Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7934Is it weird that the first hour or so of this game had me thinking of God of War? (the remake not the old PS2 games) It might just be the tribal costumes and the snow? Anyways, this game is certainly not that - probably predates the remake as well, but I've been having a lot of fun so far. I think I'm past the tutorial and prologue parts of the game where things have opened up and we've hit Ubisoft-Open-World design levels of "icons on maps for you to follow up on". I am torn between trying to focus on the main quest quickly and exploring the world and environments which takes time...and I also get distracted by inconveniences like running out of inventory space so I have to hunt wildlife to get the resources to upgrade that! Is it weird that I really enjoy hiding in the tall grass and taking down robot dinos? I think it's the same pleasure I got from Ghost of Tsushima.... I guess it's the pleasure of appearing skillful while not really being skilled? Ha!Sun, 07 Sep 2025 15:20:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7934&iddiary=13434https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7933I played the first chapter of this way back when. (it looks like I never wrote a gamelog about it either, oh well)...and this semester I thought it would be a nice game to play in the context of "tactile" thinky games since it has a real sense of physicality to the puzzles and the manipulations - sliding switches, pressing buttons, spinning wheels, etc. I thought it was interesting how, while playing the first chapter, I vaguely remember some of the things I had to do - it was familiar in a way I did not anticipate (it's been, what 15 years at least?). It's not like I knew the solutions - it's just that I remembered, "oh, there's a secret switch I need to find" and "oh, this thing rotates". I love how self-contained the game is, you're mostly rotating a giant puzzle table and looking out for changes, etc. - and it's also reasonably linear in the sense that you don't have multiple puzzles going on with bits and pieces that might be required for one but not the other. One of the chapters is a giant puzzle table - and the game does tell you to focus on the sides if you start poking around on the top. So, I appreciated that! I don't remember the ipad version having a hint/clue system - this one does and it's rather surprising how quickly it "dings" to let you know you can get a clue if you need. From what I can tell there are three levels of clues - with I'm guessing the third one telling you what to do (though you probably still have to do it yourself, which can be a bit tricky in the viewing-puzzles, the ones where you need to rotate stuff and adjust your view to form/create a picture). I'll admit I was a bit worried going in to the last chapter (the Epilogue) since it seemed like there would be music-themed puzzles. Uh, oh! There's an interesting tension in these kinds of games which has to do with the amount and kind of external knowledge you required (or expect) the player to have. I'm thinking of stuff like escape rooms where you're supposed to go "oh, this is in morse code!" and then use that knowledge to decipher something. I was worried that reading music might be something required. Thankfully that was not the case - at most there was some pattern matching which was pretty easy and the musical thing happened to be more of a theming thing than a gameplay thing. Phew! (I'm sure there's an extra layer of meaning to the music in terms of the game's story - but this wasn't something I was paying any particular attention to to be honest. Overall I was done in less than 2 1/2 hours, which was perfect. Bonus is this might be the only game on Steam for which I have ALL the achievements? (simply by virtue of finishing the game...)Sun, 07 Sep 2025 15:07:29 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7933&iddiary=13433https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7930Really enjoyed it, got to the end - only to learn, there's MORE! So, I've been slowly whittling away at the game - I still don't have the 8 keys, so who knows what THAT will unlock, but I've been doing the red birds. I think what's so amazing - especially in the context of the red birds, is that the carefully tuned puzzles sometimes serve more than one purpose! So, tuned for the puzzle within it's world/area, but there's a 2nd puzzle on top (is there a secret red bird here?). I think that's pretty wild!Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:29:20 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7930&iddiary=13432https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7914Really, really enjoyed it. So much that I decided to go for the "all items and secrets" trophy just because that would scratch the exploration itch this game had been scratching for me. I'm also thankful for the "easy mode" - which was, as advertised, easy - but like I said, I was really into exploring the levels, finding secret stuff and just enjoying the places. I was reminded of Bungie's level design for Destiny - more precisely Bungie's art direction for its levels. Destiny levels tend to be super, super linear (which is fine) even if they twist around in interesting ways. This games' levels are much less linear - Zeffo in particular is a nice version of a contained sprawl... I even had fun trying to remember how to get to different parts of the level I wanted to re-visit because I was missing a chest or secret. The only thing I wish I had was, once you've finished it, some indicator of whether you had all the Jedi memory things - I'd sometimes stumble across ones I'd missed (and some were secrets) - but a counter for that would have been nice. I get that you may want to hide them away - since many are about the game's story - but once you beat the main story, why not give people the chance to know what things were missed where? (you know which ones you're missing, because of counters in the encyclopedia thingie - but you don't know in which parts of which map if that makes sense). I'm now genuinely excited and interested to play the next one! (not so much for the story/characters to be honest - the addition of the night sister at the end felt odd and forced, but the action was great, and the environments as well) (ok, now that I think about it, and because of the surprise appearance of one Lord at the end...what happens in the sequel? I also forget when in the Star Wars timeline the game takes place? I mean, I know it's before Return of the Jedi...but is it before A New Hope? I think so?)Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:25:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7914&iddiary=13431https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7930I heard people sing it's praises - but usually for a puzzle game I find that means that I think it's "fine" - and then move on. But, I must say that for a straight up mostly abstract puzzle game there's a lot of REALLY clever game design going on here! This is a game where you need to "select" a word from a jumble of tiles - but the word is special (unique to the game), once selected the word provides a secondary selection, and then you have to select a new word until the tiles on each level have all been selected. It's pretty simple - but as you make progress new words are introduced with different secondary selection effects and the layout of the tiles changes such that the rules for selection also begin to open up (e.g. what counts as adjacent for selection purposes). It's a clever game - and I even have the paper copy that I now really want to play. The onboarding is really tight - with new things introduced such that you're both surprised (when you figure it out) and get a sense of the new thing and how it works. And then, there's new things that make you go "what? this can't possibly work" but it does. I'm particularly appreciative of: a. The endgame adds a new word, giving you a reason to go back to find it in order to unlock a bunch of bonus levels. I know there's more to find yet - but I'm still working through. b. The hint system is basically the list of words you need to select - but it doesn't tell you WHAT you need to select after each word. So, it's helpful - but if you were really stuck you'd still be screwed. But it's helped me confirm that I figured out the solution without figuring out the full details. So, like I'm "on track" rather than barking up the wrong tree. c. The undo system is wonderful - it's fast and easy to use - making it really smooth and easy to try out ideas as you're trying to solve each puzzle.Mon, 25 Aug 2025 19:19:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7930&iddiary=13428https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7914I just picked this up again after not playing for...months? (I have to check my last gamelog for this one - assuming I even wrote one). I was worried that I would have forgotten everything - and that re-learning would be such a chore that I'd just give up and move on to something else. Thankfully, I had last set the game to "easy" (whatever it's actually called in the game) which made the process of remembering/re-learning it NOT a chore, and actually kind of enjoyable. I then looked at the controller mapping to see what actions I had missed in my re-learning process. I've been having a lot of fun playing it on "easy" - I was really looking for an adventure, not so much a challenge. But it made me realize - typically when a game has difficulty settings they only affect ONE "vector" for that game's difficulty. In this case, the "vector" relates to the games combat - you have shorter windows to react, enemies might have more HP, they might be more aggressive, that sort of thing. But, this game also has environmental puzzles - and I've assumed that the difficulty of these is basically fixed: it doesn't vary depending on the difficulty level. From the perspective of "designing challenge" - having varying difficulty for puzzles is a tough design problem. Really though. Generally it is "solved" by having some sort of clue system to hopefully give the player some guidance on the puzzle at hand - and the more sophisticated systems might have different levels of clues, with each one giving more information and thus allowing the player the "minimum" amount of help needed to solve the puzzle. Anyways... that's where I'm at in my headspace - since I'll be playing a lot of "thinkygames" and I've also been thinking about challenge in games. In terms of progress I've unlocked Kashyyyk as a destination - but I'm currently exploring other parts of Zeffo just to see what's going on. I've also appreciated the fact that the collectibles are all cosmetic stuff. Ok, ALMOST all - there's a few that help with your health and force stats..but most so far are cosmetic and related to your lightsaber (multiple components, each with their own cosmetic), poncho/cloak, spaceship look, and little robot look.Wed, 13 Aug 2025 19:11:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7914&iddiary=13426https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7929I finished playing Real Crimes: The Unicorn Killer and then, five minutes later, booted this one up. MSL is behind both games (as publisher I think?) so I was curious to see if I could tell... ...both games seem like night and day from each other! They're both hidden object games, but their basic game design is different. This surprised me and I also felt that this game was "worse" than Real Crimes...but as I played I realized I wasn't sure why? From a "strict" game design perspective - Tropical Lost Island, at least as far as I got, has more variety in its