I love this game so much! I discovered it after I'd had my playdate a while, but it's one of those I come back to pretty much every day, it's so chill and adorable but also real and emotional at times.
One qol improvement I'd like to see would be the ability to use the crank in the shop. Maybe scroll through flowers with crank, and holding b increases the quantity with the crank or something? At the very least increasing the quantity would save my right dpad a ton XD and maybe being able to use it to scroll through the contacts as well before selecting the conversation? Just my 2 cents, I love the game and love the current crank implementation but always like to see more :)
bloom has an atmosphere that is simply unmatched on the playdate, and whether or not you agree with the characters choices, the game does a great job at telling the story. so people complaining about the price, ive spent easily over 9hrs in this game and iwll still pick it up from time to time just to be back in the setting... so $10? Heck yeah! this game is a gem! cant wait to get more from the dev!
I loved Coffee talk on steam and was hoping if it's possible to get something like it on the playdate. Bloom reminded me a lot about it. Doing your plant chores while having the conversations with other people and getting into this story.
Without the "outro" i would've been annoyed about midoris behaviour especially with her parents. The ignoring of reading the word "borrowing" the money and the lack of communication about her relationship that just gets her in more problems later on. But i think that's how it is sometimes in our lives.
What was crazy is that i learned two things for my personal life from the game:
financial i did the same ingame as i do with my own company. I always buy and sell stuff without getting something to the side to invest. If the game had any part where her harvest would be destroyed i wouldn't have anything in my savings. So i started a investment plan in my own life while playing. :) Thx for that.
i learned something from how everyone communicated while texting. I normaly just get to the point and never chit-chat. But i think i'll try that from now on if it's possible or good for the conversation.
Hope we are getting anything similar soon again on the playdate! <3
I wanted so badly to like this game, and on the whole, I do think I had an enjoyable experience. It was pleasant coming back to my Playdate throughout the day to check in on my flowers and texts, because it gave me something small to look forward to whenever I had a moment of free time. Unfortunately, everything else about it feels like fumbled bag.
I found Midori to be an extremely frustrating character who is given several chances to develop, mature, and improve, but for the most part, she just...doesn't. I can't go into details without entering spoiler territory, but the writers seem to be very conflict-averse. Midori has some serious flaws that she needs to work on (how dismissive she is of her parents, shutting down communication when the going gets tough), but the story does very little to actually address them - she's not allowed to grow at all, especially in regards to her relationship with her parents. The ending feels sudden, half-baked, and SO thoroughly unearned. That said, the writer says outright that this is their first time writing a story, which makes some of these issues easier to understand.
As for the gameplay, the garden is SUPER cute, but I have no idea if it actually affects progression at all. I kept hoping the game would give me more reasons to make money beyond buying garden upgrades/more flowers, but it never did.
My gripes aside, I am looking forward to what the studio releases next. They have the potential to craft something real special, so I would love to see them stick the landing next time.
Also, I think it's funny that they used Pixie's art from SMT/Persona for the Horoscope icon lol.
EDIT: I just saw that there's a post-game story. Will update my review after clearing the new content!
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 😊
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!
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 !
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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 :)
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.
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
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.
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...
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 :)
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I love this game so much! I discovered it after I'd had my playdate a while, but it's one of those I come back to pretty much every day, it's so chill and adorable but also real and emotional at times.
One qol improvement I'd like to see would be the ability to use the crank in the shop. Maybe scroll through flowers with crank, and holding b increases the quantity with the crank or something? At the very least increasing the quantity would save my right dpad a ton XD and maybe being able to use it to scroll through the contacts as well before selecting the conversation? Just my 2 cents, I love the game and love the current crank implementation but always like to see more :)
bloom has an atmosphere that is simply unmatched on the playdate, and whether or not you agree with the characters choices, the game does a great job at telling the story. so people complaining about the price, ive spent easily over 9hrs in this game and iwll still pick it up from time to time just to be back in the setting... so $10? Heck yeah! this game is a gem! cant wait to get more from the dev!
OMG Thx for this gem!
I loved Coffee talk on steam and was hoping if it's possible to get something like it on the playdate. Bloom reminded me a lot about it. Doing your plant chores while having the conversations with other people and getting into this story.
Without the "outro" i would've been annoyed about midoris behaviour especially with her parents. The ignoring of reading the word "borrowing" the money and the lack of communication about her relationship that just gets her in more problems later on. But i think that's how it is sometimes in our lives.
What was crazy is that i learned two things for my personal life from the game:
So i started a investment plan in my own life while playing. :)
Thx for that.
Hope we are getting anything similar soon again on the playdate! <3
I wanted so badly to like this game, and on the whole, I do think I had an enjoyable experience. It was pleasant coming back to my Playdate throughout the day to check in on my flowers and texts, because it gave me something small to look forward to whenever I had a moment of free time. Unfortunately, everything else about it feels like fumbled bag.
I found Midori to be an extremely frustrating character who is given several chances to develop, mature, and improve, but for the most part, she just...doesn't. I can't go into details without entering spoiler territory, but the writers seem to be very conflict-averse. Midori has some serious flaws that she needs to work on (how dismissive she is of her parents, shutting down communication when the going gets tough), but the story does very little to actually address them - she's not allowed to grow at all, especially in regards to her relationship with her parents. The ending feels sudden, half-baked, and SO thoroughly unearned. That said, the writer says outright that this is their first time writing a story, which makes some of these issues easier to understand.
As for the gameplay, the garden is SUPER cute, but I have no idea if it actually affects progression at all. I kept hoping the game would give me more reasons to make money beyond buying garden upgrades/more flowers, but it never did.
My gripes aside, I am looking forward to what the studio releases next. They have the potential to craft something real special, so I would love to see them stick the landing next time.
Also, I think it's funny that they used Pixie's art from SMT/Persona for the Horoscope icon lol.
EDIT: I just saw that there's a post-game story. Will update my review after clearing the new content!
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?
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
Just a wholesame experience. I need more of it - plllleeeaaase 🥹
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!
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?
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
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.
We will certainly be making more Playdate games!! <3
"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.
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
Sorry about that and thanks for bringing this to our attention! We've updated the post with more thorough instructions.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Wondering what happened to that update teased back in May.
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?
Will there ever be translation for playdate games? I wish I could share this with someone who isn't comfortable with english.
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.
Je peux traduire en français pour vous. Tu sais où me trouver maintenant ^^
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.
I feel like the ending was a big anti-climax. All the story beats just wrapped fast.
I also felt that Midori came across as a bit selfish and entitled. I couldn't take to her at all.
Look cool, but price seems a bit steep, so will wait for a sale to get it.
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 :)
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.
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 :)
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.
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
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.
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...
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 :)