first post ever! hi! have a scorch and magic (they're in love)
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The Archives of Evil Dr BA
by The Giant (Beach) Ball Studio
Price (US): $4
Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
Genre: Educational, Puzzle, Strategy
Pitch: A complex naval strategy game, a drawing toy, and an oft-cloned puzzle game.
My expectations: It looks like a programming student's old homework.
Review:
SeaWars
Or Sea Wars. It’s written both ways.
It’s petty to start by picking on spacing inconsistencies, but SeaWars demands a lot of buy-in. It’s a complex, intercontinental naval strategy game that asks players to micromanage dozens of vessels, build bases, and defend against a practically invisible enemy. It’s not a war you can hope to win without taking time to understand the many systems at play.
If I’m to invest that time, I need assurance it will be rewarded. Instead, I get tiny, typo-ridden text on a dark background. I get a tutorial that instructs me to “try it now,” without accepting any player input. I get an ugly and confusing mess, so I get out and try the next one.
Draw
Click on the screen and watch effects happen.
Hilariously, Draw has a the same bombastic war music as SeaWars.
Similar
Y’know SameGame? Maybe you’ve played it under a different name. Sega Swirl, Roof Rats, Japenese Bomberman 64… (Not to be confused with Baku Bomberman, which was released internationally as Bomberman 64. It has the same name, but it is not the same game. It is SameGame.)
Anyway. Similar is that, but ugly, with unpleasant sound effects.
+ The SameGame clone is a way to play that game, complete with undo button and several difficulty options.
+ Maybe naval strategy geeks SeaWars who can get past the presentation will get something out of it?
+ The music in SeaWars is of decent quality, and sounds appropriate for a serious war game. It's even better when that same music plays over the silly drawing toy.
+ Pos
– Uuuuuugly.
– Nearly illegible.
– No apparent way to resize the small application windows.
– Are these old homework assignments? Hobby-level experiments? Why have they been packaged as a commercial product?
🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍
Bottom Line: Ha, ha. No.
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A Lullaby of Colors
by andyman404
Genre: Action
Pitch: "This is a blissful psychedelic relaxation experience made for both VR and non-VR."
My expectations: I don't have a VR headset, so right away, I'm worried this game's primary reason for existing (if it is a game at all) will be lost on me. Developer andyman404's Itch page lists 70 releases in the last seven years, along with a claim that he's participated in more than 140 game jams.
I'm hoping andyman404's catalogue is sprinkled with a miracle or two, but I get nervous when I see someone bounce from project to project that quickly. Is he mixing all of them with love?
Review:
Create a matrix.
Create some blocks.
Use the values of the matrix for the positional z-value of each block.
Apply a mathematical formula to change the values in the matrix over time, within a defined range.
Congratulations. You made art, I guess.
If you want to get really fancy, generate a grayscale image and extract the value of each pixel to populate your matrix. Wheeeee!
The above is my own explanation with my own illustrations. Let me be absolutely clear: A Lullaby of Colors is not about creating and manipulating matrices. A Lullaby of Colors is this:
I like rainbow blobs just fine, but I’ve seen this kind of height mapping a hundred times. I’m over it.
Changing hues is done pretty much the same way as changing heights.
Touch a bouncing ball, and the mathematical formula changes. Maybe this is cool in VR? I ran the game on max settings and encountered frequent frame-rate dips. I dropped to the lowest settings, which looked worse, but performance didn’t improve at all. Seems potentially nauseating.
The bouncing ball makes wind chime sounds, and someone loves their keyboard's “Choir” choir setting. Aaaaa… Aaaaa… Naaaaah…
+ Rainbow blobs are pretty.
+ Inoffensive, unobtrusive, new-age-y sound. The kind of backing that's popular in guided meditation.
– Not much to see or do.
– Minor performance issues. Not a big deal on a monitor, but think twice before trying it in VR.
🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍
#JakeReviewsTwitch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...
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