First try I was hopelessly last, second time I kept jumping and jumping and then managed to come second. The instructions should probably make it clear that it is important to jump a lot. I kind of like that it is hard while at the same time it looks like a very friendly casual game. The solar balls that light the path, first I though I would get some bonus from collecting them, Nintendo and the like have taught me to expect this. But even though they didn't grant me any obvious speed bonus (I don't think they really needed to), it would have been nice if they reacted to player's closeness somewhat.

As always it is rather fantastic the visuals you manage to create and the dandelion are really quite spectacular. I much enjoyed this game. I would have been happy with just a game about the dandelions, but this was great.

Thanks for the very useful feedback!

Different characters were supposed to react differently to different environmental stimuli, but I only had time to make the grasshopper character, which has a massive speed boost from jumping and dispersing dandelions. I'll make it clearer in the post jam version.

There was another character that was supposed to gain a speed boost from the yellow dots.

That makes sense! It would be hard to compete for the single line of yellow dots though if there's more than one of that character type and gaining the balls actually consumes them.

It would have been nice to see the track afterwards or so, because I was so focused on just staying on track in general that I had no idea what kind of overall path we were running.

Also, it would have been nice to get to race to the goal and actually claim the second place rather than it stopping as soon as one got to the goal.

Hm as this seems to be made with Unity, could you maybe also provide a Linux version? Should not be too much of a hassle and Linux users will be positively surprised :)

That had me smiling so big. As simple as it is, that is super fun. Nicely done!

This was fun! I had a lot of trouble keeping on any kind of track, and I had huge issues steering with any kind of accuracy, but it was bouncy and enjoyable.

Jump ! Jump ! Jump ! Very fun :)

A really fun game!

Hahaha, good name,idea,graphics,.. a great game

WOW! I love the style! Great idea btw :)

In my history of rating ludum dare games, I don't think I've ever found one I felt worthy of a 5 star review, with a 5 in every category. Your game is the first. Its simple absurdity made me laugh from the outset, the controls felt pretty tight and well put together. Your music was gorgeous, and I want to meet your artist. I played your game for a considerable amount of time, a treat I don't often enjoy when checking out ludum dare titles. Most of them are fun concepts I'd play more if it were more developed.

I would love to see a post jam of this. You guys have something really special here.

love that name =)

Great job! I loved the style and it was fun to play.

Everything about this game is great! Music, art, feel. The only thing I would say is that there could be more gameplay elements besides "jump". Regardless, I still had fun. Good job :)

From the first frame of the actual race this game makes you unavoidably grin/smile whichever, playing it feels like being tickled. I'm downloading postjam version as well. Great work.

This game was super cute. Controls are pretty floaty but I honestly can't imagine it any other way. Great job!

Great game, controls are smooth, turning is a little bit slow but other than that jumping is pretty sweet :D interesting take on a theme, amazing graphics, and music that suits just perfectly, good job!

Wow! What should I say? That's so immersive. The music, the art, everything is great! Definitely waiting for more maps! XD

Great job! How did you manage to make all that music and models in just 72 hours? It's very cool and neat I liked it. Controls are a little weird though

I managed to get a speed of 420. Haha that was fast :D
Would look funny if the running animation were just as fast as the speed.
Beautiful game with great colors. I really enjoyed the race! :)

Very fun. Music, fx, feedback, art and gameplay all is good.
Good job :) And nice spin on the theme, i like that !

Thanks @wolderado - [Here's how Fast & Faeries was made](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-fast-and-the-faeries/fast-faeries-how-its-made). Part of the key is that there were actually only 4 models: the grasshopper with a few accessory variations, a tree/vine model that is used in a vast variety of scales and rotations, and the dandelion stem/seed, and also the simple trail markers. I then use proc-gen and particle systems to create the ground and populate the everything. The music is Public Domain music, (see the game description and attributions), which is why I had to opt-out of the audio category.

@nofuel - Damn! That's fast!! I think my fastest was *only* ~380.

@wolderado, @szczebel1995, @OccultOne - hehehe the controls are that way because the character just strafes left and right rather than actually turning, so it moves more like a third person platformer, but with a forward speed can sometimes get super fast due to the dandelions. One key difference in this game from other racing games is that the character is not a vehicle but is instead just a character with legs (a pedestrian). The speed of the left and right strafing make sense for the grounded running speed, but gets less useful as you go far beyond the normal running speed.

