Adding This To My Indie Game Forced Me to Change The Control Scheme - Nectar Devlog 8

[@BeardedWrenchh]

the first thing i thought when seeing your system: maybe instead of "picking up" the dandelion, the sunflower in the pot now becomes the dandelion and so you become this "new" version of the pot, until the dandelion is used up, sort of a mario type functionality? so the user would never really 'drop" the dandelion, they would become a pot with a dandelion inside and then once it runs out of use, they would revert back to their normal sunflower state, IMO that is a nice way to solve the pickup issue and add more uniqueness to a player controller

[@marcustf]

Kinda like a power up instead of an item that you pick up, that's a neat idea.

[@michaelmano7261]

Yeah I thought the same. Also goes along with the whole "where are his hands" he previously mentioned. I would add onto this that it only triggers when you jump. This way you keep the puzzle options. (Otherwise it would be easy to know where you have to use it ) Stand under a dandelion and let a seed drop into the pot. The dandelion grows, you jump it's triggered

[@nerdchomp]

Enough people have liked your idea that I'll have to test it out and see how I could make it work. No guarantees, but I'll at least experiment with it a little. Thanks for the feedback

[@unusuariomasenyt1625]

I thought something similar the moment I saw the problem. Seems like a good solution to me

[@darkaidev]

I was thinking the same during the devlog! I thought maybe shaking a dandelion and a seed drops in the pot adding an additional flower tho so you could if other flowers available have multiple 😁

[@evanchilson9829]

i watch a TON of devlogs, and one common thing that frustrates me is a lack of critical thinking, or not approaching situtations from the perspective of the player. when watching yours, though, its abundantly clear that you're putting the players experience first, both from adressing the controls and the visual clarity. this series is a breath of fresh air in the overall devlog scene on youtube

[@andrew____p]

Always love the cameo from that random character model in the back

[@marcustf]

I think a really simple solution for dropping would be allowing a long press to drop the dandelion. So, one button to pick up, one button to drop. If you only have one item (bee, or pot), tapping the drop button drops whatever is being held. If you are holding 2 items, tap drops the bee's item, long press drops the pot's item (or you can just tap 2 times to drop both). Just an idea. You could even at that point reduce it back down to one button if you really wanted, with priority given to pickup so that if you were next to a pick-uppable, by default a tap picks up, but you can still drop with a long press. If you're not next to a pick-uppable, a tap will drop! 10/10 on the dandelion floating stamina being the little dandelion fuzzies.

[@hardcorerick8514]

So great to see someone making these devlog videos in Unreal Engine!! Thanks for sharing :)

[@tannergilliland6105]

I'm glad KZbin recommended this. This looks really cool!

[@2DVincent]

such a cute game, I love the concept. Seems fresh and unique. If I have one suggestion (which you can ignore) it would be cool if the pot's arms and legs were roots growing out of the pot, maybe through a little crack in the side or something.

[@whilefree]

That dandelion looks so awesome. I loved that.

[@MrIrresponsibleSteve]

I need to hurry up and wishlist this game! I love seeing the problem solving, its crazy how such "simple" mechanics can actually bring up legit gamer feel problems. Youre doing awesome and this game is top three waiting fors for me

[@KaitheArtGuy]

First video I've seen on the channel, I love the art direction and cute gameplay! Can't wait to see where this goes😀

[@voropserg99]

Nice video! For the pick up/drop dilemma I would consider a solution in which the player needs to hold the drop button to drop the item that pot holds. Since the dandelion is "fragile" it will minimize the accidental drop and thus player frustration. This implementation is really up to what kind of items the pot will hold in the future and if droping stuff has big impact. And, of course, UI hints for player actions will help players a alot, which im sure you'll do at some point

[@nerdchomp]

Yeah a lot of people have suggested holding the button to drop the dandelion, and I think that makes the most sense. That's probably what I'll do

[@ConorDrew]

A couple of things I would suggest, however this depends on the gameplay/flow. 1) To stop users from abusing the dandelion you can add "wind" areas, that will blow the dandelion away, this can restrict puzzles that have obvious loop holes. 2) Once again depending on the gameplay, but maybe as you run, this also uses a bit of the dandelions stamina, no where near as much, but can once again force players into more curated paths. With the picking up / dropping, this would be more of a feature if you add more pot pickup-able, but have a simple GUI that indicates which object you are "controlling" so for now you could just have two boxes at the bottom, the left one is the player the right one is the bee, then you use L1/R1 to switch them out and then your interact buttons will effect this one. Or if you are staying away from GUI, could try add something visual to show that this is the object that is now being interacted with, could be a faint outline or some particle effects.

