The Tale of the Greenhouse

I found this little gem of a game on itch looking for games with plants and cats in them and the fantasy graphics were what drew me in.  The sheer cuteness and beauty of it all toke my breath away.  I loved the music and the ability to grow magical plants in a greenhouse that simply changed as time went on.  

The sad parts though?  

I would have liked to see more of this magical and wonderous greenhouse, have a backstory of what kind of creature you were, the ability to grow more plants, do more things, have a toolbelt, interact with magical 2 tailed cat, have visitors maybe even a romance and of course the ability to see the sky and weather around me would have made this game more immersive.  There is so much you could do with this game.  Also I would have liked to see your characters outfits change and at least draw her eyes green to match the cover of the game as those cold black eyes in game were creepy!  

The beautiful artwork was a treat and you're all very talented and I can't wait to see what you can do with more time!  I will be watching for more from your studio of creators. :)

Water, Buy, Sleep, Repeat and petting the two-tailed cat :3 I played it live on twitch in german: Tale of Greenhouse - German Stream

I hope to see more from Magmaplant Studios in future! <3

It's too good for student project.

Unfortunately the rest of the game doesn't get quite as high praise from me. At its core the game is tedious and kind of boring. There's a lot of grab this tool, walk to this plant, trim it, walk back, put the tool down, walk to the sell basket, nod it again, then water all the plants, and then finally sleep and wake up 2 seconds later to do it all again. It quickly devolves into a game of how quickly can I do all the things to progress forward. And if  I'm honest, quick isn't the vibe this game gives off. Visually, auditorily, and atmospherically this game is telling you to stop and smell the roses, but mechanic wise it's telling you to speedrun.

I think some of the tedium and problems the game has could be eased a bit with a few additions: a tool belt, a satchel, and a growth timer. A tool belt to hold the shears, watering can, and manacatcher - frankly this would be huge because it would mean less back and forth. Accompanied by a satchel to hold plant trimmings. With just these two I think the game would feel a lot less like a walk back and forth simulator. Lastly, a growth timer to plants so that they grow 2-3 phases in a single day. This means we could trim plants a handful of times a day, and then at the end of the day sell off our haul of trimmings. It keeps us going as plants grow, and we have opportunities to stop and vibe with the game as we wait for our plants to grow. A final minor thought - compost having a use would be great too! Plants grow quicker, or produce more mana when fertilized. These changes would probably require a rebalance of the economy and progression, but I think they'd help make the game feel more enjoyable.

Do I think The Tale of the Greenhouse scratches the itch? Unfortunately no. The gameplay loop of running back and forth is simply too unfun for me to recommend the game. If you're able to slow your roll, and not play the game as efficiently as possible it might be worth checking out. The art, audio, and atmosphere this game has captured is worth praising and applauding. I want you guys to know you did an absolutely stellar job here and there was never a moment where I was bored visually. I know this was a 7 week project so it wasn't going to be perfect, but what I've seen so far has me looking forward to what the future has in store for Magmaplant Studios.

It was a really relaxing game. Most of times I even forgot that I was trying to save my sister and just chilled lol

Even having some trouble in picking up/putting down some items in some occasions, especially the gardening shears; I think it was really enjoyable for a short game.  Good job for everyone of you guys.

I found your game and I posted your link here. Seems people like it 

https://community.chrono.gg/t/first-games-from-the-classes-of-2020-free-more-to-...

Beautiful game!
Both peaceful and engaging. Little trouble with "click detection" on stacked items, but nothing that kept me from enjoying the experience.
Cheers!

It was such a lovely and peaceful game! I took me a bit more time to figure out how to progress quicker (hopefully the sister didn't mind the two+ months haha) and would've loved to plant more.

I must say, the graphics were definitely my cup of tea, I loved it!

A relaxing beautiful looking gardening game.

The demo are too long, but that's fine. The instruction/tutorial to do things was also a bit confusing.

The walking speed was too slow, time going too fast, have to going back and forth picking and putting item/tools in table giving player not enough time do things properly.

A nice addition is to add a  basket so people can pick more than flower one at a time.

Once you water the flowers there's almost nothing else to do until the flower grows but sleep until the flowers grow.

Other than that it is visually pleasing and sounds lovely, and note this is still a seven weeks project and there's so much thing to do so it's okay to have mistake. Good luck on your school project.

Suggestions: 

-bag you can store clippings in without having to put down the clippers then place the clipping then pick up the clippers to do the next plant. 

-make it more obvious you can put the jar on top of the cube thing, that took me ages to figure out and I could have had another pot in the mean time. 

-most games are more fun when there's a failure condition like a time limit to saving her. 

For more things to do/more realism you could:

-make it so the watering can isn't infinite and you have to refill it. 

-item durability, things could break and need replacing. 

-food

-more work to look after the plants, bugs, and disease repellants. 

Maybe a research tree: things like fertilizer to increase the speed of growth or quality of the plant, ways to process the flowers or cuttings into a potion or hand cream or something that sells for more or helps with your plant cultivation. 

More story? Stuff to do after saving your sister, maybe repair the greenhouse, maybe people to talk to that offer help when sister is still ill,