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.
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).
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.
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
I really enjoyed this game and would recommend it to anyone with a playdate. It was charming and very well-written, and had me pulling out my playdate several times a day just to check in. I just reached the ending, and it left me wanting more (in a good way). I suppose I could've used more depth to the gardening and more consequences to my responses, but...sometimes it's all right just to enjoy the story and the mood and not have too much else get in the way. I'm really excited to see what you make next.
edit to add: I also just want to say how impressed I am at how well your team managed to "get" the playdate right out of the gate. This is the kind of sure-footed game I'd expect to find a year or two into the device's life, not right at launch.
That's very kind of you! About your last comment: we thought a lot about what makes a Playdate game "work" during the development of Bloom. It certainly helps that we had been tinkering with the device for over a year by the time we started this game, so we were able to build it with that experience in mind. Still, we had to make a lot of assumptions about how actual players would use the device, so it's nice to see that a lot of those proved correct :) Thanks so much for playing!
Before I say much more, I loved this game. It's probably the best game on the Playdate tbh. Absolutely worth the 10 USD. That said, I have few bits of feedback to give:
- It'd be nice if there were more details on the plants via some menu of some kind (i.e. how long it takes to grow, maybe some fun facts about the flower)
- The end of the story feels very rushed. The story flow was fine and the story itself is great, but then at the end it is like everything is in a panic to bring things to resolution
- I wish there was a bit more to the flowering process. I realize doing mini games per flower would quickly become tedious, but a thought I had was maybe a flower of importance or maybe of more monetary value where you take care of that one more interactively than the others. Like a crank watering mini game where you have to give the right amount of water, or adjust its position to get in the sunlight better, something on those lines?
Regardless though, this game has had me checking on my Playdate for a solid week now begging for more of this game. Thanks to the devs for all their hard work!
I ADORE this game. When I finish my playthrough, I'm going to suggest my daughter play. Is there a way to reset progress, or would I just delete my save game?
Just bought the game to support! But I noticed as it installs that it is listed as "Bloom by 19171734867005250" which is a weird way to spell RNG Party Games ;)
I know you stated that the 1.0.8 patch is minor but now this does bring up a question. Is there a way to update a game already on the PlayDate without uninstalling the entire game and installing again? Really don't want to lose my progress even tho I've probably almost beaten the game.
As other comments have said, this is maybe the best game on Playdate so far. Its genuinely fun to check in every couple of hours and make progress. I really like the relaxing music too!
I won't go into spoilers, but I do kinda wish the dialogue changed based on where your finances are at. I already had some pretty good cash flow at the point where I was texting someone about getting some financial help which made me feel weird/bad. That is nit-picky though. This is really great, and I am very excited for Poly's Roly Rumble if that is in the works still.
Hmm, am I missing something? I just started the game, it's raining on the roof, the shovel doesn't do anything, and I've only got 500 yen which isn't enough to buy anything in the shop (except dandelions, which are specifically called out as being a weed, so I assume I don't want them?). Am I going to magically make money tomorrow when the shop opens?
Dandelions are the starting flower. You do want to buy some and plant them. You then will be able to dig them up once they grow (which auto-sells them) using the shovel.
Sorry if that description confused you. It was just meant to be a bit cheeky.
Ahhh, thank you! Yeah I couldn't figure out why there would be a weed for sale, any my rent is like 2100 so I didn't think I could waste any money buying something I couldn't sell. :)
I was in the same boat as you until after a day realizing no money was coming my way. I figured let's just buy one - plant it - see what happens. Much to my surprise when I turned a profit I felt a little silly having not tried it sooner.
I haven't yet finished it, but the story grabs me, the gardening is satisfying, the music is wonderful. What a lovely lovely game. I am so happy to get to play it, and I hope y'all make more!
This is a cute and fun game that fell short of blossoming for me.
First, I want to express what I really appreciate about this game, the overall design and attention to detail are clearly at front of mind for the developers. The game sucks you in and does a great job of providing a thoughtful and unique interface. While perhaps not the most intuitive layout it is quick to get the hang of and seamless to navigate. The soundtrack and the audio design overall are also fantastic and match the wonderful visual style expertly.
I was, however, disappointed in the simplicity of the game mechanics. The gardening simulator is very minimalist with only a planting a harvesting mechanic. Watering your flowers is only required once, and only if it's not raining. There appears to be a mechanic for the player to decide which flowers to plant based on how long they will take to grow, but without any information as to how long any of them take this is impossible to take advantage of without guessing. Additionally, the player only unlocks new flowers by playing through the story, and the gardening mechanic is more of an afterthought to gain enough money to purchase more plots for additional flowers. There is no Flower Shop related mechanic.
