Hey, y'all! Before we begin, I just wanna take a moment to contemplate the progress we're making. 6 days into the second month and We're already done with 2 of the letters of the alphabet. More than that, though, we've gone through the entirety of the first out of 9 pages in the DigiPen Game Gallery. Thanks for sticking it out this long, and I hope the next 8/9 of our journey is an enjoyable one.
Alright, Let's jump into Candela.
Well the first thing I want to say is that as this blog has been progressing, it seems that the games have been too. I was encountering games with fewer bugs, flaws, etc. Most importantly, I can't remember what the last game was that didn't include a save feature...Well, now I can.
I won't spend too much time on this but this is really the worst kind of game to forget such a feature. It's a puzzle game, and not a very easy one at that. This game proudly displays a splash screen for DigiPen Singapore, so maybe my feeble American mind is just not suited for a Malaysian challenge, but I got stuck on the third level after the tutorial! Puzzle games have never been my forte, but I'm at least decent enough at them to say that the challenge level is ramped up way too hard to beat this all in one go. You could probably do it if you had a few hours free, but a game that demands you devote more than an hour at a time to it is just poorly designed in my opinion. That's one of the things that makes Starfox: 64 my 2nd favorite game rather than my favorite (I might reveal my favorite some time later in this blog). While the average playtime of Starfox:64's campaign is only an hour, you can't save in between levels, so if you only have 45 minutes to spare before you have to go to [insert obligatory activity here], you're out of luck.
Back to Candela, though. I think this game has a lot of potential. I love how it goes about conveying the mechanics to the player, I love the (somewhat) innovative puzzle mechanics, I like the level design, I like the atmosphere, and I like the aesthetic. It would be really enjoyable if I could put it down after completing a puzzle. That's one of the things I liked most about Braid: after straining your mind to surmount a challenge, you can take a break and cool off without having to redo all the puzzles you've solved up to that point.
In short, simple design flaw ruins an otherwise charming little puzzle game. Until next time, stay shiny
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25116
