Aww thank you so much and for also sharing the link and timestamp! <3
Will check it out as I definitely love seeing other people play Astral Bloom and also to seek out improvements!!
Heya, I remembered you and thought I'd let you know that I've created the Steam page and will release the demo there in 5 days (13th March)!
If there's anything you want to see in the game, happy to add it yeah! <3
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4464970/Astral_Bloom/
Also congrats on your game, you got really good gameplay! :)
Hey there Ben, that's a good question!
Regarding the movement, my thought process was that it isn't a purely grid-based game in that your position is snapped to a grid. I suspect that movement type is more common for action combat games, whereas here I wanted to align it with the camera, so that left really means left. Especially as you expand to a huge flat space, the grid becomes less and less relevant.
The other reason is that I plan to allow the camera to be rotatable in an upcoming update that also allows camera zooming, so the camera will no longer be fixed to isometric angle.
I did consider your feedback though as I wondered the same thing! :)
I like how the enemies turn to colour when I swipe them with my paint brush, some thoughts as I played:
Overall nice premise as well as the lore that sets up how you enter the painting and become miniaturized. I tried to speedrun it by rushing through the areas but the monsters got me xD. The monsters are also very cute.
"Ari and the Fading World was made by a crazy talented team, excluding myself. :P " Also nooo why discreditting yourself?
This is a nice little crafting game that has more than i thought! I usually leave detailed feedback so hope this isn't intimidating!
Overall, this was a lot more complex than i thought and the goal of having to build a rocket definitely had set up an interesting premise.
I overall enjoyed playing and the crafting system - I love crafting games so I might be biased!
This is one of the coolest comments I've read so far, it made me feel so warm inside HAHA
Thanks for playing and i can totally imagine your alien walking around just collecting things :)
I'll be adding more stuff to the game after the jam ends so feel free to share more cozy ideas if you have them, and I will add them to the game~! (I also just got the Steam page up which I'm quite excited about!)
Heya, thank you so much for the kind words! Glad you liked the various mechanics. I am looking to add more features so if you really like it and have suggestions for what you want to see, please let me know!
Also just got the steam page up if u wanna check it out :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4464970/Astral_Bloom/

Thanks so much for the kind words Anthony! Was indeed a labour of love. I decided to make it into a full game on Steam thanks to a friend's support. I will be posting more about it and putting out several updates once the jam is over~
Nice game you have too, very soft and poetic title and I do love me some pixel art! Edit: I've just played and will leave my thoughts shortly!
Ahh my bad, I was not expecting the map limits to be reached! The original plan was to have multiple levels of worlds so you would build a new layer after hitting the limit but I kept it simple for a jam.
In the next version, I have made it possible to delete blocks by selecting them, allowing more designs but also allows you to then build the rocket!
Aww thank you so much, it was very heartwarming to hear that it pulled on your heartstrings!
I'm going to put out a detailed devlog on the roadmap I've planned for the game. With a friend's encouragement I also decided to put it out on Steam and I'm looking to put up the Steam storepage up by this weekend if it goes well!
Ahh! Sorry there isn't a way currently. I've just added feature to select and delete buildings on the next version but I can't upload new versions until the jam period ends this weekend! Sorry about that but rest assured this feature will directly be in the next build, along with other new stuff in v0.6!
Edit: The rating period ends next weekend, not this weekend, I mistook as I thought it's normally a week.
Heya, glad to hear you liked it!
Keybinding was added in the desktop version but the web version conflicts with browser shortcuts so they were removed.
I intend to continue developing this game and possibly release on Steam so I will think of alternate keys for web in a subsequent update so appreciate the suggestion! :)
Heya for the files, the F1 ~ F5 keys trigger building. The 'C' key also triggers the ability. You can view the shortcut keys at the top right of most buttons! However on web those keys aren't available as F1 and F5 trigger help and refresh, so they only show up on the downloadable versions for now.
I think he was referring to wishes having no shortcut keys as the other common UI buttons have keys!
Thanks for playing! Glad to hear you love it - good idea for the shortcut keys to trigger wishes, they will be added!
I'll definitely continue to improve it after the jam so feel free to leave any other ideas/feedback that comes to mind :)
Edit: If you're talking about the building shop, actually the F1 ~ F5 keys are available on the downloadable versions - on web they trigger help page and refresh so they are omitted.
Wow I am deeply honored T_T
I am super humbled to hear you liked it! I will be working on this game and pushing out an update after the jam ends, with new upgrades. I already have notes and have begun implementing feedback and a roadmap!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, things you want to see, please let me know!