"Aren't children's Toys kinda scary?"
"I mean, yea, they can be."
"How about we add some flashing red lights or just present it visually with a limited color palette of black, white and brownish reds, kinda like dried blood, aren't they even more scary now?"
"Well, a bit too.. stale, don't you think? But if the artstyle is intriguing enough it could be something.. at least."
"Isn't the nativity of a little kid not seeing how scary this is, EVEN MORE SCARY?"
"Eeehm, kind of, but isn't this in the same ball park of overplayed clichés as all the other idea's we had until now?"
"How about clicking on things? Isn't clicking on things and not knowing how to click or interact with them fucking terrifying?? Like a fear of the unknown!"
"No, not in the slightest. I don't think you even know what fear of the unknown means. That also seems like it would break the flow or immersion of whatever we are even trying to do."
"If we play a disturbing, scripted event after you click the intended and only possible way, I bet you will shit your pants though!!"
"Could we rethink thi.."

CHAPTER ONE DONE

"How about we make the second chapter a bit more interesting?"
"Okay, let's give it a kind of teletubies, happy tree friends vibe. I also think smiley balls are scary have I ever told you that?"
"Whatever"
"Also there will be a fail state"

CHAPTER TWO DONE

"The last chapter will be really disturbing though."
"How so?"
"Dead dog. But it is more implied than actually shown"
"Damn"
"And the chapter is gonna be abstract and creative in ways you wish the rest of the game was.
Except for one kind of annoying physics puzzle you'll waste too much time on"
"Why not ma.."
"Btw the we will call it Happy game. Get it?
Get it? Get it? Get it?"

Roll the credits.

Aminta design has DONE IT AGAIN. They’re kind of in a bronze age right now, likely due to a lack of funding/ideas. It’s still good, better than Creeks but about the same wavelength as chuchel, only dialed to the creeepy side of things. It kind of feels like it was made to capitalize on the whole “Spooky children stuff” trend but it branches out towards the end. The plot has some layers, and of course, it’s fun and interesting in the way all their games are. Some surreal and interesting visuals for sure, although I’d be lying if I said any of it actually creeped me out. The whole smiley face hiding sinister implications thing is a little trite, but hey, whatever man. Not their strongest, but not their weakest

Happy Game is an interesting little story with very unsettling imagery. It was interesting to see Amanita Design twist their cute, relaxed art style into something much more sinister, while still maintaining the charm of games like Machinarium.

This game's story is highly abstract, but still engaging. I found myself noticing a lot of recurring imagery and some really interesting tidbits of information. I can't wait to see different interpretations as more people play.

I think Happy Game's greatest folly is its length. With a runtime of under two hours, I felt like its concepts weren't developed as much as they could have been. Still, it's a very fun, very unsettling game.

I personally did not really enjoy this game. While the art and music is competently made, the controls feel very sluggish and you stop caring about the game before the halfway mark in what is already a very short game.

Even though this is a point and click game, getting anything done is painfully slow to the point where my hand was getting tired. You will hold and drag for most of this 2-hour experience, often doing the same puzzle multiple times in a row. You may figure out that you need to feed someone a carrot. Slowly pull it out of the ground, give it to your character, drag your character to where he needs to stand, then drag your carrot to the bunny. Great, now do that 2 more times, then walk for a while, and feed some new ones.
This is how most puzzles work, do the thing, many times in a row. In one part, you have to do the thing you need to do over 10 times in a row after you already figured it out. It is not fun.
Dragging items in this game is also so painful to do. You drag and drag and drag only for minimal changes to happen. Some puzzles had me drag an item for so long I thought it was bugged. I kept dragging the mouse, but the thing I needed to move only moved a centimeter at the time. You should not have to drag your mouse multiple times your screen length to open something up, especially when you have to do it many times in a row.

