Yeah, this one was interesting. It did a lot of things way wrong and a lot of things way right. Let's get started.
First, I have to talk about the sound direction. There is no sound whatsoever in the menu screen, so I thought this was gonna be another one of those no-sound games (side note: Blogger recognizes "gonna" as a word, but not "gameplay"). I was slightly delighted to hear music start playing once I started the game, but the song that plays is so bad, so ear-twistingly awful, that I had to mute my computer. Proper sound direction does not a good game make, but bad sound direction can really sour the experience.
Alright, now that we've covered that, let me bring up a word that hasn't been used here for a while: conveyance. For the most part, this game does a pretty good job of explaining itself, but I do have a minor complaint about the fireball. It's by far the coolest attack in the game, so naturally you'd want to use it, but the game doesn't adequately tell you how. I had to access the "how to play" screen (which, as far as I'm concerned, means the game's conveyance is inadequate) to find out that you fire them with "F." Okay, you got me. "F" for "fireball," I should have seen that, but come on. On the hierarchy of buttons that perform actions in a shooter game, "f" is pretty low on the list. It should have been RMB, which just makes your character punch, an utterly useless attack (if it's even an attack; I never attempted to use it on an enemy) because you have an unlimited supply of shuriken to throw. Even if you wanted to keep it as "F," you gotta give me some kind of clue; but a little "F" on the fireball icon or something, jeez.
Next up, visual design. I could talk about how the characters look like pre-packaged models from Blender or how the level is literally composed only of rectangles, but I was never a graphics-oriented gamer. My main concern is something that can't be answered by citing the number of polygons in a given model. I just want to know whether it looks good. In the case of this game...eh, I wasn't bothered by it but I can certainly see why other people might be. There's certainly nothing to praise.
As unimpressive as the stage might look, I certainly think it was designed well. certain walls are just tall enough that you can't clear them with one jump, which is a good way to indicate to the player "hey, you should totally try double-jumping to get on top of this wall and get the drop on the enemy." See that? That's how you convey things!
Overall, this came was nothing amazing, but I had fun with it. If you can put up with minimalist visual design and piss-poor sound direction, then I recommend playing around with this one for a bit.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay deadly
Links
Ninjas kill each other: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=421
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Nightmare
After that last Nightmare of a game....hehe...I did a pun...My expectations were set pretty dang low for this one. Much to my delight, Nightmare surprised me.
This game really does everything right, which sucks because now I can't think of anything else to say about it. I guess I can make every high school English teacher cry and summarize the game instead...
Well, truth be told, there's not even that much to summarize. You control 2 characters at a time with WASD and the mouse, respectively. The fairy, whom you control with the mouse, dispatches baddies to protect the little girl whom you control with WASD. You have to get the little girl from point A to point B without her getting hunted down by creepy creatures of the night. Hey, I think I just figured out how to make escort missions bearable...give us control over the person we're supposed to be escorting.
The enemies are nice and varied, ranging from tiny little guys who can be taken out with one quick slice while holding down LMB to creepy Jack-in-the-box type things that have to be dangled with RMB until they disappear.
I think there are 2 areas in which this game truly excels: variety and artistic design.
Let's get the easy one out of the way first. The artistic design is beautiful. I'm not an artist, so I don't really know how to explain it, but everything is eerie without getting overbearing and it all just looks damn good.
Now let's talk variety. It's the spice of life, after all. Every one of the 6 levels in Nightmare is different in its own special way. This keeps the game engaging from beginning to end and really demonstrates how masterfully the devs can craft a game. Whether you're frantically running away from some unseen instakill beast or sleuthily hunting down keys with which to open doors, this game makes sure you know what you're doing and that you feel good doing it.
This one's definitely worth your while and certainly earns my seal of approval. Good job, guys.
Links
Sweet Dream: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26615
This game really does everything right, which sucks because now I can't think of anything else to say about it. I guess I can make every high school English teacher cry and summarize the game instead...
