Blueberry Garden Reviews

At first this game did not make any sense to me (like for Cadmium Yellow). When playing for a longer while, I understood. And a really helpful review jogged my curiosity further. Then I enjoyed the game a lot :) And I have to say that by this the game is worth it's price after getting into it. Fly, birdman, fly! I'll give you some spoilers - step 1 will be mere hints, step 3 will be full-fledged explanations. Spoiler step 1: * there is an objective to this game that will become clear if you play it for a longer while. Don't give up too soon ;) * at first it seems like a slow-paced exploration-game, but in reality it's a mean game that enforces quick acting to "win" * to reach your objective you will have to understand the game-mechanics and world by experimenting and observing * don't be mad that there is no savegame. If you play a bit longer, you will know why it's not important to have one Spoiler step 2: * about the objective: you could say it's to help your birdman to survive * why would your birdman need to "survive"? Mind the very first picture being displayed right at the beginning of every new game showing a certain device that is commonly found in any modern household * try to make your birdman eat every fruit (Enter), as each type of fruit will provide a certain useful effect for a while * there's a separate game-mode called "playground" that can help you to find out more about the game-mechanics that you will need to make use of. Give it a try ;) * trees will only produce a small amount of fruit for a while until the trees will die * but don't despair, fruit can make new trees grow * however fruit will only grow into trees under certain circumstances * after understanding these game-mechanics, you can make trees grow to provide you with fruit (and their effects), and if you provide for the right circumstances trees will grow fruit that will grow into trees and grow fruit etc. for a long time * at first you might think it's weird or stupid that by touching large objects these will automatically be teleported to your "home" and "litter" it, but this is a very important feature of the game to help you reach your goal/s * small creatures do not only eat certain kinds of fruit to make life harder for your birdman, they will sometimes transport fruit to other places, occasionally causing trees to grow there by doing so * trees cannot grow / be grown under water! Spoiler step 3 (beware and don't read if you want to find out yourself what this game is about) * a faucet has been left running that will bring disaster to the garden by flooding it * the water will start to rise slowly at first, but then faster and faster * your birdman will need to turn off the watertap and save the garden. However you will have to find and reach it to do this... * or else you can try to reach a safe place that will not be flooded. Maybe the moon? * by finding large objects and teleporting them home by touching them, you will build a tower that will gradually grow above the rising water-level and in the end will enable your birdman to reach the moon * while the tower grows ever higher you will be able to reach higher grounds by flying, starting from the top of the tower * after lying on dry ground for a while fruits will "decay" and at the spot of their decaying a tree will grow - as long as no other tree is already occupying this spot. Then the tree will produce a number of the type of fruit that the decaying fruit had. After a while (and after having produced a small amount of fruit), the tree will die * fruit will automatically drop from their trees if your birdman does not take the fruit, and then will often grow into new trees if the fruit is stopped from rolling before it will drop into water or stop at a spot where no (new) trees can grow * make use of these game-mechanics to ensure a constant fruit-supply * mind that the rising water will gradually stop new trees from growing in lower areas by flooding them * the faucet is to the far right and high up * eating blueberries will help your birdman to fly higher * eating star-shaped fruit will enable your birdman to breath underwater for a while * eating brown berries will show you the way to large objects you might want to collect * eating onion-shaped fruit will shift a part of the ground sideways where your birdman is standing * eating small red fruit will make the part of the ground where your birdman is rise up/grow a bit Sure, a savegame wouldn't hurt ;) However I would rather love to see tons of "levels" made for this game, each with a new different kind of element bringing surprises ;) More - constant - background-music and different looking characters to choose from would be awesome too. The biggesst mood-killer for me have been the large nonsensical everday-objects drawn in a chidish style (well, and the moose). I'd rather prefer all of these objects to be fantasy-like imaginative fruit or so...

Short: meh. Uninstalled, put under my "abandonned" label. Starting with no explanations or goal in sight is ok. However, having the water level rise and rendering the place impossible is just a boring way to have you reset the whole thing over from scratch. Movement is annoying since the world tends to accumulate fruit and stuff in bundles. Camera is way too close on the character to make exploration fun - you pretty much literally fly blind.

I don't know quite what I expected going into Blueberry Garden but it certainly wasn't this. It's a very brief, very charming little platformer that you could probably consider an art game. It drops you into the world with nothing to go off of and some vaguely defined mechanics, but they're not too hard to figure out on your own, and while I'd love to elaborate on them I think this game becomes much more effective if you go in blind. $4.99 might be a little much for how little the game actually offers, but if you're the kind of guy like me who enjoys picking up these really old, really unique indies and finds value just from that novelty, then this is definitely one to pick up.

Lovely little game, lots of fun exploring the world and little ecosystem. It walks a tight line between providing a challenge and providing a little sandbox. And it does it pretty well. Highly recommended.

