Play "Gardening Simulator"
Mind Garden's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #46 | 4.338 | 4.338 |
| Presentation | #300 | 4.095 | 4.095 |
| Overall | #862 | 3.419 | 3.419 |
| Fun | #2355 | 2.676 | 2.676 |
Ranked from 74 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
This game is about a person whose emotional state is "growing" out of control. The objective of the game is to try and maintain those emotions, before it's too late.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
No
We used pre-existing audio
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Comments
I was delighted with how creative this game was, although I didn't really understand how much the story really depended on my choices, I still liked the game. Although I think it has something to do with mental illness, which is not always within our control.
Thank you for the feedback! :D
Very interesting vibe and the art is beautiful! A very unique type of game!
Thank you for your compliments~
This game is really interesting trying to balance everything can be quite challenging. I love the art work! Superb job! Well done! :D
Thank you so much! :)
What a nice approach you took for the theme! What could be more interesting than representing emotions with plants? Is there an ending to the game?! :D Because I got interested so much that I wanted to see what would happen at the end (I guess I maxed out all of the emotions since I got to the point when the plants/emotions stopped growing). With a bit more interactions added, and with a bit more polish, your game would be phenomenal!
Thank you! :D Definitely things to consider for the post-jam patch haha
The polish on this game is great, espeically the artstyle :) Also one of the more original takes on the them I've seen, so kudos! It's extremely dark and oppressive but this appears intentional and certainly acheives the desired effect.
A great enty to the jam, well done!
Thank you! ^_^
I just rated your great game/experience! Thank you very much for watching the stream yesterday!
I would appreciate it if you could check out my game too!
I will for sure, thank you for playing our game on stream! :)
I liked the experience and I think I got the message. The art style is amazing, and the music fits it pretty well. The facial expressions of the character are spot on, I think. It's a good way to supplement the plants in expressing the emotions.
It took me a while to figure out how to open the book, because I was trying to click the arrow instead of dragging.
Nicely done!
Thank you for the feedback! :) A number of people pointed out that they thought they had to click instead of drag, we'll definitely keep that in mind when we release a patch for it.
I like the art and the music. As for the gameplay, It always just kept growing. I'm not sure if there's just something I'm missing, or if there's some key actions I'm supposed to take. If I'm not actually missing something, then this game is awfully bleak. I'm really not sure what to make of it.
Thank you for playing! And yeah it's intentional, we have a lot of experience with mental illness and we wanted to convey how oppressive and uncontrollable it can feel.
I absolutely love the amount of effort that must have gone into the art for this game; it looks amazing! The music fits really well into the ambiance, and together they really create a somber tone that's especially relatable right now. I agree with what a few other people have said, that this can be a sensitive topic, but I can totally understand how having a win condition could downplay the emotions being conveyed.
Thank you for playing! :) Yeah we didn't expect the game to strike a chord in so many people. On the one hand we're happy we're able to convey the intended emotions, but on the other hand we'll definitely keep the sensitivity in mind (someone else mentioned including a warning, which I'll definitely do)
I love this, the art is stunning, the ambience is brilliantly maintained. Everything fits together very well. I do feel it's so well done that you may want a warning at the beginning, as this does tread on some dangerous territory. Possibly a few more options on the activities bar that are not solo, friend, therapist, family, etc. I am not entirely sure if there is a win state or not, and I don't honestly know whether there should be one or not, but I do like the idea of beating the plants back. It's a delicate balance of them growing and retreating. This was a beautiful and emotional trip, thank you for building this.
Thank you so much for all of your praise, it truly means a lot! And that's a very good point, I'll probably add a warning at the beginning of the game once patches are allowed.
A unique idea but, no matter what I do, the emotions get out of control.. Is there no way to win the game?
To be honest, the game was not very fun to play, all we had to do put up actions in the book and watch the garden grow... I could not figure out if there is anything else to do...
You can probably make a better one next time though :)
Very good art and presentation! Kinda sad to be honest, but I guess that's part of the atmosphere!
Hope everything's going ok! I'll bet it's hard to explore these kinds of genres.
Yeah I actually found myself getting a little moody while working on this haha, but it also felt therapeutic. Thank you for playing! :)
I really like the presentation. It fits well with what u r trying to convey here.
One thing though, I really don't know if I was playing it right or wrong, as the issues keep increasing no matter what I do, Is it by design?
Thank you! And yes it's by design :) Depending on how you pick the activities you can either stop the growth of one plant, or reduce the growth of two. In hindsight, we could've played around a bit more with the values, along with making it more clear what each activity does xP
Yeah that would have been more clear to the player.
We're going to update the game afterwards to fix some issues, so perhaps then we'll play around with making it more clear :)
I dislike the idea because it might make some people affirm their depressed mental state and mental loop. Not fun at all and less of a game than an interactive experience. Just made me sad
That's fair, thanks for the input. Kodey and I both are very familiar with mental illness as it’s been an ongoing struggle in our lives, and this game is a way to reflect our experiences. But I totally get how it could make others uncomfortable.
Such a tragic but true illustration
Thank you so much for playing our game on stream! :)
Some amazing graphics, circling purely on one idea, being able to execute it perfectly, allowing for more features and a gradual build up of out-of-control-ness!
That's a good point, thank you :)
Very unique idea which is very well executed. The music and art was simply beatiful. Really well done game.
Thank you! :)
Relevant themes for these times, and is very unique compared to other games from the jam! Great game!
Thanks! ^_^
This was definitely a unique experience. The aesthetic worked well. Probably not my style of game, but I still found it interesting. Overall a cool submission.
I'm glad you still found it interesting, thank you! ^_^
Not my kind of game, but I did find it interesting, and it definitely did a good job of conveying a narrative.
Thank you :D