Well, truth be told, there's not even that much to summarize. You control 2 characters at a time with WASD and the mouse, respectively. The fairy, whom you control with the mouse, dispatches baddies to protect the little girl whom you control with WASD. You have to get the little girl from point A to point B without her getting hunted down by creepy creatures of the night. Hey, I think I just figured out how to make escort missions bearable...give us control over the person we're supposed to be escorting.
The enemies are nice and varied, ranging from tiny little guys who can be taken out with one quick slice while holding down LMB to creepy Jack-in-the-box type things that have to be dangled with RMB until they disappear.
I think there are 2 areas in which this game truly excels: variety and artistic design.
Let's get the easy one out of the way first. The artistic design is beautiful. I'm not an artist, so I don't really know how to explain it, but everything is eerie without getting overbearing and it all just looks damn good.
Now let's talk variety. It's the spice of life, after all. Every one of the 6 levels in Nightmare is different in its own special way. This keeps the game engaging from beginning to end and really demonstrates how masterfully the devs can craft a game. Whether you're frantically running away from some unseen instakill beast or sleuthily hunting down keys with which to open doors, this game makes sure you know what you're doing and that you feel good doing it.
This one's definitely worth your while and certainly earns my seal of approval. Good job, guys.
Links
Sweet Dream: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26615
Nightfall
uuuughhhh this was a frustrating one...
This game looked kinda promising at first. The visual style is one that yells words like "hardcore" and "metal" without sounding pretentious like so many games do, the title is just kind of universally awesome no matter how ashamed you are that you like it, and it just presented itself really well...until I started playing it.
Overall, this just doesn't feel like a game made by game design students. I always get frustrated when I explain the DigiPen game gallery to people and they say "oh, like Newgrounds or Addictinggames, right?" Because this list should be, and I think is for the most part, fundamentally different. People on Newgrounds throw together a cool little project they made in flash in their spare time based only on the knowledge they gained from playing similar titles. DigiPen students, I hope, are taught what elements in those titles makes the games good, and then how to integrate those factors into their own project. Nightfall feels like a Newgrounds game. Here's why...
First problem: the menu screen. I would think that somewhere in the lesson on how to design a menu screen, the phrase "the menu is really just the first tutorial" would have come up, because it's true. If your menu requires you to use the arrow keys to move the cursor around, the game is telling you that the arrow keys will be an integral function of the game. Nightfall's menu uses only the mouse, but the mouse is completely useless in the actual game. This is a minor complaint, but it reflects the thoughtlessness of the game's design as a whole, and trust me, it gets way more prevalent as you play.
As usual, I decided to forego the tutorial in favor of jumping right into the action, or at least trying to. I swear, the loading time on this game is like something out of Sonic '06. Anyway, when I finally got playing, I used my platformer intuition to run to the left and press space to jump over a crack in the ground. Oops, I fell through the crack. Yep, this is another one of those "up-arrow is the only jump function" deals. That must mean the spacebar does something else important, right? Oh wait, no, it's utterly useless.
The attacks are preposterously unbalanced. you use "A" for a smash, "S" for a slash and "D" for an anti-air flurry, but there is literally no reason to ever use the latter two. Smash may as well be the only attack. It wrecks anything near you, including stone walls that can only be destroyed with smash, so the game is basically telling you through its design that one attack is intrinsically better than the others. There's no penalty for spamming smash either.
It was only through alt+tabbing out of this game's window to chat with my girlfriend that I discovered that you can use super moves. I was typing something when all of a sudden my character let out a really cool, stylized spirit demon type thing that wrecked everything in sight. I then had to retype that sentence to myself so I could figure out which button made the magic happen, and I discovered it was "C." No, yeah, that's fine, I don't know of any other prominent buttons that weren't in use that you could've used instead, oh except maybe the SPACEBAR OR LEFT CLICK.
Oh and you know what the best part is? You want to know what really made me want to ragequit when I was only about 20 seconds into this mess? It's the classic James Rolfe lament...one life, no continues, no save feature. Beat the game in one go or you're done for. I appreciate that this game is going for the "hardcore" appeal, so such a mechanic might actually make sense, but that doesn't stop the fact that I can't see half of the game because an enemy keeps glitching me out of existence.