[@teahands]

Only discovered your channel recently but I love hearing how you tackle and think through design problems like this, it's a process that's weirdly glossed-over in a lot of devlogs. Game looks great so far!

[@emberchord]

What a lovely idea! I wonder though, you are a pot. There is room for additional plants in there. The player could have to catch a dandelion seed so that they can grow one

[@WhyKev]

I absolutely love everything about your glider! Such a great idea with the dandelion and how it depletes over time! Great Devlog as well!

[@nerdchomp]

Thanks! I'm trying to avoid as much UI as possible. So if I can convey info like stamina and health within the world, I try to do that

[@Yaso_Nex]

honestly this is not my type of games, but I love your devlogs and love your passion to your game. I don't know if I'm going to buy it or not, but I wishlisted it just to support you. keep up the good work!

[@nerdchomp]

Thanks for supporting the game, even if it's not for you!

[@stray1239]

solution: holding the drop button enters "drop mode" which zooms in slightly and puts an arrow above the bee. using a button (arrow keys, right stick, etc.) you can switch between the bee and the pot, and when you let go of the button it drops whichever item is selected. Sort of like Tears of the Kingdom's method for locking on to enemies (or any other 3d game really). also 3:54 Iron Man???

[@nerdchomp]

That's an interesting thought, I'll have to see how it feels. Also, iron man in the background is just the default mannequin in unreal. I use it for scale. A lot of people have asked about it though lol

[@jikkermanccini]

I barely ever play games, but when I do I go straight for cozy puzzle games and platformers. This is quite literally right up my alley! I am also building a game right now (no coding experience so I'm making the models and artwork first) with a similar vibe, albeit more monstrous. Can't wait to see more from this project.

[@nerdchomp]

I'm so curious about what you mean by more monstrous haha

[@jikkermanccini]

@@nerdchomp Exactly as it sounds haha. Cozy forest environments, fairies and little woodland animals, but the player character shape shifts into monstrous beasts to take down waves of invasive species that periodically rush through.

[@nerdchomp]

Nice, sounds neat!

[@jikkermanccini]

@@nerdchomp thanks! I look forward to having a working demo.

[@climb-up-high]

Love the idea and the game play! coming along super nice!

[@darkdemongamer_1685]

Hey I loved this video! Hey I have some great Ideas for the game that you might be able to do! the first one is: New Plant Type: Luminescent Lily The Luminescent Lily is a captivating addition to the game. This unique plant emits a soft, soothing glow during the night, providing both aesthetic appeal and functional benefits to the gameplay. I feel like this could be used for like dark areas or levels that happen at night time! and then I also have this idea: The Seraphic Sunflower is a radiant and majestic addition to the game. This extraordinary plant harnesses the power of sunlight to bestow unique benefits upon the surrounding flora and the player's potted plant. basically it would slow down the rate that the grass turns back to dead grass. (like shown when the grass slowly dissapears)

[@nerdchomp]

Interesting ideas!

[@darkdemongamer_1685]

thanks!@@nerdchomp

[@DillonBoucherDesigns]

The lily pads are genius. For the dandelion I would have had the bee still grab it and bring it to the pot.

[@VaunaKiller]

Dandelions look great, very believable. I loved them as a kid, so count me an expert here 😄 Glad there is a progress, seen that tightrope video too before

[@philldev]

I think the way you handled the whole picking up/dropping something was pretty nice, I don't see how you could've done it any better! However, @BearedWrenchh 's comment of turning the dandelion into a little power up is also pretty neat! Worth considering, I think :) Keep up the good work!

[@Artgalles]

Looks like a very wholesome game! Looking forward to seeing more content❤

[@rick-sanchez]

First time you pick smt up with the bee you should get a steam achievement "Beehold"

[@speedmilesgood]

Really love the popping dandelion animation and its mechanics. Maybe you could hold the grabbing/dropping action of the less command used (I don't know if it is the pot or the bee). And you have a new way to differentiate action without changing the input button. So maybe hold to drop the dandelion, or just press for the rock to drop it.

[@memyselfishness]

Nice work! A few thoughts: The clear water you're using when the color circle isn't over it is very hard to see. I was waiting for the water to show up and then you walked into a hole and it was filled with water. Perhaps, and this might not work based on the puzzles you want to design, the bee has to also hold onto the dandelion for it to function. Excited to see more progress, especially little experiments with actual puzzles and not just puzzle mechanics. If you want your game to be good and succeed, you're gonna need a lot of practice with making puzzles.

