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Heya! Just letting you (and anyone else reading) know that v0.7.0 was pushed. It increases the map size greatly and you can also delete, rotate, and move buildings for more design control over your little planet! :)

I'll also add decorations in a future update~!

I just looked up Skyblock and i love the vibes it gives too! Maybe the game could have little islands out there that have little critters!

I like your idea of different biomes! Would they be purely visual or are you thinking of some gameplay effects for them?

I'll be pushing out v0.8.0 tomorrow, but I wanted to show you a preview of something I call Sanctuary Mode/World.

Heya, I remembered you and thought I'd let you know that I've created the Steam page and will release the demo there in 5 days (13th March)! 

If there's anything you want to see in the game, happy to add it yeah! <3

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4464970/Astral_Bloom/

Also congrats on your game, you got really good gameplay! :)

Thank you for such kind words, Pizza!! I'm glad someone else was also able to see the vision XD!

I'll be working on the game to release more updates after the jam and likewise, I look forward to seeing you too in 2026.2! :D

Hey there Ben, that's a good question!

Regarding the movement, my thought process was that it isn't a purely grid-based game in that your position is snapped to a grid. I suspect that movement type is more common for action combat games, whereas here I wanted to align it with the camera, so that left really means left. Especially as you expand to a huge flat space, the grid becomes less and less relevant.

The other reason is that I plan to allow the camera to be rotatable in an upcoming update that also allows camera zooming, so the camera will no longer be fixed to isometric angle.

I did consider your feedback though as I wondered the same thing! :)

Thank you so much!!!

I will be posting very frequently in the days and weeks to come, hope to show more exciting stuff and of course push out more updates once the rating period is over :)

And of course I am open to all feedback and suggestions to help make the game better for everyone~

Heyyyy!!!

Thank you so much, I hope to make as much improvements as I can until then!

no worries, good job on the game man! very good for the first attempt~

I like how the enemies turn to colour when I swipe them with my paint brush, some thoughts as I played:

• Beginning room could be a bit clearer that you have to dive into the painting, as I thought this was one of those point and clicks where I had to find a key to go into the door. But very minor point that did not distract from the experience.
• I like how you don't have to backtrack in this game and go back to the starting point when you find the key, and instead unlock a shorter path to go back, which makes it not repetitive.
• The sound effects were used well, such as audio feedback to indicate that a gate has unlocked offscreen, which is a nice touch for user experience.
• The subtle animation to show an item is interactable is also nice, as otherwise it would have been harder to differentiate what is interactable versus background objects. I think assigning it a unique colour could also be used to differentiate too, to make it even more identifable.

Overall nice premise as well as the lore that sets up how you enter the painting and become miniaturized. I tried to speedrun it by rushing through the areas but the monsters got me xD. The monsters are also very cute.

"Ari and the Fading World was made by a crazy talented team, excluding myself. :P " Also nooo why discreditting yourself? 

This is a nice little crafting game that has more than i thought! I usually leave detailed feedback so hope this isn't intimidating!

• The world is more expansive than I thought, which rewards exploration.
• I didn't know that I had to return to the den at night, so I lost everything, I think this is quite demoralizing as most people might not give another go if they had to restart from scratch.
• I think the game could benefit from having more inventory space - either a way to upgrade it, or just more base slots, given the number of things that we need to craft, as well as different categories across food, crafting, and advanced crafting, which we don't all memorize the ingredients for.
• The character moving slowly was something I thought was a glitch, but I suspect it's because I didn't have enough food, i think some visual indicator like flashing the hunger bar would reduce this confusion, or showing a 'tired face' with a low battery icon or thought bubble of an apple to keep the UX simple.

Overall, this was a lot more complex than i thought and the goal of having to build a rocket definitely had set up an interesting premise.

I overall enjoyed playing and the crafting system - I love crafting games so I might be biased!

Hey there! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, glad you like the experience! It's always glad to see people from past jams coming back for sure! Will check out your game shortly :)

This is one of the coolest comments I've read so far, it made me feel so warm inside HAHA

Thanks for playing and i can totally imagine your alien walking around just collecting things :)

I'll be adding more stuff to the game after the jam ends so feel free to share more cozy ideas if you have them, and I will add them to the game~! (I also just got the Steam page up which I'm quite excited about!)

Heya, thank you so much for the kind words! Glad you liked the various mechanics. I am looking to add more features so if you really like it and have suggestions for what you want to see, please let me know!

Also just got the steam page up if u wanna check it out :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4464970/Astral_Bloom/

Haha I'm glad I managed to get the rebirth mechanics working, and am glad to hear you like it!

Thanks PAT, glad you enjoyed it~

Thanks so much for the kind words Anthony! Was indeed a labour of love. I decided to make it into a full game on Steam thanks to a friend's support. I will be posting more about it and putting out several updates once the jam is over~

Nice game you have too, very soft and poetic title and I do love me some pixel art! Edit: I've just played and will leave my thoughts shortly!

Ahh my bad, I was not expecting the map limits to be reached! The original plan was to have multiple levels of worlds so you would build a new layer after hitting the limit but I kept it simple for a jam.

In the next version,  I have made it possible to delete blocks by selecting them, allowing more designs but also allows you to then build the rocket!

Aww thank you so much, it was very heartwarming to hear that it pulled on your heartstrings!