The reason anyone would want to play this game, has to be for the art. The disturbing art is well made, and is very interesting. While it was fairly obvious from the start this would be an edgy game, I think it lost its flavor about halfway through. Yes, everything will flash red, and you will lose your toy or whatever. It's cool the first 10 times, but after that it gets kinda boring. It rarely changed things up, just going for edgy after edgy. When everything is edgy, nothing is. You may think the game has some fun edgy tricks at first, but you're only going to get impressed so many times before it gets old.
The game should have changed up the pace more, like it does during the football segment.

Idk man, overall the gameplay is lame, the art is cool, but the execution is not the best. It tried to make itself seem more disturbing by spam-flashing red every time you do anything. I don't struggle with epilepsy or anything like that, but it got annoying.
I rate this game
Chewing gum you've already been chewing for a while / 10


That said, I did finish this game. I can see that the devs have put in effort. There is talent here, hoping for something more genuinely disturbing next time.

I personally love short indie games, especially if they can deliver something pretty crazy in at least one department. A great story, fun gameplay, or crazy visuals which Happy Game delivers here. There’s no story really, no dialog, no pretense. You just play as a ball-shaped headed kid who goes to sleep and has nightmares about three of his favorite toys. Each toy needs to be rescued and falls under one of three chapters.


The first nightmare is about the boy’s ball. He gets beat up and it’s taken from him and you use just your mouse to drag the boy around and manipulate objects. Pushing, pulling, twisting, rotating, and anything in between is the name of the game here and the only gameplay element. Every single screen is something completely new and it’s either gory, crazy, scary, weird, or creepy. I never got bored looking at this game and the few puzzles that got thrown in were quite fun as well. The game is never complicated or requires using your cerebral jelly, but manipulating certain objects a certain way is how you solve the few puzzles. The second toy is a stuffed rabbit and the third is a dog.


I can’t describe the game and give a clear vision without you playing the game. It’s just so much fun to look at. The game’s strongest point is the visuals here as every step of the way something new is presented. From pulling apart toys to revealing creepy things inside, murdering various oddly shaped creatures, helping other creatures, pulling eyeballs out of skulls, and the list goes on. There’s so much here in just one hour that I have to applaud the developers for giving us so much content and diversity in such a short period of time.

The game is also full of a lot of atmosphere. Most of the game is in black and white to emphasize blood and gore. There’s really creepy music, the boy grunts a lot and cries and shouts but never speaks. The facial expressions on every object are very detailed. This is a moving piece of horror art or even a hand-drawn haunted house ride if you will. Very rarely did I not know what to do or couldn’t figure something out. Maybe two or three scenes are a little obscure, but eventually, I did move on.


Sadly, there’s zero replay value other than to just experience the visuals again. It’s incredibly short-lasting maybe an hour, but it’s a very entertaining hour. It’s hard for me to score these types of games above an eight even if they are amazing because there’s the issue with the length and there’s almost no gameplay and usually zero stories or character development. These types of short indie games are mostly visual treats or just a quick fast-food type experience that’s rarely as endearing as games like Journey or Monument Valley but are just fun enough to warrant your time. Happy Game is by far one of the most visually striking games of the year and sadly it’s going to get looked past due to these negatives that most indie games get bashed for. I’m not personally bashing Happy Game for its shortcomings as it’s not trying to provide you with some of everything and presenting a mediocre package. Its strong points are worth noting and playing for and that’s just fine.

Amanita jugando en casa.

Pros:
- El despliegue sonoro es apabullante. Todo reacciona, todo acompaña. Sobresaliente.
- Las animaciones solo están a la altura de este estudio, que tras varios juegos sigue demostrando que sigue siendo posible hacer juegos con un sello de autor muy marcado a día de hoy.
- El descenso a los infiernos oníricos está tratado con una originalidad pasmosa.

Contras:
- El jugador está demasiado a merced de Amanita en todo momento. Las opciones de interacción son muy limitadas.
- Echo en falta algo de desarrollo narrativo, un mínimo hilo del que ir tirando a lo largo de la historia.
- Por algún motivo, la visibilidad del estudio es cada vez menor en la prensa.