Here's this weeks game for discussion: Grimind. It's a 2D physics-based platformer that uses light. It looks pretty dope; kind of reminds me of Limbo except you get to be an awesome mole-looking dude on steroids. You can get the demo on their website, and make sure to vote them up on Steam Greenlight.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Discussion Week 6: Grimind
Here's this weeks game for discussion: Grimind. It's a 2D physics-based platformer that uses light. It looks pretty dope; kind of reminds me of Limbo except you get to be an awesome mole-looking dude on steroids. You can get the demo on their website, and make sure to vote them up on Steam Greenlight.
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I liked the physics and throwing stuff around was fun (the way things slide was quite fun to see) but it didn't really resonate with how the character moved (really slow). Art-wise, it wasn't fully realized. Background elements obscure gameplay at parts. But I understand this was made with one dude if I understand correctly.
ReplyDeleteAlright, got around playing this Grimind.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late response.
The game's visual element was the highlight for me.
I liked how creators used the lighting throughout the game.
The combinations of the distinct colors and neon lights in contrasted with the dark really added to the mysterious atmosphere Grimind was going for.
The controls for the most part were fine. I felt that picking up objects and tossing them seemed very clunky. Sometimes I would pick up things and threw them over just a short distance and sometimes I would be able to fling the object across the room. I felt that the climbing/clinging was right on.
The story of the game,(from the demo), was interesting. You played as an cute little animal(hedgehog?), who is trapped in this dark underground area trying to figure out what exactly is going on. At the same time the environment and enemies in the world are trying to kill you.
Some of my gripes with this game is that at some parts of the levels, the background and environment seemed too dark, visually. There were multiple times where I was killed, but I was not too sure where the trap started/ended, making my experience a bit frustrating.
Overall, Grimind seemed like a decent game. You can tell that the creators were heavily influenced by Limbo, from the dark artstyle to the main mechanics of puzzle solving platformer.
Okay I wasn't crazy about this game. Maybe it is because I played Limbo, which I thought was excellent. This game seemed inspired by Limbo, as was mentioned earlier, but I can't help but feel it was unsuccessful in recreating the sense of melancholy & mystery. I think using the lights were cool, but the whole black shadows look of Limbo paired with the colorful lights seemed odd to me. I can see what Sam was talking about when he said the art wasn't fully realized. I just think it lacked the polish it needed. Like the design of the character itself. It's sort of small and short and difficult to see on screen, while say the boy from Limbo with his giant head & glowing eyes was much easier to spot in terms of screen space & clarity.
ReplyDeleteThe story from the demo was kind of cliche (waking up in a dark place without your memories and everything wants to kill you) but I suppose it's just the beginning so who knows. Being an animal of complete unknown origin makes the whole not knowing who you are and dying thing less dramatic. Also death in this game is pretty...uneventful. Limbo makes every death painful and I felt it was a highlight of the game. I know lots of platformers are more puzzle-oriented and players are meant to die constantly (due to high game difficulty) before accomplishing their task. This game, more like Limbo, is more exploratory and narrative in nature and I felt death in this game should carry more emotional/dramatic weight than in something like...Megaman.
I also felt what the two above found with being confused visually as to what was supposed to be going on. I also felt the controls were a bit weird for my taste. The character moved quite sluggish on the ground, but was quite agile in making movement mid-air (which is weird). Also the object tossing was less intuitive. I just never got used to the controls and it always felt weird for me.
Overall Grimind felt like a work in progress. Maybe it's just the demo, but it felt incomplete to me.