Bonkey
2 reviews liked by Bonkey
Magenta Horizon
2021
Played for ~60 hours, SSS rank on hardest available difficulty for all levels. Runs here.
Really, really solid piece of work, especially for a game with 2/3rds of its planned content still forthcoming. Considering the game is free, there is no reason not to try it if you're an action game fan.
Magenta Horizon holds a deep reverence for two of the most fundamental pillars of action games: positioning and dynamism. Hollow Knight's influence on the movement (and the game in general) is obvious, but the addition of a diagonal dive and a hook attack that pulls you through enemies makes things significantly more interesting than simply jumping and pogoing around. DMC-like strings with various useful properties also add much-needed nuance and agency to the ground combat. The tension between safety/mobility in the air and options/damage potential on the ground informs almost every decision you make, and you'll find yourself constantly evaluating which is better suited for the moment.
A varied and volatile enemy roster puts this into context, and each disrupts you in different ways with melee attacks, speed, projectiles, or sheer size. The small helicopters are a favorite of mine: their simple attacks aren't much threat, but their spinning propellers will hit you on contact, making aerial getaways from more oppressive enemies deceptively challenging. Arenas filling up with hordes of different foes, all acting independently, gives rise to the delightful controlled chaos that so many of the action game greats are known for. Bosses are also pleasantly dynamic, with varied attack patterns and a Souls/Monster Hunter-style stagger system to keep things fresh. Once you beat the middle difficulty, give the highest a shot, it's where the game truly shines. Each encounter is completely redone, with tough enemies from the last stage suddenly appearing in the very first. Some of the best and most creative fights are found here, as the dev starts to go wild with cramped arenas, oppressive environmental hazards, enemy spawning setups, and synergistic compositions.
Each of the subweapons in the game are distinct, and have multiple situationally useful properties rather than explicitly hard countering anything. Creating the spike in midair will slam you to the ground (invaluable for movement), and the boomerang can be aimed in different trajectories to deal general damage over a wide area or stagger fliers quickly. Some even combine with each other: for example, timing your spike to skewer a boomerang creates a stationary spinning blade that deals massive DPS to anything in reach. A la Alien Soldier, each weapon can be assigned to one or more of 8 possible slots, and each slot has its own meter. The frightening levels of lethality you can achieve by maximizing this brings combat to a blistering speed, especially in later stages where tough arenas reward clean speedkilling.
Artwork and music are both obvious standouts that anyone can appreciate, and lend the game a distinct character. Pinks and purples cover otherworldly vistas, and the enemy menagerie is both delightfully creative and a treat to watch in motion. The progressive metal soundtrack is also fantastic, one of the best in recent memory.
There are definitely still some kinks to be worked out. As a new player, especially one without high-level action game experience, the initial experience is extremely overwhelming with the amount of options and movement you have. Almost nothing can be canceled out of, which works great as a design decision but feels punishing early on. UI needs some polish, and can feel cheap and awkward to navigate. Early level design is both needlessly confusing to traverse (especially since there's no map) and doesn't stand out much in terms of creative fights. Luckily, both of these improve as you get further in. Bugs pop up every so often since the game's still in heavy development, but in my experience these rarely affected gameplay. You can report any you find to the dev and he'll usually fix it quickly. The necklace system (equippables with playstyle-altering buffs) simply doesn't have enough options yet to provide meaningful tradeoffs. The game is also a bit light on content currently, as expected, but what's there is high quality.
Overall, I'm extremely impressed at the level of achievement here so far, especially in the context of a solo dev project. I can't wait to see where the project goes next, I only see things getting better from here.
TLDR just go play it, it's free. https://maddison-baek.itch.io/magenta-horizon
Really, really solid piece of work, especially for a game with 2/3rds of its planned content still forthcoming. Considering the game is free, there is no reason not to try it if you're an action game fan.
Magenta Horizon holds a deep reverence for two of the most fundamental pillars of action games: positioning and dynamism. Hollow Knight's influence on the movement (and the game in general) is obvious, but the addition of a diagonal dive and a hook attack that pulls you through enemies makes things significantly more interesting than simply jumping and pogoing around. DMC-like strings with various useful properties also add much-needed nuance and agency to the ground combat. The tension between safety/mobility in the air and options/damage potential on the ground informs almost every decision you make, and you'll find yourself constantly evaluating which is better suited for the moment.
