

Very charming artworks, I love the fact you've done it all in traditional media! I got stuck in one puzzle, perhaps I just didn't understand it well enough (2 muskooms when you start with the UP move only, 1 muskoom unlocking LEFT, the other locking everything apart from DOWN). I do find the physics pretty cool (wavy vines!) and getting NPCs "home" is a way of being generous in video games, the limited movement adding an interesting twist!

Simple game with a simple message, very much on theme! The art and characters are have a nice charm to them, the sfx and music also fit really well. The controls are easy to understand and the hints are just vague enough that you still feel a sense of accomplishment when you get the delivery right :)

great aesthetic and the sfx really draw you into the atmosphere. I'm not sure how to defend against the fish and the feedback from input to the player acting upon it does have a strange inconsistent delay (i.e. lantern, shield).

Would love to see more of this!

Excellent art direction and design, very cute and heart-warming :)

Some issues/bugs I ran into:

- the jump length/height could be a tiny bit longer, making it easier to jump across the holes
- I didn't know I had to drag the seed for my required vegetable into the patch, so a tutorial note for the controls would be good!
- when I was trying to drag items into the item slots/pots, it let me despite not having any, but no cooking proceeded, instead my cursor was an onion until I harvested a vegetable
- I couldn't make the second soup because I somehow couldn't drag the fish into the pot, despite having 3 in my inventory
- when eating with the platypus, our mousy suddenly is twice the size sitting on the chair
- a bit of a personal taste one but having racks full of vegetables at home while having to farm new vegetables for ingredients technically doesn't make a lot of sense - even if this is storage for winter season, it would make more sense to take from the rack and then replenish it by growing new crops.

The game is looking really polished, the character expressions are varied and I enjoyed the game mechanics. I appreciate that there are mouse/critter-sized items as well as large human items like buttons and spindles of string. I love the idea of building a little community with soup in the burrow! I'd love to see this type of game with ways of expanding the burrow and creating underground mushroom farms, etc. Thinking like terraria x stardew, which would be very different to the current game! But taking this idea would make for a great game to consistently return to to build further. Other than that, with its current design, it could also make for a really nice children's game, thinking of forest critter illustrations by Beatrix Potter and games like Pettson and Findus!

Lovely little game, nice art direction and I like the way you've made the map pieces fit organically into the screen! The mini games are a fun touch, though there is no "punishment" for failure, which technically isn't needed in a more cozy game with a warm message like this - but it might also remove the incentive of progress being "at stake" to the player. I feel like you would've expanded on that and a few other elements if you had more time but it's a great start for the time we had :)

Great atmosphere with the sfx, music and visuals really coming together!

I agree, that the game would benefit from a bit more guidance - some kind of map to unlock as you progress perhaps?  Also something like being able to pick up connections and re-connecting them elsewhere to fix any errors made because I didn't know how to reverse my actions. A tutorial note inside the game on the controls, perhaps in a settings menu (including volume sliders too).

Other than that, it's a functioning game with polished visuals and sfx. I can see the generosity aspect, perhaps some story text as you solve the puzzles would really cement that :) 

Aesthetically and soundscape wise a really beautiful game with a distinct atmosphere!
Unfortunately I did not get far as I wasn't sure where I was supposed to fly to stop my health from depleting and while there was response to my controls, I wasn't sure on the response timing of the crane because it wasn't clear which of my controls impacted what aspect of flight. I tried again after seeing HazGal's comment about staying in the circle and then I tried again after seeing the controls a bit more clearly explained on the game's page but maybe I'm not patient enough. I think if it starts off with an early easy tutorial as part of the story (so you still start off with the poetry straight away) to then throw you into the higher difficulty level, it would make it a lot more accessible :) 

Short but sweet - excellent for a solo dev submission! 

Very poetic - the music and art really capture the serene and otherworldly atmosphere. I'm glad I experienced this!

Great design and I can see a lot of love was put into Yue and Ming :) 
I went into this expecting a simple visual novel so I was positively surprised to find a full murder mystery case solving mechanic! The tutorial was presented clearly and slowly enough for me to understand but I uh... forgot about the arrow keys during the second statement. An options menu would be great to reiterate controls for players to familiarise themselves within their own time. The music is excellent as well, fitting each scene! But I'd also love a volume mixer in an options menu because the game was louder than any of my other pc media :') 
There's some minor details I'd like to see, such as the sparkle could disappear or change when having interacted with something, but you do solve this by the character telling you if you've explored all of the area, which is incredibly convenient. I did accidentally interact with an object/person multiple times because I pressed one Z too many, which then had me going through all the dialog again - having a dialog change for a quick note about the item/comment from the person instead would make it easier. But I'm sure it's something you would've added if you were given more time because I swear a couple conversations did have a secondary interaction option already. 

