Post by acgaudette in Off the Vine comments

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the time flies by. looked at the trophy and was surprised to see I had been playing for 40 mins! the pacing is rather slow but I suspect this was intentional and I enjoy it. the bug menace at no point seems to be a real threat, but that seems in line with their authentic bugness: something that feels overwhelmingly annoying and frustrating without the capacity of actually ending your life.

the beetles in particular were like this. most of the time you can completely ignore them, but as soon as a berry spawns you immediately have to deal with them. using the berries as a kind of honeypot was fun.

acgaudette3 years ago(+1)

what I really like about this game is the verticality, and the persistent evolution of space. being at the top of the world is great. the vine does a pretty good job of feeling like a live entity. the transformation from early game to endgame is significant, both mechanically and spatially--you can do more things and reach more places.

note I didn't actually finish the game--I capped out at the fourth berry. the game was beginning to feel a bit monotonous, but maybe this is what vine farming is supposed to feel like. certainly scaling in the direction of automation and uber hoses seemed like the right design choice. I could see myself growing a vine empire. definitely more than enough content for 7dfps.

acgaudette3 years ago(+1)

minor notes. the sounds were hilarious and I liked them a lot. the particle effects were very cool, leaning more into that vibe would be neat. I really struggled at first with the platforming--it seemed punishing in exactly the wrong kind of way until I realized the 'trick' to levitating up the vine mesh without falling is just to follow the spiral. more feedback for when your hose sucks and when it doesn't is needed. since the game doesn't seem loseable, the difficulty setting seems somewhat redundant--perhaps it should be adaptive? just rambling thoughts. I had a good time.

dean_sick3 years ago(+1)

What thoughtful and kind feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed your time with it! I’m especially glad the audio made you laugh

I think a lot of the less-good things you point out are things we came to realize in the making: bugs were a late addition and didn’t get nearly as much design time (my fault specifically) and that in the end-game there’s some diminishing value to a lot of early-game activities/being on the ground at all. I think we might expand on things in the future, but it’s edifying to get this feedback.

I need to take a run through a bunch of the other 7dfps games, yours in particular looks rad as hell!

itch.io

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