Patterns Patterns Patterns Patterns Patterns
What a wonderful experience. I had a good time with this game, I was surprised, subverted, and suborned as the game took me along a story told through multiple mechanics. The cohesive thematic underpinning only added to each of the different aspects of the game, many small steps add up to a step of a giant.
The way this game works is simple from a framework point of view, but the execution is complex. The player uses first person walking mechanics to navigate a world, clicking to interact with things. On occasion, one of these things will start a mini-game. That more or less is the structure of the game, however, each of these games are thematically driving towards one point every time. Death.
One of the things I noticed was how every mini-game incorporated a first person on everything, despite the extremely varied context these games took place in. That is very impressive, it stretches the users imagination to what could happen next, however nothing needs to be taught no matter how left field things turn out to be because the controls and perspective is always the same. Good work here.
The atmosphere was also very thickly laid out. I appreciated that. Little details from various directions helped give the setting a bit of a unpinnable feeling.
The art style was very well judged for what was needed to make the game what it is. The style allows for flexibility in terms of how to stretch different directions of art for each mini-game while also retaining a good pleasing-to-the-eye middle ground. It was also fairly clear where to go and what to do despite the clutter everywhere in the setting, that alone must have taken a lot of testing to get just right without losing the soul of what was being strived for.
One of the things I ended up not liking too much about the game was the story. It was a great strength, in fact the game wouldn’t exist without it, but it was just a tad too slow in some areas. Especially the middle section of the game, lots of exposition where I really just wanted to get to the next mini-game. I think this misalignment of goals made me a bit anxious and brought me out of the experience a bit. Some parts of the story also felt a little throw away where it seemed something more substantial could have been put in its place, for example the comic book mini-game. It was certainly interesting, but I came away without the same sense of understanding about this family that some of the other mini-games imparted me with.
Overall, this game was very well done. Extremely well constructed and crafted. Worth a play if anything I’ve said sounds interesting and still worth a play if not. 8/10
This was a fun little game. I’m sick, doctor. Help me. Oh, you’re a robot. Help me anyway, while I drink some tea.
This game was silly, created in the bitsy engine. The player has the option to drink some tea, talk to two npcs and go see the doctor. The doctor has a diagnosis for all you ailments.
The art in this game was brilliant. Fantastic job with the rendition of the doctor. I simply stopped and stared at it for a little, drinking it in.
I played the game for a few minutes simply to find out if anything different happened, the loop is quite short. Each time you go through doors to see the doctor and then he sends you away and the game restarts. Nothing really happens outside this except differences in the script. Knowing this, the game looses some of its vibrancy, but otherwise is still interesting.
Good game, have fun with it if you have a couple minutes 5/10
What a fucking brilliant idea. I love this game, even if it’s a little parched in some places. This game is one of those games that finds a mechanic that are a shining source of inspiration and rolls with it.
The Gears Don’t Grind is a rather simple game. Each level takes place on a single screen and the player is tasked with getting to an end point. The game controls as a rather straightforward platform, the player can move left and right and jump. Albeit with good feeling movement, which the developer has cultivated through making multiple platformers. The interesting thing about this game is that when you go off the screen, you wrap around to the other side, however, the gravity changes in the direction of the side you just went off of. Lovely!
Using this, the game adds layers and layers of mechanics, a few times this actually detracts from the beauty of the groundwork, but otherwise is used to great effect.
I want to talk about the design more, because this is a wonderfully designed game. The fact that everything is constrained to a single screen reduces every level to only a few ideas. However, these ideas don’t need anything else to prop them up, they take centre stage and shine. Having multiple screens consisting of the same level might have very well ruined this game.
This game also does a very good job of changing up the tone of the gameplay. It’s hard to pin this game down to any particular category. Sometimes is a difficult platforming challenge, sometimes its a puzzle game. Those two bits tend to mix up and becomes something else. It’s lovely.
Points for teaching everything through gameplay.
Lets talk about the art. It’s very simple and subdued, simple colors and abstract art. However, everything about the level is presented clearly and nothing feels messy and hard to parse. Each level has a bit of flair added to it too, with a few touches to break up what could be a monotonous tile set.
That being said, I think the game also could have benefited with something more out of the art. I don’t know what that might be, but it feels lacking somehow. I know the fact that I can’t put my finger on it might just sound like I’m looking for something to nit pick on, but I don’t think thats the case. I feel it.
Great game, worth playing for anyone interested in something a little refreshing and bite sized. 8/10
I found out about this character (developer) through hotline miami, like many people. However, I went through his older game catalogue after playing that game and it has influenced me more than almost any other source. I simply would not be the developer I am today if not for cactusquid. Period. Norrland is one of those games that hit me to the core.
Norrland is both simple and complex, it follows a little bit of the same structure as What remains of Edith Finch. The player plays as a character that goes on a little trip. After a bit of time on this trip, the player sleeps and dreams a dream that takes the form of a little mini game. After the player wakes up and does it all again.
The first thing that stands out about this game is the GRIT. This game has attitude up the bum hole and it makes it clear that you are going to be in for something else simply from its presentation. Stretched pixels, Flickering screens. The gameplay is also very jarring. From having to reload through a series of button presses, to the mini games that require different things of you. Nothing in this game asks you to understand, it doesn’t care. It just is what it is and if you can drink it in, enjoy the taste.
The structure does a few things well. The variation it has keeps anything it does from getting stale, which would be very easy due to the fact that nothing in the game, on its own, would hold someones interest long. I felt that as my goals in what I had to do changed, the game took on a fluid feeling. The structure of it creates a sensation of the game passing by, happening to you, an experience rather than….a game really.
The gameplay is rather simplistic. Had any of the various segments been asked to hold the game up on their own, the game would crumble. However, as I said above, the gameplay shifts so often that the game becomes more than what any individual segment is capable of doing.
If it seems I’m talking about nothing, that’s because I really am honestly. This game is difficult to talk about because it’s so difficult to understand in any particular way. Fuck. This is dumb.
The ending of the game also took me completely off guard.
Play the game if you want to jack off. 9/10
Patternal Patterns Patent Patient Patting
This week I want to talk about another way of looking at games. I swear I’ll talk about something more practical one day. BUT THAT DAY AINT FUCKING TODAY. Something I’ve thought about a lot are the power of patterns in games or anything really, which only reinforces the power of games.
Patterns are how we function. At our core, we are a bunch of patterns acting in concert with each other. Eating, a pattern. Sleeping, a pattern. Compulsive actions, habitual patterns. Culture, a patter. Society, one giant big ol’ ass of a pattern. Argue against how pervasive this is, whatever, you still on some level understand my point. Patterns are the very things that govern every level of life as we know it. Not just life, atoms, galaxies, science is understanding patterns.
Games are about harnessing the power of patterns. Players volunteer to conform to a certain pattern. They volunteer under the agreement that this pattern has power within it, that this pattern will create a new alternate way existing. I say existing because through looking at the world as patterns, at life as patterns, the way we exist manifests itself in the way these patterns interlink and play. Anytime a new pattern in introduced, a new way of existing is created. For example, someone overweight changing their patterns to become fit and slim, that pattern created a new form of life for that person. It seems that games do the same thing, however, in a way that’s more impactful to the mind and soul than the body (unless you’re playing ddr).
Just a thought.
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