This game is finnicky, poorly designed and overall dysfunctional. Play it only if you want something to rage about.
Links
Night Balls: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24361
This game looked kinda promising at first. The visual style is one that yells words like "hardcore" and "metal" without sounding pretentious like so many games do, the title is just kind of universally awesome no matter how ashamed you are that you like it, and it just presented itself really well...until I started playing it.
Overall, this just doesn't feel like a game made by game design students. I always get frustrated when I explain the DigiPen game gallery to people and they say "oh, like Newgrounds or Addictinggames, right?" Because this list should be, and I think is for the most part, fundamentally different. People on Newgrounds throw together a cool little project they made in flash in their spare time based only on the knowledge they gained from playing similar titles. DigiPen students, I hope, are taught what elements in those titles makes the games good, and then how to integrate those factors into their own project. Nightfall feels like a Newgrounds game. Here's why...
First problem: the menu screen. I would think that somewhere in the lesson on how to design a menu screen, the phrase "the menu is really just the first tutorial" would have come up, because it's true. If your menu requires you to use the arrow keys to move the cursor around, the game is telling you that the arrow keys will be an integral function of the game. Nightfall's menu uses only the mouse, but the mouse is completely useless in the actual game. This is a minor complaint, but it reflects the thoughtlessness of the game's design as a whole, and trust me, it gets way more prevalent as you play.
As usual, I decided to forego the tutorial in favor of jumping right into the action, or at least trying to. I swear, the loading time on this game is like something out of Sonic '06. Anyway, when I finally got playing, I used my platformer intuition to run to the left and press space to jump over a crack in the ground. Oops, I fell through the crack. Yep, this is another one of those "up-arrow is the only jump function" deals. That must mean the spacebar does something else important, right? Oh wait, no, it's utterly useless.
The attacks are preposterously unbalanced. you use "A" for a smash, "S" for a slash and "D" for an anti-air flurry, but there is literally no reason to ever use the latter two. Smash may as well be the only attack. It wrecks anything near you, including stone walls that can only be destroyed with smash, so the game is basically telling you through its design that one attack is intrinsically better than the others. There's no penalty for spamming smash either.
It was only through alt+tabbing out of this game's window to chat with my girlfriend that I discovered that you can use super moves. I was typing something when all of a sudden my character let out a really cool, stylized spirit demon type thing that wrecked everything in sight. I then had to retype that sentence to myself so I could figure out which button made the magic happen, and I discovered it was "C." No, yeah, that's fine, I don't know of any other prominent buttons that weren't in use that you could've used instead, oh except maybe the SPACEBAR OR LEFT CLICK.
Oh and you know what the best part is? You want to know what really made me want to ragequit when I was only about 20 seconds into this mess? It's the classic James Rolfe lament...one life, no continues, no save feature. Beat the game in one go or you're done for. I appreciate that this game is going for the "hardcore" appeal, so such a mechanic might actually make sense, but that doesn't stop the fact that I can't see half of the game because an enemy keeps glitching me out of existence.
This game is finnicky, poorly designed and overall dysfunctional. Play it only if you want something to rage about.
Links
Night Balls: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24361
Monday, June 10, 2013
bleh
nothing today. I promise I'll do at least 2 tomorrow, but I'm just not in the mood tonight. Sorry.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Night Light Heights
Night Light Heights is definitely a candidate for shortest game on this list with a grand total of one level about 2 minutes long. That's not a bad thing, mind, it means it doesn't overstay its welcome, but its hard to make a genuinely interesting game mechanic last for only 2 minutes.
In this game, that's because there is no interesting game mechanic. It's Simon Says. You change your avatar's color with WASD; when you're about to hit a red bumper, switch to red. When you're about to hit a blue bumper, switch to blue. That's it.
This is just an uninteresting game with enough bright lights and pretty sounds to hold your attention for the game's incredibly short duration. I guess you have no reason not to check it out, but there's definitely no pressure.
Until next time, stay mimetic
Links
bleh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25887
In this game, that's because there is no interesting game mechanic. It's Simon Says. You change your avatar's color with WASD; when you're about to hit a red bumper, switch to red. When you're about to hit a blue bumper, switch to blue. That's it.
