the perfect game in my books and i'm not sure how to put it into words but it's a beautiful experience playing this. this game comes from a place of love and dedication, an eye for user experience and an understanding of what it should be delivering to the player, and what it expects from the player. i think the best way i can describe this is nothing is put to waste, the designs, the enemies, the movement, the interface, the animations, the space. it's like stumbling upon an oasis in today's barren gaming landscape filled with surface level shit that is only fun to play initially before you lose interest. it captured my interest, short and sweet. i don't even know where to start..
i think what this game does brilliantly is progression. from opening the game for the first time, to catching your final fruit, it feels like a complete journey that never skipped any steps getting there. i don't know if maybe I'M just the audience for this shit, but this game just scratches this itch of game design that i've always loved. one that does not hold your hand, but also points you towards something fun and leaves expectations at the door. hey you've got cool power ups here, and you've got some puzzles here, and they lead you here by means of exploration and intrigue from the player. i'm really not sure how well it communicates this to your average gamer but i feel like you really can't miss it and it's all found organically, without a trace of dialogue, brilliance!
you start off by being taught how to move, you fling yourself, and you can bounce off walls and you can hard drop for more precision. you can bounce off enemies bc of course you can, and you collect fruit. why am i collecting fruit? oh theres some monster that will literally kill us if we don't feed it juice, and it has to be the right combination (not really). if you touch the ground you lose all your fruit, and if the timer is out, you don't have the fruit and you touch the ground, you lose hp, until it reaches zero. now im learning the game. what else is there to this game besides that? combos bro. the whole idea of the floor is lava is such a fun concept that more games need to reward players for doing.
i think this game builds up on downwell extremely well. my main problems with downwell were that it was way too fast to feel and it felt more like reaction checks trying to play the way i wanted to play (never touching the ground). this game lets you slow the game down, take things at your own pace and think things through before committing. i've come to realise fast does not always equal better, it is especially the case for this game.
so past this first phase of progression, we then lean into how can i get better at the game. learn the ins and outs of the game, bouncing on stuff gives me extra bounces, bouncing on walls gives me extra height, etc. and mix this with getting now power up and even learning new mechanics from here, like the spin state picking up more around you, reviving if you create a fruit shake as you are dying, as mentioned before leaving nothing to waste. even in the puzzle mode on the right you learn important information about going on fire and destroying fruit you do not want, which i imagine could easily go over your head if you are not paying attention, but this way it teaches you with intentionality.
and then it tells you to reach level 20 and you put literally everything you've learned to the test. you are unable to cheese as it requires you to gather 5 star shakes, not accounting for quality, all while dodging everything. i got here at a pretty low level and realised i was definitely not prepared and grinded levels to get more jumps and better power ups, and finishing this game was such a journey, realising how far you've come and it all coming to an end, and not realising how much fun you were having. it's quite disheartening knowing that there is not much else to this game, but it was fun, brilliant and a fun case study to a brilliant user experience.
plus it has music from bo-en, love the guy!
i think what this game does brilliantly is progression. from opening the game for the first time, to catching your final fruit, it feels like a complete journey that never skipped any steps getting there. i don't know if maybe I'M just the audience for this shit, but this game just scratches this itch of game design that i've always loved. one that does not hold your hand, but also points you towards something fun and leaves expectations at the door. hey you've got cool power ups here, and you've got some puzzles here, and they lead you here by means of exploration and intrigue from the player. i'm really not sure how well it communicates this to your average gamer but i feel like you really can't miss it and it's all found organically, without a trace of dialogue, brilliance!
you start off by being taught how to move, you fling yourself, and you can bounce off walls and you can hard drop for more precision. you can bounce off enemies bc of course you can, and you collect fruit. why am i collecting fruit? oh theres some monster that will literally kill us if we don't feed it juice, and it has to be the right combination (not really). if you touch the ground you lose all your fruit, and if the timer is out, you don't have the fruit and you touch the ground, you lose hp, until it reaches zero. now im learning the game. what else is there to this game besides that? combos bro. the whole idea of the floor is lava is such a fun concept that more games need to reward players for doing.
i think this game builds up on downwell extremely well. my main problems with downwell were that it was way too fast to feel and it felt more like reaction checks trying to play the way i wanted to play (never touching the ground). this game lets you slow the game down, take things at your own pace and think things through before committing. i've come to realise fast does not always equal better, it is especially the case for this game.
so past this first phase of progression, we then lean into how can i get better at the game. learn the ins and outs of the game, bouncing on stuff gives me extra bounces, bouncing on walls gives me extra height, etc. and mix this with getting now power up and even learning new mechanics from here, like the spin state picking up more around you, reviving if you create a fruit shake as you are dying, as mentioned before leaving nothing to waste. even in the puzzle mode on the right you learn important information about going on fire and destroying fruit you do not want, which i imagine could easily go over your head if you are not paying attention, but this way it teaches you with intentionality.
and then it tells you to reach level 20 and you put literally everything you've learned to the test. you are unable to cheese as it requires you to gather 5 star shakes, not accounting for quality, all while dodging everything. i got here at a pretty low level and realised i was definitely not prepared and grinded levels to get more jumps and better power ups, and finishing this game was such a journey, realising how far you've come and it all coming to an end, and not realising how much fun you were having. it's quite disheartening knowing that there is not much else to this game, but it was fun, brilliant and a fun case study to a brilliant user experience.
plus it has music from bo-en, love the guy!