So, on which day did God place the tree?

July 23, 2005 3:00 PM

Here we GROW again... A little late for Flash Friday perhaps, but... for those of you who remember and enjoyed GROW from the fine Flash folks at Eyezmaze. (Sort of like Orisinal with fewer, but deeper, things.)

The new game is exactly like the old game, if a little easier in that there's only eight things to place instead of twelve. But there's a weird RPG sequence afterwards, beyond your control, where the fate of a little demon-slaying dude is influenced by your planet's configuration.
posted by JHarris (31 comments total)

I confess: I don't get it. What am I trying to do here and how do I know if I've done it?
posted by duck at 3:05 PM on July 23, 2005

Loved the original. No time to test this one out but I definitely will. Thanks, JH!
posted by dreamsign at 3:07 PM on July 23, 2005

I'm with duck. What the bobbins is going on here?
posted by ajbattrick at 3:13 PM on July 23, 2005

It's a little obscure so I'll tell ya duck, but I think figuring it out is part of the fun, so other readers here's a

SPOILER WARNING...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the original game, you dragged things onto the "GROW" in the middle of the planet to plant them on its surface. The game was twelve turns long, and on each turn you could drag one thing.

The longer something is on the planet's surface, the more "evolved" it becomes, but each object has a limit as to how far it can go. Also, the presence or lack of other things can affect how it develops, or even if it develops in an incorrect way (and sometimes it's not easy to tell when that's happened). Ultimately, the game is about figuring out the best order in which to drop stuff onto the board so that everything develops to the highest degree. This usually takes many tries.

The new game is exactly like the old one, except afterwards a little cartoon character wanders around fighting monsters and doing adventure stuff. If you get everything to max level, then he always triumphs over the adorable dire foes which threaten his minimalist realm.
posted by JHarris at 3:16 PM on July 23, 2005

ARGH. Ok, who am I kidding, you find time for things like this. But my little guy gets his sword, crosses the ferry, get's the explosive apple (?) and armor and still dies.

Something like this is so straightforward to create yet there is so little like this. I'm glad these guys are around.
posted by dreamsign at 3:22 PM on July 23, 2005

If you do really badly, the people of your realm boo you!

This little git of a game now has me hooked :(
posted by ajbattrick at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2005

Friggin frig. I have everything at max except the ROCKS. How can the rocks influence the outcome?! grrrr... haven't given up yet...
posted by dreamsign at 3:36 PM on July 23, 2005

Dreamsign, it's not an explosive apple, it's... um, it's a bomb that grows in a tree?

And actually, it's not at all easy to make a game like this. You can work it all out in your head quite readily, perhaps, but then you have to put that abstract puzzle into a form that people can understand without going "huh?"

Considering that this is a game in which the idea is to put miscellaneous gizmos onto a planet in order for them to evolve to their natural capacity in order to get a little adventurer guy to kill a demon-thing, and... well, maybe going "huh?" is part of the fun, hmm.
posted by JHarris at 3:39 PM on July 23, 2005

Thanks so much for posting this! I loved the original but am a bit bummed i beat this one so quickly. I suppose once you figure out how it works it's not that difficult. Took 3 tries though, I was really hoping to spend all day on it.

So, any other suprise outcomes? My guy went and picked up all the items, killed all the demons including the big guy up top...
posted by freudianslipper at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2005

I did it! Woo and Yay!
posted by ajbattrick at 3:55 PM on July 23, 2005

Three turns, wow, that beats me. I haven't seen any other surprises alas, I think the effort that would have gone into things like the electric monster and the volcano from the original were directed towards cooking up the adventure sequence.

Yeah, It's not as good as the original. But still, nifty.
posted by JHarris at 4:07 PM on July 23, 2005

SPOILER WARNING:::SPOILER WARNING

Spoiler:

Shop(red roofed house)
Trees
Castle
water
tower(hexagon thing)
rocks
chest
stairway
posted by sourbrew at 4:12 PM on July 23, 2005

Is that why it points at the stairway first? Hmpf.
posted by loquacious at 4:21 PM on July 23, 2005

I liked the little RPG ditty on the end (though after a few tries I was wishing I could fast forward it), but there was much less cause effect than in the original. What was the deal with leveling up the rocks, for instance? And did anyone have a go where they crossed the lake on that raft (rather than the sailboat)? What happens?
posted by rafter at 4:25 PM on July 23, 2005

This on has much less variation, obviously, as you only have eight turns. But I love it anyway.
posted by snsranch at 4:30 PM on July 23, 2005

I didn't intend to spend an hour playing with this, but somehow I did. Fun stuff, thanks!
posted by brain_drain at 4:32 PM on July 23, 2005

A keeper!

(everytime my little guy said that, I gave a heartfelt chuckle, and somehow the world was a better place)
posted by cyphill at 4:53 PM on July 23, 2005

wow so hatch is weird eh? From one of the side links on the GROW page. I hatched into a weird looking rose.
posted by freudianslipper at 4:56 PM on July 23, 2005

There are some cause-effect things there (like getting the tree out on the island) but yeah, it's a lot simpler this time.

The rocks upgrade the treasure chest, but if you build them too soon the guy won't be able to put the orb-thingy in the stairs.

I don't think it's possible to take the raft to the island. To do that, the guy has to not buy the sword, and to do that, he has to have already gotten it from the guy living in the woods. But the guy never moves out there unless the town is advanced enough to have a ship, it seems.
posted by JHarris at 4:58 PM on July 23, 2005

Woohoo! It really wasn't all that counter-intuitive, unlike the last one put out by these guys (not grow -- I forget the name).

it's not at all easy to make a game like this

I was referring to the absence or seeming randomness or any need for A.I.. The fact is, minus this level of graphics of course, I was learning how to make these simple kinds of if-then games back in the days of BASIC.

The design is the more creative, inspired part. Very nice. :)
posted by dreamsign at 5:39 PM on July 23, 2005

Mmm, forgot how much fun the original Grow was.
posted by dreamsign at 6:30 PM on July 23, 2005

I was looking for the original Grow just the other day. The new RPG version is now on its way to everyone in my address book. I'm sure my friends will thank you for the spam, JHarris.
posted by aristan at 7:25 PM on July 23, 2005

This is the reason for Metafilter. Thank you.
posted by catachresoid at 8:12 PM on July 23, 2005

I almost RULE at this game!
posted by Balisong at 10:28 PM on July 23, 2005

I don't care about this game. It is a silly game. Tontie, on the other hand, is a good game. Because I am the Tontie master, thanks to the many many weeks I wasted playing it.
posted by Lebannen at 5:07 AM on July 24, 2005

This is fun! Especially the graphics.

But I do tire of people calling this a game. It's not. It's a simple puzzle where you have to figure the order of play for 8 items. That's it. There's no strategy. There's even only one way to solve this puzzle.
posted by Kreylix at 12:26 PM on July 24, 2005

That was the nature of my criticism Kreylix, though you were more articulate about it. Not that it's worthy of criticism -- as a puzzle -- but as a game, it's something that could have been done, and has been done, since the early days of computing.
posted by dreamsign at 1:38 PM on July 24, 2005

Oh my headache. Done, but I think I lost a little piece of my brain in the process.
posted by VulcanMike at 2:23 PM on July 24, 2005

Lebannen, I agree Tontie is something special. What do you think of Pelpet?
posted by JHarris at 11:08 AM on July 25, 2005

Pelpet has become my new obsession.
posted by Ruki at 3:58 PM on July 25, 2005

ahh, very enjoyable. Thanks!
posted by Four Flavors at 3:22 PM on July 26, 2005