This is just an uninteresting game with enough bright lights and pretty sounds to hold your attention for the game's incredibly short duration. I guess you have no reason not to check it out, but there's definitely no pressure.
Until next time, stay mimetic
Links
bleh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25887
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Nexus
Nexus is very similar in playstyle to Genjox, an IGF finalist game I reviewed a while ago. On the one hand, it's kind of depressing to see a true to life example of how little has actually changed in the 12 years between the two games' releases, but on the other hand, if i hadn't known Genjox existed, I would probably look quite favorably upon Nexus.
So, in case you don't know what I'm talking about, Nexus is a top-down tank shooter. It's much simpler than Genjox, as there are only 3 different types of tank to choose from, all with their own weapons. I have to say, while both approaches can be really fun if done well, I like the way Nexus went about things a bit better. Tinkering around with stats until you find something that suits you can be very rewarding, Fight Zone, proves that, but there's something to be said about the streamlined approach Nexus takes that maintains the flow of the game and makes things very simple for the player for fear of sensory overload.
Each of the 3 classes, long range, mid range and short range, are all well balanced and each tank has a fighting change going toe-to-toe with another tank. All too many games with the "3 class" framework play around too much with strengths and weaknesses in order to balance the gameplay, but that just ends up turning the game into glorified Rock, Paper, Scissors. Nexus doesn't do that. The gameplay is constantly entertaining, whether you're a short-range tank going up against a mid-range one or whatever.
My major complaint with the game is that the movement speed is too damn slow. The short range tanks have a dash ability that allows you to get right up in your enemy's face, but to me, the "dash" button is really a "momentarily go the speed you should be going all along" button. The rest of the game seems to be designed around delivering a fast, unhindered gameplay experience, so why would you make the tanks move so damn slowly? If this were a complex game that made me consider a lot of factors before charging into battle, a slow movement speed might be advantageous, but this is a shooter, not an RTS.
All-in-all, I had fun with Nexus and I bet you would too. Check it out if you're bored and just want to make things go boom Unreal Tournament style.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay streamlined.
Links
Next Bus: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26684
So, in case you don't know what I'm talking about, Nexus is a top-down tank shooter. It's much simpler than Genjox, as there are only 3 different types of tank to choose from, all with their own weapons. I have to say, while both approaches can be really fun if done well, I like the way Nexus went about things a bit better. Tinkering around with stats until you find something that suits you can be very rewarding, Fight Zone, proves that, but there's something to be said about the streamlined approach Nexus takes that maintains the flow of the game and makes things very simple for the player for fear of sensory overload.
Each of the 3 classes, long range, mid range and short range, are all well balanced and each tank has a fighting change going toe-to-toe with another tank. All too many games with the "3 class" framework play around too much with strengths and weaknesses in order to balance the gameplay, but that just ends up turning the game into glorified Rock, Paper, Scissors. Nexus doesn't do that. The gameplay is constantly entertaining, whether you're a short-range tank going up against a mid-range one or whatever.
My major complaint with the game is that the movement speed is too damn slow. The short range tanks have a dash ability that allows you to get right up in your enemy's face, but to me, the "dash" button is really a "momentarily go the speed you should be going all along" button. The rest of the game seems to be designed around delivering a fast, unhindered gameplay experience, so why would you make the tanks move so damn slowly? If this were a complex game that made me consider a lot of factors before charging into battle, a slow movement speed might be advantageous, but this is a shooter, not an RTS.
All-in-all, I had fun with Nexus and I bet you would too. Check it out if you're bored and just want to make things go boom Unreal Tournament style.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay streamlined.
Links
Next Bus: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26684
Friday, June 7, 2013
Neoterminus
jeez, this one takes broken to a whole new level. Upon launching, this game put a big white block on my screen, effectively blocking my access to any other program. I had to restart my damn machine. For all intents and purposes, this is a virus.
I'm still going to include the link for the braver among you, but damn...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1478
I'm still going to include the link for the braver among you, but damn...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1478
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