Just a quickie before I disappear for the weekend. Soren “Civ 4″ Johnson has just tweeted about Small Worlds, saying “What a beautiful game. This is the next-gen Prince of Persia game I always wanted to play…”. I agree, and think you should play it without any further elaboration. It’s a magically-presented exploration game. Magical. That’s the world. Go lose yourself.
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This game is neither next gen-ish nor prince of persia-ish. I call BS on Soren. Its not a bad game though.
I suspect it is “next-gen Prince of Persia” as in what Prince of Persia 2 could have been back in 1994.
I suspect the Emporer is naked.
I suspect the Prince of Persia comparisons are because you can’t die.
Uh, you could die in PoP.
He’s thinking of the modern PoP games, not the classic ones.
Some of the most compulsive exploration I’ve ever experienced in a game. I found myself making sure I’d cleared every inch of blackness just to see what was behind it, or how much further I could expand the little world. That in and of itself was the incentive. A game like Fallout 3 could have taken a page from this little game.
Fully agree, actually played it through again just now because I couldn’t remember the ending (strangely, it really stuck this time) and found myself obsessively jumping all over the place despite having seen everything before.
I really like how that works out into a kind of “life” mechanic as well, the threat of going to close to the edge is not dying, but falling off into some place you can’t get back to where you were from, thus killing your exploration.
Lovely lovely game. Probably the first game in long time I really like, as the emotion like, not the judgement.
It’s very pretty, both graphically and musically. The level design is interesting.
Like all platformers these days, though, I got irritated/bored with it about 10 minutes after I started playing it. I think the genre’s simply lost to me, sadly.
The game is all too linear. on the later teleport stages, there is nearly only one way to get back to the main station. This game is too artsy-smartschy for me. This would be a good way to do a 2d Resident Evil, though~
So how do we interpret this? Was they guy trying to escape the calamities that were unleashed in each world or was he the one who unleashed them in a brief by noisy attempt to create silence?
How do I even begin…
Let’s take the mechanical side of it first. I’m going to get a lot more out of this than most people, simply because if asked to name favourite games, I’d mention stuff like Uru and Knytt/Knytt Stories, with honourable mentions to Gothic, Outcast, and Ultima VII. See the pattern? Each had glorious forms of exploration, wonder… such wonder, no matter how limited, or contrarily how amazingly they didn’t sully their wonder with high-end graphics.
I like exploration and wonder, especially if it ends on a crescendo, a happy ending, the wave rises high into incredible emotional heights. That’s what I got from Uru, and Knytt, and Gothic, and this… ?
Hmm…
:/
I loved it, frankly, it moved me, but I felt let down by the throwaway ending, which might have been meaningful to some but I felt conned. I understood that my little man was exploring dead worlds and seeing devastation all around, morbid chaos, and even to a degree, despair… but there was that music, that bloody music.
That bloody music.
To be honest, I think this game might’ve been better if it were silent. As I like to say, don’t get me wrong, the music was beautiful, but that was the problem, that’s what I took away from it, that despite the surrounding hell, my little man had hope.
He had a plan.
Then, hey… what’s he doing? That looks like an escape pod? I wonder if some genesis device will be put to use, to give me a huge, procedurally generated World of life and splendour to explore? I knew he had a plan! And … wait, what’s that… ? That… That… That…
YOU STUPID BARSTEWARD, YOU SHOT YOURSELF INTO THE SUN! D:<
You got the co-ordinates wrong, you incompetent sod!
WTF?! D:< GAAAH~!
This lead to minutes of fuming at the silly idiot.
That's interesting, and really entertaining in its own way, but… with all that ebbing and flowing hope surging into a wave of potential…
So yeah, a great game, but a bit let down by either the music or the ending. I can't decide which.
My little man was supposed to have a plan.
*sniff.*
And yes, I was hoping for Deus Ex Machina, is that so wrong? Maybe even a time machine! I’d go back and set it all right! My little dude was just collecting data for a great experiment that would undo the end times, and make everything good again!
That he just shot himself into the sun was emotionally jarring, very much so, and I can’t decide whether that’s brilliant, or just bloody lazy, and whether I appreciated it, or hated it with every fibre of my being.
:’< Poor dead Universe.
Sometimes I think I'm more John Walk than John Walker.
No no no, you’ve got it all wrong. You can’t change the ending, the ending’s the whole point! Forgive me for being an English major about this, but I’m an English major…
The narrative of the game is the player character exploring, seeking out beauty in what remains of nature. That’s why the music is so important; these bleak scenes are really sublime. Beautiful. Purdy.
Which is absolutely wonderful, because that’s exactly what the game is for the player. The mechanics of the game make the player’s motivations exactly alligned to the player character’s. You’re both just exploring to see all the shinies!
