A downloadable game

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

Bloom v1.1 Major Update is out now!

This major update features a large amount of new story content, a new "chill mode" for listening to music, unlockable phone backgrounds, new collectables, new flowers, updated art, and more! This is available now on Catalog, or as a free update if you already own the game here on Itch. 

Update instructions & changelog

What is Bloom?

Bloom is a real-time narrative-driven social sim about starting up a flower shop made exclusively for Playdate. Tend to Midori's garden while texting friends and family as she starts a new chapter of her life. The game takes place over many real-life days.

  • Respond to texts and tend to your garden in real time.
  • Check in over the course of many real-world days to see Midori's story unfold.
  • Experience a changing environment including a day/night and weather system.
  • Go for high scores in the arcade-style minigame and acquire daily collectibles.
  • Enjoy a relaxing lofi-inspired soundtrack as you play.

Bloom is available now!

Bloom's Original Soundtrack is available now on Itch! It is also up on streaming platforms.


About Us

We are RNG Party Games, a 3-person indie studio. Support us on Patreon or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on Bloom and all of our future Playdate games. Or, come hang out with us over on our Discord.


Accessibility

Bloom has an Accessibility Mode designed to aid players that may struggle using the crank or pressing multiple buttons at once. In this mode, crank input will also work by holding the d-pad left or right. Your flower selection on the roof will also advance with a single tap of the B button.

You can enable Accessibility Mode in the settings app (gear icon) in the game's phone menu. Here you may also turn on Minigame Autofire to avoid repeated button presses in the Starshooter Hoshiko minigame. Note: the intro section of Bloom has Accessibility Mode features always enabled.

Accessibility is important to us -- if you have any feedback about this please let us know!


Install Instructions

There are multiple ways to sideload Bloom onto your Playdate, detailed by Panic's official instructions here.


Content Information: While unrated, we consider Bloom to have content similar to that of a T (Teen) ESRB rated game. This includes moderate use of profanity, mild references to alcohol and cigarettes, and general themes aimed at a teenage or older audience.

Updated 23 days ago
StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(74 total ratings)
AuthorRNG Party Games
GenreSimulation, Visual Novel
Tags1-bit, Dating Sim, Farming, Idle, Life Simulation, Lo-fi, Ludum Dare 49, Playdate, Real-Time

Purchase

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Bloom-v1.1.1.pdx.zip 58 MB

Development log

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 68 · Next page · Last page

I would like to know does the main character have any relationship with anyone because i am not into any romantic games or is it just her and her family and friends 😊

Yes, there is a prominent romantic relationship as part of the story

If you have a playdate. Buy it!

My money suddenly went down to 0 yen while picking flowers... Weird. I had about 1 bil. Glitch?

Deleted 175 days ago
(+1)

Hi, there is a section of the story where this happens, so your game is likely working as intended.

The discord invite should be https://discord.gg/BWW9YNF

Deleted 177 days ago
(+2)

Just a wholesame experience. I need more of it - plllleeeaaase 🥹

(+4)

Overall, I also really like the game and don't regret buying it. But I also feel with some minor improvements it could be even much better. I also think it's a pity that characters responses like "good morning / evening" going to school etc. don't match with the real lifetime with destroys immersion a bit. The gardening could imo be a bit more complex and be integrated to the story. Once, they even mention that the company wants a particular flower, and it would have been cool if you would need to plant this flower. It also doesn't make so much sense story wise that Midori is annoyed that she has to pay back 200k to their parents when I already had like 10 million on my account. And the loading times! It almost takes 40s to boot up the game, which is not so great for a game you like to pick up for only some minutes at a time. But like I said all in all a great game and a cute little story! 

(+1)

congrats to the whole team - this game is really good. I played twice the whole game.  For v1.1 you mention that there are new characters at the end, what are they ? I am not sure I am seeing this new content. Thank you ! 

https://itch.io/jam/itchio-indie-gala-2023-bundle-submissions-

Do you want to join?

