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A jam submission

* flower play *View game page

Ring the flowers to call a friend
Submitted by jaogwal — 20 hours, 13 minutes before the deadline
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* flower play *'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Community's Voice#893.1543.154

Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
I interpreted the image given as both the literal touch and reaching out. So you physically touch the flowers to reach out to your nearby friend.

I tried to make a game that's simple to play. A game that advances even during the first contact when you're still exploring the environment and the controls. An experience that can be fun, beautiful, and joyful even if you're not trying to win.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

That was a really fun experience! At first I thought I was supposed to touch only particular flowers, and that the colour of my player’s wings are changed based on the colour of the flowers, so at one point I was trying to go over the same coloured flowers and avoiding the other ones. Then I realized that it was about touching all the different kinds of flowers. If you feel like adding a competitive mode later, maybe that could be something to explore?

The gameplay is very intuitive, and I like your philosophy of everything being integrated and diegetic, and the game design works really well in favour of that as well since it is really simple to pick up and get going. I’m not sure if the overall level layouts changed each time, but that could be something that can be done to add more variety if you feel like so later. Maybe some asymmetry or even maybe irregular rotational symmetry? Or probably even different colours on the vines and the background?

I wonder if an alternate mode for the mouse control would be interesting, where instead of making the mouse movement tilt the nose of the player, the player instead follows the position of the mouse on the screen? Since I notice a slight amount of jitter with the current mouse controls, but it could also be due to my mouse sensitivity/dpi.

Overall a very interesting and unique interpretation of the theme, and definitely one of the most visually appealing ones. Highly appreciate the amount of polish that went into this as well, since this feels like an almost perfect experience of the game concept. I saw you working iteratively on this for a long time in the discord progress channel, and I think that’s definitely something to learn from. Amazing work and I wish you all the very best! 💖

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comments.

The color mechanics you describe are very much in line with what I think is the next stage of development for this game. And the layout will be more like something between a mandala and a stained glass rose window. So... stay tuned :)

Thanks again.

Submitted(+1)

funny!

Submitted(+1)

Really interesting experience. I don't know what I could say to improve it, as it's kind of the perfect version of what it is. Cool game, congrats.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much. I meant to make a limited thing and polish it thoroughly so your comments means a lot to me. I do have a couple of ideas of where I can expand on this base idea, though. We will see.

Submitted(+1)

I particularly like your interpretation and intentions! It really stays true to its essense.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I think yours was the first game I voted for. So beautiful, and so masterfully done. From one old guy to another—huge respect. To enter a competitive event like this with a game made just for the art of it—brave choice. I haven’t spent much time playing it yet, so don’t take it as a serious criticism, but I wasn’t sure how much of my own skill and decision-making contributed to advancing to the next level, and trying to figure that out distracted me somewhat. But really, really loved the game.

Developer

Thanks so much for playing and for your feedack, both the encouragement and the critical analysis.

Right now there are no decisions for you to make as a player. The flowers are there with random appearance and no gameplay differences. And the skill requirements stop at aiming in the general direction. The hit zone is quite forgiving (huge).

This core system may end up branching into 2-3 very distinct games with proper mechanics that will require you to make decisions to steer the game progress in different directions. But until then, your assessment is quite right. Advancing to the next level is just a matter of touching enough flowers. After that, you can chase the other flier but if you don't, after a short while they chase you and you can't escape.

Now for the final twist: Believe it or not, this is mostly screen candy for an audio game. ;)

Submitted(+1)

A nice little experience, my only real complaint is that the turning speed is a little more sensitive than I'd like, although I'm playing on mouse, not touchpad.


P.S. check out the tag "soundtoy" on itch, its full of other cool stuff like this, and it would be a good thing to add to your own page.

Developer

Thanks! I forgot about soundtoy. Although the sound was a bit of an afterthought, it did end up being what I think is an important part of the experience. Good call.
Noted about the turning speed. A fully developed expansion of this idea would have to include a settings menu so we can all have it our way.

Thanks again for playing and commenting :)

Submitted(+1)

Intriguing.

Submitted(+1)

I don't see a way to DM you on this platform - but from reading your page bio, it sounds like there's some commonality in the way we're thinking. I specialize in sound design. Would be keen to chat. 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

I'm --- on discord. Sound design is definitely something I need tons of help with. Especially with a Games for Blind Gamers jam coming up. Send me a line. And thanks for playing and for writing.

Submitted(+1)

This was a really fun and peaceful experience, I played about 7 levels of it before moving on. If you had the interest to build on it after the jam I think your core concept is really strong for a "full" game. Great art style too!

Developer

Thanks so much for your kind words. I do plan to expand on the idea with some color mixing mechanics. Stay tuned.
Glad you like the art style because it's all done with the Line Renderer tool and some math. There are no proper art assets anywhere and I'm quite proud of how it turned out. :)

Submitted(+1)

Your game has a very distinctive art style, and the controls are also quite unique in a fun and interesting way. The feedback gives a charming Zen vibe. Since the levels are procedurally generated, the core gameplay loop feels small and tight, which I think works well for this type of experience. 

 A game with strong identity and potential. Great work!

Developer

Thanks so much. I did mean to keep it in what I call "jam mode" where I expect users to try it for a minute and then move on. I have plans for future expansion with a game mechanic involving color mixing and matching. So stay tuned ;)

Submitted(+1)

This game has an interesting concept and interaction! I can see the potential of it to become a interesting cozy game. Consider tuning the movement, I found it a bit hard to control.

Developer

Thanks for playing and commenting. May I ask what controls were you using? (keyboard, mouse, trackpad, joysticks)

Submitted(+1)

I'm using trackpad ;)

Developer

First, yay! Trackpad is how I feel it should be played. Also, aw! I thought I had it tuned. But that's the danger of developing, you get so used to your own stuff that you start missing obvious problems. Any details of your experience would help me ... make it less me and more universal.