Welcome to the world, Child.
Flower game by K R Pipkin and Loren Schmidt
Stunning really. This game merges rendering techniques and gameplay so seamlessly that I was blown away. A nice little bullet hell game that isn’t really that taxing, or rather, is quite difficult but feels very relaxing anyway.
Flower game is rather simple, each level the player is in control of multiple “ships”. However, due to the fractal nature of the game, in reality you only control one. The game creates little pellets that mess with this format a little. When its close to one of your fractal ships, you need to focus on that ship thats closest, changing the way you view the danger around you.
The design of this game makes for a very interesting thing indeed. After a point, I sort of internalized the fractal nature of the game and I felt that even though I technically controlled all of the ships at once, that I only embodied one at a time. That was the only way to understand and manage the game for me. However, that embodiment shifted constantly which created a very ethereal feeling. I liked that.
The art in this game is amazing, I wish I could constantly take pictures of this game while I’m playing it. It has a grit to it that makes it feel textured and alive! Good job with this aspect of the game.
Games as a performance of some sort is an idea exemplified in this game, where the gameplay is also an act of creating visual art. Where the very act of being is art itself. I think that's a wonderful sentiment one can take away from this game.
I felt as though some of the levels were a little short, the timer created a very short time frame to do anything. It often felt like it was impossible to do get more than a certain % simply by skill. That a lot of it came down to luck.
The sound in this game was very atmospheric. I enjoyed the discordant state it put me in. This whole game comes together to create a very minor chord experience.
This is a very subtle and masterfully executed game. I only wish the levels were a bit better paced. 8/10
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Humor is such a difficult thing to pull of in games. It can't come purely from any one aspect of the game, otherwise the game would be left feeling unbalanced. Another issue is that humor needs to be unexpected, if something is predictable it doesn't quite land the same way. That unexpectedness creates a need for a huge amount of scenarios for a game that lasts for hours and hours. It must have been a huge undertaking for Asymmetric, but they pulled it off flawlessly.
West of loathing is straightforward. People exist in the areas you are in and you can talk to them. Sometimes they have missions for you, you go on those missions and you continue the story until the game ends. The game can go through puzzles or battles, swapping them interchangeably, on your way to the end.
I never knew what to expect from the game, and the game never let me down with my lack of expectations. It constantly reinvented itself, taking new twists and turns and ways of approaching a situation that could have easily been thrown into a battle and been done with. Each of these situations only serve as a punchline or some comedic logic that had me grinning as I was going through these situations.
The art is very simple. Its stick figures, doesn’t get more basic than that. However, I don’t think that hurts the game at all, in fact I think the game is all the better for it. It allows for the absurdity of the game to be over the top and never quite taken seriously because of the art. It places everything presented in a context of silly and throwaway, which made me just go along with whatever happens and not overthink things.
The game never stalled, really. Sometimes I’d get to an enemy encounter that I simply couldn’t handle for whatever reason. In those situations I’d simply turn around and go do something else the game presented me and come back later. There’s such an abundance of things to do in this game that I never felt like I hit a wall, even though there were parts I simply couldn’t take on at the moment.
I had a very good time with this game and I’d easily recommend playing it if you have any interest in what I’ve said above 10/10
A straightforward game is always refreshing. Screaming “This is what I am, deal with it”! This game does that. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like listening to that screaming for very long.
Cardhord is a bit of a high score puzzle game. You try to stay alive as boxes fall from the sky. When those boxes land, you can tape them up in order to crush as many in a row as possible. The longer you keep boxes around the harder it is to move around, and when they get too high, you lose your chance at a perfect combo!
The core of this game is very solid, however, the things around that core feel shaky. Meaning that they don't feel as cohesive as they should be, leaving this game feeling a little bit underdeveloped.
For example, there’s an element in the game that shoots lasers. I thought that the laser would cut through the boxes, making me lose out on score and creating at dangerous situation, but it got blocked by another box and was rendered harmless. I’m not sure if the dev tried out what I described and it was too much or not, but the fact remains that it feels like something that doesn’t quite feel there yet.
The controls are a little finicky. They accomplish what is intended of them, but I never felt like they were well suited for what I wanted to do.
I really enjoyed the art in this game, it was very solidly done. Good work there.
The sound was a bit lacking, but due to it being a jam game I can totally understand that.
This game had a good idea at its core, but the sluggish movement and design choices that seemed odd to me keep it from being more than it could be. 5/10
This game is beautiful, but difficult. It split my mind a bit too far for it to function, but I had fun trying to do it anyway.
The game is a little complex, which I thing is my main problem with it. You control two paddles that you can shift left and right at the touch of one button for each paddle. You try to collect hearts as they fall, avoid skulls, and kinda hit these bunnies on the side. On top of that you also have a boss fight you need to shoot with your paddles.
This game has so much going on that it makes it hard to focus on doing any one part of it competently. The game is difficult enough trying to register what needs to be done due to how fast the objects fall from the top of the level. You only have a few moments to properly align you paddles. In those few moments you have to make sure you also identify what the object is and how to deal with it, and you have to do it twice at the same time. On top of that you need to make sure you are constantly shooting the boss or the level will never end. It's a bit overwhelming.
Due to this overwhelming feeling, I never felt settled into a rhythm with this game. I was constantly frantic, trying to keep up with the pace of the game.
The second level of this game shows what this game could have been like with a better feeling of rhythm throughout. The ways in which you have to move the paddle on that level are more symmetrical than the first level, which make me feel a lot more in control of what I'm doing and that any death in that level was due to my own mistakes rather than my attention simply being overtaxed.
I never got farther than the second level unfortunately. This game puts you back at the first level when you die. Maybe the difficulty could have been more forgivable if the player was able to continue from where they left off, but it's an arcade game so I understand why the developer did such a thing.
The art in this game is absolutely gorgeous. I’m very impressed with the animations particularly, those require a lot of time and precision with such large pixel part stylings. Good job.
Wonderfully rendered game that is held back by its difficulty. 5/10
Welcome to the world, child
Welcome, you have been born into this world. What is your name?
Good, that is what this world shall refer to you as from now on. It is now my responsibility, as the one who chose to bring you into this world, to teach you the way it works.
Your earliest times in this world will be spent learning about the world around you. This is helped along by a natural cultivated curiosity to understand the world around you and to make sense of the chaos around you.
Eventually, as you make sense of the world, you start to play along with the common sense you have had instilled in you. You play by the rules of the world, however, you still question things, trying to explore limits and see where the edges of things are.
If you are like most, you will eventually settle into a rhythm. Instead of trying to find the edges or explore, curiosity becomes replaced by desires for achieving. This or that becomes important to you because it has been told to you that this goal is important. So you follow along.
Sometimes, you may reject this and continue along for the sake of experiencing. Though this is rare.
As you continue, you may achieve your goals, you may not. However, it will leave you feeling as though this is they way to happiness, to fulfillment.
It is not. These things are temporary at best. Though the experience is a good one. You may be proud and carry the achievement with you forever, you may not.
Once the goals have been met or abandoned, what is left? An end to the experience. There is no need to be in this world anymore when nothing else is there to be done.
You leave this world.
Aren't games very similar to life? Fascinating.
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