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Fairy Village's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #15 | 3.864 | 4.000 |
| Theme | #23 | 3.657 | 3.786 |
| Originality | #24 | 3.657 | 3.786 |
| Overall | #29 | 3.232 | 3.345 |
| Audio | #29 | 2.760 | 2.857 |
| Controls | #38 | 2.829 | 2.929 |
| Fun | #39 | 2.622 | 2.714 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
3.2.2
Source
It's a hot mess and I know it
Game Description
Teeny-tiny village simulator with a lot of heart; featuring fairies!
Discord Username
Piral#0316
Participation Level (GWJ)
First time participating in Godot Wild Jam
Jam Time!
Yes, first jam ever
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Comments
Wow. it looked great. But I had no idea what to do. I wish it had a tutorial to tell me what to do.
Hello, thanks for looking!
Apologies for the lack of clarity, the common theme across the comments I've received is that the information portrayal is far more convoluted than it needed to be.
I've only managed to think of potential solutions to that issue after the jam...it's possible that it all made sense to myself while I was developing it, but I hadn't quite considered the most user-friendly ways to portray information to other players.
I'd probably either direct more attention to the sticky-notes when it's relevant, or have a tutorial for the first phase of the game, which has you up and running with a basic town by the time it starts picking up.
I was quite lost at first. There's a lot on the screen. Perhaps a tutorial that highlights parts and shows what's what. I know it's a time limited jam and that's not realistic but I mean for the future if you plan on developing this further. The graphics are top notch. I like the whole theme.
Hey there!
It definitely could benefit from a tutorial of some sort - although I feel it would be a fine line of making it not any more overbearing than the information currently is...perhaps it could highlight certain areas of the console when carrying out certain actions to show where to look and where you can find information you need?
Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed the theme as a whole!
Your idea of highlighting is the way to go!
I love the Nintendo DS that frames the whole game, it looks great! And using post-it notes is a cool idea too.
I'll admit that I felt a bit lost for what to do in game. I think the window size could stand to be a bit larger, but that's about it for complaints. You did a great job!
Glad to hear you liked the console aesthetics and information aesthetics! (although the volume of information could do with much tuning)
I initially had it so the window was resizable, which I probably could have just kept in as an option; especially considering working with the console was a curse and blessing. Maybe even a setting could work that allows the player to choose from several different "console sizes"? Kinda like how the 3DS has the standard 3DS and XL.
Thanks for playing!
I think you nailed the theme for tiny world! I like the look of the interface and the graphic a lot. The learning curve is quite steep like others have mentioned. Simply because I didn't know which note is more important to read first and where to look to see if I did anything. Adding a soundtrack might help fill in the silence a bit while the player reads and ponders what button to push?
Overall a very nice job for a first game, it's got a lot of design and details in it.
I couldn't ask for any more on my first jam than to get the theme right! Good to know that the interface and graphics manage to mesh decently, despite mostly being a hodgepodge of different resources, haha.
Yeah, the notes could probably be prioritised in some way...like, the weather notes should only be really relevant if there is a weather effect going on, the building information when you're trying to piece things together, and the information tucked away at the bottom is ironically the most important...
I had toyed with the idea of having several different tracks for the game to choose from, because having just one would be monotonous, I felt. I ended up thinking it wasn't necessary, but I can see where you're coming from and that's a good idea!
Thank you for playing!
It's a little hard to figure out what to do at first, too much text :s but the overall feeling is nice and the art/sound fx are cute and remind me of a game boy. I like the idea of different weathers affecting several aspects of the game. Nicely done
Yes, I agree that there is quite a lot of text to take in at once and I only potentially had other ideas to go about it on the last day or after the jam, oops. ^^;
I'm glad you enjoyed the overall presentation though and the weather system!
Thanks for playing!
Very neat idea! I love the cute art style, and the way it looks like a DS! So awesome. I was a little confused playing it though. It seemed like a bit of information overload right at the beginning, and I was trying to learn while stuff was happening on the screen. Also, is there a way to fullscreen the game? I couldn't find one and it was pretty small making it a bit hard to read. Great job for your first jam! Very creative
Hi there!
I'm glad you found it cute; that was my primary objective, to be honest, haha!
Apologies for the text overload, as I've replied in the comment above, I had all sorts of ideas on how I could fix this once it wasn't relevant anymore - but that's just how it goes I suppose - more knowledge for a future jam!
In another comment below, I'd discussed a possibility where text gets added gradually to the notes which I believe would work much better to have you learning on the go but not having to absorb everything right away.
At the moment, I feel like the game's style makes it look cute and simple, but all the information makes it more deceptively confusing than it should be.
Regarding the visual area of the game, it was actually more of a design decision to make it windowed only, to get across the idea of a small portable console - it also allows quests to be completed in the background more easily. If it's any consolation, I initially had information on the bottom-screen before the game started and boy was that even harder to read!
Many thanks for playing!
Cute game, and fantastic job for a first jam game (solo too??)! Fits very nicely with the theme, solid basic mechanics, and a progression that makes you want to beat the game (even if at the expense of your fairies' happiness XD)
There were a few things that confused me that I'll mention in case it's helpful: When first starting the game, I want to press "play" to start, and it took me a long time to see the "enter farm name to start" text, and ended up re-reading stickies many times to see what I was missing. There were also times I was confused why I couldn't build something, and I'm wondering if instead of sticky notes, you had the most relevant information surface in those spots? Like, the weather spot could just say "Manaflux: mana income and building costs double" when in a manaflux? And if the player builds something they're not allowed to, you could list the reason in the building tips section? Or maybe you could have helper text appear on that line of text that talks about quests? "Build more camps for a quest" could temporarily become "build more housing first"?