Deleted 142 days ago

Hi, please follow Panic's instructions to load the game: https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/
If you're still having issues we can try to help.

So, I finished the game when the Playdate first came out and was really surprised and exited to see an update. Do I have to start over from the beginning to play the update?  Not that I mind playing the game again, I just put a lot of time into my first run and I'd like to continue that playthrough.


Please make more games like Bloom. Best game on Playdate by far.

Thanks! You can use the same save file, see the instructions here: https://rngpartygames.itch.io/bloom/devlog/499006/bloom-v11-major-update

(+1)

Thank you for the instructions!

Just FYI, I tried doing this on a Windows PC and the computer stroked out. Tried again on macOS and worked perfectly!

Looking forward to the update, again PLEASE make more games.

(+1)

We will certainly be making more Playdate games!! <3

(1 edit) (+1)(-1)

"For web sideloading: simply upload the new zip file and your Playdate will automatically patch the game." I can tell you that it does not work in this way if you downloaded the game originally before February of 2023. 

(+3)(-1)

There's a giant big blurb on the sideload page with instructions for how to copy your save file over to the new format if you played before Feb 2023. https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/#duplicate-games

(2 edits) (+2)

Sorry about that and thanks for bringing this to our attention! We've updated the post with more thorough instructions.

(1 edit) (+4)(-1)

I’m on the fence about this one. The description is clear enough: this is a social sim. You watch characters type messages to each other. It does a great job of getting you to come back and follow along with the story. But there is not much more to it, and I’m feeling meh about it. Guess it’s not my genre. Regardless, I wish it would load in a few seconds max. The actual load time is 38 seconds. That is a very long time for a game that you want to play every day for several weeks to follow along with the story.

I love the music. Great in atmosphere, very fitting. Props to Pichuscute who made it.

Props for giving thought to accessibility as well.

I would recommend this to people who like social sims. For others, it might be fun to try this as part of a bundle or discount. At the moment, it is still sold at full price.

(+3)

While I can see some room for improvement, I liked the game a lot! I would have wished for the gardening part to have an impact on the story part. Is there any way to start a new game without deleting the savegame? My girlfriend would like to play the game too but I would prefer not to lose my progress.

Looking forward to your next game!

(+6)(-1)

I felt like Bloom was a big breakout hit for the Playdate in that it was one of the only worthwhile homebrew games that could compete quality wise with the games available in season 1. I felt justified in paying $10 for this game with compelling characters and story. That was at least until I got to the ending. The game builds to what should be a grand finale and yet falls on its face with a rushed ending that in no way closes out the story arc for any of the characters that have been introduced. You really get the feeling that the developers ran out of time as the ending of the game was being made. I'm very disappointed in this game and no longer believe it's worth the $10 it goes for. 

(+5)

Loved it till the end since it feels like the story was cut in half. I give it a 5/10 since well... the story was cut in half.

(+2)

Wondering what happened to that update teased back in May.

(+3)

The best game on Playdate.

A genuinely astonishing bit of work.

Part visual novel, part gardening sim. You play as Midori, a university drop out who has opted to start a flower business. 

The game unfolds via text messages in semi-real time. You grow and harvest flowers, all with their own timers for seeding, watering, picking, etc, and each time you check back in to the game, snippets of conversation appear in a messaging app on your in-game phone. It's not quite real time, in that messages come through after time has passed as opposed to at set times, but with a little suspension of disbelief it still works great. 

Most effective are the way the writing handles events: texts that lead up to an off-screen event, then texts that cover what did or didn't happen at said event after the fact. It's an incredibly immersive way of framing things.  

The game deals with Midori's relationships with her partner, friends, and parents alongside her business, and there were moments of real gravity in the way these conversations were handled. The art is great, the writing is superlative, the music is a lovely set of lo-fi beats, and the structure of plant, water, chat, wait, repeat fits the little handheld incredibly well.

A beautiful thing.

