Puzzle Bloom
Verdict: more please
In a Nutshell: Puzzle game involving a tree spirit and captive bears. This was one of the 2009 PAX 10
“Puzzle Bloom is the innovative action-puzzle game where you control the tree spirit Canotila in her quest to bring back life to her island. Canotila needs the assistance of the island’s native creatures to get past the rigid machines of the world. She flies from creature to creature and uses her powers to guide them. New life will bloom into the world for each time Canotila breaks a machine, bringing Canotila closer to her ultimate goal of a return to nature.”
- Fun Rating: Fun
- ESRB: n/a
- Players/Mode: single-player / campaign
- Game Duration: each level takes about 10-20 minutes
- System: web
- Developer: Team Shotgun as a part of the Danish Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment
- Website: http://puzzlebloom.com/
- Cost: free!
| Would I play this again? | yes |
| Would I recommend this game? | yes |
| Was the story good? | n/a (more below) |
| Was the music good? | yes |
| Were the graphics good? | very nice |
| Was this game difficult? | no |
| Was this game frustrating? | no |
| Was this game offensive? | no |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | yes |
Playing the game
You need to get to key locations/checkpoints on the map in order to change it from a barren landscape of bear enslavement (it’s unbearable? maybe just that pun is) into a lush environment of, presumably, bear freedom.
In order to move around you need to be guiding a bear by holding the left mouse button and pointing the bear in the right direction. Guiding a bear will let you move boxes around and step on switches that activate platforms or doors so that you can keep moving. To switch bears, simply let go of the left button, put the cursor on the bear you want to jump to, and left click on that bear. Walls will prevent you from bear hopping so sometimes you’ll need to time your jump or just move to a less walled section.
To see where you’re going, hold the right mouse button while moving the mouse around. The mouse wheel will let you zoom in and out.
Occasionally an area will have a robot who will go after bears that are just standing around and make them get back to work. You can jump onto a robot which will make it short circuit. Make sure there’s a bear nearby, though. Otherwise, when the robot explodes, you’ll have no where to go and will have to start at the last checkpoint.
What the game gets right
The music and graphics start things off well providing a wonderful atmosphere to the world in this game. The world is so compelling that during all of my time playing it I wondered how the world got in this state (would love to see the back story to this) and what I could do to fix it for good. I loved the voice of the tree spirit as it added that special touch to the game.
The puzzles were not overly complicated but were still nice and challenging.
What the game gets wrong
The only thing I can find (other than only two levels) is that if you don’t have a wheel mouse you can’t zoom. But the levels are playable in the default zoom level so this is just a minor irritation.
Sum it up
I’m still trying to decide if I’m OK with bears getting lasered in order to turn a hunk of rock into a place of lush vegetation. I guess that since I want to play more levels, the answer is probably yes.
For other aspiring game makers out there, here’s the post mortem from the devs. Definitely check out the DADIU page about the game as well as the links in the credits on the game’s site as there is lots of information about the making of this game (and who to email with questions).
Other games you might like to read about:
Polar Panic
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