Check out our post-jam version on itch here

People say talking to plants helps them grow.

Hazel knows better. Most plants can't understand human speech. Luckily, Hazel is a brilliant techno witch who has made a gadget that will help her communicate to plants! By listening to plants, Hazel can record what plants are saying to her. This way, she can replay that dialogue to other plants and have a real conversation with a plant in their own language!

Can Hazel overcome the limitations of speaking in pre-recorded messages and help her plant friends out?

Controls
  • Move - WASD

  • Talk/Interact - "E" or "Spacebar"

  • Open up your recorder - "R"

  • Save dialogue - "1", "2", "3", "4" (You have four save slots for dialogue. Use the number keys to save a dialogue to the corresponding save slot.)

Gameplay

Hazel's plant child, Rose, is moving out soon. Hazel wants to find the perfect gift for Rose but cannot understand plant language. How can Hazel learn to communicate with plants in order to find the perfect gift?

Help Hazel by collecting dialogue with her tape recorder by speaking to plants and picking which dialogue you want to save. img

The dialogue you save becomes the options that are available to you the next time you talk to a plant! img2

Done with the game's story? There's also a mysterious "Dye Log Tree" where Hazel lives. The more you learn about what plants say, the more the tree grows! What's the highest percentage you can get?

Tips
  • Though you cannot go into the other buildings, you do have to return to your own at the end to give Rose a present when you find it
  • Unlocking all dialogue is optional. The game can be finished without finding all dialogue.
Bugs
  • Do not record the plant instruction manual
  • When you are in dialogue selection, do not use the mouse to record. It's safer to just use the number keys to record dialogue.
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  • dosto
    Lv. 16

    List of things I want to point out:

    • Atmosphere was a great success. Art, music and idea all favoured each other. As a combination, they created a kind and cosy feel to the game.
    • The music piece itself looped well and was very pleasant to listen to for a longer time too (AGAIN).
    • The conversation UI worked greatly for its purpose: usage flow was good and I didn’t miss using the mouse. The UI was especially nice when compared to the first one you had in Hulda (which is also understandable since you got the time problems with Hulda). I think even the lightest usability problems in convo would have ruined the otherwise great game, so I’m really happy you paid attention to it.
    • Great usage of your new writer

    Some small things which aren’t that relevant with the gameplay but brought me great joy:

    • The player setting the main music on by themselves
    • The edgy flowerpot of Rose
    • Plantbros wearing sunglasses

    So congratulations! You made a great jam game again, it was a pleasure to play it. I don’t really have much to criticize since small bugs are small bugs and you are really aware of them already. But I want to say something to help with the further game jams and this time it’s this: adding even the most basic start game menu in the beginning helps the player to orientate for playing the game. It also prevents the player losing the game content when fumbling with the screen sizes and volumes and stuff (especially when people are streaming games).

    Waiting for your next game!

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thank you so much and very glad you liked it :D

      Yeah, we hadn't really put a menu screen on the todo list but you're right, we should do that for the post jam version. perhaps music sliders as well now that you mention it.

      Thanks for all the praise and have a wonderful day :)

    • Happysquared
      Lv. 15
      Happysquared Designer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! Just finished working on the start game menu for the post jam version. Really great advice.

      Very glad you liked the music and atmosphere. We definitely spent more time thinking about the UI for this than Hulda. For Hulda, we started off developing a game with pretty different mechanics. For Hazel, we stuck with the same mechanic throughout and were able to put some thought into what would feel good. Maybe a little more thought as there isn't really a standard control scheme for Hazel's mechanic. Wanted to make sure a pretty different mechanic could be introduced gently enough through UI.

      Glad you also like the details we added to the sprites :D

      Thanks again for taking the time to write such lovely detailed feedback :D

  • Zen00
    Lv. 15

    Ended with 68% of the dialogue.

    While the main mechanic was innovative, at the same time I feel it was a bit contrived and got more in the way than was helpful. Mostly because it just became a memorization game of trying to find lines and see who says what to then trigger something else. Anyways wasn't my favorite mechanic.

    • Megan
      Lv. 12
      Megan Composer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! The intent of the game is exploratory - more about trying things out and interacting with the characters than linearly trying to progress the story.

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    This is a really cute concept, great art and music and a really innovative idea! I think there are some slight improvements to be considered, like with the recorder text going off-screen if you record a particularly long text and I'd like to see more responses compatiable with more questions, but I'm sure that's all something that can be fixed fairly easily - it's a great entry and I enjoyed playing it :)

    • Megan
      Lv. 12
      Megan Composer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, your feedback is in point - we're fixing that for the post-jam. We wrote over 150 lines of dialogue, but the need for more responses is definitely one of the things I was most unsatisfied with for this version.