I'm going to put out a detailed devlog on the roadmap I've planned for the game. With a friend's encouragement I also decided to put it out on Steam and I'm looking to put up the Steam storepage up by this weekend if it goes well!

Yaaas! I honestly kept spamming the ability button just to see the effect when i added it, it's so mesmerizing, so much that I had to add a 1s cooldown haha!

And yes I do find myself just walking around seeing the tiles glow, especially at night when they glow a warm yellow. ^^

Wow that's cool! It's fun to see comments from people who've played the earlier versions to compare to the latest one. I'm glad to hear the polish elevated the game~

Thank you for the kind words too :)

Ahh! Sorry there isn't a way currently. I've just added feature to select and delete buildings on the next version but I can't upload new versions until the jam period ends this weekend! Sorry about that but rest assured this feature will directly be in the next build, along with other new stuff in v0.6!

Edit: The rating period ends next weekend, not this weekend, I mistook as I thought it's normally a week.

Wow, your timing is just as phenomenal! Under 5 minutes! :O

Glad that you like the game vibes and appreciate the kind words, I'll continue to push out updates once the jam ends! :)

haha I don't know if you are serious but after much consideration, my friend told me to do it, so I'm actually gonna go for it!

I'm excitedly creating the storepage right now!~

Thank you for playing and for the kind words! Glad that you enjoyed it~

Ill be putting out more updates in the coming weeks!

thanks~

Thanks sicave, glad to hear you enjoyed it! I am planning the roadmap now and will be putting out updates to add more content, such as a research tree, upgrades and character customization!~

Thank you for the kind words! I intend to continue developing it after the jam period so any ideas/features you want to see, do let me know! :)

Oh wow that is a weird bug, can you share your browser. If it's Chrome/Edge/Firefox, you can try updating to the latest version to see if it persists?

If not, you can try the downloadable versions as this looks exclusive to a specific web browser or old browser version.

Heya, glad to hear you liked it!

Keybinding was added in the desktop version but the web version conflicts with browser shortcuts so they were removed.

I intend to continue developing this game and possibly release on Steam so I will think of alternate keys for web in a subsequent update so appreciate the suggestion! :)

Heya for the files, the F1 ~ F5 keys trigger building. The 'C' key also triggers the ability. You can view the shortcut keys at the top right of most buttons! However on web those keys aren't available as F1 and F5 trigger help and refresh, so they only show up on the downloadable versions for now.

I think he was referring to wishes having no shortcut keys as the other common UI buttons have keys!

Thanks for playing! Glad to hear you love it - good idea for the shortcut keys to trigger wishes, they will be added!

I'll definitely continue to improve it after the jam so feel free to leave any other ideas/feedback that comes to mind :)

Edit: If you're talking about the building shop, actually the F1 ~ F5 keys are available on the downloadable versions - on web they trigger help page and refresh so they are omitted.

Agreed on the text! I intend to work on it more and release new content after the jam!

Any ideas on what you'd like to see, or additional feedback?

HAHA That escalated quickly! And yes I definitely love writing personal messages

Ooh that's unusual! I'm on Chrome HAHA. if you want, you can try updating to the latest version of Chrome, but yeah the downloadable versions are the alternative.

Hey there! Yes, the final option leads to a secret ending, which is disabled if you take too long - hovering over the button should show a tooltip that hints at it. It's usually not possible to get it on the first rebirth.

Very nice and cool you got to the end!

Wow I am deeply honored T_T

I am super humbled to hear you liked it! I will be working on this game and pushing out an update after the jam ends, with new upgrades. I already have notes and have begun implementing feedback and a roadmap!

If you have any feedback, suggestions, things you want to see, please let me know!

I'm happy to hear I picked the right colour scheme! I might have been lucky, as purple is my favourite colour XD

I will expand the game post-jam. I already have some ideas, possibly a research tree with an upgrade to display an indicator -> lets you see where the next tile spawns!

Thanks for the suggestion and glad you had a fun time!

OMG HEY!!! I did not realise I had tried your game :O GOOD JOB ON IT!!

Your ideas are reaaaaaally good, top notch suggestions. I plan to work on this game after the jam so these are invaluable!

• I think a kind of 'world overview' camera shot of your land would capture the world you built, along with stats like "Tiles: 300, Resources Generated: 30k"
• I plan to add meta upgrades, either Research or Planet mutators, which will eventually cause resource numbers to creep up.

addressing your awesome notes:

1. Timer paused - Possibly this sounds like it was the slowdown from the Wish panel? Choosing wishes don't pause time but slow it down so resources can still accumulate. I do wonder if it looks too paused though.
2. Hmm, I will think a bit more about how to make switching modes. I was hoping it could cater to a preference, like active vs idle playstyle. Needs a bit more thinking.
3. Yeah I've seen playtesters who just collect everything manually and don't use wisps. I'm not sure why this is the case as I thought it was impossible to automate and go fully idle without wisps. Maybe adding the Loot Magnet upgrade made manual collection a viable strategy? hmm. Maybe there could be different Wisp Roles, aside from rarity.

Likewise, good luck with your game too! <3

Hi there, sorry to hear about that - which browser are you playing on? For browsers, I recommend trying on Chrome, Firefox or Edge! The game requires WebGL 2.0 to run properly.

Otherwise the downloadable versions are best if that is not an option!