Journey Of Dandelion
Overview
Journey of the Dandelion is a mobile casual game about controlling a dandelion to overcome several obstacles and finally make it to the top of the mountain. It is made in 48 hours for Global Game Jam 2018.
Gameplay
The player will blow to the microphone in order to give the dandelion an up thrust and help it scale. Then manage to use the gyroscope (motion sensor) to control the horizontal movement. This is a story-based game and risks are not added at all so it won’t be good for hard core challengers.
Story
This is a story about friendship. The white and pink dandelions have been lived together since the day they were born. One day when the white dandelion wakes up he found out that his friend the pink dandelion has gone missing. He decided to climb up the mountain with the help of the wind’s god (the player) to find out where did his friend go. After climbing up the forest, volcano, rain and thrust into the clouds, his body parts are separated all around the world. Then he finally found out that he and his friend already planted the seeds everywhere along the way he traveled. The forest’s ground is covered with pink and white.
The society is developing in such a fast pace. Everybody has been working extremely hard for all those precious ahead of us. However, sometimes if we look back then we might find out that the most precious thing has always been at the same spot where we begin.
UI
I used some simple tricks to get the UI at the beginning as clear and fluent as possible. There’re 3 main scenes where I implemented these technics.
The first one is the beginning page, where it shows a tiny mountain and two dandelions right beside each other and waving smoothly. I created all the animations required to make everything active and natural. The sea waves, the dandelions and the button, moving the in different frequency so it seems smoother.
Then in Level 4 and 5, these are the ending cutscenes awarding the players for completing the challenges. I tried to make it as smooth and gorgeous as possible. Especially at level 4 where everything is actually ended and the dandelion start to fly out of the cloud. The player will notice the screen start to turn brighter and brighter and all of a sudden everything are displayed among the clouds.
Replay value
There are plenty of stuffs that’s worth noticing during the second play through. For example, in the beginning page the two dandelions are already displayed. But none of the players will notice this at that point.
The main story line will only be understandable after the first playthrough.
Music
At the entrance, a heart warming music will be played. This is creating an atmosphere of home, of where everything starts.
Then entering the forest level where it turns silent and peaceful.
Then the third level where the most intense challenge is where the player need to go through the volcano, the music becomes sacred and purifying.
Entering the third level of rain. It displayed a sad mood to represent the player is already wounded and the scene start to shift randomly (This is not a bug that we didn’t fix in 48 hours, it’s a feature!)
I don’t think I can make it up for the music anymore, they all sounds the same.
Yi’s Comment in 2022: I wrote this page 5 years ago when I first did this game jam project. Now looking back at it the language seems kinda funny and I can imagine how I was struggling trying to come up with words. And somehow I don’t even remember writing this at all.