A varied and volatile enemy roster puts this into context, and each disrupts you in different ways with melee attacks, speed, projectiles, or sheer size. The small helicopters are a favorite of mine: their simple attacks aren't much threat, but their spinning propellers will hit you on contact, making aerial getaways from more oppressive enemies deceptively challenging. Arenas filling up with hordes of different foes, all acting independently, gives rise to the delightful controlled chaos that so many of the action game greats are known for. Bosses are also pleasantly dynamic, with varied attack patterns and a Souls/Monster Hunter-style stagger system to keep things fresh. Once you beat the middle difficulty, give the highest a shot, it's where the game truly shines. Each encounter is completely redone, with tough enemies from the last stage suddenly appearing in the very first. Some of the best and most creative fights are found here, as the dev starts to go wild with cramped arenas, oppressive environmental hazards, enemy spawning setups, and synergistic compositions.
Each of the subweapons in the game are distinct, and have multiple situationally useful properties rather than explicitly hard countering anything. Creating the spike in midair will slam you to the ground (invaluable for movement), and the boomerang can be aimed in different trajectories to deal general damage over a wide area or stagger fliers quickly. Some even combine with each other: for example, timing your spike to skewer a boomerang creates a stationary spinning blade that deals massive DPS to anything in reach. A la Alien Soldier, each weapon can be assigned to one or more of 8 possible slots, and each slot has its own meter. The frightening levels of lethality you can achieve by maximizing this brings combat to a blistering speed, especially in later stages where tough arenas reward clean speedkilling.
Artwork and music are both obvious standouts that anyone can appreciate, and lend the game a distinct character. Pinks and purples cover otherworldly vistas, and the enemy menagerie is both delightfully creative and a treat to watch in motion. The progressive metal soundtrack is also fantastic, one of the best in recent memory.
There are definitely still some kinks to be worked out. As a new player, especially one without high-level action game experience, the initial experience is extremely overwhelming with the amount of options and movement you have. Almost nothing can be canceled out of, which works great as a design decision but feels punishing early on. UI needs some polish, and can feel cheap and awkward to navigate. Early level design is both needlessly confusing to traverse (especially since there's no map) and doesn't stand out much in terms of creative fights. Luckily, both of these improve as you get further in. Bugs pop up every so often since the game's still in heavy development, but in my experience these rarely affected gameplay. You can report any you find to the dev and he'll usually fix it quickly. The necklace system (equippables with playstyle-altering buffs) simply doesn't have enough options yet to provide meaningful tradeoffs. The game is also a bit light on content currently, as expected, but what's there is high quality.
Overall, I'm extremely impressed at the level of achievement here so far, especially in the context of a solo dev project. I can't wait to see where the project goes next, I only see things getting better from here.
TLDR just go play it, it's free. https://maddison-baek.itch.io/magenta-horizon
Magenta Horizon
2021
I will put 3 on this because I made this game so giving this a huge score is cheating. Also, the game development is not finished and I'm not fully satisfied with this yet.
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2022-04-21
Gotta update half-star up, because this game is getting closer to my ideal with enough dev works.
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2023-02-20
Magenta is an uncertain color. It’s a color spectrum beyond the visible purple, and since our eyes can’t receive it, we just replaced it with the average of red and purple and call it that way. It’s a recent day I found out that my second favorite color (the first being deep blue) has that story behind it, but knowing the story made me think of a thread for the conceptual work; the land of uncertainty.
When I was making that concept work, I was miserable, as my main job wasn’t satisfying at all and my side projects were ruined by a chain of misfortunes and my terrible choices. Chaotic overthinking was devouring my life, and my failure as a game dev cast a shadow over my confidence.
One thing good about being an artist is that there’s a way to express negative emotions via mediums, and it can be a catalyst for personal growth or even a pride of conqueror.
At that moment, I wanted to express the feeling of navigating through the uncertainty, organizing the chaotic situations with improvised methods, and the frenetic flow of my train of thought.
And I had to do it all alone because only I can make this work to be true, only I would take the burden of work, and only I wanted to conquer it.
So that’s how the concept of Magenta Horizon was born and the world was set in the afterlife. It’s a good place to start the concept work as the purple spectrum has some connotation with death in many cultures, but also there is an excuse to draw tons of grotesque monstrosity -my go-to drawing subjects-.