Does anyone know the score tiers that lead to further texts with the competitive guy? (Sorry, I don't have my Playdate at hand to find his name.) I think the last time he wrote was when I broke 1000 pts. Are there any tiers above that?

(+2)

Will there ever be translation for playdate games? I wish I could share this with someone who isn't comfortable with english.

(1 edit) (+1)

Sadly, this game was a bit too rooted in the english language for us to viably translate it in the time we had, but it's something we're always considering for our projects. Hopefully we'll be able to try it in the future.

(+1)

Je peux traduire en français pour vous. Tu sais où me trouver maintenant ^^

(+2)

Just finished the game this evening. Absolutely loved it from start to finish! Was occasionally a bit frustrated with how Midori treated others but it in no way took away from how addictive it was waiting to uncover the next part of her story. One of my favourite gaming experiences this year and would recommend to anyone on the fence. Took about 3-4 weeks to complete the story, checking back daily.

(+3)

I feel like the ending was a big anti-climax. All the story beats just wrapped fast.

(+1)

I also felt that Midori came across as a bit selfish and entitled. I couldn't take to her at all.

(+5)(-9)

Look cool, but price seems a bit steep, so will wait for a sale to get it.

(+2)

I absolutely love this game!! Now that I've finished it, I miss playing it regularly. What are the chances that you can add the soundtrack video that you all made as a mode to the game? I would LOVE to have the 1 bit visual from the video with the soundtrack playing in the background while I have my playdate open on my desk  :)

(1 edit) (+1)

Just bought the game and started playing. Very good narrative and frankly a bit addictive :)  I am having trouble with the graphics though which are very small - maybe my eyesight isn't the best but I need to use mirror to play.  A few things that could be done to increase size of graphics would be to have the right sidebar accessible via the menu. And reduce the size of the phone to show the apps only. Thanks.

(+2)

My favourite Playdate game right now. Loving the concept. The only thing that is a bit off for me is that it's not really real time so events happen at weird real time of the day (I thought it was a bug at first because it doesn't match the description of the game). Hope to see a Bloom 2 with that fixed :)

(+3)

Not sure what to say without overly praising or overly simplifying. Bottom line: one of the top 10 electronic experiences of my year. Played on vacation and somehow remember this game more clearly than my physical location at the time. Adorably engrossing stuff.

(+2)

There seems to be hitching issues, is there some way I can get a debug log of my game to forward to y'all?

It seems to occur after resuming from sleep, when I'm on the upper floor with the flowers, and it's raining. I'm forced to go Home and reload the game entirely.

Otherwise lovely and beautiful game, great work :D

(+1)

Thanks! It's an issue we're already aware of. Reloading the game solves it for now. We'll likely be able to look at the issue sometime soon, but no clue yet if it's something solve-able.

(+1)

Just finished it. It was quite an enjoyable experience. It left me wanting more, but I guess thats a good thing :)

When I tried to install the game on Itch.io, it tells me 'Cannot read property 'build' of undefined'. Is there a way to resolve this problem considering I paid for the game and would love to play it?

Thanks for letting us know. This error has occurred before when Panic's servers were having issues, and it appears to us that may be the situation again...

(1 edit) (+2)

Fantastic little game that keeps me coming back to dig up my flowers and see what messages I've missed! Also really like the mini game, which helps pass the time while my flowers are blooming.

Only real niggle I have is that I don't find Midori a particularly likeable character.  I won't spoil anything for those that have yet to play it, but I just think she comes across as a bit entitled. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but I can't take to her. Perhaps it's maybe because I'm a little older than she is portrayed to be, but I just can't relate to her or her world view. Also, the game isn't fully "real-time". Sure there's a clock on display which is nice but sometimes people's actions don't tie in with the actual time of day - such as going to college at 11pm, and going to bed at 3pm? It just feels a little...off.


