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Stellar Bloom's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Playability | #255 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Artistic Style | #328 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Cleverness | #1409 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- Very good GDD, I loved seeing the whole design ideas with such complex but easy to digest details. Very cool! The ideas and foundations link nicely to the game jam, and are a great interpretation of the design brief. Thoroughly enjoyed my little play through.
- This game is visually beautiful, I love the flowers and the deer. Combine that with the music and you have youself a wonderfully ethereal experience. Unfortunately the gameplay is skin-deep. Yes the gameplay is pretty but the jumping and double jumping to hope to get more stars gets a bit old after a while with no real progression outside of bigger flowers. Also there is no hint of any sort of shadow theming in the game, and alchemy can only be loosely tied into the generating of flowers. Overall, very simple, very pretty, reminds me of an interactive art piece more than a fully fledged game
- Very cute! Love the peaceful vibes.
- Soooo preeeetttttttttttyyyyy. I really have no idea what to say. It's a lovely little game that just feels good to play. Maybe some flower selection? Other then that so nice and calming to play and just a cute little time sink.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes, but you're making me nervous now...
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Stellar Bloom is a meditative infinite runner where you are a cosmic life-bringer collecting stars to seed a dark, sunless planet with new life. You transform the inert stars into a wide variety of flowers, and the number of stars collected per jump determines the size of each one. Every star-seeded planet is unique, from a chaotic forest of massive flowers to a tidy garden. All art and animations were custom-made for this jam.
How will your planet look when you're through?
Controls: Space bar for jump and double-jump
Extra Notes
I struggle with severe anxiety and panic attacks and am always looking for things to help calm me. With this game, I wanted to make something that could serve a similar function for anyone who could use some peace or needs to relax.
All the art and animations were custom made by me for the jam.
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Comments
Beautiful art and music. I thought the art style was very unique.
Thank you!
Really pretty and peaceful game that I wish was just always running in the background of my desktop. Awesome work!
Aw, that's really nice of you to say <3 Thank you for playing
First of all, love that logo! The colors, the shapes, the flower behind it, it's a very gorgeous logo! The same can be said for the title screen, with a large amount of many different pretty flowers.
I also liked the cosmic life-bringer. The way they're colored and that they have that bloom effect truly gives them sort of an ethereal feel.
The sound effects are nice and sparkly, something that fits very well with stars! The variation of the flowers and their colors is a nice attention to detail, and the fact that they're placed on multiple spots on the planet instead of just the very top is a really nice touch. The music choice was also really fitting for the objective.
It's a simple and really cute game that has a very cozy and comfortable feeling to it. I like it!
Wow thank you so much, what a sweet comment <3 <3
This is such a beautiful idea executed very well. It's very relaxing.
It might be cool if at some point you "finish" your current planet and move on to give life to a new one, with each planet having a different aesthetic. Additionally, perhaps collecting stars might create more than just flowers, like mountains, forests, rivers, etc. It'd also be awesome to be able to see full images of the planets you've finished and even save images of them to make desktop wallpapers, etc. I think there's a lot you could do with this.
I agree with everything you said! I ran out of time for different terrain and more plant variety, but eventually I want to add multiple planet types (each with their own color scheme, terrain, and plant varieties), as well as different magical creatures that have different play styles. And yes a final view of the finished planets as well. It's always nice to hear reinforcement that my bigger ambitions for the game would be welcome, thank you so so much for playing and leaving your feedback!
I love love love this concept so much! It has so much potential and I'd be excited to hear if you want to expand upon it. I do agree with another comment about the pitch of the collecting sound effect. You could do what I think Power wash Simulator does really well; they let you customise the pitch and volume of your spray to make it more pleasant.
Thank you so much for playing and giving feedback! The pitch originally matched the music key but I had to change the music at the last minute and couldn't get the sound effects to sound as harmonious as I wanted. I hope to fix that in the near future, and I hope it wasn't toooo distracting for you.
Lol no problem at all! The game is so solid that's really all I have to say as a possible critique! Thank you so much for participating and sharing your game ^_^
Thank you for sharing yours as well <3
This game is so beautiful! I found myself losing track of time and I could see playing this for extended periods any time I need to decompress. I especially love the luminescence of the deer. Great job!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it <3
Space flowers :D
So true
Very beautiful, great sound and art! Good Job!
Thank you!
This is such beautiful game, the visuals are amazing and the bgm is chill. It does a great job setting a mood. My one knit-pick is the lack of a double jump animation. For me, that's the one last piece of polish, but nonetheless a stunning chill/cozy experience. Great job!
Thank you so much for playing! Agreed on the jump animations. I ran out of time but I'd like to go back and update them.
As someone who also experiences anxiety and panic attacks, I definitely vibed with this game. One note I would add is that it might be good to add an option to make the sound effects less high pitched. As someone who suffers from sensory overload, the high pitched ringing from when the flowers bloomed made it a little harder to relax.
I appreciate the effort put into the beautiful visuals and designs of this game. It really has a calming and soothing nature to it. Not something I could see myself playing long term, but definitely a game I might keep in my back pocket for when I just need to de-stress.
Thank you so much for playing and giving feedback! The sound effects could definitely use some adjustments, after the jam I'll experiment more with those. I'm glad you found it calming at least :)
I did not expect a cozy game with the jam's themes. Good job and very creative interpretation!
The game's calm music and vibrant lights give a very peaceful vibe. This would be a good game to have on your phone to chill and relax with the soundtrack. Well done!
Thank you so much for playing! I might make it a mobile game, since a few people have suggested it. We shall see lol.
the art is amazing
Thank you!
For a first time jammer, this is amazing, really well polished.
Simple yet fashinating.
The flower are beutiful and the musics fits the mood of the game perfectly, in one word : Meditative.
GG !
Thank you very much! I'm so glad you found it meditative, that was my biggest aim!
Great game! I liked the visuals and especially the sounds and music that you put in the game making it very relaxing!
I also love the concept of being in a planet and collecting stars that are above it to grow life in it!
I would love to see more game mechanics in the game to keep things interesting, maybe some power-ups or maybe milestones that could add to the game feel without adding too much difficulty!
Thank you so much! I would have liked time to flesh out some additional mechanics, and I hope to come back and update those after the jam!
This is a beautiful and relaxing experience that I wasn't expecting in this jam, and I love it! I don't have much to say except it would be nice to have a zoom-out view of the whole planet just to admire what I have created.
Anyway, well done!!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed your experience! I'd love to add a full view of the planet at the end of each run, so I will add that to my list of changes post-jam.
Very relaxing game, lovely art and nice calming music. I had to stop myself playing :) great job!
Thank you so much!
Your game looks very nice! Lovely art! Nice job!
Thank you so much!
Super relaxing! Artwork is well made and the audiovisual feedback from collecting stars is addicting. Good job!
Thank you very much <3
This is a great relaxing game. I can see me losting hours in it after a tiring day!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Very addicting. Time flies when playing this. Nice game!
Thank you!