The story seems to unravel in "bursts" where you find yourself chatting back and forth with several characters for several real-life minutes. The game presents you with options for responses, but these options have no actual impact on the story, or even the conversation itself, and are rather an illusion of choice meant to make you feel more engaged. In short order, the conversations felt more tedious, as a means to end, than an engaging story for me. I found myself no longer paying much attention to them, as it felt like I was just reading someone else's text messages and simply wanted to unlock new flowers.
The collectibles mechanic provides a little novelty but has no impact on gameplay, it is simply a cute little item you can unlock once a day and not much else.
I hope this does not come off as harsh, and if you love narrative-heavy games this is probably worth your while. I just felt like $10 was steep for a game that does not feel like it quite comes together and leaves my interest wilting.
QOL Requests:
Some kind of "plant book" with information such as the time they take to grow and the "base" profit when harvesting.
"Notification" on your phone for when a new collectible is ready
I’m not very far into the PlayDate’s season of games, but this is such a fantastic and deep experience, with amazingly realistic conversations and thoughtfully neat uses of the crank. This might be one of the best, the breakout game, on this system!
A beautiful start for third party development! I really appreciate the unique perspective of the story, this was exactly what I was hoping for when I learned about the Playdate.
Easily worth the $10! I’m engaged in the characters and the flower business aspect is enjoyable. It’s just positive and chill, exactly what I want when I pull out the playdate for a quick 5 minute break.
Hi, just wanted to comment and say that I really, really like this game. It's moving and lovely and the music is so good. Probably my favorite playdate game so far.
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
Hey! I'm getting the same error code as some of the other people; the screen with the "attempt to index a nil value" message and then getting booted to home. I re-downloaded/re-installed a couple times to make sure, and couldn't seem to fix it. Just fyi! Looking forward to playing:)
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
This game is fun but the marketing that it is "real time" seems completely false and unnecessarily confusing. So for anyone else who thinks their game is bugged: Despite the game showing you a real-life clock time and real-life day of the week, the in-universe time of the game itself is not actually pegged to real-time at all and things seem to just progress a bit whenever you open the app. Still fun but I think the devs should stop using the phrase "real-time" in the description since it's simply not true.
Glad you're enjoying it! While it's not 1:1 with real life due to design constraints (we wouldn't want to force people to play at certain times of day to progress, for example), the story does progress in real-time and text messages are sent according to the system clock. The game takes around 1 full month of real world time to complete in a typical playthrough (although some may finish it a little faster if playing very often).
I see. I would really suggest making this more clear in the description (and maybe in the game itself). The use of "real-time" plus the in-game clock and weather/calendar app being sync'd to reality and not to the in-universe time really makes the fact that it's not 1:1 feel like a bug instead of the intended experience.
I don't find this to be a huge deal but just to add to this, here's the part I just went through:
"ill be over real soon, okay?"
"okay, thanks tomoko"
"im here!"
"got home safe!"
Those messages came in one after the other with no delay. So to bdorfman's point, that felt like it might be a bug? Again I don't really mind, just want to make sure things are working the way you expect!
As another example, characters talking about needing to go cook dinner but it's 9am (and I checked in after midnight so it's not like I missed this message from the previous day). If this is the way it's meant to be, cool- it's a game, I don't need it to sync up with my life :)
That's working as intended -- the story isn't 1:1 with real life, but does still take real time (many weeks) to play all the way through. Thanks for playing :)
yeah this was confusing to me. I feel like I went through 2-3 days over the span of a few minutes. It was like "let's hang out tomorrow" then 2 minutes later another conversation like "can't wait to see you tonight!"
This game is very well-made and beautiful. But I'm not entirely sure how to make time to pass/new messages in chats to appear. Do I just wait? Or do I mash the B button? Or do I crank up the crank? Nothing seems to help.
Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it! It's a real time game so you'll have to wait. The idea is to check a couple times a day (the full game will have more things to do each day).
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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?
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.
Gorgeous video game. Charms the pants off me so far, inspiring work.
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.
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!!
I really enjoyed this game and would recommend it to anyone with a playdate. It was charming and very well-written, and had me pulling out my playdate several times a day just to check in. I just reached the ending, and it left me wanting more (in a good way). I suppose I could've used more depth to the gardening and more consequences to my responses, but...sometimes it's all right just to enjoy the story and the mood and not have too much else get in the way. I'm really excited to see what you make next.
edit to add: I also just want to say how impressed I am at how well your team managed to "get" the playdate right out of the gate. This is the kind of sure-footed game I'd expect to find a year or two into the device's life, not right at launch.
That's very kind of you! About your last comment: we thought a lot about what makes a Playdate game "work" during the development of Bloom. It certainly helps that we had been tinkering with the device for over a year by the time we started this game, so we were able to build it with that experience in mind. Still, we had to make a lot of assumptions about how actual players would use the device, so it's nice to see that a lot of those proved correct :) Thanks so much for playing!