    • Happysquared
      Lv. 15
      Happysquared Designer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback!

      We've taken some of your points into account on the post jam version. Preventing text from overflowing and adding more compatible dialogue responses. Dialogue trees are pretty hard to deal with when there's so much dialogue to go through!

      Thanks again and glad you enjoyed it!

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    Great art, great music, great atmospher and dialogue options. Each character felt unique. The main mechanic was very innovative, big props for that. Mini bunnies does it again!

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thank you for the praise :D

      was very fun to watch you stream it, also showed us how someone approaches it and see what changes we should make for the possible post jam version

  • Allison James
    Patron

    This was a very pretty game with pleasant music and a super unique idea. Loved the use of hints and the ability to take it at my own pace.

    Unfortunately, I managed to softlock the game 😅 After watering Buttercup, getting the recording device, talking to Buttercup again and recording them, and then talking to Rose and trying to record them (may not be exact repro steps, sorry!), I got: "Caught error, there is no dialogue id: { { -1,0,11,8,9,7,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,23,5,6 }, }" which repeated until I force-quit the game and added "Error" as a string to the recorder.

    • Happysquared
      Lv. 15
      Happysquared Designer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Hey thanks for taking the time to play! Hope you managed to go back and finish the game after.

      That error appears when you attempt to record recorded dialogue and use the mouse to select record. The error only appears when you use the mouse. I think if you stick to using the number keys to record you should be fine!

      Thanks again!

  • Steve
    Lv. 1

    Great art, music and overall theme. I also loved the WASD functionality as it's simple and works well. I like that you can beat the game but also search for all the dialogue - it creates another fun challenge! I liked that the game was a little tougher to figure out, but it was a very engaging and innovative experience. I have honestly never played a game with a concept like this. Great work!

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Very glad you liked it. Yeah, it's a pretty straight forward once you get familiar with the dialogue but you still have to explore a bit and talk to the characters. I hope we found a pretty sweet spot in not too little and not too much.

      Thanks a lot for playing and for the high praise :D

  • Chris
    Patron

    Really cool concept and fantastic art. I did discover a bug if you try to record recorded dialog but not a big deal

  • Brian
    Lv. 1

    The art and music of this game are amazing. It's great to see vibrant colors along with cheerful music. This was coupled perfectly with what I thought the theme was - raising someone to become an independent and unique individual (good parenting more or less).

    The controls were on point as well. I like how there was the WASD functionality and that the arrow keys were available as well, giving players some options on what controls they want to use.

    However, I would like to add one thing - sound adjustability. Although I liked the music, it was a bit loud for my liking. If I could turn that down, it'd be perfect.

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Glad you figured out the growth being your child growing up and moving away. We weren't sure everyone would get that so we also added they Dye Log tree that grows with each dialogue you discover to be sure :P

      I do agree there should have been a volume slider, sfx and music preferably, unfortunately we just didn't have time to do so. Might give ourselves the time to do so if we make a small post-jam revision.

      Thanks

  • blixx
    Lv. 1

    This game was the first I have ever played where you use and record different dialogue to interact and progress the story and game. I thought it was a really good idea and creative. I liked how you could record any response and wasn't limited to just the "right" responses and try them all out. Highlighting the items in the first room helped me a lot in figuring out the flow of the game. I got 70%~

    Sidenote: Hazel's hat is pretty awesome.

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thanks. I don't remember it being used either and it was a lot of fun to make. Also learnt a lot from doing so. Glad to see you liked it and fun to see how much % of the dialogue people found.

  • Hokori
    Lv. 12

    Had a great experience playing Hazel the Plant Witch. I loved the interpretation of the theme, and how that tied into the mechanics of the game. I'll admit I was addicted to trying to find all of the different dialogue options that I could. The dialogue was well written and it made me want to explore all of the sub plots. The art is really gorgeous with a cohesive and thought out style that matches the cute and relaxed feeling of the game. The music was another aspect I felt tied the game together nicely. Overall, one of the most creative entries I've played in GM48. Excellent work!

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Glad to hear you had a great experience We had a bit of an issue way too close to the end and tried to fix it. So we aren't quite sure if there are some dialogues that became inaccessible, will probably dig down into the trees today and update the description if we find any. We are overall very happy with our idea and how it came out. Thanks a lot :D

  • Team Seguin
    Lv. 2

    I enjoyed the vibe of this a lot! Interesting concept too! :)

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    3yrs ago

    Very cute aesthetic. A bit confusing to play, but fun to figure out.

    • Ivanbje
      Patron
      Ivanbje Developer of Hazel The Plant Witch

      3yrs ago

      Thank you.

      Yeah, it was a challenge to implement our idea into a full fledged game and make it simple to play.

      We tried to make the tutorial organic and fun. Glad that you had fun trying to figure stuff out :)