Anyway, awesome job!
Hello!
Yes, although I did not design any of the assets myself and I had some edits done for me, I didn't have a dedicated artist or anything like that.
Pleased to hear you enjoyed the theme and basic mechanics! I had to go through several different iterations of progression before deciding on one that I thought sorta worked. The fairies are difficult to satisfy and I think that becomes more apparent the further you go, haha.
Ah yes, I heard from a pre-jam tester that the village name entering was their bane. I'd played with the idea of having a scene that opens when the game begins, with name-entering and other information, but I didn't quite end up having the time for it; it does rather throw the naming at you, now that I think about it.
Ohh, I see the point you're making; so rather than giving information about all weathers at once, it just tells you about the current ongoing one...and if a building needs extra information, it tells you about the conditions for that particular building you're trying to place.
That makes a lot of sense!
Thank you for your constructive criticism and of course, thanks a lot for playing!
I loved the whole marketing you did, of the
crossed out advertisement, the interface in your game took me way back (is it a DS?) the way the colour changes, and the fact I could Raze all the naughty angry fairies houses, to go back to a peaceful plane...PS: I really enjoyed reading your discussion with HeroRobb below, it gives allot of insight to the whole concept.
Haha, I'm glad you appreciated my silly little advertisement; I couldn't help but imagine how back then that console advertisements were really cheesy!
Regarding the interface - I was using a Gameboy palette set for Aseprite (I'd been playing a lot of games lately that use Gameboy-themed colour schemes, so I kinda wanted to do one myself)
The console itself is actually based on the Game & Watch consoles (I got the asset here), but I adapted it to be a bit more like a DS. So in a way, I'm taking inspiration from a lot of consoles, I guess? My fondest memories are of the Gameboy-DS era.
I initially wanted to make it possible for the player to freely choose the colour palette, but then I was given the idea from a friend that I could try incorporating weather, so I saw that as an opportunity to add in colour swaps as a feature!
I'm a liiittle concerned about how you treated your fairies, but it's nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city life! They aren't ready for it yet, clearly...
Thanks for taking the time to read into the discussion below, and for checking my project out, of course!
I had a lot of interesting moments with development, trying to figure out what might work and what wouldn't, based on the theme I was trying to portray. In a way, it's a tiny world in more senses than one!
I like how you have to do all this careful planning to get to level 5, then you just have to let your fairies be permanently pissed to finish that quest haha. Very fun. The gameboy advance packaging the game is wrapped in is very cool. I got a little confused with how some of the resources worked, but quickly figured it out when I decided to read what was in front of my face and hover over the sticky notes.
Thanks for playing!
Yup they get pretty grumpy, but they'll still do their job!
I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the aesthetics, but I have to say, as much as I loved working with it...it was also one of my greatest hindrances because I had such limited space to work with, it was quite a struggle to figure out where information about playing the game could go.
It's a relief that you were able to figure things out from reading the information provided by the sticky notes - I worried that it might be too confusing and throws too much at the player.
Do you think something like a tutorial could have helped?
I think a tutorial would be great, but not entirely necessary if you think it would break the flow of the game or the feeling you're going for. When I brought up the sticky notes, it wasn't a critique of the game, but mentioning how I'm not very observant sometimes. I think the sticky notes are very cool thematically. I can imagine the person who owns this GBA figuring out unexplained mechanics in the game and leaving little sticky notes for themself on the console to reference, it would be cool to lean into that if you ask me. I'd put little doodles and notes not about the game itself, but the character who owns it. Just a thought. It really added some feel for me because it made the explanations feel diegetic and I really really appreciate that in games.
Maybe it doesn't need to be an extensive tutorial, perhaps just for level 1 it could tell the basics?
"Build a hut, now build a farm for food..." etc.
Then once you've got the basics up and running you've already got a small economy going once the tutorial ends, so you don't have to start over.
Regarding the sticky notes, that's exactly the theme I was going for!!
There's always been a game or console in our past that we played to death, and I wanted to imagine that the owner of this game had played this game a lot and perfected it to a fine art, and wanted to note down all the tips and tricks they'd noticed whilst playing the game.
So you think it could be like...as you "discover" these interactions, lines get added to the stickynotes to indicate that they're learning?
So maybe when you place houses together for the first time, something pops up saying "Note added!", prompting you to check the note to see that fairies don't like overcrowding?
I could totally see that now!
Thank you for your feedback!
Yeah! I like that idea a lot.
I loooove out of the norm tycoons, with some spacial reasoning. Very neat job!
I almost finish the fifth stage but tooked me way too long to get there.
I'm glad you liked it!
I hoped that the adjaceny bonuses would add a little more flavour than just clumping everything together willy-nilly (I mean, not that you can't, they just won't be very happy about it, haha)
I learnt the hard way with this project that balancing games is super hard! I ended up having to rework the system several times before deciding on what I've ended up with, and even then I wasn't fully convinced on the gameflow...but the code was all so deeply ingrained with itself that I just had to leave it be.
If you have any thoughts on what you think could have been done differently, I'd love to hear it!
Thank you for your time!