Rhodora

The tide has drowned the Lighthouse. 

Only the local flora can bring its light back.

Press the Heart Flower. Call the winds. Each petal you pluck deals one wind, and each wind you spend grows your Bloom one step in that direction. Take one petal for a safe step, or three for a gamble.

Spread the Bloom from cove to cove along a foggy granite coast. Reach a light well and it stays lit forever, feeds your flora, and owes you a gift. Light three leading wells and bloom onto the Lighthouse rock to bring its light back.

How a turn works

• Press three petals. Each deals a wind.
• Choose a wind direction, then tap a glowing bud and it blooms.
• Spend winds in the order you like. Growth can free a stuck wind.
• Let go to send unused winds out to sea.

Along the coast

• Light wells: reach one and it anchors everything you have grown so far.
• Gifts: every lit well offers a charm. Hold up to three.
  Zephyr, Amber, Conch, Weathervane and Squall can be used to bend the wind in your favour.
• Tide pools, golems and hard ground: the coast pushes back. Route around them or through them.
• Thresholds: light enough wells in a cove to lift its door. Pay its toll in nectar to open the next cove.

Made for phones

• One thumb (mostly)
• portrait
• no timer
• A run takes around twenty minutes. Works in the browser here, or install it to your home screen from the web version.

Still to come

• The balance pass: the winds are too nice right now. A win should be near impossible without charms.
• Found charms: a second family of charms, never sold, hidden in the fog coves for those who take the cheap door.
• The campaign arc: the coast remembers. Each run leads a little closer to the Lighthouse.
• Danger art: the Blacktide, the golems and the barrens get their own look.
• Unlockable flora: each cove has its own flora. Unlock them to add them to your Bloom. Based on the flora found in the coves.
• Daily seed (😉): a shared coast per day, the same for everyone, so runs can be compared.
• The Bloom Book: every finished run leaves its Bloom pressed in a book, to look back at.
• More inputs: full keyboard play.

Where it came from

Rhodora was inspired by our yearly family trip to Nova Scotia. One stop on our tour of St. Margaret's Bay is always Peggy's Cove, where we and our two boys marvel at the sheer size of the rocks, the crash of the waves, and the lighthouse standing over it all.

I had been mulling over game ideas for those quiet moments where you just want to do a few presses and carry on. I like roguelikes, and I was first drawn to a dice-rolling game. I landed on something else, shaped by the swirling winds and the unpredictable tide at Peggy's.

Web version

Also playable full-screen, and installable as a PWA on Netlify .

Controls

Tap or click. Keys 1, 2 and 3 press that many petals on desktop.

Other Stuff

• Made with: PixiJS (Caper JS game engine)
• Average session: Around twenty minutes
• Inputs: Touchscreen, Mouse, Keyboard (more coming soon)
• Accessibility: 
  • Reduced motion respected
  • one-handed

Use of AI

• Yes, AI helped me code this game and generate its in-game graphics.
• It even helped me refine some mechanics.
• The game, the engine, its core loop and mechanics, the art style, the story, etc, were all my ideas, code, blood, sweat, etc.

Release status

Prototype

Attribution

Music & Sounds

• Alphorn: https://freesound.org/people/ChaliceWell/sounds/784885/
• Ocean: Pixabay
• Bagpipes Loop: van_Wiese
• Mysterious Ethereal Song by TheoJT | License: Attribution 4.0
• Sound Effect by Universfield from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by MiraclEI from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by DRAGON-STUDIO from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by Yodguard from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by SoundZee from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by Andrei Ciomîrtan from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by Trading Nation from Pixabay
• Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay
• Kalimba pack: https://freesound.org/people/iainmccurdy/packs/38025/ by iainmccurdy | License: Attribution 4.0
• UI sounds: kenney.nl