I have point-and-click happiness to spread throughout the world today in the form of a cube. Not so much a puzzle as it is an interactive narrative that unfolds with each click of the mouse in the appropriate place. Happy Seed is a beautiful Flash piece, and it was created by Taku Inoue.
See what happens when a mysterious cube falls out of the sky and lands on the ground in the middle of a very round town filled with round things. Naturally people are curious about that which is different from the norm, and yet is it better to embrace change, or to run from it? Does change threaten identity? culture? existence? Or does change make possible a brighter, happier future? What if you were trying to sell square cars to a round world? What would your marketing strategy be?
Update: Nissan keeps moving this beautiful piece, and I am not sure why. Since it is essentially advertising, I have decided to mirror this work of art to share with the world for posterity. If the content owner wishes that I remove it, I will do so upon request.
Wow, quite a neat story. I really liked how the narrative seemed to flow. Anyone know who does the theme song that you hear throughout and at the credits?
first post, w00t!
Heh, it was pretty good. I liked the graphic style a lot.
It's a very nice story presented attractively. A good choice, jay.
errr, i clicked link and all it did was turn from day to night im confused
Bob - it's an "interactive" narrative, meaning you have to participate by clicking in the appropriate places to make things happen. =)
I think when it turns from day to night over and over thats the preloader, just wait :)
I think the ending ties it together, how more happy seeds are made... So coolness! Anyone who denies the coolness can talk to the wall... Wasnt it a nice break though?
What do you click on first? There is no cube coming up. I need help!!!
never mind
What a great game! Good job Jay.
Okay, am I that inept? I need to know the first thing to click on. I'm beginning to wonder if it loaded correctly? Thanks!
Well, at least I'm not inept. It wasn't loading properly. Great life lesson for the kids, and simple enough for them to play.
I don't get it, square things are better than round things? Square things are happier than round things?
Hi Jay,
When I first click on your link to the game, I see the Nissan website, that has a picture of the game. Where am I supposed to click to start the game? I've clicked everywhere, but nothing starts the game.
Strange. Could ya help me please? :-)
Thanks!
Shastanna - thanks for alerting me about the problem. Nissan apparently moved the game to a different location, and I have updated the links accordingly.
Fixed. =)
hehe, vaaary cute... i'm not dreadfully fond of "find-the-click-spot" games, but this one was a nice, happy change. wee happy japanese people! ^_^
You may want to make a note of this: the game's sound doesn't work if your earphones have come out of your pc, no matter how loud you turn the volume up.
When I get to the big yellow room thing nothing happens. There's nowhere to click. I've tried doing it several times, and it still won't work. Do I just have a bad computer?
How do you get it to load properly? I'm having the same problem as others: the screen keeps fading from light to dark over and over again.
I just tried loading it again, and it worked for me without fail. I'm not sure what is causing the trouble on your end. ??
I don't get the moral of the story. Round things are bad? Let's all become square?
hey katherine,
did you wait a while cause my pc's a bit slow and it takes ages for things to happen. you dont click anything in the yellow room. he does it himself!
hope this helps,
adaptor (morgan)
so... is that it, i mean its really cute and all but nothing seems to happen after he's gone into the yellow room and the flower blooms. Is it just not working for me, or is it really short??
okay, pleeeeese. i can not find the click sopt to start the game! will someone just tell me exactly where to click? uuugggg!!
oh, haha just like everone said! doi. You just have to wait a sec. But what are they saying? that getting all urban and hightech is good? yay for large square buildings? down with cute, artistic small round ones? That that "different" town is bad? why was it not a plain old square village that got a round seed? huh? ever thought of that?
If you follow the 'game' through to the end, you can make all the round things square by clicking on everything - the flower thingamujig sends out seeds that transform stuff. Then there are some credits - all the characters and their little Japanese bio's. If you hover your mouse at the bottom middle of this credit screen and click, it takes you to a Japanese car advert - a fairly square car at that. Fancy. Who'd have guessed it was simply clever advertising.