Before I say much more, I loved this game. It's probably the best game on the Playdate tbh. Absolutely worth the 10 USD. That said, I have few bits of feedback to give:
- It'd be nice if there were more details on the plants via some menu of some kind (i.e. how long it takes to grow, maybe some fun facts about the flower)
- The end of the story feels very rushed. The story flow was fine and the story itself is great, but then at the end it is like everything is in a panic to bring things to resolution
- I wish there was a bit more to the flowering process. I realize doing mini games per flower would quickly become tedious, but a thought I had was maybe a flower of importance or maybe of more monetary value where you take care of that one more interactively than the others. Like a crank watering mini game where you have to give the right amount of water, or adjust its position to get in the sunlight better, something on those lines?
Regardless though, this game has had me checking on my Playdate for a solid week now begging for more of this game. Thanks to the devs for all their hard work!
I ADORE this game. When I finish my playthrough, I'm going to suggest my daughter play. Is there a way to reset progress, or would I just delete my save game?
Deleting your save should work. You can back it up on a PC before you do so if you'd like to keep it for later.
this is a wonderful relaxing game. Been playing it daily for a about 4 days now and it’s just so niiiice.
Just bought the game to support! But I noticed as it installs that it is listed as "Bloom by 19171734867005250" which is a weird way to spell RNG Party Games ;)
Thanks! Yes, this is a quirk of web sideloading on Playdate, it should show the correct author after fully installing.
I know you stated that the 1.0.8 patch is minor but now this does bring up a question. Is there a way to update a game already on the PlayDate without uninstalling the entire game and installing again? Really don't want to lose my progress even tho I've probably almost beaten the game.
Hi, save data is separate from game installs, see here: https://rngpartygames.itch.io/bloom/devlog/377380/bloom-v108-minor-patch
As other comments have said, this is maybe the best game on Playdate so far. Its genuinely fun to check in every couple of hours and make progress. I really like the relaxing music too!
I won't go into spoilers, but I do kinda wish the dialogue changed based on where your finances are at. I already had some pretty good cash flow at the point where I was texting someone about getting some financial help which made me feel weird/bad. That is nit-picky though. This is really great, and I am very excited for Poly's Roly Rumble if that is in the works still.
Hmm, am I missing something? I just started the game, it's raining on the roof, the shovel doesn't do anything, and I've only got 500 yen which isn't enough to buy anything in the shop (except dandelions, which are specifically called out as being a weed, so I assume I don't want them?). Am I going to magically make money tomorrow when the shop opens?
Dandelions are the starting flower. You do want to buy some and plant them. You then will be able to dig them up once they grow (which auto-sells them) using the shovel.
Sorry if that description confused you. It was just meant to be a bit cheeky.
Ahhh, thank you! Yeah I couldn't figure out why there would be a weed for sale, any my rent is like 2100 so I didn't think I could waste any money buying something I couldn't sell. :)
I was in the same boat as you until after a day realizing no money was coming my way. I figured let's just buy one - plant it - see what happens. Much to my surprise when I turned a profit I felt a little silly having not tried it sooner.
totally did the same thing, took me a day and a half to work it out
このゲームが好きです♡
ありがとうございます!
I haven't yet finished it, but the story grabs me, the gardening is satisfying, the music is wonderful. What a lovely lovely game. I am so happy to get to play it, and I hope y'all make more!
Thank you so much!! We'll definitely be making more Playdate games :)
The best game on playdate so far.
This is a cute and fun game that fell short of blossoming for me.
First, I want to express what I really appreciate about this game, the overall design and attention to detail are clearly at front of mind for the developers. The game sucks you in and does a great job of providing a thoughtful and unique interface. While perhaps not the most intuitive layout it is quick to get the hang of and seamless to navigate. The soundtrack and the audio design overall are also fantastic and match the wonderful visual style expertly.
I was, however, disappointed in the simplicity of the game mechanics. The gardening simulator is very minimalist with only a planting a harvesting mechanic. Watering your flowers is only required once, and only if it's not raining. There appears to be a mechanic for the player to decide which flowers to plant based on how long they will take to grow, but without any information as to how long any of them take this is impossible to take advantage of without guessing. Additionally, the player only unlocks new flowers by playing through the story, and the gardening mechanic is more of an afterthought to gain enough money to purchase more plots for additional flowers. There is no Flower Shop related mechanic.
The story seems to unravel in "bursts" where you find yourself chatting back and forth with several characters for several real-life minutes. The game presents you with options for responses, but these options have no actual impact on the story, or even the conversation itself, and are rather an illusion of choice meant to make you feel more engaged. In short order, the conversations felt more tedious, as a means to end, than an engaging story for me. I found myself no longer paying much attention to them, as it felt like I was just reading someone else's text messages and simply wanted to unlock new flowers.
