So, these last weeks have been really… I don’t know.
A lot of extreme highs and lows.
So I decided to do what any kind of sane person in my situation would have done: Make a video game. – [Author’s description]
(via Discover Games)
So, these last weeks have been really… I don’t know.
A lot of extreme highs and lows.
So I decided to do what any kind of sane person in my situation would have done: Make a video game. – [Author’s description]
“He had no concept of live and death”.
Another example of a potentially pretty great indie art game marred by poorly written and completely unnecessary writing. This is a shame seeing as the rest of the game is wonderfully minimalist, with not a unneeded element in either visuals or sound. It’s is not that I’m against writing in these games, nor the story the game is trying to convey; it’s simply that everything that is said with the text has already been communicated through the music, gameplay and visuals, or could be with very minor changes.
The minimalist music works wonderfully with the desolate pixelscapes, creating a feeling of isolation. The text still sees the need to tell me repeatedly that the boy feels isolated. I’m told the boy feels for the giant, though the long treks across harsh land communicate that with no effort.
Sadly, I accidently opened a link on Newgrounds while playing, losing all my progress. I don’t think I’ll be attempting a replay for a bit as the aforementioned text screens takes up about a third of your playtime, and the game forces you to tread over the same terrain each day. I do wonder why this is on Newgrounds though, I really don’t think this is the kind of game people go there for, evidenced by the dozens of “This is boring” comments.
I’m definitely interested to see what the author comes up with next, though I do hope she lays off the text a little.
He made this because he needed to relax and somehow relieve for what has happened these days with his life. Dont be so harsh with him
Like you can’t play the blues when you don’t have the blues, you can draw creative energy even from personal problems. And if your situation makes it hard to write a good game, you should let it be…
Anyway, I wouldn’t rate the game in a harsh way, or any other bad way (I would’n rate it at all…), but this will happen when you release a game.
@DrBomb If you’d have read my comment (You probably didn’t, as you referred to the developer as a “He”) you’d have seen that I wasn’t being particularly harsh on the game. As a whole, I quite liked it.
What I was harsh on was the writing, and the comment was primarily aimed at both the developer of this game and other designers of potential other games, so they can see that they could really improve their games simply by resisting the temptation to narrate everything. I’ve just seen this happen so many times, and it really comes down to – I think – lack of confidence that people will get what they are trying to say with their game.
So what I’m saying the developer is: be confident in your game, and be confident in the ability of the audience to understand it. Once you are, the need for the writing will disappear and the game will be better for it.
I read the reviews on Newgrounds, then played a bit…
It’s really not as bad as some comments suggest, I actually liked the concept of a pixel jumping up… well, other pixels. But that’s nice and all.
I surely haven’t played long enough to give a verdict of my own, but those comments made me wonder…
What do people expect from a game they are allowed to play for FREE ?!? What are they so angry about? The time they wasted playing? Why, then, waste even more time to write a bad review?
What’s the point, I really don’t get it… 🙄
The style is cute, the mechanics more or less fine, the pacing and needless repetition, tedious beyond reason, the first trip to the giant was enough for me, when i found myself back at the village i really didn’t see any reason to continue, i suppose i may have been more encouraged to continue had it not been for the poor grammar and dodgy writing.
I don’t mind a game that takes time for a reason, awfully slow pixel parkour, however, isn’t a good enough one.
Very interesting to see how divisive this game is.
It overall is relatively good. I just wish there was a tad more music, and if it was shorter the pace could have been a bit better.
Great art, though.
This game is gorgeous, but yes, it is v e r y slow. Especially the final sequence when you are controlling more than a pixel. And like Orihaus pointed out, the narration doesn’t add a lot (after the introduction) and there’s probably too much of it.
Jumping up trees and things is alternately fun and frustrating. I found myself visually losing track of my little grey pixel and just sort of envisioning where it was until I caught sight of it again. This actually worked quite well, because the same maneuver will get you up and over most climbable obstacles (when facing right, it’s an up, then left, then back right motion). I’m not sure if this is good or bad.
What a fascinating game.
the one pixel thing is really smart actually
aesthetically it conveys all the world objects/entities purely through context–motion and position
thematically it establishes scale in a world where colossus exist
I liked the look, sound and overall premise of this, but the scale and jumping physics do not provide a feeling of moving a character through a concrete world at all. I feel like making the boy jump less high and having him climb less ridiculously elevated structures (or perhaps disposing the structures along a less flat terrain, since the location of the giant is referred to as “the summit”) would ground what is already a pretty grounded whole even further. The scale works well for the ending bit though.
I did not feel like the writing was all that superfluous, but I do agree that developers should carefully review their text so as to avoid linguistic errors like the one pointed above, which can make a work seem more amateurish than it deserves. The repetition and frequent moments of wondering whether a player input was expected were also a bit grating.
I was enjoying the ride enough to want to finish it, but it seemed to crash for me upon arriving at the village with the giant (when villagers deploy what appear to be arrows). Is it supposed to end there?