Adorable. Jay, you and your fantastic site have just made my day! :-)
It just flashes from day to night same for me and my comps fast and all i have been waiting and waiting and its not loading
Wesley - it works fine for me using Flash Player 8 on both Mac and PC. It did flash once when loading on my PC, but then the cube feel to Earth and I was able to click on it.
You might try emptying your cache and then try again.
That was a cute little "game". I played it through a second time, just so I could do the ending again in a different order. Nice little diversion.
Thanks
really really cute and good for cheering you up definitely
can anyone give me a walkthrough im stuck where the flower is multicolored.
check out every person, click on several parts of their bodies
Hmmm.. I'm just getting a 404 Not Found error.. I'm guessing Nissan have played "hide-the-game" again. I only wish I could read japanese and find it on their site!
Thanks, Pmhanson. I found the new link and updated the post. Cheers!
Haha, pretty fun game!! I play it alot, its fun, easy to beat and unique!! TY JAY!! ^^
This game was beautiful, nice graphics, and a good storyline.
I'm guessing the moral is.
It's ok to be curious, because sometimes it's a good thing.
I think the link changed again. I surfed the site a bit and found what seems to be a picture of the game, but there's no link. I hope they haven't taken it down altogether, as it sounds like fun.
BTW, for those asking, I'm guessing that the moral is indeed that square things are better, at least insofar as cars go, because the whole thing seems to be a bit of an ad for Nissan's Cube car. ;)
I came back to see if the link was fixed, and noticed that if you click on the picture instead of the title, there's a javascript pop-up that brings you the game. So, for anyone else wanting to play, there's the solution.
Also: The credits are kind of neat, too.
first point & click game ive ever beat. ha, i suck! anyways, this game is really cute, i also like the music!
Weird game, not sure how its an advertisement.
just thinking about turning human round head into squares !! that doesnt sound too happy :))
THis was the weirdest game I have ever played so far in my life
I like the fireworks! nice!
LOL I sound silly but could some one please post a walkthrough?
its a heart-warming game, actually, if you beat it at the end. Does anyone have screenshots of the game, especially at the end (before the credits)? I'd like to use it as a wallpaper. I just love the graphics!
This shows how something unknown (and sometimes small!) can bring color and happiness into the world.
wow! such a cute game! i didn't get the part where you have to distract the police man at first, but the rest was easy after that.
i hate you cube plant now the earth and other stuff are cubes! (but i do know earth isnt perfectly round/sphere it's kinde of pear shaped so why is it turned into a cube?)
i thought it was cute
a very nice story! i like it so much that i even watched the "cast listing". but why is the dog cube?
I agree with meghan. Walkthrough please?
Here's a walkthrough for those who need it...
1.
ooooh, a big square, but it's different, what to do... first, click the cube!
2.
Police come, click on the police officer on the right, he should walk to his car and pull out a light and shine it on the seed
3.
Click on the bush, Good morning! Now the whole town is around the seed!
4.
click on the scientist in the bottom right corner, checking his car. The seed opens!!
5.
Click on the guy in red pants who is swinging his arms around, he'll throw a rock at the seed, you'll see a bud and a dgo runs up to a guy in a striped shirt with orange hair.
6.
Click on the dog 5 times, each time he barks, the bud gets bigger. The dog runs away.
7.
Click on the scientist rubbing his chest, he walks up to the plant and checks it, and it changes colors!!\(^o^)/
8.
click on the scientist in the bottom right corner again, his car shoots something at the plant, OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!! PREEETY COLORS!!!!!
9.
Look at the women at the left with a pink shirt (if you looked at her before, you could tell she was getting mad) click her. She walks up to the plant. Click her 5 times and she kicks the flower 5 times, speading the pollen EVERYWHERE!
10.
A police officer runs towards the woman. Click on the red head guy talking to a police officer on the other side of the plant. While the police officer is checking his car, click on the red head guy and he starts to climb up the flower. He arrives in a huge gold room and starts spreading the seeds.
11.
