Transform and roll out
TumbleSeed is a passion project that Ridiculous Fishing artist Greg Wohlwend spent years of his life developing. He was surprised, and sad, to see how players reacted to it after it was released. Despite getting plenty of good reviews, the near-unanimous response was that the game was too hard to fully enjoy. In this Post-Spelunky, Post-Dark Souls world, Greg probably thought we were ready for a game as tough TumbleSeed. As it turns out, maybe we’re not.
Then, in a move that rivals the complete overhaul of Slain received after negatively responses by press and players alike, Greg and his team went back to work on TumbleSeed, adding what amounts to an entire new game’s worth of content.
New items and powers, along with tweaks to the enemy A.I. and ability system, make the central campaign easier. On top of that, not one, not two, but four new areas have been added to give players more opportunities to build their skills. While the main game is still procedurally generated, these four new mountains have consistent level designs each time you play, so after learning their layouts, you can focus just on mastering player movement and problem solving. On Switch, there is also a new, exclusive 2-player Battle mode, which is great for practicing the basics in a party environment.
It’s really bananas to see how much work went into this free update. I just hope that it’s enough to inspire people to give TumbleSeed another look, because the game more than deserves one. You only get one chance to make a first impression, but for me, its even more impressive when a developer goes through these kinds of lengths to respond to player feedback than it is when they “get it right” from the start.
TumbleSeed _ Version 2.0.1 now available [Go Nintendo]