gameplay... a. Each level has a list of items to find (the list is shorter in Real Crimes). b. In some levels you get a picture of what you need to find! (so you have to do them in the order the game gives you) c. One level only had one object! d. Some of the levels are "action" stills - so instead of a really static shot of an area (like most games), they're almost like a cinematic image. Combine c and d above and you can have a really interesting effect on the game's pacing - for the level I had played, the character was in a plane crash, and you had to find their PDA (presumably this would help other characters locate the crash site?). It sort of added some urgency to the game's narrative...obviously this was a cost production wise (someone made art that was only used once, though perhaps it appears later in the game again) So, I think overall my distaste for this game (compared to Real Crimes) has more to do with how the objects are hidden in the scenes...Real Crimes felt more "fair" with this one having objects that both made less sense and seemed more arbitrary? Perhaps if I had played them in the opposite order I'd feel differently? Playing both together - it's interesting to see how the games are dated in what you have to find in the scenes... a PDA, CD, mobile phone (represented with an old-pre smartphone picture), etc. I wonder how inaccessible the games will become just by virtue of what people will look for/recognize from the clues? (yes, I'm old so I knew what a PDA looked like...)Mon, 11 Aug 2025 15:50:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7929&iddiary=13424https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7928I only figured out at the END of this game that the whole thing is based on a real-world crime! Wow, that changes things. Not that the game needs to change - it's a pretty standard "hidden object game" (I seem to have a soft spot for these, or perhaps it's because I'm picking up a few of them due to their being cheap on the used market?). I don't think this was ever released in the US, which is also interesting given the subject matter. I wonder why that was? I also noticed - and this is because I played this game and "Tropical Lost Island" (GameLog coming soon) back to back, that the same company (MSL) is behind both games though it's possible not the same dev teams? (I'm too lazy to boot both games up now to check). They're both hidden object games - but this one (Real Crimes) felt like a better game in some ways...but I recognize that the other was doing some interesting things as well. The game was remarkably short - I wonder if it was a budget PC title later ported to DS? Not a lot of levels - and no way to re-play anything other than starting over! Each level is the same - with things to find with some "special" things - there's Go boards you can find to solve a puzzle to get a clue for the main game, and sometimes the clue is indirect (rather than the name of the object) or has a two-part component (find object and then find another object to use it on such that both meet the clue - e.g. cigar and lighter with clue being "time for a smoke" - I just made that up it wasn't in the game). You get clue points you can spend for a direct "answer" (camera moves and directly shows you an object you're missing from the list) and you can earn clue points by finishing levels, and a few other ways. Clue points are capped at 9, so when I had that many I'd just use the clues to clear the level. As with many of these games - sometimes the object is hidden in an "unfair" way or it's not evident what the object is from the name (and the quality of the image on the screen). So, clue points really solve for this in a way I appreciated. Occasionally there are some other puzzles from which you can earn an extra clue point if you succeed. They're sort of palate-cleansers - with the hardest one being a pile of fingerprints you need to match to 4 fingerprints on the top screen. This one felt really hard - because of the screen resolution. It felt hard but I somehow solved them, which surprised me... After a while, especially as I got past the mid-point, I was getting used to the game's art direction and how they hid objects and such. It felt mostly fair - which I thought was interesting. So, they were consistent in how things were hidden, rotated, resized, etc. such that I could learn and improve!Mon, 11 Aug 2025 15:36:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7928&iddiary=13423https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7927I had some fun with this one for a few hours. I think it's interesting - and I kind of want to figure out a way to incorporate this into my teaching - to look at old games with low budgets on platforms that are now obsolete but not THAT obsolete? Partly I'm thinking - this is exactly the level of stuff that students can do nowadays with current tools, etc. But, I'm also thinking - these low budget games have lots of little game design issues that are interesting to notice and discuss. It sort of shows how far game design has come? But also shows how little things can really tank the experience of a game while (possibly) having easy/quick fixes that are easy/quick to implement EARLY in the development process but are probably much more expensive to implement later. Especially when you're making a game on a tight schedule, with little budget and a small team. So, tight schedule and small team is many student teams! So, the bigger picture is that I wish students had a way to play this game - critique it - and learn from it! Without getting hung up on the technical limitations of the platform, etc. So, interesting things about this game (to note and or discuss if this was in class): a. You fly a plane with touch controls - really simple - but you can also use the buttons (yay for accesibility!) Guess which form of input makes the