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Florist: A Short Story of a Lost Girl's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Limitation | #28 | 3.753 | 4.333 |
| Audio | #93 | 2.983 | 3.444 |
| Overall | #111 | 2.919 | 3.370 |
| Theme | #113 | 3.175 | 3.667 |
| Polish | #115 | 2.502 | 2.889 |
| Art | #125 | 2.887 | 3.333 |
| Gameplay | #139 | 2.213 | 2.556 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Liked the art and the quick, bite sized nature of the story. They really need to get that bridge repaired. the volume on the walking was probably to loud, was louder than everything else. Maybe total bees should be limited to two spawns at a time, because a full column of bees felt un-dodgeable. There was also one single bee that felt like it tracked me to the bottom of the screen, so that one earned their honey. Had to repeat once because I had already picked a flower before noticing the recipe and once because of that flying ace. A way to drop or remove incorrect flowers would be nice. The noise when eating a strawberry made me smile.
I don't think you needed to label the enchanted forest by writing on the background. I was able to tell what you were going from by the other characters' speech, the change in scenery, and the journal. If you're still worried, maybe a sign in front with "WARNING: Do Not Enter Enchanted Forest" then the florist could comment, "I'll just grab the flowers right at the edge. Surely that will be fine." And the flower trail that led to the note could lead to the next screen. I do think an additional screen wandering through the thick forest would have added to the feel, maybe with additional mist or fog. Could maybe add a journal entry or spilt the existing one to build the tension. If the player didn't recognize the forest before, it would be clear by then. The story as is is already a good setup for a classic style tragedy.
Also, I think a count of the total number of flowers picked would be a nice add, so you have an increasing number of flowers every loop. Maybe one of the slots in the inventory. Could also add to the tragic background if there are already some flowers in her pack when the player starts the game, implying the previous loop.
Thanks for the detailed feedback. If the bridge ever gets repaired, maybe she'll finally be able to solve the mystery behind the enchanted forest. The "Enchanted Forest" text in the background was mainly there as a stylistic element rather than to tell the player where they are. The number of collected flowers also isn’t shown because of the optional jam limitation.
forgot about that limitation. you could maybe represent it with different sized bundles slowly filling up the space, but that's trickier to implement than a counter. Since the text was meant to be stylistic, maybe drawing it on a layer above the trees would help? spit-balling here, but on a higher layer the trees wouldn't need to be placed carefully to avoid covering letters and unless you changed to a really chunky font I think the player would be able to navigate fine. Or the opposite direction and use a thicker font with more overlap from the trees to make it feel like the text is caught in the forest's growth. many ideas are easier said than done, but I do hope they help in this project or planning any future ones!
Cool game idea, nice art, and it fits the jam limitation perfectly. Really impressive work for a solo dev.
Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it.
Loved pushing the chicken around lol. The pixel art is really nice, and the sound when picking up flowers was super satisfying while still being gentle on the ears. I also liked the river animation, that was a nice touch. The little customizables in the backpack were fun too.
The story twist was really cool, and I liked how it tied into the seamless loop. The bouquet minigame was engaging, and I definitely got a kick out of the strawberry eating sound lol. It's also really impressive that you made all of this yourself during the jam. The music came out really good and the whole game looks great. There are a lot of small touches in here that gave it a lot of charm.
Thanks a lot! I'm really glad you liked it. The chicken was actually the last thing I added, so it's fun to hear it stood out. I had a lot of fun recording the music and sound effects. The "picking up flowers" sound is just scissors from my desk drawer, I tried recording whatever I had around me to create the effects. The music is basically just two guitar tracks I recorded and layered together. The bouquet minigame was actually where I started, and I later adapted it into a minigame since I still had some time left.
This has the beginnings of a really interesting story. I thought maybe playing through a second time I'd be able to find a different path or something, but it's understandable that it just loops back to the beginning. You managed to fit an impressive amount into this jam game, that's for sure.
My one critique is that I found the bouquet mini game a bit too punishing. I did get better at it with practice, but the RNG of flowers dropping was pretty unforgiving. I went almost the whole mini game once without seeing one of the flowers I needed until the very last drop. It felt easy to miss your chance and have to do it again.
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I considered adding more variation across the loops, but I focused on getting the essential parts working within the time I had, along with making all the assets to keep the style consistent, so I understand the expectation for more replay variation. The bouquet mini game could probably be tweaked a bit to feel more forgiving.
Story games always feel a bit hard when this short, but I enjoyed what you made :)
Thanks a lot! Yeah, fitting a story into such a short format was definitely challenging, so I'm glad you still enjoyed it!
It's a really cool idea and the mechanics are cool
Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it.
I had a lot of fun pushing the chicken around it made a cute sound.
Thanks a lot, glad you had fun! That chicken sound is just me doing my best "professional chicken" impression.
Love your art and this is a great use of the limitation. I agree this would be a very cool concept to expand!
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked the art. Working within the limitation was a fun challenge. Expanding the concept is definitely something I'm thinking about!
Loved the sneaky little loop you put into this game. Would LOVEEEEE to see this worked on more to make a full story-based game out of this.
Thanks a lot, really appreciate it! Glad the sneaky loop worked as intended. A full story version might be the next step.