That is a side effect of my not deciding on this being a racing game until somewhat late in the jam. All I originally wanted was to create a beautiful scene of being able to jump through white dandelion puffs to see the dandelion seeds float around. It was a peaceful and relaxing game, but I thought it wouldn't be exciting enough for most players. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a roguelike where you explore a faerie forest, or racing game, or just have to disperse the most dandelion seeds in a given amount of time.

After coming up with the name of the game, I ended up making a racing game out of it, and figured that would be the easiest given the rapidly decreasing remaining time left in the jam. (Time always goes faster near the end of the jam doesn't it?)

Somehow it ended up being an all-out drag race rather and an obstacle course race which I was intending. There were supposed to be other powerups, obstacles and platforms that you had to jump on or over, and things you'd want to collect but I didn't have time during the 72 hours. I look forward to making some of that in post-jam.

This is a pretty fun racing actually. The AI felt challenging but I did eventually beat it and going fast was pretty damn sweet. The race track was good too given how the characters move. The race music doesn't loop seamlessly, but oh well. Overall, I'd say it needs online play, haha :p Great entry.

Well, congrats on making a great Ludum Dare game! :D

The art, music and pretty much everything works nicely together to create a nice atmosphere. The whole things feels well polished and most importantly - it's fun.

Great graphics and interactive experience. Music also nicely selected. Together they made a very beautiful forest atmosphere. Good idea to have the forest procedurally generated, since in the jam time is to precious to be spent on designing levels (or maybe implementing the generation mechanism is even more time consuming, I'm not sure).
Minor suggestion: Use some kind of marker to indicate who you are at the beginning; Add mini map to help people who are bad at 3D space navigation.

I really liked the way the forest looked. The jumping mechanic was cool, but I wish there was more strategy other than just "jump all the time."

@spaceman, @Infestient: Thanks for the feedback. There is more strategy than "jump all the time". Pass through the dandelion puffs to gain speed (+20 each!). You can reach some insane speeds by doing so. Also avoid crashing into the trees - you have much more maneuverability when you're on the ground than when you're in the air. Once you mastered winning the race by using dandelions, try winning the race while avoiding all dandelions for a real challenge.

This is a very solid entry, I really like the graphics and music in the game. The whole mood of it is amazing. It was hard to beat the NPC, makes it interesting. I think that the only comment I'll make is you could create a better feedback for the progress, not sure if "better" but not numbers, like something graphical would be nice. Really nice game!

Solid, fun game. Delivered exactly what I expected! I came 2nd in the first try, and I actually assumed the percentage was how many dandelions I've collected, not distance (missed the text :P ). Good stuff!

Really great game! The lighting is perfect and very atmospheric. The AI of the other fairies is well made, challenging but not frustrating (I've won the game at the second attempt). Good job!

Great Entry!

First of all it looks really nice. The music is well selected and everythings leaves a good impression.

I have some minor problems with the controls though. I want to have a greater influence on my racing character in racing games :D. The faeries just feel like tanks currently. Also it's somehow better to just ignore the yellow path because it just goes through wild curves through trees. Just pacing forward (and i guess not crossing the red borders ... didn't try it) yields better results.

Pretty hard game ... but cool :D

Fun game! Music fit well and the atmosphere was really nice. Loved the names, gave some chuckles :D I liked the dandelion speed boosts, they helped make the race a bit more reliant on moving around rather than just spamming jump. Wasn't too hard either. Great entry to race in!

That is one of the funniest games in here!
I loved almost everything - low poly style, music, speed. It was so fun to rush around this fairy forest. This game isn't very innovative, but still I really enjoyed playing it and I actually wanna try all of your games now.
Thanks for this one! It was really fun

Hey, amazing job. You've done fun and wonderful kind game.

Maybe it would be good to give player control on where to face the camera. Because right now it always look straight, but the yellow dots move to left to right.

Very whimsical! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxyrl5Tjmjc

Really fast-paced and fun game! I really loved the art style and your interpretation of the theme! It was also really polished for a game jam game, and the mechanic with the dandelions was really smart. Good job! :D

This is actually very fun! It's not super complex - just avoid the trees and you're good I guess - but the art style really sold me. Little touches like being able to blow dandelion, or the trails to keep track of the other players are really cool things!
Congrats for making it in such a short time!

Really cute entry! The gameplay feels a bit loose, but it's fun to just hop through the environment and not really worry too much about the race. Great job!

I also included your game in an article of my favorites here: http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/jam-favorites-ludum-dare-38-vepwgamy

Fantastic entry! After 30 minutes of intense training, I was able to do this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYrAfo1TC8

What a fun game! Really stands out from lots of similar jam entries imo.