as someone who plays/keeps up with a lot of new indie releases, a constant feeling that I get with a game is that its really scraping at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to originality or content. most indie games nowadays are either a ripoff of some old game that the developer played as a kid (e.g. cyber shadow) or just some really tepid audiovisual experience with very little value or artistic meaning (e.g. sunlight).
Ynglet feels like a very rare but incredibly refreshing instance of a developer designing a game around a core mechanic, sticking to their guns, and making the best and most original game they could. on first glance one may really question whether this counts as a platformer or not but once you actually start playing it that feel becomes really palpable. levels are fluidly and intricately designed, utilizing interesting design mechanics to didactically communicate the games core ideas wordlessly; movement and flow are effortless, and the lack of any real notion of momentum or speed allow for the game to operate solely on this basis of gravitational feel and slip. every movement feels like its placed under hyper-control, every jump, every leap, every dive coordinated under the twitching flick of a control stick.
platformers have always fascinated me because they're one of the only game genres that is so involved from a gameplay perspective but uses minimal controls. Ynglet is a fantastic instance of this--using only a single button and a control stick, with very little written language, it manages to communicate its design elements solely through mere play. the way that traditional mechanics like wall-jumping are integrated into the game despite this unique control setup allows for this kind of transliteral communication between the player and the game--neither is fully able to really understand the other, but they can both feel the point, the purpose, the thesis.
its a bit of a bummer that the best way to play this game (the "too difficult" difficulty) is locked behind two entire playthroughs but the levels and movement here were so effortlessly engaging that i ended up 100%ing the entire game three times in a row in one sitting. Ynglet is a truly special game, and the kind of indie game that only comes along once in a blue moon.
Ynglet feels like a very rare but incredibly refreshing instance of a developer designing a game around a core mechanic, sticking to their guns, and making the best and most original game they could. on first glance one may really question whether this counts as a platformer or not but once you actually start playing it that feel becomes really palpable. levels are fluidly and intricately designed, utilizing interesting design mechanics to didactically communicate the games core ideas wordlessly; movement and flow are effortless, and the lack of any real notion of momentum or speed allow for the game to operate solely on this basis of gravitational feel and slip. every movement feels like its placed under hyper-control, every jump, every leap, every dive coordinated under the twitching flick of a control stick.
platformers have always fascinated me because they're one of the only game genres that is so involved from a gameplay perspective but uses minimal controls. Ynglet is a fantastic instance of this--using only a single button and a control stick, with very little written language, it manages to communicate its design elements solely through mere play. the way that traditional mechanics like wall-jumping are integrated into the game despite this unique control setup allows for this kind of transliteral communication between the player and the game--neither is fully able to really understand the other, but they can both feel the point, the purpose, the thesis.
its a bit of a bummer that the best way to play this game (the "too difficult" difficulty) is locked behind two entire playthroughs but the levels and movement here were so effortlessly engaging that i ended up 100%ing the entire game three times in a row in one sitting. Ynglet is a truly special game, and the kind of indie game that only comes along once in a blue moon.