Shits and giggles
So I did a little thinking and I think I should explain why I'm doing reviews of games that people have just made for fun or shits and giggles. I'm doing it because I hope that, if people follow this, they can have a gauge on the types of experiences I enjoy and what my standard of quality is. Through that I hope I can bring people to find new experiences that they enjoy themselves.
I also want to have a place that any game has an equal value for being evaluated by a persons taste. Free games/board games/AAA titles all pass through my filter and I don't think that higher production values or the form in which it takes make a better or worse game.
Britebot is an absolutely lovely little puzzle game. Its a 3d tile based puzzle games where you have the goal of collecting 3 wrenches on every level. This game is very cleanly presented and I largely had no problem with the controls. Jumping was a little finicky but otherwise it worked once I remembered the little personality to it.
This game brought to the forefront, something I think about a lot which is letting go of mechanics after you’ve done what you wanted with them. The reason for this is that the first six levels of this game introduce a new mechanics each level, while the second half of the game is just pure challenge. I enjoy games that use their mechanics sparingly, even in puzzle games. The alternative being that the mechanics are drawn out beyond any good measure and the usage end up becoming something that drags the game down in my personal opinion.
So good job there.
Something I’m not quite sure how I feel about is the way in which the puzzles are presented. The puzzles are never based around one single puzzle and solution. Rather the player is given a puzzle map, with multiple points of interest in which to focus their efforts around. I think, because of the nature of the goals, this game could not have had singular focused puzzles. However, I don’t think its a detriment. It creates a little bit of freedom that most puzzle game levels don’t allow due to being refined to accommodate a single puzzle.
However, it also brings up an issue of using navigation as part of the puzzle. It can’t be due to the open world nature of the puzzles. Maybe this was a missed opportunity, but again it would be an inherently different game so I wouldn’t bother too much about it.
The art style paired really well with the gameplay. The new mechanics were easily understood with the way they were presented and that’s important to me in a puzzle game.
Something, that I found annoying was the camera. Sometimes I would be moving the camera around while also moving and it would change my controls when I didn’t mean for it too. Theres a feature in the camera that after it passes a certain threshold, it changes the axis of your movement. For example, if your turning the camera, if your moving up, suddenly it’ll be moving what used to be your left because that was the new up after crossing the threshold. Not sure what the solution here would be but I found it to be a minor problem, not a huge one.
Another nice touch was the level structure. Something I’m always fond of in puzzle games is games that let you move onto a new level even if your stuck on the previous one. This game allowed that so kudos to the creator. That being said, the harder levels are all locked until you finish the earlier ones soooo I guess thats fine in the context of them being harder?
All in all, good game. Does some new things, does them well.
7/10
Anomia by Andrew Innes
This game is intense as shit.
“I can’t play, I need to relax”
“My neck hurts from all this tension”
“I CANT TAKE IT. FLIP THE CARD”
All things I’ve heard playing this game. I was not expecting such a fulfilling experience at first glance.
Anomia is a card game about words. In a nutshell, as you flip over cards, people will call out words associated with that card as fast as possible based on matches with their cards.
This game is extremely simple and yet creates absolutely hilarious interactions with people. I love multiplayer games for this, humans are infinite generators of new situations. That’s what I like so much about this game, the pressure it puts on split second reactions to situations. It’s a battle of wits in the purest sense.
The minimalism of the game is also very impressive. I was a little taken aback by the fact that the rule book of the game itself is tiny and tells you to play along as you read the rules. I’ve never played a game like that, so distilled that no extra information is needed outside of following a single round of gameplay. This is possible due to the fact that the game only asks you to watch for matches and flip over cards. Everything else is about placement of cards and end game/minor alternative rules.
I feel like I don’t have any criticism about this game except maybe the fact that its so fucking wholesome. Give me a bit of filth in there. It also breaks flow a little bit by having nothing happen for longer-than-I'd-like periods of time.
The other thing is that because of the simplicity of the game, its not the game to turn to if one is wanted something more cerebral. This is a game of pure wit and speed.
I love this game and it’ll forever be a party/group game staple for me.
9/10
This is a really simple mystery, someone ate your bagel when you were so gracious to bring some for all your coworkers. Find that fucker.
The game itself is very simple, you can walk around and talk to people and ask them about various items in order to ultimately accuse the culprit. There was one nice feature I liked which was the ability to zoom in and out to see the whole of the game world.
I liked the ability to accuse anyone no matter the game state. It helped add to the tension, I didn’t want to get it wrong but it can clearly be anyone thanks to the game allowing it to be anyone. No one is safe.
The atmosphere of the game was also very light and I enjoyed it. The mystery was ridiculous and being aware of that helped to bring things together.
Not much more I can say, A nice chill mystery.
6/10
Arcade games are always a mixed bag. The simplicity of the goal of getting as far as you can can set up some interesting games, as anyone could tell you. However, sometimes it can also be a crutch where some might see the inherit desire to improve as something that can hold their game up.
I don’t know what the case was with this game, but unfortunately it doesn’t want me to play the game past 2-3 plays. It’s a very simple, one button switch tracks mechanic. The visuals are very interesting, creating an interesting mental hoop to jump through in order to discern the tracks.
However, once the visual novelty wears off, theres only one other mechanics that adds a wrinkle. Every time you switch tracks, you earn points. The points aren’t time based. This creates incentive to switch tracks as quickly as possible as often as possible. The rapid action of this is engaging, but after rising to this level the game again feels stagnant.
I’m not sure what a good solution to this feeling might be and it could also be the case that it’s a matter of personal taste. However, as this is about my opinion on the game I might as well express my thoughts on the game.
Too flat for my taste.
2/10
This game has had a huge influence on me. I think after playing this game I immediately went and made the weirdest game I could. It was so incredibly freeing and has changed the way I’ve made games ever since.
This game is about a…..dog person who has a specter in their house, or at least I assume it is. Theres a dead body in the first screen so even that might not be true. The story in this game doesn’t matter.
What does matter is the ATMOSPHERE. It’s fucking thick like some good molasses. Jake is a developer who’s always been good at creating an atmosphere out of seemingly thin air. This can be attributed to a couple things.
The sound design in this game is very minimal. I mean that in the sense that there’s generally only two layers of sound, character and the current screen. Any character on screen will create a sound and the each screen has its own ambient sound. This simplicity in sound might have been a problem had the sounds not been made to sound purposely hollow. Everything has a certain echo, which makes the game feel big and spacious. As a result the game feels cold in a way that warms my soul.
However, its the gameplay that takes centre stage here. This game is also very minimal in its gameplay, but it is used to great effect. Player direction and motivation is generally pushed by ones on curiosity. The game only has 4 buttons to use, which removes the need for any instructions and can ask the player to figure everything out on their own through observation. That theme carries throughout the rest of the game. Each screen has a different situation that asks the player “How are you going to react to this situation.” The player, with very little they can do in the game, generally has one path to take. But there’s always a hesitation because of the game also asking you to observe. That hesitation, fills the game with mystery because you never quite know what might happen.
Main main problem with this game also happens to be because of its vagueness. The experience largely depends on a few key moments being understood. If the player leaves the shotgun, the flow of the game is absolutely ruined in my opinion.
The art style is very corse, creating a little bit of grit in the eyes. It’s consistent throughout the game and helps cement the world. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s also perfect for what the game is.
Overall, this game is a wonderful experience. It’s intense, anxious, scary, mysterious, lonely. The opening is also one of my favourites in any game ever. Why? Because it’s pure attitude. I also wish it were longer but INSIDE has me covered.
8/10
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