- Yeah, I really do think its "casual / hardcore" - there are a lot of skills / strategies, especially for the full game, when you get the powerups, etc.

 - So you would prefer "switch" to just move/cycle to the next flower? I personally like the tracking reticle, but I can see how that is a valid option for selecting (so its just multiple taps). Some of the later levels have 5 or 6 flowers though, so it could get annoying having to tap 4-5 times. We'll look into it - at worst an extra option could be added.

(bubble movement being fixed now)

 - Wii: we would love to do a Wii version, but its not in development at the moment. Our code is fairly platform agnostic though, so it would be a very easy port. Maybe next year... :)

Thanks for replying! =P

So first of all, Holy frik the challenging mode is difficult. That out of the way:

-You might want to add a bit about the black stars in the Tutorial if you guys have some time left, I still have no idea what exactly they do other than the fact that they are bad.

-I love the concept and the execution of the game. It can get very frantic with a whole bunch of different things going on at the same time. It also teaches you to prioritize very well.

-I was wondering if there is any real story behind what you do and why you do it. I'm guessing that the whole overworld map is where the story takes place, but that's just me guessing and assuming and I don't want to be disappointed.

Those are my initial impressions from the first 20 minutes of playing. I'll post more as I get to play more after my homeworks. Thanks for the demo btw.

Arrgh... another day of hard core changes/fixes - its amazing how much has changed in the demo from 3 days ago :P

Its pretty close to done - hoping to have the final demo out tomorrow day sometime, along with a press release. It already looks, plays and sounds a lot better than the build you guys have seen.

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@Vlad, to answer some of your Q's:

 - Black Stars: a good idea, but we have run out of time. I think people work it out pretty quickly, as you say they are just "bad". Also for the challenging level only.

 - cheers :) I like to think of it as "positive franctic" - a lot going on, but you don't need to respond to much of it at once. In the full game, the early levels are MUCH LESS frantic than these.

 - spot on, there is a full story. Follie is travelling through space, something "odd" happens, and she ends up crash landing on the planet. It goes from there - she has to recover her seeds, beat a bunch of levels, and discovers why she crashed in the first place. Its also a little similar to "Pikmin" in how its structured - a little.

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And just to reiterate, the demo really is a "teaser" of the full game - it might represent something like 1% of the full game. I think the average person could play through in about 20hrs - it would take me around 10-12hrs to finish it from scratch (I think).

Oh yes, I definitely meant frantic in a really good way. Also I guess you don't need any other explanation for the black stars if it's nothing too deep, the flowers say enough. I'l play it some more tomorrow after I turn in my homework to see how it is. I kinda like the concept.

I really like it. I don't think I'm the right gamer for this though. My reflexes are too weak, lol ( there's a reason I like RPGs). It's very fast paced, especially the Challenging Mode. Really cool idea.

I wonder how the other game modes play that are shown in the commercial afterwards.

I find it more about mouse control than reflexes. Nothing really "surprises" (everything moves in a predictable pattern), just about getting the mouse in the right place to hit that combo.

Compared to the full game, the demo levels are a mixed bag. The challenging level is reasonably challenging (although way too easy for me now :P), with the "fun" level probably matching level 10-15 into the game. There are 5-6 training levels in the full game, that fully introduce all the game play fundementals.

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The game is basically two parts:

 - complete levels, and earn "stars" (every level has a 1..5 star ranking, each star matching a given score - a bit like a medal system)

 - use accumulated stars to "Pacify gnomes" (yeah :>), gain access to new areas, explore the world, uncover new levels, etc

You also collect coins throughout the adventure, and "bosses" will trade your coins for a powerup. Each powerup makes the game easier, makes it easier to score more stars in early levels, and makes it easier to finish the later levels.

The 50 levels combine a series of different game play elements (bugs, bubbles, wind, colour mixing) with different flower layouts, physics, etc. Almost every one of them plays differently, and for some you need significantly different strategies.

On one of the more insane levels, you need to colour mix fireworks you generate (from combos), with fireworks from coloured bubbles - and use the resultant fireworks to feed the flowers. Nothing else works :P

Definitely a good concept and something fresh!

I think the challenge mode may start off a bit too difficult (or I just suck awful, which is likely) and maybe should have more of a steady ramp up in challenge.

For targeting the flowers I would say if your current system is tuned for difficulty then stick with it, otherwise I think I would prefer to control it with A & D (ie left and right respectively), even just keeping what you have and adding it so you could toggle with that as well would be nice.

Those are the only two gameplay things that really come to mind for me, otherwise it was awesome.

Very nice and original game.... I failed the first level the first time, but got it on the second, and have so far had 2 goes at the challenge level but failed them both.

I was using a touchpad though.

I found I often end up firing the wrong colour at a flower because I had picked up another colour without noticing, but I would probably get used to checking Follie before I fire in future, especially as I would have more control of when I let go with a mouse (a touchpad is difficult to keep moving around while still dragging)

Also it runs just fine on my laptop, looks nice and runs smoothly, and I must congratulate you on the nice simple intallation menus, I know it is only a demo but going through all the different pages about where you want the file and which links to have (desktop the only option for this) was so much easier than most other programs.

I'm gonna assume you are open for criticism so I can nitpick at your game. It's an amazing game, but it doesn't mean I can't nitpick right? The little pollen indicators on the girl feel kind of smallish. Unless I'm looking at her, or very close to her, I can't discern what she's about to shoot using just peripheral vision. If you intended that to up the difficulty then it's not really a problem then. Another nitpick, any way I can skip all the slides when I'm leaving the demo?

Other than that great game, I'm still tying to beat the effing challenge level. You'd think I'd be able to do it with my 1337 5ki11lz from UT2004.....