Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Flowerdrops’
Time to finish off the page.
Flowerdrops is a cute puzzle game created by Nate Wiesel, a solo indie developer, and features a soundtrack by AJ Booker. Players will follow a cool cloud with sunglasses as they attempt to bring water to all the plants no matter what.
Do note that I am playing the Clovers & Caves updated version. This entire overview will be based on my experiences with this version. I cannot comment on what it may have looked like/played like prior.
Players will jump in to each level with the goal of making a set amount of flowers bloom through watering them. Water comes from our cloud friend in droplets that are fired from their… ‘body’, and need to be aimed in a specific direction with the arrow. The power is also changeable, as these water droplets bounce upon hitting the ground, becoming slightly smaller with each bounce until they disappear. That’s right, this is a puzzle game about angles. The only trajectory that the players will get is after the first bounce. From there, players will have to guess and assume where the bounces will go. When a water droplet hits a plant’s ground, that counts as it receiving a ‘water’ to count towards its necessary amount to bloom. Once it blooms, it no longer takes water, so players can avoid them and aim for the rest to ensure that they can reach the goal before they run out of water.
Once the basics have been established, players will be bouncing the droplets to the flowers in no time, worrying only about their limited water resource and how many plants have been watered. While not mandatory, getting all of the plants before the water runs out makes the completed icon more pretty, which is definitely an incentive.
New mechanics will also get added to help spice up the levels, from flowers that require different amounts of water (Roses are GREEDY) to dozens of different interactable blocks. These blocks and items can change many things about the water droplets. For example, there are pinwheels that split the water in to tinier droplets, water balloons that explode tons of water, rotators to direct the droplets no matter what, and water traps to absorb the water. All of these are to keep players on their toes while trying to win, and can be looked at in more detail thanks to a handy notebook found in game.
Flowerdrops is a an interesting game, one that utilizes many of the casual elements of puzzle games to create a massive expanse across many worlds. You never feel pressured to worry about the flowers you couldn’t get — even if that colourful icon is pretty — so those of us with completionism can rest easy. Plus you can customize your cloud! What’s not to love?
If you adore mobile-like puzzle games that take things to the next level in terms of sheer content, this might be a fantastic game to dive in to.
The software entry will either be today or tomorrow depending on a few factors.
