Play here. This is sadly more of a prototype than a finished product, but I intended to have more objects to interact with and ways to combine objects to get different endings. Also missing is a lot of the dialogue explaining why it’s called a tree of happiness, but it had to be cut due to lack of time. Sorry :\ (Also flash obnoxiously would not let me import my background music, so you get some awkward silence instead….)
Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but when I clicked the help button there didn’t seem to be any result. You said this was a prototype, so I’m not sure how far you got in developing it. I like the dreamy aesthetic.
All the motions that are outlined in the help should work. Just in case other people get confused:
When there is no “help in the upper right corner just click things to continue. If there’s dialogue, click to continue it. If there is a help the possible actions you can perform will pop up. If you return after that and try performing the action, the game should continue. Sorry about that D:
The visuals are really beautiful. They remind me of a happy version of Limbo. I found the dialogue portion a bit slow, and think the game might’ve worked better with no text at all.
Very pretty, but could maybe use a tiny bit more contrast– it’s hard for me to see where the objects in the water are.
The visuals are very nice. I enjoy games with such ‘profiling’ qualities. The dialogue is iffy. I think that the game may be best served without it? I don’t know as it is a prototype.
I absolutely love the art, and the animation is super cute. The help button didn’t appear until after I figured out that you had to click on the items – I think it would be better if it appeared right after the dialogue finished. I think some of the buttons are broken as well because when I clicked on the help menu once it wouldn’t let me return to the game, and at other times I couldn’t click help at all.
Other than that, you did a really good job coding in the mouse actions (like certain movements for reeling things in/opening the jar/etc) and the sound effects were cool too.
I actually know what the problem with that is. The help and return buttons are coded as MovieClips when they should be Buttons, meaning that they only register when you click directly on the writing rather than in the general area of the button. I tried to fix that, but everything started breaking when I did so I just left it. So basically: KEEP CLICKING TO FIX.
Very sweet and cute world. It would be nice if you can make the clickable areas bigger.
Your aesthetic is really well developed, and I’m really digging this dream state the characters are in. I can see how this would look as a finished product and I think if you do get around to finishing it, it would be really interesting to play.
Took me a fair amount of maniacal clicking to see what would respond, but a very pleasant game 😀
i loved the art! and as jess said, the fact that you have have to drag to reel in the flower is really cool. i hope you finish this one day.
As everyone said, the graphics are really beautiful. I disagree with those who don’t like the dialogue; I think it helps to set up the storyline and I wouldn’t necessary understand the personification of the tree without it. Keep working at it!
To me, the text doesn’t look very cohesive to the rest of the game right now. Might help if you change the font. I experienced the same problem everyone else did with the help button. Great color palette, though.
I think it is a pretty good start, like everyone else I like the aesthetics, it is very beautiful and I like the premise. Brings me back to my childhood of the giving tree. I am on the fence right now about the text. It is a bit jarring compared to the rest of the aesthetics, and I myself was not really all that interested in what was being said. If you could maybe condense it down that might be better.
Nice design and sequence. Some serious usability issued. If you have to put an “help” screen on such a simple short scenario you know there’s something wrong.
I also feel like having a help button is either cheating or your game is that hard that you have to include instructions. However, once the help button told me what to do it seemed really intuitive.
The help button helped, but Paolo made a good point. Definitely would want to see what you meant for it to be.