In the third trial, there is no reaction to any of the items presented for the case - so I wasn't able to move forward, but I can kind of piece things together from the context given. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I missed something but I did try every item and statement across 3 attempts. 

Overall very creative story and take on the theme, touching upon Ming's generosity and generosity burnout even (hey-ho it's what we tried focussing on) while also making it a lot more engaging with the mystery to solve, instead of it simply being a "giving" game. 

I do hope you're intending on developing the game further! If you'd like another artist to help, feel free to hit me up because I'm currently very much into the wuxia/xianxia genre again, which does have similar themes to Fatal Flower :)

Lovely little game, gorgeous atmosphere with great sound design and visuals combined! Controls are really easy, conversations are short but sweet and being able to find the "impactful" response on first try does feel very gratifying. It teaches about different needs people can have and how you can give your time. I got 1 message about being tired, but had no other effects of it, did you plan on implementing some kind of limiter/meter like we did? We didn't get to implement our dialog indicators ourselves yet but it did feel reminiscent! 

I think your game description here does share everything I'd want to touch upon as well, so I don't have anything to add other than it's been a heart-warming experience :)

Rating this solely based on the message/showcase you're providing here and what I could see in the game - unfortunately we weren't able to connect to the server to get it running but I'm not letting that impact my rating. I do really like the idea, the charming pun and the ducks! I'd love to play it in a more easily accessible version if you have the time to expand on this :)

Soup! Really cool way of using shaders and I also liked the way you could have the background appear and disappear with W - adding to the minimalistic design, being able to strip away the background when handing out soup or watch the village when stirring.  I didn't catch anyone phase in or out either so the NPC existence feels really organic. I know the tasting mech has already been addressed. And your soundtrack is dynamic between day/night and other phases, which is very cool! I did nearly stop before the last day (I suppose no context incentive + not knowing how much of a "sit down" game it is, I guess? But I'm aware there's stuff you didn't add due to time) because I had no idea how much longer it would go on but I'm glad I did press on for the delicious sounding ending :)
Was there also some kind of plan with the fire place next to the soup pot that the NPCs built a couple days in?
I do also appreciate the different movements assigned to each NPC, I really like the one that swings from side to side happily. Oh and the intuitive visual design of what button for which available action press is smart as well!

Loving the unique textures/shader on everything! Felt a little directionless and for some reason the sound didn't work for me (might've been because my antivirus kept trying to scan the file while running). I might be wrong but the game doesn't seem to save progress and I've quit out to main menu by accident when trying to find a volume setting for my sound issue - which reset the game back to the start. That's just a minor thing of making a couple more UI elements, maybe asking the player if they're sure about exiting and/or perhaps a progress save function. 
Since the game is fairly short, maybe the lack of save can also be used intentionally, making the poetry you create rather fleeting - aiding to the "appreciating in the moment" kind of feel. 

I did also feel a little directionless after the station, but was able to find a couple of items and filled my notebook. A little bit more context could definitely help the narrative but the concept of mending objects and memories with thread is very poetic and definitely worth exploring further!

//Slight? Spoilers?

Incredibly sweet! 

I did get stuck a little because I just don't do well with those street jumping games and it took me a moment to realise where the borders were (aka cat taking up both lanes instead of one). My uh, "neck" also got stiff after crossing the street - I'm not sure if it was me tabbing out in between but I couldn't fully turn around anymore and my turning was limited to my mouse cursor travel for just 1 length of my screen, if that makes sense? For the shelves, it would be nice if the viewfinder would also move with WASD or have a note of dragging LMB because we didn't hold it down anywhere else in the game so it wasn't immediately intuitive. I also wish I could've actively given half of a quest item to box cat before moving on to the art store but I'm assuming that didn't make it in due to time constraint. Other than that the game works really well on default settings/without full screen as well!

The story is cute, concise and presents small joys really effectively! The visual is charming and the sound was implemented really well as well. I love the funny bits thrown into the dialog  and I'd love to adopt box cat... just look at the little creature...

//Slight? Spoilers?

Incredibly sweet! 

I did get stuck a little because I just don't do well with those street jumping games and it took me a moment to realise where the borders were (aka cat taking up both lanes instead of one). My uh, "neck" also got stiff after crossing the street - I'm not sure if it was me tabbing out in between but I couldn't fully turn around anymore and my turning was limited to my mouse cursor travel for just 1 length of my screen, if that makes sense? For the shelves, it would be nice if the viewfinder would also move with WASD or have a note of dragging LMB because we didn't hold it down anywhere else in the game so it wasn't immediately intuitive. I also wish I could've actively given half of a quest item to box cat before moving on to the art store but I'm assuming that didn't make it in due to time constraint. Other than that the game works really well on default settings/without full screen as well!

The story is cute, concise and presents small joys really effectively! The visual is charming and the sound was implemented really well as well. I love the funny bits thrown into the dialog  and I'd love to adopt box cat... just look at the little creature...

