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Reviews for "Blooming"

cant get over to that second platform..
instructions definitely need to be clearer.. I drop a petal, float across, and hit the wall, and fall down.. why.. am I supposed to drop more than one pedal for more float? I noticed I can gain lift.. why isnt that explained? are the vases for display? at first I was trying to drop a pedal in it.. why isnt there, some ledge forgiveness? I tried to clear the second gap with a run-jump.. no good.. why do I have to wait out the whole plucking animation to move forward.. does this play into a fight or flight mechanic later on?

How do I clear that second jump.

HealliesGames responds:

Hi! If you are referring to the tutorial stage, while you're on blue flower power, you can move up and down.

So, you need to take the petal and hold up to float.
Also taking the petal while jumping can give more height.

And yes, vases are aesthetic. Except those you will see later.

I love the idea of a power-based platformer based on stationed pickups like this, and I really want to adore it with the combined aesthetic, but a lot of the layouts seem to just pluck my petals the wrong way, so to speak - at least, later on.

Some of the game's assets are introduced in a poor or outright mean way. The closing gates are completely unmarked until they've closed on you once, which can lead to deaths and resets that were unnecessary. The red petal is introduced with three coin jars - which is a fine challenge, but could've been taught better in a safer environment such as the challenge directly after this.

Beasts make sense to have as well, giving a mobile obstacle and even a full boss from what the changelog says, but their use demands near pixel perfected timing. As of this review, I'm stuck at the duo where the top requests perfect timing to pluck the red flower and just barely escape, while the bottom is blocked halfway by a door where you'd have to force a death reset if you fell down without a flower anyways; I'll admit to being dumb for some challenges, but this is just very tight timing.

Maybe in a future game you could work on layouts, because I wouldn't wish anyone to have to work on the same project over and over. The yellow flower's usage is probably a good highlight to show the better parts of this game's ideas, and was my favorite section of gameplay; It's a simple idea, but it's made to combo well with other petals and the terrain around it nudges the player towards the solution amazingly.

HealliesGames responds:

In the part where you got stuck, you don't need to time the beast to take the red flower because a little further on, there's a door which can be used to block its pattern.

I thought it might be a cute puzzle, but of course you don't have the slightest clue to understand it and, as you say, the doors would have been better if they were visible.

The whole difficulty was a combination of factors:
make it longer lasting (although it was a game for a jam), and then show the heart of puzzles, unfortunately without giving to the player the time to settle down.

I'm very sorry for making it so inaccessible.
Thanks anyway for appreciating the idea and for the feedback, V1ral!

If I have to come back with a puzzle game, I will try not to repeat the same mistakes.

oof hard btw next time use WASD to control your character

kind of hard to thing to control...

The spacebar movement is inconsistent, sometimes it works, but never does when jumping. A little clarity would be helpful.

EDIT: Sorry, that doesn't clarify anything. Still can't use spacebar when jumping, which you need to do to get on the second platform.

After another explanation by the author, the movement mechanic is clearly poorly designed.
Allow jump while plucking a flower petal, problem solved.

HealliesGames responds:

Hi,
the small tutorial show that you can release the petal when you're not in air.
It is a desired thing.

EDIT:
Level design doesn't allow to launch the petal during the flight, however I have made that you can now slightly move with the blue flower.
Thanks for the feedback.