In a time when indie farming sims are innovating interesting new approaches to the genre,FloraMancer: Seeds and Spellsbrings the cozy crop collection to a more frenetic action game with apotent conservationist message.
FloraManceris a game where players are tasked to protect the world’s final forest from robots that have stripped the world of its resources. Players take the role of the last FloraMancer, who uses the tools and mechanics of farming games to make the spells needed to defend nature. After speaking with him in August, Game Rant caught up withFloraMancer’s developer Joe Sullivan just ahead of the game’s release.The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
A Flower About to Bloom
Q: We spoke in August, but can you introduce yourself for our readers again?
Sullivan:Yeah. My name is Joe Sullivan. I’m the lead developer onFloraMancer: Seeds and Spells.
Q: How does it feel being so close to release?
Sullivan:It feels great. I’m extremely excited to get it out in the public and off my computer.
Q: How do you think you’ll be feeling when this is published?
Sullivan:That weekend before the launch, I will hopefully remain sane, and I won’t be looking too hard into tiny details about the game and worrying about those. I hope to fully accept the game as it currently is without overthinking it.
This is all a hope. In reality, I might just spend that whole weekend blasting out as many emails as I possibly can. We’ll see which one of those two things wins out.
Q: Do you have any plans to celebrate on March 5?
Sullivan:I’ve had a few friends offer to come over on that release date, but it’s a Tuesday. It’s not going to be a crazy party, and I’m sure I’m going to be all booked up on my computer the whole night as well.
Q: How has the game evolved in the past six months?
Sullivan:Over the past six months, it’s received a lot of polishing and quality-of-life features added to it. It’s got a map and objectives. It’s similar to what it was six months ago, but much cleaner than it was. I shaved off all the rough edges into something I’m extremely proud of.
Q: What were some of those rough edges?
Sullivan:I wanted to save making the world map for last, in case there were major changes to the world map because I knew I would have to fully do it again. I left that out until I was certain that I wasn’t going to move any of the areas, which must have been rough on playtesters and beta testers. As it is, the world is rather large. I could definitely see how players could have really gotten lost in it.
Chiseling Down from Concept to Game
Q: What’s the reaction been like from the playtesters?
Sullivan:It’s been great. Yeah, a lot of people are doing some very nice things. It’s exciting to finally put it out into the public here. It made me very excited to fully release it. People say a lot of extremely nice things about the gameplay loop and the art and music. It’s been great. Most of the negative feedback has been something I’ve been able to fix quickly and update that same day, so I’m very excited about the launch.
Q: The original idea for the game came from you and your girlfriend Chloe Dougherty crossbreeding ideas from games you enjoy. Has she tested it for you?
Sullivan:Oh, yeah. Yeah, she’s play-tested it a whole bunch. Well, she likes it a lot, especially since it’s designed around her interests. She’s definitely the target market, especially because she’s the creator of the idea.
Q: That direct sort ofcommunication between developer and player–how important is that relationship to you?
Sullivan:It’s definitely something I strive for. My favorite part, as a player of video games, is the way that they bring folks together. Playing games on the couch with somebody else is my favorite part about playing video games, for instance.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges inFloraMancer’s development?
Sullivan:The biggest challenges were probably the decisions made extremely early on when I didn’t know exactly how the finished product was going to look. Deciding things like the damage of certain spells and the functionality of certain mechanics when I didn’t know how they were going to interact with all the other systems in the game was a big challenge. There was a lot of chiseling that I had to do over time, as I learned stuff. Like which of the bombs or spells should hurt the big robots more or what the reflection of an enemy’s bullet back should do, you know, less or more damage?
There was a lot of chiseling. A lot of playing the game, writing down 10 small changes, and then going back and doing it again. I’d say early on that was pretty difficult, but it became easier over time.
Q: What’s something in the game that you are particularly proud of?
Sullivan:Oh, I’d say the air spell. I can reflect enemy attacks back at them. It was something I’ve even considered making the core of the next game that I create.
Preserving Nature as FloraMancers and Players
Q: So a major focus of the narrative of the game is on nature preservation. What do you think about the state of preserving nature in our real world at the moment?
Sullivan:At the moment, I’d say it’s never been more important. The way this game has affected my social media algorithm, I see every day a new pipeline being built in Alaska and how the Amazon is currently producing carbon instead of reducing it. Yeah, I think this is the most important time to be talking about it.
Q: You touched on something really interesting there–how has developing the game shaped your understanding of its central issue?
Sullivan:I mean, it hasn’t changed anything in my brain. I’m sure almost all people would agree that weneed to preserve nature,but it has always been an issue. Now, that message is replayed more often now that I’m in the middle of a game about it.
Q: Can you preview some of the other spells players will be able to get their hands on?
Sullivan:Absolutely. The most common you’ll find around and you can buy in the game for very cheap are the four elements: the classic video game elements. Then, you’ll be able to find stuff like a light plant that can reflect and will grow certain plants twice as fast as using water and air. The firebomb spell is pretty good for clearing out paths and killing large enemies, and not that many people have noticed that you could use the firebomb spell and then use air on it to launch it forward. We have a vine attack spell that comes out of the player’s hand for this close quarter, sort of like our version of a melee attack.
Q: What kinds of robots are FloraMancers going to be facing off against?
Sullivan:Oh, I took a lot of inspiration fromthe earlyZeldaenemies. Their movements and attacks are simple enough that you can understand them and predict to a certain degree what will happen next, but not as simple asGeometry Wars-style enemies.I got the classic, strong but slow, large enemies, then small and fast ones, and there are turrets, lasers, and ricocheting spherical enemies. There’s a lot.
Solo Dev Talks Beyond FloraMancer
Q: What are you thinking about the next game you create?
Sullivan:Well, I’m going to take a little bit and prototype as many prototypes as I can create in a month or two to see which one is going to be both the most fun for players and the most I can do myself. I got several ideas. I’m very excited about one that I’ve sort of started because it’s collaborative with other developers.
Q: Can you give any teasers on that?
Sullivan:Well, this might not be my main project after this, but I am starting microgame projects where I can send the working files out to other developers. They can make their microgames and automatically put them onaWarioWare-style project.
Q: Did you ever revisit the spell crossbreeding idea?
Sullivan:I, unfortunately, have not. However, the idea that I floated around with the two artists that I work with is that if the game does well enough, we’re thinking about adding in a simple crossbreeding system where we’ll just make more spells so that the combination of them will produce something. But the idea of procedurally combining them through code, I think I have decided that’s not as fun for players as making them fully ourselves.
Q: You mentioned you might include simple crossbreeding. Are there any other post-release plans?
Sullivan:Nothing that’s completely set in stone. I plan on deciding what to expand upon on players' reactions after launch.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Sullivan:Yeah, I would say that even beyond playing the game and leaving a good review on Steam or telling people, I really would love to hear people’s feedback. I don’t want to say in person, but more closely! you may go to the Steam page, and there will be a link to Discord. My name there is UnityHomie, and you could just tell me! If people decide to tell me their ideas and their feedback directly, I think that could be something special.
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FloraMancer: Seeds and Spellsreleases March 5 on Steam.
