truly a modern tragedy
if you want an example of a game that failed to understand why users liked it and how to keep and moderate a user base, you're looking at it

this game had so much going for it back in the day
as basically virtual legos it was a great tool for creatives to express themselves, create games, structures, media, everything
to say i had a lot of fun with this game back in the early 2010s is an incredible understatement this game probably shaped who i am today in some ways (it's also where my username comes from)
it really was a sandbox in the best ways possible
the maps really made you feel like you were a toy and that you were playing with toys
and that was great, many days were spent roleplaying or playing minigames or just building what i wanted to build
like minecraft but legos
like roblox but with no need to play other people's games
like garry's mod but without need for ownership or understanding of other games
it really was great, with fully moddable assets like sounds, textures, models, items, vehicles, etc, etc, etc, etc, and etc.

but unlike garry's mod, roblox, or minecraft, this game had a fatal flaw
it's creator (badspot) couldnt handle the popularity
the game lacked updates with substance, and left most of the content making to the users
which is fine when your game has (close to) a thousand concurrent players and probably way over a thousand unique players each day
but then he removed ALL maps that werent completely flat (so he could add shaders), and that nearly directly lead the game into a death spiral
peak users online has dropped and dropped and dropped
like actually its gone from anywhere from 400-700 players online at a time to 30 players if you're LUCKY
like actually look at these statistics https://blockland.online/statistics
very sad
i wouldnt even really recommend playing on what few servers actually have players on them since what little userbase is left has formed a clique and has proven itself (to me) to be incredibly hostile to new users, and if you're looking for a certain kind of experience chances are there are no servers (with people in it) that can meet your expectations

for a game that (at least i thought it was) marketing itself towards children its p disgusting for a rape mod to be a common mod to find on some servers

these are all problems with the actual game itself but there are problems outside the game too, namely the forums

the forums are by far the worst part of blockland, just being a cesspit of negativity, elitism, and hostility
the amount of terrible people who are on the forums or have been on the forums is too many to count (although im sure someone has a list somewhere)

did you know the creator of kiwi farms used to play blockland?
did you know the person who leaked the tf2 source code back in april 2020 (supposedly) played blockland?
did you know a school shooter in 2017 used to play blockland? (Aztec High School shooting)
maybe these examples are cherry picked but by god is it what i expect from the user base that exist(s)(ed)

im gonna try to end it here but theres a lot i left out
numerous hacks to the forums, users, server list, etc.
personal experiences with terrible people, including someone who got my ip and did a lookup to scare me when i was like 10
bullying of children (of course) and other terrible shit

honestly only if you stick to single player or private friend groups can i say the game is maybe worth playing
the mods, maps, and other customizations that are available are pretty interesting
but i absolutely cannot recommend anyone buy this game, or that anyone seek out the currently existing user base

also be careful with spiritual successors like brickadia they're newer but the player base is the same as blockland which is a big red flag

im sure other people have a different view of the blockland experience or properly remember some of this shit, most of my notable memories of the game are from 2015-2018 and my GOOD memories of the game are from 2010-2013
maybe i personally have had a terrible experience with the game and its users and its not actually as bad as i remember
but theres no way in hell im going back to find out

In my review of VVVVVV (https://www.backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/279124/) I noted pure vertical shifts aren’t intrinsically different from standard jumping in platformers- yes, you’re technically moving in a disparate manner, but those actions ultimately come down to bounding in an up/down motion.

Well, a year before VVVVVV came out, an indie title called And Yet it Moves was released that ironically addressed that observation. See, developed and published by Broken Rules, AYIM is a platformer built on the mechanic of rotation: at the click of a key, you can turn the screen rectilinearly, repositioning environments in ways that allow you to circumvent them. The question is how fun is it? It’s pretty good, though a significant flaw hampers things. For the longer answer, read on!

Before pressing forward, I’m going to put out a disclaimer that the Steam version of the game, despite being listed as having “partial controller support,” is not compliant with such devices. I tried multiple times with my 360 controller to no avail. It's not a big deal since the keyboard works perfect; however, it should be noted to those thinking about beating it with a gamepad of sorts.

