Comments on: Wot I Think: Lucidity

By: Cedge

Cedge — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:58:29 +0000

Eh. I liked it, and don’t think that so much thought needs to be put into the backlash against it. What-fucking-ever.

By: Red Avatar

Red Avatar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:25:32 +0000

Hmm – when I first saw a clip on Youtube, I didn’t like it. It was such an obvious cash-in on the success of similar games that it felt too forced. This is a typical example of a game not born out of a good idea, but born out of the idea to cash in on the success of other people’s good ideas.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:23:04 +0000

Yeah I never even bothered to finish the demo. Despite all its hand drawn looking nicety, it oddly feels quite souless to play. It does feel like a contrived attempt to jump on the indie bandwagon with a Briad style platformer, rather than something thats grown from an orignal idea. Ultimately its just not a fun game.

Axel and Pixel on the otherhand is looking great, although I’ve got a feeling that it might be an Xbox Live Arcade only game. Though I will be most surprised if it doesn’t get a PC release. http://www.axelandpixelgame.com/

By: Pod

Pod — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:42:31 +0000

They should make it so that she sleepwalks and that you’re a dog.

By: Hermit

Hermit — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:22:58 +0000

The random nature of the objects is definately frustrating – when you know a set of stairs would be perfect, only to get a slingshot, it’s annoying. I wouldn’t mind the death mechanic so much if death felt like my fault – but there’s a sense that it’s just blind luck working against you.

The gameplay evolution is another biggie for me – the uses of each piece are too specific to allow for much experimentation. With some more creative object design, you could have forced the player to think of clever ways to use a small set of tools and then grow that set over the course of the game. The ability to flip objects could have been really interesting, for instance – using catapaults to send Sofi backwards again.

This isn’t to say that I don’t quite like the game, it’s just it feels like there’s more you could to to keep the game interesting through to the end. Also, I gave up on the mouse controls pretty sharpish and went for my 360 pad – it’s clearly been designed with that in mind, though it still feels a little clunky even on that.

By: Daniel Purvis

Daniel Purvis — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:28:04 +0000

I made it through the first three levels and decided I’d never play it again. It just wasn’t fun and there wasn’t enough to keep me invested otherwise. It felt slow and clunky. Whether playing with mouse or keyboard, it just felt wrong.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:51:02 +0000

I’m glad that a few people here agree with my own reservations about Lucidity. I too have become a little bored with it, frustrated with its little flaws. Lambchops is right – the invisible grid is a pain, and makes it even harder to dispose of useless items when you get stuck in a corner. I can see that Lucasarts were trying to craft a game that rewards quick, lateral thought, and it’s pretty fun when everything does fall into place. Seeing Sofi weave her way around the obstacles, due to a mixture of clever item placement and sheer luck, always gives me a buzz. But that might only be because I spent most of the time completely frustrated that the game is giving me no way forwards.

I actually rage-quit Lucidity yesterday… Probably not the sort of emotion that the game’s dreamy atmosphere is meant to induce O.o

By: RobF

RobF — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:41:41 +0000

What bugs me most about Lucidity is that it is so very nearly almost there. I’d give someone’s left leg for an art budget or an artist to match the look they’ve got, the sound is fantastic from the Swedish lullaby to the satisfying boof of the bomb tile.

And then there’s the game.

I love the idea of it, I’m down with the Tetris meets platform gaming idea but they muffed it in so many tiny silly ways. Snapping the pieces to the grid whilst probably a technical thing is a rubbish idea, more so when the screen scrolls too fast and your piece doesn’t. The lack of check points, the randomness of the pieces, the small field of view that is ace for the first few levels and gradually with each unfolding stage becomes more of a bane than a challenge. It never really gets difficult, just as you progress you’re fighting more and more against the design than attempting to overcome the obstacles and that’s bloody wrong.

It feels like they’ve bottled it and muddled things. There’s not that clarity of design you get from something like World Of Goo where it starts off with this simple, simple system and toys with it as you progress. This goes from 0-stupidly hardcore in the space of 6 levels or something and the game seems to be crying out not to be that, not to do that. It feels conflicted

And the stuff I mentioned above, it’s elementary surely? In 2009 these are lessons learned. Did they not have playtesters that brought this stuff up? It really could have been a brilliant game and you get flashes of what someone somewhere in the gamemaking process at Lucasarts was trying to do and I’m at a loss as to why it wasn’t so broken. There’s little that couldn’t be solved with a few more weeks work (or a patch now it’s out the door) and to make it into something if not great, certainly better than it is right now.

Ah man, I’m actually gutted about it because it is so lovely in so many ways.

By: Jayt

Jayt — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:13:42 +0000

Well that and articles like this one http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/05/tall-nut-here-comes-my-man/

By: TCM

TCM — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:55:49 +0000

Forums are for those who can’t communicate everything they need to say via comment thread.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:37:17 +0000

When the field of small clever games has high quality work like World of Goo, Machinarium, LostWinds, Scribblenauts and Braid vying for our attention, who needs a bad cover version like this?

Tei’s comment is very strange. Lucasarts have more resources than the average indie developer, ergo they should have more chance of making something decent! Err, except they’ve just delivered something mediocre.

I guess this is a step in the right direction in that it’s trying to be Art, whereas their last project (Monkey Island Special Edition) only managed (graphical) vandalism.

By: Lambchops

Lambchops — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:44:34 +0000

it's bloody pretty but the invisible grid is an irritation and it hasn't really grabbed me.

the repition factor kicked in by the third chapter and I'm struggling to play on.

One for the obsessive compulsive collector really – they'll find plenty time in catching all the fireflies.

I'll probably complete the main levels in an idle moment sometime.