game easier to play? (answer: it's harder on touch screen - or at least it was for me) b. They added a few "special moves" you can do with the play at the bottom of the touch screen - 90degree turns in each direction, a hard U-turn, and a loop that leaves you facing the same direction (now presumably behind a plan that was on your tail). Why did they add these buttons? (you can use them whenever you like, so they're not limited in any way). I think it's because it makes the plane easier to fly, they also do a nice thing with the camera so you see the plane do the move - and I found using the u-turn and other two turn moves really helpful as a "fast" way to change direction.. The loop was less helpful - but this might change on later levels if the enemy planes get smarter? c. You play as a nameless pilot - and a lot of the story is told through the letters you write to your loved one (Wendy was it?) back home. This broke immersion a bit for me - but mostly because the letters have all sorts of information that would have been censored at the time (at least I think they were censored - I know the US mail was, I've assumed the same for the RAF) - stuff like where he's stationed, what they'll be doing, etc. d. I got a bit frustrated because I lost two missions due to running out of fuel - which is annoying (but maybe shows I need to get better at the game). I wondered how often this happened historically - and it seems like there's a missed opportunity here for some storytelling. Wouldn't it be neat to, say, choose to stick around, bail the plane and then you find out later if you made it back (or were captured/killed). This stuff really happened, so it could add some flavor? e. Missions are all pass/fail with fail meaning retry - Could we design different ways to move forward with the story that included more "not quite a win nor a loss" situations? Sure, maybe you didn't shoot down all the enemy fighters, but eventually they also had to fly back because they ran out of fuel? So, many missions/sorties might have had mixed outcomes (and yet the campaign moves on).Mon, 11 Aug 2025 15:02:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7927&iddiary=13422https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7926I haven't played any of the Thrillville games (I assume there's at least two because I think this one's a sequel) nor am I a huge fan of what I think are related games like "Rollercoaster Tycoon". But, I was impressed with this one - somewhat. It started when I saw that it was published by LucasArts! That was unexpected and, weirdly, whenever I see that I assume developed by them but that's obviously not the case. There must be a fair amount of years in which LucasArts was publishing all sorts of things that have no relation to anything by Lucas...or their own IP either. Anyways, what I've thought most interesting in the game is how it really eases the often overwhelming experience of many of these simulation games - especially those on the DS where you have a touchscreen but you can't expect the same fidelity and interaction resolution as you had on the PC. It's just more clunky and slow so some stuff doesn't work as well. So, I've been playing the campaign and was able to quickly figure stuff out - and you start with a park template for which you sort of fill in blanks as told by different goals (build a this kind of ride). There's enough flexibility that I've gone off-piste and it's been fine...but I liked how it has really leaned into the story (rival amusement park is trying to sabotage you and steal your amazing ride designs) - and as I meet objectives more parks have opened up (there's a nice rotating globe to select them as a menu). The missions are short, pretty easy and I've been able to appreciate all of stuff in this game. Strangely, at least so far, a lot of if it is playing carnival-style mini-games. I'm either playing park visitors (if you beat them, they'll do something you want/give you info) or my own employees (same as visitors, though there are some games to play to train them to be better employees). So far the management part of these kinds of games has been downplayed significantly - I generally have enough money to pay for whatever new thing I put in the park, and happiness hasn't been an issue either. I've played enough to get to the point where you build rollercoasters - and there's a new interface "gimmick" the game uses here (and elsewhere, but it makes the most sense thematically here). So, you pick the coaster and it shows you (on bottom screen) a generic layout/outline. You trace it with the stylus and go to the next step. Here the generic layout has a few sections highlighted and you can design those specific sections (e.g. make a loop). You're essentially picking from available options - but you have to draw them with the stylus (draw one of the possible shapes). Then the highlighted section is replaced with a track section embodying the change (e.g. shows a loop). It's pretty neat and I preferred it over the typical "pick the thing you want" that then turns into a drag/drop nightmare of trying to slot/fit/orientate the section into the track you're making (things don't line up, etc.). Very elegant and works really well for the DS and it's screens! THe same idea (draw a shape from a few pre-approved ones) is also used in the game-y conversation interface. Here you need to convince an NPC about something - and must choose from a few response options. Instead of just tapping the option you want, you have to draw the shape that corresponds to that option. Thematically it makes no sense - but I guess it's part of this games interaction vocabulary for some reason. I wonder if it will appear in other parts of the game as well?Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:10:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7926&iddiary=13420