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Evergrove's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #54 | 3.923 | 3.923 |
| Audio | #71 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Gameplay | #74 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #82 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Art | #85 | 3.615 | 3.615 |
| Limitation | #94 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Polish | #103 | 2.615 | 2.615 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Cute game, I love the character and map art!
The spell mechanic reminds me of the DS Game "Lost Magic"
It would have been nice if all the assets were the same resolution though.
This is a really unique loop, good job mate! Feels like a vertical slice for a genre I've never played :)
Things I love:
- The drawing of the sigils is just plain cool, well done there! I like that speed + accuracy were both relevant
- The meta-loop was quite fun once I realised what the bars were telling me
- Each animal having a varying but specific set of needs made memorising them easier and satisfying
- Each of the character feels unique both in abilities and aesthetic which is rad
Things I'd love to see:
- I think the UI could be tweaked a bit, maybe bigger or more outlines. I thought the top bar was progress for the first few loops ( -_-") I just didn't notice the leftmost bar at all! Once I saw it, it all clicked into place and I knew what I was doing
- Visual indicators of the sigil strength (and specifically, whether it was speed or accuracy that were too low / very high) would allow greater mastery from the player which would be awesome, I sometimes couldn't tell why I'd got e.g. 29% one time and 76% the next, when I thought the previous one was better! :P
- You mentioned in another comment that the animals were supposed to keep their current need over the next loop, that really elucidates the core mechanics and I think it's a great idea
- Alternatively (or as well as), some form of graphical or audible "tell" for the animals would be cool - e.g. the bunnies are running a lot this loop so I know they're probably gonna want rain next run, or the birds aren't in the trees so next time they'll probably want sun, etc
Oh those are fun ideas! Duly noted, thanks for trting my game!
I like the concept of drawing spells. I've seen it somewhere else but don't remember where, either way it's a cool idea. However, I found it pretty confusing what is going on in the beginning. The abilities, the fact that different characters have different ones, and what it all means, wasn't that clear to me, so I think a little bit of an ingame tutorial easing you into those mechanics would help. That being said, the music is great, the art and the environment is pretty, with all the little critters & plants around. Good job!
Really nice choice of characters here, and I liked that they actually worked into the main gameplay loop in a meaningful way. The whole idea of helping out the critters and plants around the forest is really charming, and the tracing minigame was a fun way to cast abilities. It helped make them feel more hands-on.
The art is very cute, and the environment is structured really nicely. The animal designs were especially charming too, and having them run around made the forest feel a lot more alive and dynamic. Very cozy and lively game you made here. It has a nice 'caretaker of the forest' feeling to it.
The little creatures running around the forest, the plants growing over time, all of that makes the forest feel alive and thus the whole world end up feeling more dynamic. The UI felt a little hard to read for me, especially the casting percentage, which i still don't really know what it means, i assume it's how well I draw the symbols but i still couldn't figure out why the drawings scored low or high. It would also be nice to add some respawn mechanic for the animals and trees, because after you give them the appropriate spells, you kinda just wander around for a bit with nothing to do.
I heard you wanted feedback so I'll try to makes notes of everything I saw.
1. Z-index seems to get a little messed up, things in front of trees would appear behind it, things behind it appeared in front.
2. Font is a little hard to read on buttons. Need more contrast between the text and its background.
3. Art is very nice, music is charming :) Some images appeared pretty blurry, might be a scaling issue.
4. Game probably needed a tutorial.. What does the % mean when I cast my spells? Did I not draw it properly? What do my spells do? Are there any special effects? What makes the characters different besides the different spells? I think its important to consider the perspective of the player and guiding them as if they were a 5yo, cause I play like one. I found it really hard to actually play because I didn't know what to do or what my spells were doing :(
5. Map borders can probably be thicker, more rocks more trees make it look a little more like a wall.
Hope this feedback helps!
Thank youuu!! I'll take note of this for future projects, big help!
The drawing sigils mechanism is such a fun concept! Although it would be beneficial to see the effect the sigil has had, such as the plants growing etc. It is a little confusing as to what to do when none of the animals want the current spirits abilities though. That being said, the art is super cute and I love how the little light spirit glides!
Thank you! Haha, there is actually a growing animation for the crops, but I think I made it too slow... Yeah, the needs are suppose to stay the same in the next loop so you can take note what each animal and plant wants but I never got to fix it in time since I was worried to miss the deadline