Could use some basic directions or labels

[Pumathang]

First impressions are that this could be really fun or interesting, but I'm basically clicking around at random, with no idea what anything is called or does. There's a progress bar of some kind in the bottom left, but I'm not sure how to interpret it. What's the round thing in the bottom center? A seed? Can you just stick the little signs anywhere, or are some places more "ideal" than others?

Is each little square in the beginning a "level" that you only get to click once or twice before moving on? I see they get progressively bigger, but if each little square was supposed to teach you something, like a mini-tutorial, I have no idea what I was supposed to pick up on.

And... what's the stuff that appears in the bottom right after a few scenes? It looks like a card you can click on, but I'm not sure what to do with it. The pixelized style is cool but I'm having trouble making sense of what the interface represents. A little text popup, tooltip, or label when you hover on something might help.

I don't mean this to sound negative, especially if "figuring it out" is supposed to be part of the experience... these are just the thoughts of someone who picked it up and started playing because I was intrigued by the screenshots and basic description on the store page. (I try not to research TOO much before buying something, and I don't like googling tutorials because I don't want to spoil the experience.)

I haven't played for very long, and it sounds like things will start to make sense if you play for a while... but it's hard to experiment if you can't really tell whether you're supposed to be doing something positive (or if it's even possible to do something "bad" in terms of progress). I'll keep playing, though... because it's unexpected and different, which makes it more interesting than all those generic copycat games out there recycling the same old ideas. Overall I'm enjoying it anyway. :)

[American Dove Mitten]

To play the game:

Place any plant on the ground (some can only be on flat surface, others can be anywhere)

Place any object next to a plant to make it grow, but don't break the branches or the root.

When it grows big enough you can collect seeds that charge your card. When it is full you can get a new plant based on the card that you selected, or you can take water and grow existing plants.

The progress bar seems to be based on the amount of plant coverage, but I am not 100% if that is the only thing. Like, I don't think it's about how many seeds you have, but how much actual growth you have.

[Fletcher]

Originally posted by American Beetle:

The progress bar seems to be based on the amount of plant coverage, but I am not 100% if that is the only thing. Like, I don't think it's about how many seeds you have, but how much actual growth you have.

Noio explained on discord that its the amount of "green" in the picture rendered from 8 different angles. If you want to get technical that is. So the more space you can fill with plants the further the bar progresses.

[Pumathang]

Hmm... I had finally settled on the strategy of placing objects near enough to the plant that some of the branches got knocked off (without kicking the whole plant off the surface) and that would somehow encourage the other side of the plant to grow and sprout flowers. I've advanced mainly by planting the plants close together and stacking objects like tires, cones, and shopping carts in the center... which seems to have worked some far.

The only time I ran into serious issues was when I was given no objects to start with, so the plant never grew until about the tenth try (even though I planted it in the same spot I had previously tried once or twice). *Shrugs*

[Pumathang]

I have three different plants so far, and the only real strategy I have is to plant the ground plant when I have lots of ground objects, and the two vine plants when I have hanging road signs... lol.

[Fletcher]

Originally posted by Pumathang:

I have three different plants so far, and the only real strategy I have is to plant the ground plant when I have lots of ground objects, and the two vine plants when I have hanging road signs... lol.

Its by no means a difficult game, and that is by design. If you're wanting a challenging puzzle experience then unfortunately this is not the game for that. However you're right that is a good basic strategy.

[Pumathang]

Originally posted by SmileOnSpeedDial:

Originally posted by Pumathang:

I have three different plants so far, and the only real strategy I have is to plant the ground plant when I have lots of ground objects, and the two vine plants when I have hanging road signs... lol.

Its by no means a difficult game, and that is by design. If you're wanting a challenging puzzle experience then unfortunately this is not the game for that. However you're right that is a good basic strategy.

I'm not a fan of challenging puzzle games because I'm generally playing games for entertainment or to de-stress. I like things that are immersive enough to take my mind off of things, but won't leave me feeling frustrated or stressed out. This one's actually pretty good for de-stressing once you figure it out, but it certainly didn't feel like it for the first hour or so. Ideally I would have preferred to skip the period of random clicking and frustration if there were some basic in-game directions, but I'm sure some people like to figure it out on their own, too. Maybe there could be an optional tutorial added in the future? That way players could skip it if they prefer a "Let me figure it out on my own" route.

[Noio Games]

We can definitely elaborate on the tutorial.

I feel like there is still a lot we can do before we need to resort to having a bunch text.

One of the core problems will be explaining the principle of "coverage" without using a big wall of text (the meter fills as the level looks more green). This is something we've struggled with throughout development, but we will keep working on it.