Yeah, I was expecting a additional control suggestions :)

This was designed from the POV of being a "casual" game - so it was really important to be completely playable with just the mouse & keyboard. Until a couple of weeks ago, there was *no* right button control - it just tracked the nearest flower, you just hold down the left-button to keep track of the current flower (this is all you really need, once you get used to holding down to 'track' something).

Its just like the old "z-tracking" options in Zelda - do people prefer "hold to track", or "press once to toggle" to track.

All that said, keyboard flower selection is a really good idea - its making it less casual, but anything that makes it control better (even for the "hardcore") is both thumbs up IMO. As long as we don't lose the casual appeal, or forget that market...

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Also, the levels in the demo are a little biased to any control system that "sticks" with the current flower. Once you get levels with 4, 5 (or even 6) flowers - switching flowers quickly is more important.

I'm sure for the full game, we will add a bunch of control system options.

Definitely up for nitpicking - exactly why you guys got an advance copy. Don't be shy!

Good feedback on the pollen indicator. Visually trying to show the current pollen/count has been a big challenge for us - we went through a whole range of HUD options, showing them around the character, etc.

We can easily make them larger - I will add this, probably even make it in for the demo today.

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Skipping the end - there is now a "skip" button, which speeds up the promo by 4-5x. You can always skip it completely by switching to windowed mode (Alt-Enter), and just killing the app - or maybe just alt-F4'ing it.

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To beat the challenge level, try this:

 - don't stress about which flower you are on

 - pick up any pollen

 - move to above the flower that is weakest

 - just focus on hitting another pollen (opposite) colour when you fire, nothing else

Do this, and keep patient - and you'll be set.

Another excellent strategy - line things up, such that you hit another pollen and your heart turns purple - just before you hit a bubble. The bubble will then explode as a purple firework, which gives massive growth to both the flowers.

Good luck! :)

Ahh, my smypathies - I suck at using a touchpad, and playing Flowerworks on one won't be fun. I'm impressed you got that far! It would be like playing Quake on a touchpad!

With the full demo (out today), try turning on the "right mouse switches flowers" (in the options), and you might have a much easier time of it.

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Thanks for the install comments :) We use "Inno Setup" - a free install/setup system for Windows apps, highly recommended for any developers out there. I actually didn't want any install system at all (just 2 files - exe & .pak), but we thought it might freak some of the more casual users out!

It's even worse that the additional left mouse button doesn't work anymore, so I have to double tap to hold.

The challenge level I never even got the flowers off the ground, but I will try again tomorrow.

What is the timer that runs when a flower reaches a certain height/greatness? it counts down to 0 when the game ended.

Do I have to keep the flower from wilting during that time? and I can't quite remember but I think the game ended when only one flower reached 0, the other was still counting down at about 30.

The objective (to "win") for any level is simply to get all the flowers to bloom. Once a flower blooms, it starts counting down - the time before it "blows" (launches). You have this much time to get all the other flowers also blooming.

Whenever a firework drop hits a bloomed flower, you get some extra time - its a good strategy to focus fireworks on one bloomed flower for a while, if you need extra time to get the other flowers to also bloom.

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Once a flower blooms, it can't wilt (die). Once all the flowers bloom, the level is won - you can't lose, its just "bonus time" to get as many more points as you can.

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We are putting a change into the demo that slows down the entire game (per level). The 'fun' level will be a lot slower (make it easier to combo as well), and the 'challenge' level will be a little slower.

Ok - the "final" build (RC1) of the demo is now up on the flowerworks website, for anyone to download.

Heading off for a big company lunch now, then will come back and send out the press releases, post a news item and more.

For those interested, you can grab the demo from:

http://flowerworksgame.com

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Thanks again to everyone here for helping out - it really has been a great help, and I think its a perfect example of how developers and gamers can work together to improve a product :)