[@nerdchomp]

Testing puzzles will come soon, although you probably won't see too much of it on the channel. I need to keep them secret so play testers aren't spoiled. I agree with the water color, and I'll probably change it. Thanks!

[@davidCcode]

I was thinking : since (1) it is the only item that the pot grabs, (2) like you said it would be a very rare scenario where you'd see someone drop it while it still has stamina and (3) you enjoy having only one interact button, why not make it so if you get close to the dandelion, you automatically grab it? No button involved.

[@Ali-sx7cn]

Amazing just amazing ❤❤ . And one thing got me kinda puzzled 😅 if the bee can lift rocks and heavy objects why couldn’t it just try lift the pot (the main hero😅) idk just a thought ❤ KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ❤man amazing job

[@Orionhart]

Another solution might be to have the Bee drop what it's holding, and hand you the Dandelion. Gives a reason to not have the bee holding anything.

[@sabrina0013]

Maybe whenever Pot Friend picks up the dandelion, the bumblebee takes a break and sits in the pot or pollinates the sunflower? That way it's still a binary "yes I've got something picked up, no I don't".

[@juhom6019]

Pick up or drop the rock by pressing a button, hold the button for 2s for picking up or to drop the flower, would porbably have been my solution

[@caffeinated-studios]

I have no idea if this would feel good with the pick up mechanic, but I thought of a way you could keep the same button as the pickup button for both. Pickup with the bee is regular lets say 'X', but pickup with the pot is a combination of holding down a trigger or something and 'X'. Just a thought.

[@SpaceZebra]

Maybe you can change drop button, so if it's clicked -> bee drops the item, but if it's held -> pot drops the item. In this way you can do the same for the pick up button, so you can make every interaction on 1 button

[@PanniTV]

Maybe you could revert back to one button for picking up and dropping stuff with the main character. Pressing that button while holding a shoulder button, could control the sidekick. This would make the controls easier and more predictable in my opinion.

[@TheExileFox]

Since you use a flower pot as the character - please take the time to hide an easter egg referencing the "RC Cam" from GTA San Andreas - this is a flower pot that the player can drive around :D

[@zekenebel]

I think being able to get in the water and push the lily pads counteracts the point of the lily pads in the players mind. If something is needed to cross terrain, the terrain itself should be shown as a threat to the player, otherwise the player maybe left wondering what the point in the lily pad is other than just a cool mechanic

[@Aldueja]

maybe make the pick and drop action of the player be when holding the button, and for the bee make it just pressing? idk

[@michaelpg1]

I wonder if you need a separate button for pickup and dropping, to keep things even simpler. Could it be more contextual? If you are near something that can be picked up, it gets a highlight and picks up with the button. Otherwise you can use that button to drop using the rules you described…

[@stealthwolf2011]

Maybe you could make it so when you the pot and bee are holding an item, you can hold the drop button and a prompt would pop up where you can select what character drops something.

[@monkeyhorizon]

It seems like when you get the dandelion just walking into it to pick it up might be enough, then you could do long press interact drops dandelion and otherwise it's just normal behavior

[@myk3l9675]

How did I miss this one! So I googled and learned that female bees are the pollinators. So Herbs bee companion should be Jeri! Or Jerri?!? Tough questions, I know.

[@temperboy5460]

5:20 Yeah but wouldn't you have a tutorial showcasing what the triangle and square buttons do?

[@sushiman_]

i see that you are adding a lot of features and they are all amazing but you should alost focus on the main game like the map (instead of those cubes with prototype material ^^'), the story, the core gameplay loop, the puzzle etc...

[@nerdchomp]

Don't worry, I am working on those as well

[@leonepo5525]

I mean, i think it would be more pratical if the pot pick up the dandelion automatically when the player walks across the dandelion, and drops if you sprint or something like that.. Would make a little more challenging to the players, cause them cant run while using the dandelion, and would leave the picking/droping items just for the bee

[@AuxiarMolkhun]