Hello Chris and gang! Truly enjoyed returning to the game again and again, I wish I had more opportunities to do so but alas, a busy schedule.
I'm kind of hoping you'll keep the server running for a continuous community effort in more and more stages. Being able to see other's changes to the world live is really fun!
I did feel like the world was quite small, which is great for the scope of this game jam, but for a bigger release I'd love to see a bigger map, maybe even something where players spawn at different points and expand their efforts outward, connecting with each other and tending to each other's spaces. There's other refinement options which aren't necessary at all but I thought I'd mention: Expanding flora and making them species specific for an educational opportunity and/or adding fauna - birds, deer, etc. depending on different flora levels unlocked. Say a community managed to grow forest, there's animals showing up depending on the size!

One thing I also thought of is that I can see this easily displayed in an art gallery - not just with a video game focus. I've recently visited an exhibition about dirt and it had a lot of themes of nature, preservation, nurture, sustainability and community - this game would've fit right in! It's quick and simple enough for people to easily engage with it in an exhibition setting and there could be a QR code for people to be able to continue accessing the game outside of the exhibition. I'd definitely take this game to art opportunities/awards outside of the games industry because its accessibility and message makes it really versatile and playable by a wide audience, not just gamers.

I really hope to see you expand this one, I think it'll be a refreshing experience for a lot of people :)

Hello! Love the theme and how much expansion potential it has with a balanced skill system. The asynchronous co-op aspect reminds me of other players' chips left behind in NieR:Automata or other players sacrificing their saves to aid others. I would love it if the sacrifice hits harder with a bigger reward for another player, truly giving something significant away - but that would also require balancing combat aspects because I found some ground graphic attacks taking away more health than I'd find "challenging in a fun way". This can just be personal taste in terms of player difficulty but definitely something worth exploring :)

Hello everyone!

I'm really grateful for all the reviews and I'm so happy that so many of you loved our project!
I've been super busy the last couple weeks but I will still go through my list and review games myself, don't think I've forgotten about you. :) 

Again thank you so much, this is the first game jam for most of us and I'm glad all our hard work has paid off.
The positivity in the community really inspires me to keep going, connecting with others and honing my skills further to join other game jams!

Here's the little guy again

Hey, thanks for catching that! We'll see if we can replicate it and solve the issue :)

Thank you!! I pitched that Hektor would speak "in uwu" with added kaomoji - the kaomoji didn't make it into the game yet but I also  want to draw up some portraits for him to have more animated reactions :3c

Despite set-backs everyone worked really hard so I'm glad it's being received so well!

Thank you very much Chris! I actually didn't think much about Hektor's design other than "funny blob creature" at first, but I do love Made In Abyss and the media we consume does inform our practice even subconsciously, so who knows, hehe. 

I can see how the eerie feel comes in and it'd definitely be an interesting direction to take or to recreate for the next jam! Especially if it was more MiA-esque instead of a more classic RPG horror vibe.

Can't wait to check out what you've made! :)

Thank you very much! 
I've noted the bug in our dev log - seems like you're not the only one who experienced this. I'll definitely get around to reviewing games on the weekend, hopefully with the rest of the team together, so I'll add yours to the itinerary :)

Thank you! Love the rat pic!!

Hey, thanks a lot for taking the time to write such extensive feedback, really appreciated!

//Spoilers indeed

We indeed didn't manage to implement everything yet - we ran across some issues along the way that made us decide to release a functional game first and foremost with all the base work in place. Some dialog didn't make it into this version, which would give a lot more context to different quests and Albert's exhaustion. 

The action point system was a bit tricky to figure out- Fun fact: we did have a social battery/energy idea for the bar - but we ended up going with the daytime bar since we also wanted to emphasise on Albert not getting any time to himself. We're definitely looking at how we can redistribute the actions spent while also having every NPC solvable within a day AND making the player feel the restriction. I think taking on permanent changes from the previous day (such as unlocking new paths) is still on the table as well but I do enjoy the aspect that the game is solvable day 1, and it's the player learning and retaining information that drives the game's progression.

The soft locks were intentional - I was actually going to be more mean with Manuel shutting down more often, inspired by our programmer Pingu, who designed the first couple ones with Stella - I wasn't a fan at first but I can see the vision now. It's definitely something where the more updated dialog would've given a better idea of "why" but we definitely have to circle back to these, similar to the action points, to see how to manage player frustration while guiding them to make different decisions. I'm definitely a fan of second chances - especially in case the soft-locking dialog was chosen by accident. 

The number puzzles were all Pingu, I'm glad you enjoyed them as much as we did! 

Oh, and the grass thing only happened on the final upload, we haven't looked into the cause yet but we do intend to reduce the amount regardless to make loading faster. 

Overall you're making great points and a lot of these are already being considered so I'm glad we're already going in the right direction :)