jp
Home Talks and Slides My GameLog Research and Projects Publications Resume Teaching
Back  //   GameBreadth Project  //   Game Ontology Project  //   GameLog

GNOG (PC)

Status: Finished playing
I started playing this game on Monday 6 April, 2020  //  I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 14 June, 2020
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

June 11, 2020 10:59:16 AM
Finished this last night - live on stream - which was an unusual experience since I had to, well, solve puzzles in front of an audience. I think I peaked at 5 viewers, so not a large audience but still. It's a remarkably different experience to solve puzzles under pressure. But, it also helped me "stay strong" and not immediately cave and go find a solution when I got stuck. Which did happen, more than once. But, hey - I was able to get everything sorted out.

I really enjoyed the overall feel and experience of the game - each puzzle felt interesting and different from the rest and the audio design was stellar. Visual design as well.

I really had a hard time with some of the circular interface items (where you had to rotate a wheel) - I just wasn't able to figure out the logic of it and it was always clunky. It worked in the end, I enjoyed the game. Nice and short. And sweet.


April 10, 2020 07:39:47 PM
I vaguely remember reading the review in Edge magazine and thinking, hmmm, I should check that out. That was years ago.

I must have played 20 minutes or so and was a delightful experience. I would describe the game as a series of whimsical puzzle boxes (of which I have solved/finished only 2). They're colorful and wacky and quite tactile (despite using only the mouse). I think the game also uses at most both mouse buttons?

So far each puzzle box has two stages. The first step is opening the box. The second is solving/finishing it. I really enjoyed these two steps - it feels like a naturally rewarding way of segmenting the gameplay. The first step has never been difficult (so far, 2/2), but I got a little jolt of pleasure both times when I had opened the box. The 2nd step thus starts with the joy of anticipation - "oooh, I wonder what there is inside here!".

The puzzles also encourage exploration - I unlocked a trophy from that which was nice. And, although they're whimsical and nonsensical in some ways - in others they are really puzzles with logic and solutions you can discover/come up with. So far, it hasn't devolved into the "just randomly try things with things" that often plagues puzzles that are not reality-based. (e.g. many of Amanita Design's games have moments like these - but I still love their games!)


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria