I Wish The World Was Like This -- The Floor is Jelly Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 9/10

Verdict: The Floor is Jelly uses its novel concept of, you know, the floor being jelly to offer a different kind of puzzle-platformer. It’s smart, but might not be as complex as some people would want. It also has incredible music and is a mostly relaxing, beautiful experience.

The Floor is Jelly is the first game I’ve played this year – out of about 7 or 8 – that I would consider legitimately great. It is built around the idea that the floor is jelly, so one can imagine before they even play it what that will entail. I don’t know what you’re supposed to be in it, but you go from stage to stage while solving puzzles and jumping your way to victory.

The developer had a pretty simple idea: what would everything be like if it’s jelly? Well, it’d be a hell of a lot of fun. The things you jump on bend and twist like jelly would, and you can use this to your advantage by using it to jump higher. Or it can make things more difficult because you’re not on solid ground so there’s always that uneasy feeling of not being completely balanced. I have to say though that I’m in love with the idea and I was sold on it as soon as I heard about it.

The puzzles are not incredibly difficult, but there are definitely some that gave me a hard time. I got stuck on one for a while, and a couple others made me actually think. The Floor is Jelly switches things up constantly though, with each area offering a new twist, not unlike a game like Braid. Whether it’s going into the water or having to jump on things in order, to a low-gravity section, there is enough variety here to keep you entertained in the relatively short time you’re immersed in this world. It helps that the game is polished and I ran into very few hiccups, and they were minor at worst. However, in regards to the complexity of the puzzles, it didn’t seem like the developer was really trying to stress you out, as most of the game is actually pretty relaxing and beautiful. It is very easy to get lost in this world, and that's definitely a good thing.

In the beginning there was... jelly?

It’s not really the visuals that make it beautiful, though there is something to be said for the minimalist approach that it took. Sure, a lot of it is just shapes with no details, but there are subtle touches that lend a feeling of importance. For example, as you walk over certain sections, flowers will spout out. It’s a simple detail but it’s effective. The game also makes excellent use of colours. I don’t think it’ll win anything in “visuals of the year” this year, but the style works for it.

The music should win awards though, and I’ll definitely include it. Disasterpeace returns to do the soundtrack and it adds a great deal to the experience. It’s often very subtle as good ambient music is, and it lends a sense of atmosphere to the entire thing. Sometimes the audio is very minimal to the point that there may only be some sounds, but a song will creep in eventually and it’ll be wonderful. Or a song will be playing the entire area and it’s some of the most beautiful stuff you’ll hear. There are some interesting shifts in tone but I won’t get into them because I don’t want to spoil anything.

I don’t really know if there’s a story, and maybe the developer had something in mind. I only say this because as the game progresses, slightly odd things start happening. I won’t go into a lot of detail concerning this, but it was rather unexpected and it was awesome to see the game go a little off its hinges in the way that it did. I would really like to know what it all is supposed to mean or if it’s just a cool gameplay mechanic that he wanted to include.

When you combine all the elements of The Floor is Jelly, it’s an odd thing to say but it feels like a “big” indie game. It’s the type of game that truly impresses me and leaves me in a state of awe. Games before it like Braid and Limbo may offer different experiences, but despite how different they look… they sort-of accomplish the same thing, ultimately. Sure, The Floor is Jelly is less serious and has a silly concept of jumping around on jelly but these types of games are what gaming is all about.

Tim Schafer Returns! A Broken Age Act 1 Review! Exclamation Marks!

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: Tim Shafer’s first point-and-click adventure game since the legendary Grim Fandango is another great addition to the genre, with memorable characters and jokes, but may be a little easy for adventure aficionados. 

                I have to start this review by saying that the only reason I don’t rate this game higher is that I’m not exactly a big fan of the genre that it’s in. I’d say it’s one of my least favourite genres, but I don’t hate it by any means. I love games like Grim Fandango, but the amount of point-and-click adventure titles that I can say that about are slim. So with that bias out of the way, you can adjust your rating by about a point or so because it is truly a great game.

                What makes it great? The story and characters, much like the classics in the genre. This is something I’ve always respected about point-and-clicks because the story isn’t often a centerpiece for most video games. If it is, developers often sacrifice the gameplay and admittedly the mechanics that operate the genre aren’t preferable for me. Maybe it’s because I’m too stupid to figure out the puzzles, but the gameplay in the genre doesn’t entice me as much as it does others. I wonder how many times I can say genre in this review?

                The story in Broken Age Act 1 is whimsical, odd, intriguing and creative. You play as two different characters, with two different stories that end up connecting at some point. How they connect is a pretty magnificent thing, and both stories offer a good degree of humour, absurdity and darkness. I was pretty invested in Vellas story especially because it focuses on sacrificing yourself, whereas when you’re playing as Shay you’re essentially trying to free yourself from a bored life that was created for you when you were a child and still has that structure of immaturity.

                If you want to laugh, this is a great game. There are many characters with funny things to say, like a tree who keeps calling you a murderer. Broken Age is filled to the brim with memorable lines and the voice acting is superb, which really brings the characters to life. Despite the seriousness of the events that engulf these characters, it’s nice to see it treated with finesse and hilarity.