I'm a week late to this suggestion so wouldn't be surprised if you've gotten this nailed down and are past it by now, and while I like the Dandelion idea for gliding, I'm torn by the gameplay function of the bee being able to grab and hold things that look like they're roughly the same size/weight as the pot character, but isn't able to hold or carry the pot character themselves. I understand that the Dandelion idea adds resource management with the stamina and all that, but with the bee being able to carry large rocks and such, it feels odd that they can't character the character as well. I notice that when carrying objects the bee obviously just floats along beside the player, but you could make it so that the bee steadily drops in altitude and glides with the pot instead of flying with it, giving players another movement mode that's not limited by a finite-ish resource. Another solution that makes less sense because of its infinite stamina when holding items is to give the bee a stamina system for carrying the pot so that glides cannot be infinite as well. Some sweat particles and maybe some vibrations could show the remaining stamina in the bee as it wears down while carrying the pot, and once the be tires it stops gliding but drops slowly with the pot so it doesn't "hurt" the character from a high fall or whatever. I'm just spitballing stuff now but I think you should be able to get the gist of what I'm saying. A system where the bee carries the player completely removes the issue of the pot needing to pickup objects at all as well, or at least removes the ambiguity with that movement mode specifically. I suppose it would raise another issue of the bee then couldn't carry items while the player glides, which is a fair argument. A solution to this could be to make it so that the bee is able to carry the pot an infinite distance, dropping slowly as it does like my first implementation suggestion above, but only when it's not carrying something else. Then keep the Dandelions as another puzzle element so that players can only glide and carry items using the Dandelions like it's currently implemented. This way players would get another movement mode for some more creative exploration, and then when players need to move things for puzzles they'd be limited by the Dandelions and their finite distance/stamina. Just casual ramblings. I didn't even think about it until near the end of the video when I realized that the bee was in-fact carrying large rocks alongside the player that I had the thought of why can't the bee carry the player. You could even go all out and say while the bee carries the player they can just outright fly in any/all directions, but they wouldn't be able to carry things while doing so. Though that sounds a little busted and would probably require a somewhat major design shift for levels and whatnot. Anyways, game looks good, I like the style and wish you the best with the project. Quick edit, could also make it so that the bee carries the player, and the player can carry the objects while the bee carries them, but the bee would then have stamina because carrying heavy thing plus player, and just have the bee and the player switch off the objects automatically when doing a glide and getting out of a glide, but once again brings up problem of players would be able to glide anywhere if you don't want that.

[@nerdchomp]

Thanks for the feedback. I've also thought about that and haven't decided what I want to do about it, if anything. I know people might question why the bee can carry other things and not the plant, but I also don't want to overcomplicate the mechanics just to make that one detail make sense. It's a balancing act and I'll have to experiment to see if I like any other solutions

[@darkaidev]

Would you add a deep area to your water so the player cant move every lily or theyll sink?

[@zskull162]

What if you just had it so that, to have the pot pick up or drop something you double-click the interact button, and just a single click for the bee to pick up or drop

[@Kay-ql2wl]

POTRICK

[@deraminator945]

There is one thing, that feels like a little thorn in my eyes. I want to be respectfull with you. the dirt under the grass area is just pointing out too much. especially when you look down from above. Could you please make the ground at the area where the grass is, also green? Imagine it just like in other games with stylized grass like in botw. instead of brown dirt ground, they use a green ground that is slightly darkter than the grass itself, so it looks more filled and less underfilled :)

[@nerdchomp]

I've gone back and forth on this and at one point I even had it in the game like you're describing. I may end up changing it back because I agree with you to some degree, especially when pointing the camera down

[@deraminator945]

@@nerdchomp thanks for taking my criticism into account :)

[@ravenanne1734]

​@@nerdchomp I agree it doesn't look amazing from up top, but I really like the contrast when the camera is at the side. I can see why it's difficult to choose. Is there a middle ground where you could make the brown ground look more "alive" without making it straight green? Possibly with moss? I think the problem is when looking down, you can see the grass is further apart and it isn't full coverage; I'm not entirely sure if making the ground green would actually stop that feeling of sparseness.

[@nerdchomp]

@@ravenanne1734 I actually already changed it so the ground is green under the grass, and I think both of you are right, it's much better. I'm going to keep it like this for now. Thanks for your input!

[@Beam-Clips-Subsicribe]

Bro your game amazing can I whish it on steam?

[@nerdchomp]

Yes you can! Link to steam is in the description. Thanks for the support!

[@Beam-Clips-Subsicribe]

@@nerdchomp I will be sure to try it

[@solvult7284]

why not have the bee fetch the dandelion and hand it to the pot boi

[@droko9]

Why not make it so that picking up the dandelion causes the bee to bring it to you and both you and the bee hold onto the dandelion. That way you only need to have logic for holding one object