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Spirit Aerie is my second entry in the LD-compo
In this two-world puzzle game you are a friendly ghost. Your task is to gather animal spirits from the harsh desert and nurture them in your Aerie. If you treat them good, you will make the desert green. When the entire desert is green you win the game!
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #188 | Graphics | 3.76 |
| #190 | Audio | 3.38 |
| #331 | Mood | 3.26 |
| #555 | Overall | 3.21 |
| #677 | Innovation | 3.00 |
| #736 | Humor | 2.09 |
| #739 | Fun | 2.84 |
| #844 | Theme | 2.80 |
Comments
Nice atmosphere.
I couldn't quite grasp how the two puzzles connect. Or if the second room is no puzzle but a resource ... something? Well. :) I had fun nonetheless.
It looks absolutely charming but I'm having trouble loading your site!
It's a very relaxing game. I played about halfway: I was playing with a trackpad and I probably would have enjoyed it more with a mouse (or on a touchscreen device.) I think that the game mechanics could use a once-through to try to figure out what you want to do. As it is, the amount of time you get from matches isn't really enough to get the same amount of animals: you end up having to do most of your collection with only the two default hourglasses, which is stressful (and thus, kinda runs against the relaxing feel of the game.)
I love the art. The animals are totally adorable~!
I think with polish this could be a very good iOS / android game.
It's astounding how, despite such simple mechanics, this game sucks you in. The music is perfect and creates such a mood that you feel as if you were partaking in an epic story despite there being none. Congratulations, this game is wonderful.
Graphics are cute and the BGM is very peaceful. Has a very casual feel to the game but it seems like there's an underlying message. It felt at times that the desert would never turn completely green (almost like you're fighting an uphill battle). Very thought-provoking, almost allegorical to the struggle against deforestation/urbanization of natural habitats in some areas of the world. Loved it!
The puzzle was fun, but I found the story a bit confusing. Professional graphics and music added to the allure.
That was an interesting experience, once I got the hang of it. I liked the puzzle mechanics, and I don't think a lose state was necessary for this particular game, but I never really got a handle of the exact interaction between my actions and the game world. I noticed tiles getting dropped, and saw the tractors removing tiles, but I didn't understand how my animal nurturing translated into new green tiles. I did play it through to the end, and I was surprised at the tension near the end. "Will I get that last tile THIS time?" I liked the cyclic tension/relaxation dynamic.
What a relaxing game! The graphics and music really drew me in, and I ended up playing much longer than I initially thought I would. There didn't really feel like there was a sense of purpose, I think a better expanation of the green room would help. But still quite fun to play (:
This was a really fun game! Jumping back and forth between the two areas is a neat mechanic, it really lets you test your memory about the types of animals you need to complete the puzzle. It did take a while to understand some of the game but I got it eventually! Music is nice and the art is beautiful! Great work!
nice concept
there's a bug in your game: when the grid fills itself from the pond (directly after switching back) and four animals are in a row already, it isn't counted
Pretty to look at and a slick match game - wasn't sure how to link with the other world :S
the music, mood and graphics works good. it has a nice peace while playing. It took me sometime to understand what to do
Very nice atmosphere and background music. It has a strange sad experience, very nice mood!
Pretty relaxing game. You should have made match 3 maybe. It took some time to understand what I needed to do. The game took so much time to complete too.
But the gameplay is a nice idea. Congrats.
I thought the idea for this game was one of the most original ones I've seen on here. It was weird in a good way! It took me a long time to beat. You made a good choice in music as well. I wish you luck!
A solid entry! High-quality graphics and music really helped support the game. My main issue was with the gameplay: needing to do a sliding tile puzzle over and over again in order to click on stuff really fast didn't work well for me, and I felt like the three possible rows of hourglasses were kind of mocking ._. I would have liked it if there were more skill involvement than speed-clicking--like combos being unnecessary to advance, but somehow helping you out, something like that. As-is there was only that one gameplay element where you could actually do any better or worse, and though I made it to the end I wanted to give up when I realized that the tractors were bulldozing my work and there was pretty much nothing I could do about it :S
I agree with the other commentors, though. Polished up, this is definitely something I'd play on mobile. Really relaxing.
It was good in the beginning, but it would probably have been better if it was shorter, or changed things up as it went. After solving how the puzzle works, having to repeat the motions countless times to win feels more like a chore than a challenge.
Great comments so far, they make a lot of sense and really resonates with my own thoughts. With some distance I feel like I would have needed a week or so of refactoring/rethinking the game mechanics, because one part is very relaxing and the other is very stressful (which I'm not really sure is what I want) I think the match 4 need some extra stuff to be more interesting and the second room could need some more "dimensions" too. If you have any ideas for improvement - just write em down :) Thanks so much!
Hi there. Was having fun matching 4 and collecting again. Nice look and feel to the UI. Good job!
You did very good job with graphics on this one :O
The concept is simple yet funny. It doesn't have an end though, right?
I found a minor bug, nothing special: when picking the pieces from the table, when these come to the first table and you directly get 4 in the same row, they don't trigger anything
Nice little game, the pacing can be kinda slow (I couldn't get to the end, maybe the desert grid was too big and therefore it would take a lot of time repeating the same task in order to fill up the entire desert in green).
I do like the music and the aesthetics! :)
Nice puzzler - it took me some time to work out what to do though. It would have been useful to have some indication of how well I was doing - I didn't know if I was making enough progress. Really liked the hand drawn graphics and the music.
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"I am a bit bummed that you really can't 'Game Over' in this game" - I believe it is good design to be unable to game over, for example in an RPG you should not loose your exp but simply retry the battle, and in platformers you should not have to redo the level beginning but simple return to the dangerous spot.
Else your not playing the game, but playing against the saving system.
Your game on the other hand is quite a relaxing game! And i played it 'til the end.
The only thing made me wonder were the tractors in the desert - what do they do?