Anyway, we'll start with the graphics as AYIM is what I imagine a theoretical amalgamation of Doug and The Amazing World of Gumball would be. Your anonymous character looks like he was drawn by Jim Jinkins, topped with a hairstyle akin to Roger’s, albeit animated as though it belonged in the Fancy Pants Universe. His posture, constant frown, and pencil-drawn figure cry hipster, and he certainly stands as one of the more uniquely-designed protagonists in gaming history. The settings he finds himself in, on the other hand, are paper-mache extravaganzas: wrapping tissue backgrounds adorned with photos seemingly cut out of some cheap designer magazine. These objects, ranging from terrain to arts & crafts, literally have those fuzzy white boundaries you get when you haphazardly tear a thick sheet of parchment, the backdrops they rest on as crinkled as remnants from a post-Christmas gift heap. The first half of the game sticks pretty firmly to primary colors; however, the second half kicks things into psychedelic gear, with bright complexations straight out of an I Spy book. The whole display ends up being very chromatically coruscating, but whether or not it’s pleasing will vary from person-to-person. I personally liked seeing something that diverged from your typical Mario-inspired sprite work, and as an advocate for specialized art focuses, I hope that more games follow the example set by Broken Rules for their project.

The sound, unfortunately, is mostly atrocious. There’s no voice acting, and the SFX is the worst case of foley I have ever heard in a video game. As you’re in jungle and nature-themed environs, there was an attempt to mimic the noises of a forest whilst giving it a musically-tinged motif, and the end product is unpleasant: owl hoots sound like muted French Horn warbles, monkey screeches like a Trumpet imitating Tarzan, and bird chirps like a human tootling. Even out-of-boundary falls rip-off that slide whistle gimmick Doodle Jump overdid years ago. For most of your playthrough, this abysmal sound scheme is intermixed with a vocal percussion rhythm that I assume was meant to evoke a tribal chant but winds up coming across like the type of amateur beatboxing we used to do in middle school. Oh, and did I mention it’s all played on a painfully obvious loop, because apparently crafting a composition for the duration of a single level was too difficult for the maestro.

In the second half, when things take a wacky turn, the score does get better in terms of accentuating the ludicrosity around you via some pretty nice jazz accompaniments. However, the SFX never improves, and in some cases arguably gets worse in Broken Rules' vain quest to be experimental. Footsteps, in particular, are morphed into this grating…you know what, I can’t even describe it. Search videos or play the game yourself to know what I mean.

Despite the title quoting Galileo’s famous proclamation, there’s no story to speak of, meaning we move onto the gameplay. As I said in the intro, your goal is to get from Point A to Point B via manipulating the immediate area- left 90°, right 90°, or a complete 180 flip. Doing so whirls the solid ground about you accordingly, creating passageways or gaps you may not have had access to from your original vantage.

As you can expect, things aren’t completely straightforward. Loose objects will tumble freely, becoming hazardous projectiles or impediments in the process; gravity remains a constant, accelerating your mass to dangerous speeds if you don’t hamper it quickly; and numerous puzzles require accurate screen pivots lest you misaim and sabotage the whole shebang.

There was a lot of potential to this premise and, to their credit, Broken Rules adopts most of it. It would’ve been cool to maybe see boss fights thrown in that would have had to be resolved in a manner akin to Teslagrad’s, but the base game gives a lot of variety in its own right. There were only two things that prevented me from truly enjoying AYIM. The first, which I alluded to early on, is the momentum-mechanic. AYIM can get really frustrating in terms of depicting terminal velocity: that is, the quickness in which G-forces affect your avatar. I genuinely don’t think there was a code in-place to accurately calculate it as, I swear, there were instances where the exact same drop from the exact same circumstances either killed me or landed me to safety. My conspiracy theory is the programming diverges depending on what that particular section calls for -- i.e., if the game wants you to go a certain route, it will speed-up your celerity, and vice-versa if it wants you to rely on pure platforming. A strategic stopgap is technically in place in the way of downward slopes; falling on them, no matter your propulsion, is said to guarantee a safe landing. While I personally found even this to be inconsistent, I have seen walkthroughs on YouTube that showcase gamers successfully utilizing them, so I concede it’s probably user error on my part.

The second issue that crops up is your sideways jumping. There’s this uncanny waywardness in the air that takes place whenever you horizontally saltate, and it honestly messed-up my spatial awareness by making it hard to acutely gauge where I was going to touch down. Now, some may claim that Broken Rules was trying to recreate air resistance. First off, if that was true, then I should never collapse from dropping; secondly, the new gravity should be constant enough that you end up adjusting eventually, and that didn’t happen here because it isn’t stable. Combine this with speed bursts from a gravity tilt and you may find the more-precise platforming to be harder than it needs to be.

Overall though, And Yet It Moves is a chill enough game to get through. With the exception of some post-game bonus levels, the challenge is very fair, and you get an entry in the platforming genre that stands out from the crowd. If you can get past the gameplay flaws and desire a change of pace from your usual jumpers, consider picking it up. Just make sure you plug-in your own music to listen to….