17th Dec, 2022
In an age where the gaming industry has been heavily commercialized, it's always a refreshing breeze to see indie developers who're not giving up and are still coming up with highly original and innovative titles. Valve, with their Steam content distribution platform, have certainly given a big helping hand to such developers, allowing them to work on their games without worrying about finding a publisher and funding the game's distribution. Eufloria is yet another quality indie game to be popularized thanks to Steam, and it's another title that adds to the reputation of indie devs.
Gameplay
Eufloria is based on the “Dyson Tree” hypothesis – named after its creator, Freeman Dyson – according to which trees or similar lifeforms can grow on a comet. That's the basic premise of the game as well – you've got a small “planet”, which represents a comet, on which you need to grow trees. This is done through means of seedlings and flowers, which must be taken care of – seedlings can grow and eventually fall off, giving birth to flowers and expanding your small world.
Eventually, you'll also have to face some enemies, represented by hostile seedlings that try to destroy your trees. Lucky for you, you're “equipped” with just the right things for taking care of the buggers, such as special defense trees that serve this purpose exactly. Flowers can give your trees upgrades and improve their abilities, and the game features an overall very fine “eco system” balance where you have to watch for several factors while growing your plants.
Graphics and System Requirements
One of Eufloria's selling points is the art style – it looks very clean and minimalistic, and uses a bright and contrasting color scheme for drawing its assets. Everything is easily identifiable, and the game looks equally nice on small and large monitors, as its engine allows it to scale up pretty much indefinitely.
You wouldn't expect any high system requirements from a game of this kind, and you'd be right – you can run Eufloria on a weak netbook and enjoy it on the subway on your way to work. You can safely even keep it running in the background as you're checking your e-mail and doing other tasks on the computer, and it won't slow you down one little bit.
Other
There's a freeware version of the game which isn't supported anymore, called simply “Dyson” – but its contents are pretty much identical to the free demo available for Eufloria. The difference between Dyson and Eufloria is huge, with the latter offering tons of more content and assets – so if you want to get the true Eufloria experience, pay the few bucks for the full version!
Conclusion
Eufloria makes the perfect lunch break game, but it also offers lots of depth for those looking for it. You can find lots of challenge in it, and it has plenty of room for skill improvement, making it suitable for both casual gamers and hardcore fans alike.