Taking Artistic Liberties || Shapeless (PC)

"Art is an experience, not a formulation of a problem." --Lindsay Anderson

Title Screen

Shapeless is short artistic puzzle game about a creature fixing paintings that have somehow been altered in a nefarious way. Created by ISART DIGITAL ,you play as a creature composed of what looked like a painters palette and copious amounts of paint. The creature is rather cute in their own way. This creature has the ability to enter paintings like a magical portal.

During the game you solve short puzzles involving objects that belong in the paintings, then you return the objects to the paintings to restore them to the full beauty. The puzzles are not too difficult. They involve rotating different parts of the object in order to line them up properly. My spatial reasoning isn’t top notch, but I was able to get them together. The light bulb was the hardest for me, but it still only took about a minute or 2.

This light bulb....

There isn’t really a story given about the gallery you are in or what is happening, you’re just sort of thrown in and you see a rather nefarious looking vortex form over the exit. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, but figured it out pretty quickly. You can make up your own narrative about why this happened. I’m going with evil wizard, that seems like a good bet.

The visuals in the game are just astounding. I love the multitude of paintings around the gallery, even if some of them are a bit unsettling. The colors are vibrant in the paintings and the gallery itself is somewhat dark an ominous—this may be in part due to all the rather off putting paintings of creepy eyes. Stylistically the game does a great job. When our creature enters the paintings, they become is sort of blue haze with eyes. I think that a small touch that would have really make this game shine would have been if our little creature took on the style of whatever painting they jumped into. The body colorful style of Van Gogh? The quiet realism of Edward Hopper? It would have been phenomenal.

Feel like you're being watched?

In terms of game design, everything worked as it was supposed to. The controls were smooth and I didn’t have any issues. I was really just sad that the game was so short. Before I knew it I was at the end and I wanted it to just keep going. I was hoping this was just a demo, but I don’t see any indication on the Itch.io page that this game is being developed any further, so we will just have to enjoy what we have.

Something small that I also appreciated in this game is the gallery, where the developers provided information on the paintings that you help to fix in the game. It seems like such a small thing, but being able to read a little of the history on each painting made the art nerd in me really happy.

Restoring my favorite painting. 

Overall, I felt like this game was really something special and could most certainly be expanded into a full length game. Everything about this game felt enjoyable and I can’t really think of any negative experiences I had while playing. Definitely grab the game for yourself, you can download free from Itch.io HERE.

Do you have a favorite painting, or a painting that you would have liked to see in this game? Let me know in the comments below and I will see you all next time. Until then, happy gaming, friends!

Sticks and Stones... || Haimrik (PC)

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks!" -Shakespeare

Looks Old-Timey

Haimrik is a unique action adventure game where you use words to mold your weapons and yearn to return to your normal life. Haimrik was created by Below the Game, and published by the 1C Company. The game was released just a few days before my birthday(6/22), and it was on sale, so I decided to get it as a little birthday gift to myself. So, let’s talk about the game.

That goes for everyone. 

I’ve had Haimrik on my wishlist for a little while. I heard about it and I was intrigued by the premise of the game. Using the words of a story to your advantage, solving puzzles, and even battling, sounding immensely fun. From what I have played, the game is fun. You can expect to die several times, since there is a bit of trial and error trying to figure out the puzzles or how to defeat the enemies. Some of the boss battles can be seriously challenging. You fight a Word Warrior that controls a dragon and it took me around 8-10 tries to beat it. Once you think you have the pattern down, something changes. It’ not difficult to the point of rage quitting, it’s just a matter of getting the whole pattern down and being able to maneuver the levels to get where you need to go.

The art style is different, but I enjoy the sepia toned environment, with just bursts of color from blood, fire, or similar things. The animations look smooth, and the variety in characters is nice. The environments are well drawn, and the music fits nicely with the various areas. I’m not a fan of the sounds that come out of Haimrik’s mouth, but I just sort of ignore it.

I love how the story is told.

