Souls Like Strings

The psychedelic gardening metroidvania

Why

• A real sense of exploration, not just of the map but of systems
• The 'attack variety' mechanic puts an interesting twist on otherwise basic combat
• Incredible, psychedelic art direction
• The central time-loop conceit is a big swing

Why Not

• Lack of direction can be frustrating at times
• There are times where you know the solution but just need to wait for it to grow
• Time looping requires plenty of back tracking

Impressions

Ultros isn't content with having been designed by an art team eating LSD like it's food;...

Jack Sparrow, but sober and a woman

Why

• Gives you the tools to create crazy combat sequences
• And forces you to use them
• Writing is the perfect level of camp
• Art style is a perfect fit for this game

Why Not

• Forcing you into extended 1-1 duels for some fights seems against the spirit of the game
• A replay mode would be amazing

Impressions

En Garde is exactly what it sets out to be; a swashbuckling, improvisational romp through incompetent goons and scenery chewing villains. The combat allows for incredible highs straight out...

• Sometimes validating everything just adds complexity & restrictions for no benefit
  • e.g. do we really need extensive validation that stuff is saved in a certain format when we write/test the code that saves it?
• I actually remembered to use next not return in Ruby!
• Saving a JSON string to a JSONB column in Rails does not lead to it being auto-parsed as JSON on read
  • It's actually parsed as just a regular string, to have it read as JSON you need to persist a hash or array to the column
  • So if you're getting JSON...

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

Maybe aliens are people too?

Less than halfway through this book I was genuinely confused by how there could possible be another half of a book left. Kyr had successfully escaped her the militaristic cult she was raised in, started seeing aliens as people and started to understand why her older sister did the same. Sure she still planned on killing an alien dignitary but to be fair he did end up being personally responsible for the destruction of Earth. Then everything goes downhill; her genius 'friend' decides to use the...

Bright but short lived

Why

• Clean visuals, especially the fire-related stuff
• Combat is solid & varied, especially for a short game
• Frequent checkpoints to prevent frustration

Why Not

• Very short, under 2 hours
• Easy to inadvertently miss secrets

Impressions

As with most people I got this while it was free to promote the sequel, and it was pretty effective at that. There's defnitely enough here to pique my interest in what the team can do with a longer, more ambitious game.

The focus of the game's world is fire and its role in combating...