This is a really neat game! I've been playing it a whole bunch - it's chill and nice.
I did find one bug today: in this game and one earlier game, I had a big rock on the last turn that I tried to place and removed because there was no good position ... and the game scored it as a 10-point rock anyway.
Thanks again for putting it together - it's been really neat, and I've liked a lot of the gardens I've made.
Additional information if it helps: the bug also happens for medium rocks and low rocks. I don't know if maybe the rock is recorded internally as being present but offscreen instead of being absent? It might be worth checking every item type and seeing if it gives its corresponding nothing-nearby-for-bonuses points; I've not been double-checking small-rock points and I don't think I've had a leftover lantern or shrubbery in the time since I noticed the bug.
Edit: Was able to confirm today (2020-09-27) that unplayed small rocks count for 1 point, which tracks.
I have finally had a chance to fix this bug (let me know if you find otherwise.) Yeah, all the rocks use the same scoring mechanism, and initially I was a bit confused, because I definitely had logic at the top of the procedure to set the rock's score to zero if it wasn't on the board. I spent a while thinking that somehow how it detected 'on the board' wasn't working. Finally, I realised that while I was setting the score to zero for these rocks, I wasn't actually stopping it from carrying on through the rest of the scoring routine anyway!
I regret to say I might be back with another bug - undesirable behavior, anyhow. This is a ... I wanna say "Journey to the North" seed? These have a Style bonus equal to the number of squares of path left clear.
As you can see, it placed the path on the narrow section in the middle for 10 points when the left edge is clear for 12. Aesthetically, I have nothing but approval for this - it looks way better than a path on the edge would - but my impression was that the game would pick the best-scoring path when multiple were available. It feels like something that merits communicating if that is not so.
Again, thank you for the game. I've got thirty-three end screens of games saved to my hard drive because they're just pretty.
The path mechanics are set up to choose the valid path closest to the center of the garden (or arbitarily, if 2 are equidistant) so that behavour is intentional, BUT (a) there's no way for you to know that which makes it impossible to optimise for, (b) it probably is more reasonable to expect it to score the longest path.
I'm a bit torn, because I think central is more likely to look pretty, and I've tried to build rules where pretty gardens score well (this hasn't been completely successful, but it is the intent). I'll have a think about it.
Thanks for pointing this out. And for playing; glad you're enjoying it.
I think I may have found another bug? It looks like the magical bamboo isn't registering as an object when other objects are doing calculations during the scoring phase.
oh man I've been playing this game for like two days straight now I love it so much! what are your future plans for the game? I'd love to have more structured levels to go through. the randomly generated ones are fun but it does mean the difficulty can be super variable.
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I have got some plans for new items, and scoring possibilities.
I'm afraid that hand built levels are not very likely at the moment, though I do want to try and tweak the randomness to hit the sweet spot more often (it's not easy though). I suppose I could curate seeds that are particularly nicely balanced, though to be honest, I quite like the fact that one day it might be quite easy, the next you've got to make the best of a bad job. We'll see!
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I went freestyle and my fountain grew bigger with low rocks. Am I garden wizard ?
Possibly! (There's a magical fountain that turns up very rarely.)
This is a really neat game! I've been playing it a whole bunch - it's chill and nice.
I did find one bug today: in this game and one earlier game, I had a big rock on the last turn that I tried to place and removed because there was no good position ... and the game scored it as a 10-point rock anyway.
Thanks again for putting it together - it's been really neat, and I've liked a lot of the gardens I've made.
Glad you're liking the game. Thanks for pointing out that bug, I'll see if I can fix it.
Thanks!
Additional information if it helps: the bug also happens for medium rocks and low rocks. I don't know if maybe the rock is recorded internally as being present but offscreen instead of being absent? It might be worth checking every item type and seeing if it gives its corresponding nothing-nearby-for-bonuses points; I've not been double-checking small-rock points and I don't think I've had a leftover lantern or shrubbery in the time since I noticed the bug.
Edit: Was able to confirm today (2020-09-27) that unplayed small rocks count for 1 point, which tracks.
I have finally had a chance to fix this bug (let me know if you find otherwise.)
Yeah, all the rocks use the same scoring mechanism, and initially I was a bit confused, because I definitely had logic at the top of the procedure to set the rock's score to zero if it wasn't on the board.
I spent a while thinking that somehow how it detected 'on the board' wasn't working. Finally, I realised that while I was setting the score to zero for these rocks, I wasn't actually stopping it from carrying on through the rest of the scoring routine anyway!
I regret to say I might be back with another bug - undesirable behavior, anyhow. This is a ... I wanna say "Journey to the North" seed? These have a Style bonus equal to the number of squares of path left clear.
As you can see, it placed the path on the narrow section in the middle for 10 points when the left edge is clear for 12. Aesthetically, I have nothing but approval for this - it looks way better than a path on the edge would - but my impression was that the game would pick the best-scoring path when multiple were available. It feels like something that merits communicating if that is not so.
Again, thank you for the game. I've got thirty-three end screens of games saved to my hard drive because they're just pretty.
The path mechanics are set up to choose the valid path closest to the center of the garden (or arbitarily, if 2 are equidistant) so that behavour is intentional, BUT (a) there's no way for you to know that which makes it impossible to optimise for, (b) it probably is more reasonable to expect it to score the longest path.
I'm a bit torn, because I think central is more likely to look pretty, and I've tried to build rules where pretty gardens score well (this hasn't been completely successful, but it is the intent). I'll have a think about it.
Thanks for pointing this out. And for playing; glad you're enjoying it.
My first thought is to indicate that in some way in the UI? Like, in the explanation of the style rule. Not sure how to elegantly, though.
I think I may have found another bug? It looks like the magical bamboo isn't registering as an object when other objects are doing calculations during the scoring phase.
Thanks again for all your work!
nice game, very relaxing, i really like the theme. <3<3<3
oh man I've been playing this game for like two days straight now I love it so much! what are your future plans for the game? I'd love to have more structured levels to go through. the randomly generated ones are fun but it does mean the difficulty can be super variable.
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I have got some plans for new items, and scoring possibilities.
I'm afraid that hand built levels are not very likely at the moment, though I do want to try and tweak the randomness to hit the sweet spot more often (it's not easy though). I suppose I could curate seeds that are particularly nicely balanced, though to be honest, I quite like the fact that one day it might be quite easy, the next you've got to make the best of a bad job. We'll see!
That sounds cool! I'm looking forward to whatever you end up doing :D
a fun puzzle game!
cool! :)
Hey, at some point last night I broke the location/placement code. It's fixed now.