I’m going to concede that I set out looking for this sort of thing. You see, after gorging myself on so many well crafted and adored titles, there came a point where my brain started to call out for something a little more... Abstract. A title that was way off everyone’s radar, carrying with it a sense of mystery and the surreal, and having as good a chance of being a hidden masterpiece as it did of being a flaming pile of garbage. From these thoughts and a browse of my games library, my discovery of Blueberry Garden was made. And I’ll give it this – it certainly is a peculiar one. Its core concept is actually really interesting. You’re a strange looking bird-man in the titular garden, which is slowly but surely being flooded by a tap located way up in the sky, and your sole purpose in life is to find a way to turn it off. This is achieved by jumping and flying about the world, discovering oversized items, and using them to start building a tower to the heavens. Find enough, and you’ll finally have the height needed to successfully make the flight to your goal. It’s a fun idea – not only is it entertaining to just watch the tower get bigger and bigger, but as it grows your ability to get to the furthest reaches of the map also opens up, giving you a nice little sense of progression. It’s unfortunate, then, that there’s nothing else in this game that’s able to actually back this sense of enjoyment up. [h1]Feeling blue[/h1] For one, the controls are extremely fiddly. Any actual platforming you need to do just ends up feeling cumbersome; flights are cut short if you dare to brush against absolutely anything, navigation in some narrower areas feels clumsy and awkward, and there’s a whole list of items that seem to only exist to get in your way. Additionally, whilst the world itself might look artistically distinct, that doesn’t actually mean it’s interesting to explore. A lot of areas feel empty and pointless to visit, and even in the ones where something is actually happening it never proves to be intriguing or exciting. There’s either an item you need, a bunch of animals blocking your path, or fruits you can eat that each have their own obscure effects on your character. That’s pretty much your lot. Given these problems, it’s especially ironic that the game tries to laud the concepts of curiosity and exploration as its unique selling points. Freely exploring got tiring very quickly, and the solution to getting some items was so abstract I was forced to look up the solutions online. Safe to say, ‘curiosity’ was not high on my list of feelings. That space was more reserved for ‘boredom’. If anything, the fact the game tries to push ideas such as this in an attempt to give itself artistic merit only work to its detriment. There’s no “ever-changing ecosystem” or “living world” as its description might declare. It’s a smattering of cartoon trees moving about a bit and a few animals which wander around aimlessly, and selling it as anything more than that is simply foolish. The obligatory piano music that plays over time and slowly begins to grate simply adds to the overall feeling that this is all a little bit... Well, pretentious. It’s baffling to me, then, how Blueberry Garden not only won some prestigious awards, but also has certain reputable outlets singing its praises online. It also sort of pains me to critique it so much; your reward for completing the game is access to a extensive list of concept art, all of which goes to show how much this seemed to be a passion project to the developer. Part of me feels like I missed something – maybe I entered into the whole affair with the wrong mindset? I really don’t think this is the case, though. This just feels like a very basic title that has misplaced beliefs that it’s bigger than it actually is, and ends up sadly being something that isn’t worth the brief amount of time it asks from you.

Blueberry Garden is a mediocre, simple and strange indie game that will last you less than an hour. The single piece of music the game repeats during that time goes from pleasant to annoying very quickly. As the name suggests, you begin in a garden and your goal is to find large objects in the open environment, stand near them so they are teleported back to the starting area, then repeat this process until you have stacked a tower tall enough that you can reach the moon. You can jump, soar and eat various fruits that cause you to fly higher, breathe underwater, shift the earth etc. You will need these to reach restricted areas. Finishing the game will allow you to see some concept art and the developer's bedroom and various other personal photos. Awkward.

The controls are extremely cumbersome. Additionally, whilst the world might look "artistically" well made, that doesn’t absolutely reflect on its gameplay. It looks more like a bizarre satire made by a just graduated programmer than a real game. Nothing is intriguing or exciting. It hurts my soul that Mario 1 was made nearly 40 years ago and its much more interesting and challenging than this. Do not buy this game, unless you like... "abstract art".

An interesting game. Each playthrough is different. It frustrated the hell out of me at times, yet I still enjoyed playing it. The soundtrack is lovely.

I really didn't know what to make of this game. It played like a mushroom trip, and made about as much sense as one. I feel that style conquered coherence in this game, and am confused by it's win of Best Indie Game. I wont go into much detail, but let it be said that there is no proper story. The game relies on "random" quirkiness to evoke some kind of humour, I guess. Like, spawning a block of cheese in a forrest and calling it "ironic". I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm saying I didn't get it. This game wasn't right for me, but that doesn't mean it isn't right for you. -Nilesy

Mr. Pelican must balance his diet, his stack of precariously balanced objects, and a slow yet impending flood. Explore the garden, climb higher, and find a ton of secret areas and random objects while listening to a soundtrack that could calm a baby. Blueberry Garden has a ton of zazz, and the only downside is that it takes a few hours to fully explore the garden.