Personally, I’m not spiritual at all, but the afterlife setting can be a canvas for the world of aimless chaos, especially if the world after death is only a purgatory full of demons, and no heaven or hell exists. It’s a story about a little reaper from a human-led soul sanctum, and she has to find the meaning of her existence in this barren land. Even though in a literal sense, I didn’t suffer as much as the protagonist of this scenario, I tried to reflect my own experience in the story about tidying up the uncertainty and overcoming the odds.
Also, I wanted this setting to be expressed via my favorite genre of video game - Combo-action games. Not many games can provide the feeling of conquering and mastering hectic situations like the Devil May Cry series or the 3D Ninja Gaiden series do. Enemies come from below to rip and tear you apart. At first, you will feel panic. The erratic movement of foes doesn’t make sense at all and your options are too broad and vague to fully utilize at first. But you get a grip one by one. Each erratic chess piece reveals its pattern one by one, and you start to punish them accordingly. And then, you start to play with them, making your own comfort zone in the most stressful situation. Failures will be there, but that’s okay. You still learn from it. And after all that, the mountain of enemies is no more, chaos is calmed down, and the game pats your back with a good score.
That’s the feeling of conquering Magenta I wanted to capture.
This work might not be the most intuitive thing you will ever find in the market.
The tutorials are rough, the visuals and music are both noisy, and the obstacles don’t wait for their turns and rush at you. It will be an intimidating experience for most people.
But if you are ready to accept and embrace the premise I’m pitching, I urge you to try it out.
"Soar over purgatory and reap all the foes."
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2023-05-31
4/5. I'm getting there.
============================
2022-04-21
Gotta update half-star up, because this game is getting closer to my ideal with enough dev works.
============================
2023-02-20
Magenta is an uncertain color. It’s a color spectrum beyond the visible purple, and since our eyes can’t receive it, we just replaced it with the average of red and purple and call it that way. It’s a recent day I found out that my second favorite color (the first being deep blue) has that story behind it, but knowing the story made me think of a thread for the conceptual work; the land of uncertainty.
When I was making that concept work, I was miserable, as my main job wasn’t satisfying at all and my side projects were ruined by a chain of misfortunes and my terrible choices. Chaotic overthinking was devouring my life, and my failure as a game dev cast a shadow over my confidence.
One thing good about being an artist is that there’s a way to express negative emotions via mediums, and it can be a catalyst for personal growth or even a pride of conqueror.
At that moment, I wanted to express the feeling of navigating through the uncertainty, organizing the chaotic situations with improvised methods, and the frenetic flow of my train of thought.
And I had to do it all alone because only I can make this work to be true, only I would take the burden of work, and only I wanted to conquer it.
So that’s how the concept of Magenta Horizon was born and the world was set in the afterlife. It’s a good place to start the concept work as the purple spectrum has some connotation with death in many cultures, but also there is an excuse to draw tons of grotesque monstrosity -my go-to drawing subjects-.
Personally, I’m not spiritual at all, but the afterlife setting can be a canvas for the world of aimless chaos, especially if the world after death is only a purgatory full of demons, and no heaven or hell exists. It’s a story about a little reaper from a human-led soul sanctum, and she has to find the meaning of her existence in this barren land. Even though in a literal sense, I didn’t suffer as much as the protagonist of this scenario, I tried to reflect my own experience in the story about tidying up the uncertainty and overcoming the odds.
Also, I wanted this setting to be expressed via my favorite genre of video game - Combo-action games. Not many games can provide the feeling of conquering and mastering hectic situations like the Devil May Cry series or the 3D Ninja Gaiden series do. Enemies come from below to rip and tear you apart. At first, you will feel panic. The erratic movement of foes doesn’t make sense at all and your options are too broad and vague to fully utilize at first. But you get a grip one by one. Each erratic chess piece reveals its pattern one by one, and you start to punish them accordingly. And then, you start to play with them, making your own comfort zone in the most stressful situation. Failures will be there, but that’s okay. You still learn from it. And after all that, the mountain of enemies is no more, chaos is calmed down, and the game pats your back with a good score.
That’s the feeling of conquering Magenta I wanted to capture.
This work might not be the most intuitive thing you will ever find in the market.
The tutorials are rough, the visuals and music are both noisy, and the obstacles don’t wait for their turns and rush at you. It will be an intimidating experience for most people.
But if you are ready to accept and embrace the premise I’m pitching, I urge you to try it out.
"Soar over purgatory and reap all the foes."
============================
2023-05-31
4/5. I'm getting there.