Posted on: June 25, 2023
Candycuddles
Verified ownerGames: 121 Reviews: 17
Yet another poorly-geared indie gem
It's become a serious and detrimental trope that so many brilliant indie games - Games with heart, with interesting deconstructions and curious symbioses - Seem almost alien to the concept of basic playability. At this point, within our pseudo-indie dev community, the fundamental tennant of player-focussed design seems to have more rulebreakers than followers. In every genre, the problems of playability are almost identical between each game that fails to grasp them. In exploration/adventure games, for instance, it's mechanical obscurity and prolonged tedium. In squad-based shooters like this, similar to progressive roguelite adventure games, the main problem is the same here as elsewhere - There is an extremely thin line of experimentation or mistake allowed, before you curse yourself to failure - And it's not a quick failure, drawn-out; The utter reliance on checkpoints is a further curse, not a credit as they were designed. I won't get all windy, we've all played the game, but are two basic game-design considerations, so that we all may pretend the developers will see, understand, and appreciate it: - Cater to your new players. This is where so much tension comes from, so much criticism. You don't need to baby players; Just understand them! If you want them to learn by doing, don't punish them for trying new things. If you want them to study and think, make the discovery process a treat, not a chore! - Don't punish players for trying to think. Don't string them out. Players like to experiment and explore. In this game, I barely had the room to survive! Trying peaceful techniques (as the game's narrative nature would seem to support), searching for work-arounds and secrets, testing new mechanics... These were all quickly dashed as I was forcefully re-educated into a heaspace of "Kill everything. Always do the obvious. No failure accepted". If I ever made a mistake, even a small one, I simply crossed my fingers and hit the Checkpoint button.
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