The controls are simple. The game is a side scroller, so you only need A and D to move, then S to use particular words, F to use, and R to throw. You also have SPACE to jump. The location of the keys feels natural, and other than some hitboxes that felt too small, I didn’t have any issues with controls or anything not working properly.

Overall, the game is entertaining, even if I sigh in exasperation sometimes as I try to figure a particular puzzle out. I recommend giving it a try for yourself. For 19.99 it's a little on the high end of what I normally pay for games, so maybe wait until it's on sale again. You can see the steam page *here*. Would you want to be a word warrior?

Thank you, as always. Until next time!

Bellannmae

Free Itch.io Games #11

What's up gamers? Welcome to another fun edition of free games from the bowels of Itch.io! Today we have some good, and some not so good. But I like to keep things positive so let's not be too sever, yeah? Anyway LETSGO.

1. Room 007

 Source: Itch.io Page

Room 007 is a quirky puzzle game created by Lancelot Gao. This is your mission, should you choose to accept it! It’s simple, get rid of the bomb! Utilize the room furniture to do this. Each piece of furniture has a different function and performs a different action. String these actions together in sequences as the difficult rises.

This game is short, but enjoyable. I had a lot of fun. I would have appreciated some sleuth music or something. Then again the levels are so short that it may have been pointless. I liked the whistling—it did make me think of James Bond for some reason. In any case, this game was fun for the 10-15 minutes it lasted. You can play it for yourself by downloading from Itch.io *here*.

2. Stumble Gumble

Source: Itch.io Page

Stumble Gumble is an arcade defense game created byTotodyle683. One day in the kingdom of Gumbledon, an evil dictator by the name of Kookiene poisoned the milk supply, driving the locals mad. You must keep the corrupted villagers from escaping and damaging anyone else. You do this by using the 4 infinity cookies. Using the keyboard keys   Q, W, E, and R, use the cookies to summon the Horsemen of Glucose to protect yourself and others from the mad villagers. 

My favorite part of this game is the visuals. The candy like landscape and the villagers’ various appearances are all cute and well done. The music is decent, and the sound effects are fitting.

Timing really matters in this game. There is a cool down period between the use of the Infinity Cookies, so you can’t just spam away. As you progress to higher levels of the game, new and more difficult villagers will try to escape, so you’ll get to test your reflexes as well. 

Overall, the game was cute, but not something I would replay. The game is free to download and play on Itch.io *here*, so feel free to try it for yourself!

3. People Keep Telling Me To Talk About How I Feel

 Source: Screen Capture from Game

PKTMTTAHIF(what a name) is an emotional point and click twine game created by Arthur Gilchrist. I think game you click through a daily life, making choices that will affect your stress, your work, your friends concern levels, and your energy. What choices will you make?

This game hits close to home for me, which is likely why I enjoy it so much. It’s easy to see in a game such as this, when I play as I would really act in life, how actions made from anxiety and depression can spiral into a pit. I ended the game with a stress level of something like 39. Which is high. 

The game is entirely text, but it is well written. I would have liked more variant text colors maybe. The light red text on dark red bg strains me eyes a little. If you want to experience this game for yourself, it’s free to download and play from Itch.io *here*.

4. A Drift for the Irresolute

Source: Itch.io Page

A Drift for the Irresolute is a game created by drigs. In this game, you play as someone else playing a computer game about connecting synapses. Synapses allow the transmission of chemical signals between neurons in the brain. Whether that fact has any meaning in the game itself, I don’t know. I’m not really sure I got this game, or what it is supposed to be. It was listed in experimental, so perhaps there is none to be found.

While you’re playing this ‘connect the synapses’ game, your phone will sometimes ring. You anser it and get seemingly random text messages like, “You didn’t forget did you?” I’ll be honest, I didn’t play long enough to find out if they ever meant anything. The game feels mundane to me. Connecting the synapses was easy, and the texts felt meaningless. There wasn’t really any context to the game so it all felt pointless. 

Perhaps you may be able to get something more out of this game than I did. You can download and try the game for free from Itch.io *here*.

As always, thank you for stopping by! Be sure to leave comments and encouragement for the game creators on their respective pages, and until next time.. Happy Gaming!

Bell