Click on:
The 6 buildings
The 2 cars
The 3 circle things on the ground
The helicopter that flies by
and you'll start to change the world in a good way! When you're done, the flower dies and spreads it's seeds. Watch the credits to find out who the people in the game were.*gasp*That red-head guy was YOU! And the dog was your friend cube! the credits end and you're done
Too funny! I want to be the number 3 scientist in town! haha
It seems to me that the flower has assimilated their planet is propagating to other worlds! On the surface it looks nice and pretty, but beneath the colorful exterior and unfamiliar shape is a plague of enforced squareness! Run little round people, run! Before your skulls are redesigned!
short but cute <3
Cool!
But it could use a bit more "game" in it...
at first it seemed impossible but then i got it. it was pretty fun!
does anyone know what the music id called on the nissan website . . . its fantastic!!!
This is a really fun and easy game i luv it!
This game is beautiful. I think it should be longer.
Walkthrough:
The game starts when the seed drops down from the sky and people crowd around it, including you (orange haired guy). Click seed.
You will try to touch it, but two police men will drive up and prevent you from touching it. Click police man on right.
The police man will go back to his car and get a giant spotlight to shine on the seed. You notice the bushes in the right hand corner are shaking. Click them.
A rooster comes out and crows, and BAM! There's the sun. Sweet. Now a whole bunch of people come to see the seed, plus a dog. Three scientists arrive in a car as well. Drag your mouse over the scientist's car, and one should bend over it, working on something. Click the scientist.
Waves come out of the satilite on top of the car, and the seed splits! Now you've got a large green stalk instead. Look at the people. On the right, one of them is shaking their head up and down. Click him.
Just perfect. Why don't we just keep throwing rocks at it, Mr. I-Got-This? But before you can utter another sarcastic remark, the cube on top of the stalk splits open, reveiling something that looks like a flower bud. Huh. Guess he did know what he was doing. The dog comes up to you, shaking it's head as well. Draging the mouse over him makes him stand up on his hind legs, and you bend down. Click him 5 times.
Each time you click, he barks and the bud grows bigger. After 5 clicks, he goes back where he was. Now click the scientist closest to the car.
He scoots over to the salk and presses his stethascope on it, and suddenly, the bulb is a rainbow of color. It has a heart-beat, too. What is this thing? Anyway, drag your mouse over the scientist's car and the last remaining one will go over and start working on it. You see a little jolt in the satilite. Click the scientist working on the car.
He'll signal to the scientist listening to the heart-beat to back off, then the sadilite will send out a shot of electricity (I think) and woah! The bud opens into a beautiful flower! How nice! You walk over to get a better look. Now, look through the crowd on the right. Click on the person with a pink shirt (for color-blind people, he's the tallest one on the right and bends down if you hover over him with your mouse).
He walks over to the stem and kicks it. Not very gentle people here, are there? Click him 3 more times to kick the stem more, until the police men see him and block him off. They block you off, too. Now how do you get a better look? Let's try distracting him. Click the police man to get him to go over to his car. Then, click yourself while he's gone to climb up the stalk to the cube in the middle.
It's a lot roomier than you thought, but the white button is pretty tempting. You press it. The cube-like pollen on the flower shoots out, and hits one of the round buildings. Woah! Skyscraper! It happens again, this time hitting a car. We have edges! Everyone seems pretty happy about it too. It brings you back to the original veiw, this time with different music. Time to cube it up! Click all the circular buildings in the background, both cars, the helicopter, and the three flashing balls/rocks on the ground.
The whole crowd cheers you on as you give edges to everything and brighten the land. Suddenly, in a second, the stalk withers and the flower (which turns back into a cube) falls over and splits open, unleashing a rainbow across the lands!
There's nothing left to click at this point, just enjoy the show. Their earth, the moon, and what looks like the sun are all cubes. The crowd looks up at it. Cue credits!
Thanks for reading!
If you people think about it for a second then you will realize that when the seed turns all the circle houses vehicles and such into squares, there is more space so people can finally sit comfortably and stretch their lags, making them feel relaxed and HAPPY!
that was really good, yes it should be longer! or a sequel should be brought out.
Mine was doing the not loading thing at first, flashing from night to day again. It did it for ages, but after refreshing by pressing F5, it stopped. It might do the same for you :)
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