However, that doesn't spoil the overall experience. The use of the crank is thoughtful and there's enough to keep me coming back just to see the story develop (and for me to earn a ton of money :))


I'm glad I made this my first "bought" game for my Playdate, and I can't wait to see what RNG have in store for us next :)

(+1)

Hands down my favorite game on any mobile platform right now. When my playdate arrived, I didn't expect to be picking it up multiple times a day to check in on my messages and tend to my garden. What a delightful experience.

(+2)(-1)

Best game on playdate, that I've found, and I'm on itch and dev forum. The writing feels super authentic. I'd love a series of these with different slices of life. Needs ported to PC officially so I can recommend it to even more people.

Echoing some comments -

Minigame. The characters talk like I should get a certain score in the minigame but no clue what it is? If this is just to get me to play more it could use an update. Maybe less "mansplaining" and more the developer of the game is on a similar life path, then I'd know to play and enjoy it as much as possible.

The apartment has nothing to do. Thematically I kind of get it, but I don't even see evidence of the story. Or even buy decorations. Like after the sake episode you could buy a sake cup set that shows in the apartment.

Dialogue doesn't match time. Sometimes I'm telling characters goodnight at 7am. Maybe dialog should be more dynamic to the clock when you open the convo. (The same line where it says "goodnight" could be "(yawn) I need a nap". Etc.

Oh and a second save slot so I could show people the intro / new game when I want, would rule.

so I've played this for a couple of days and it's been raining, how long do I need to wait for my dandelions to grow? Is it going to be obvious when they're ready to get harvested?

(+1)

It will be extremely obvious, and shouldn't take too long ... half an hour if I remember correctly? You can't accidentally wreck them anyway if you try early. (Just use the shovel.)

As you unlock more types of flowers they generally take longer to grow, proportional to their cost.

Easily one of the best games on the play date at the moment and could have totally headlined season 1’s subscription service.  

I would have liked an option to speed up the text messages a bit because some conversations drag on. 

The mini game was a game in itself and it would have been cool to see that get fleshed out a bit more with conversations.  

The gardening is simple and effective and it would have been cool to be able to buy more things for your apartment/store.  Other than that this was an exceptionally well made and executed game and I hope to see more games like this on the play date

(+2)

What is the 'global' high score I'm shooting for on the Starshooter Hoshiko minigame?  It might be helpful to have the 'global' score listed somewhere or embedded within a conversation.  

Bloom is BY FAR my favorite game on the Playdate, and the natural writing style propels it towards one of my favorite games of all time.  Thank you for making such a fun and beautiful game!

(1 edit) (+1)

i like it..bloom has a nice artstyle and the bgm is  lovely 

(+1)

I enjoyed this a lot! It's like a Japanese slice of life movie slowly unfolding via text messages.

I absolutely love everything about this game. Since I got this game almost a week ago it has been my frequent return to when I unlock the playdate. Everything about this game feels so fleshed out and just operates so pleasingly. I definitely look forward to what comes for Bloom and from RNG Party Games. For me a 10/10.

Hello. Would it be possible for you to release this on PC?

(+1)

you can play this on the Playdate Simulator included in the Playdate SDK if you're so inclined (although this kind of experience is better on the console IMO).

Thank you! I'm not from the west so It's not practical for me to buy the unit.

(+1)

Gorgeous video game. Charms the pants off me so far, inspiring work.

(+1)

Definitely one of the best games on the playdate and easily one of my top games of the year so far. A chill charming game that brought a good story and chill gardening every time I open my system. Worth every penny.

(+1)

I kept seeing people discuss Bloom and finally opted to pick it up and everyone swooning about this game was absolutely on point. The mix of lofi beats and a slow burn story playing out via text messages just feels so fresh and fun. 

The writing has been top notch up to the point I am and it's such a great blend of various genres (gardening/visual novel) with that rad Asteroids clone, this is just a world I want to keep on living in. 

Can't wait to see where the story goes and being able to experience the inward and outward feelings of Midori. <3

Thanks for checking it out!!

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 68 · Next page · Last page