The collectibles mechanic provides a little novelty but has no impact on gameplay, it is simply a cute little item you can unlock once a day and not much else.
I hope this does not come off as harsh, and if you love narrative-heavy games this is probably worth your while. I just felt like $10 was steep for a game that does not feel like it quite comes together and leaves my interest wilting.
QOL Requests:
I’m not very far into the PlayDate’s season of games, but this is such a fantastic and deep experience, with amazingly realistic conversations and thoughtfully neat uses of the crank. This might be one of the best, the breakout game, on this system!
Thank you, that's very kind :)
A beautiful start for third party development! I really appreciate the unique perspective of the story, this was exactly what I was hoping for when I learned about the Playdate.
Thank you! Enjoy!
Easily worth the $10! I’m engaged in the characters and the flower business aspect is enjoyable. It’s just positive and chill, exactly what I want when I pull out the playdate for a quick 5 minute break.
Thank you so much, glad you're enjoying it! :)
Hi, just wanted to comment and say that I really, really like this game. It's moving and lovely and the music is so good. Probably my favorite playdate game so far.
Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot!
Hi there, +1 for the error code boot up / unable to start game issue mentioned before. Game looks great, hope a fix is discovered soon!
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
Ah, I thought the filesize seemed small! Thanks for the reply, will move it over via USB.
Hey! I'm getting the same error code as some of the other people; the screen with the "attempt to index a nil value" message and then getting booted to home. I re-downloaded/re-installed a couple times to make sure, and couldn't seem to fix it. Just fyi! Looking forward to playing:)
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
Ah! Great, thanks so much! I appreciate it:)
Hello,
This comes up when trying to launch.
Hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention! It looks like Panic's sideloading servers are broken right now so the files aren't downloading correctly. USB sideloading should work fine though, in the meantime. (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)
Update on this: wireless sideloading is fixed now, you'll just have to re-upload Bloom on the website.
awesome thank you!
This game is fun but the marketing that it is "real time" seems completely false and unnecessarily confusing. So for anyone else who thinks their game is bugged: Despite the game showing you a real-life clock time and real-life day of the week, the in-universe time of the game itself is not actually pegged to real-time at all and things seem to just progress a bit whenever you open the app. Still fun but I think the devs should stop using the phrase "real-time" in the description since it's simply not true.
Glad you're enjoying it! While it's not 1:1 with real life due to design constraints (we wouldn't want to force people to play at certain times of day to progress, for example), the story does progress in real-time and text messages are sent according to the system clock. The game takes around 1 full month of real world time to complete in a typical playthrough (although some may finish it a little faster if playing very often).
I see. I would really suggest making this more clear in the description (and maybe in the game itself). The use of "real-time" plus the in-game clock and weather/calendar app being sync'd to reality and not to the in-universe time really makes the fact that it's not 1:1 feel like a bug instead of the intended experience.
I don't find this to be a huge deal but just to add to this, here's the part I just went through:
"ill be over real soon, okay?" "okay, thanks tomoko" "im here!" "got home safe!"Those messages came in one after the other with no delay. So to bdorfman's point, that felt like it might be a bug? Again I don't really mind, just want to make sure things are working the way you expect!
As another example, characters talking about needing to go cook dinner but it's 9am (and I checked in after midnight so it's not like I missed this message from the previous day). If this is the way it's meant to be, cool- it's a game, I don't need it to sync up with my life :)
This is intentional, though, yup!
Thanks for the heads up, this one seems to be a bug. We must have messed up the timing there. We'll look into it.
Edit: Yup, it was a bug. We've found it and should update the build here with a fix soon.
This has now been updated with a fix!
Got my Playdate today and this was the first thing I wanted to try. It's great so far! Can't wait to see how the story develops as I play.
Thank you -- enjoy the game!!
Just got my Playdate and started browsing what's available. This looks gorgeous. Very excited to start playing! :)
Thank you -- enjoy!!
These looks gorgeous, sadly can´t play it.
Wish to have these kind of games on Pc, hope someday u release it in other plataforms.
Real time clock doesn't seem to work correctly. Text implies days pass every time I open the game.
That's working as intended -- the story isn't 1:1 with real life, but does still take real time (many weeks) to play all the way through. Thanks for playing :)
yeah this was confusing to me. I feel like I went through 2-3 days over the span of a few minutes. It was like "let's hang out tomorrow" then 2 minutes later another conversation like "can't wait to see you tonight!"
i will be sure to buy your game when it comes out <
Excited for this!
This game is very well-made and beautiful. But I'm not entirely sure how to make time to pass/new messages in chats to appear. Do I just wait? Or do I mash the B button? Or do I crank up the crank? Nothing seems to help.
Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it! It's a real time game so you'll have to wait. The idea is to check a couple times a day (the full game will have more things to do each day).
Not able to play and try out this game obviously, but these arts look so great. Nicely done!