                The art work also helps in that regard. It’s like a story book brought to life, with beautiful images flooding the screen at all times. It’s a joy to just look at the game in action.

                Where serious adventure game fans may have a problem is with how easy the game is. Even I can figure out the puzzles, so smarter people shouldn’t have a problem. The genre often tests the intellect of people and while there are definitely some head scratching puzzles here, and some are nonsensical, players shouldn’t have a hard time figuring out what to do next. The game is short, so experienced point-and-click adventure gamers should complete Act 1 pretty quickly.

                Some have criticized the ending because it’s abrupt, but I think it does a good job of making you crave the next act. More gameplay is always welcome so long as it’s interesting, and I think the game is a little overpriced, but Broken Age Act 1 managed to get my attention. I look forward to Act 2, which comes out later this year.

Global Game Jam 2014 - Gaggle, Invaders Inside Me, Growing World, Shifted, Nightdriving and Tintalating

Written By: Tyler Selig

Visit http://globalgamejam.org/

                It is that time of year again, when indie developers from all over the world submit their quickly made games to the Global Game Jam. This year the theme was, “we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Trippy shit, let’s make a foreign movie about it.

                I forgot that it was going on this weekend, or else I probably would have played a few each day and made a post about them, but I do want to give it some recognition so I sat down today and played a few games. Luckily for you – or maybe not so luckily – I’m going to tell you what I think about them with short reviews!

                One final note: if you happened to stumble upon this blog and wonder why short, unpolished (not saying they all are, but some may be) games can get some of these ratings, it’s because I’m reviewing them in context. They have a short period of time to develop these, and so I judge them as so. I judge what they’ve accomplished, and I can get an idea of how talented these people are by that. Besides, these are like the short films of gaming… just because they aren’t long doesn’t mean they aren’t awesome.

Growing World

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/growing-world

Rating: 6/10

First of all, the developer is really cheap because he/she knows that you just got to throw the Moon Theme from Duck Tales into a game and any credible critic will knock the score up a point or two. Damn you for playing on human weakness!

Aside from that, I enjoy the game but don’t overly love it. The typical problems that exist for quickly made games fairly often are here, namely collision detection, but I do like the premise of viewing the world through three different ages, so I can definitely get behind the ideology behind this one. The gameplay just has you collecting what’s important, such as money for one of the ages, while music from other games blares in the background, which isn’t a criticism because there’s something oddly endearing about hearing the Moon Theme while you get dat money.

Shifted

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/shifted

Rating: 8/10

                Definitely enjoyed this. You wake up in a room and everything seems fine but it becomes clear that you need to get out. The door is locked, and there’s a penguin (?) in there with you, so what do you do? You press C to change perspective and all of a sudden everything is darker and bloodier.

                It’s very short, but it’s effective and perfectly fits the theme of this Jam. You basically just walk around in first-person and find a key, and I wish there was a little bit of music, but Shifted does a fine job.

Nightdriving

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/nightdriving

Rating: 2/10

                Damn, I really wanted to like this one. Surreal night driving? Sign me up. I love surrealism, but this made me want to smash my computer. The driving is terrible -- the camera moves too fast when you move your mouse so driving is just a pain in the ass. It’s a surreal game so I’m sure there’s something going on with the visuals that I’m missing, but it’s just too dark and the first time I played I got off the road and was just driving into the void, basically. There are a bunch of songs that you can switch between though, and they are pretty representative of night driving (I think), so there’s that. I would still avoid this one though.

Invaders Inside Me

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/invaders-inside-me

Rating: 3.5/10

                It’s better than Nightdriving because at least there was a certain charm in this, meaning at first it was fun to see how I could kill the tenants. Unfortunately that wears off pretty quick and I played the web version and actually ended up crashing it. Oops.

                I like the idea of the apartment getting mad that there is invaders inside it, so it gets points for that. I could have done without the stupid voice acting, because it ended up being more annoying than anything.

Tintalating

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/tintalating

Rating: 7.5/10

                In Tintalating you collect other colours and you have to use those colours to raise platforms so you can get across to the ending. I enjoyed it even though sometimes the platforming felt too light and wonky, meaning I’d miss a platform when I really shouldn’t have. But besides that, it’s a good idea and I really love the music that plays during it. I would like to see a longer version that can fully implement the idea because I think there are some interesting puzzles you could do with it.

Gaggle

http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/gaggle

Rating: 8.5/10

                Probably the neatest one I played today. The idea is that you need to get your, uh, creatures into the box at the end of the screen, but you have to choose what dying creatures to add to the genetic pool so you can evolve other creates to become capable of accomplishing the task at hand. That sounds more confusing than it really is. Gaggle is a wonderful puzzle-platformer with a novel idea.

                Well that’s it for me for this jam. There are tons of games I won’t get to play and I regret that I can’t play some games like Regret (oooooh), so what are some of your favourites? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @ArtBathednCrime.