And then, you come back from the last portal. And you’re out of shinies. For the player, the game is over. All the portals close behind you-no more game. If there weren’t an ending, you’d close the window and end the game. But, there is a perfect ending.
The player character is out of stuff to do too. His motivations are the players. So he ends his experience, simultaneously with the player. Fucking perfect.
seriously…what the fuck guys?!! spoiler alerts maybe? jesus.
*spoiler*
He is the last man of the human race, of all races. After exploring all old world, and seeing now life on all world on all colonized world, he realize he is last, to all races and worlds. It was his decission, to sunk his shutle in a star.
Really, first comment and everything? Dick move.
Could someone delete this before more people read it?
Bug report: So, replies don’t work the first try for some reason. Second time I’ve done this today.
You way down in the comments before spoilers occur. This is page 2.
Comments section defaults to most recent page, and the spoiler is the first reply.
This really needs to not be the first visible comment. Can some man or God fix this somehow?
AW COOL…I would never expect the first post to be an end-spoiler. Thank You, Mr. Impulsive, really
This is why I played the game first, then read the comments.
High five.
I frequently read the comments (some of them anyway) to determine whether a borderline game is actually worth playing.
It wasn’t the first post, it was like the 71st or something. Stupid comment paging, i’ll admit it stops my browser stalling because of a 4000 comment piracy arguement.
Which reminds me… that aspect of the paging has bugged me ever since it was introduced. RPS, could you please fix your paging? It’s just dumb to start at the last page. Feel free to remember track how many replies we’ve seen, and start on that page, but default to the first page!
Yeah it doesn’t really make any sense to me either. Either show all comments in reverse order or start on the first page!
Really, really enjoyed that. Wonderful start to a saturday morning. Finding little gem-games like this is what it’s all about for me.
Seriously pissed off that a few cock-ends posted spoilers though. But hey, some people are like that. Hey-ho.
The snow world was perfect. It’s pretty and Christmassy (the wife commented that it sounded like The Nightmare Before Christmas) and then you find the base….and the map….and the silos…
The others weren’t as good, they didn’t have the same sense of narrative, but that one should be a model for all exploration games, ever.
I enjoyed it, and I also felt that compulsive desire to uncover all the maps, and then screenshot them to show them to somebody for some reason (even though nobody’s online and I didn’t actually save any of those print screens).
The ending made a whole lot more sense after I read Mr Yuck’s post. The dude was sight-seeing for the memories, like when you wander around your house thinking about what went on in it the last moments before you leave to move somewhere else (in his case, the fucking sun).
So, I’ve read the interpretations so far, and they’ve helped, but how does the noise/silence motif fit into things?
If we all post lots that spoiler won’t be the first visible comment.
I really liked it. Exploration for exploration’s sake, that’s right up my street. Very relaxing and I liked the art style. No idea what any of it was supposed to mean, and quite frankly I don’t care either.
I couldn’t get past halfway through the first level. I got stuck – is there any way to crouch?
No need to crouch. You should probably look somewhere else.
No online multiplayer. 2/10.
Also, it would have been nice if you could talk to the monsters.
Couldn’t even find the BFG. :/
IDKFA
Eh, it was okay. Not enough subways for a holocaust.
A little wonder of a game. Wonder combined with a feeling of desolation, emptiness and a lack of direction.
Yeah – agree about the paging of comments. Love the site, but I spend far less time reading the comments now cause it doesn’t make intuitive sense
Very cool. I really enjoyed that.
Beautiful little game, or rather interactive story, art-appreciation with nice music … thing. :-)
Doesn´t happen often that I play browser games more than once.
Regarding the comment system: I´d also appreciate if the first page of comments would open up on page-load. It´s very confusing the way it is now. Or at least implement another page counter/navigator at the top of the comments. Currently you always have to scroll down to see if you´re on page 1 or 2.
Add to that the fact that the latest comments may not even be on the last page anyway because a reply is grouped with the original comment makes it all a bit awkward.
I love games like this as they make you use your imagination and fill in the blanks – in a very good way. reminds me of old speccy games which required just that. Really outstanding.
No one got the little motif of the more you explore, the clearer things get, the more you get a sense of the bigger picture, and the more ugliness you see? I got a real sense of someone searching for beauty (He starts in a fairly desolate place, what else would he be looking for?), but the harder he looked, the worse it all seemed. Any beauty – and this was especially so on the snow level and the way that was designed – eventually proved to give way to something more desolate underneath. When you’ve reached the end of your search and all you see is ugliness, what else would you do? The music was hopeful, and that only makes the ending that much more painful.
Grim, yes. But beautiful too.
Its funny, this game probably has less pixels than most Screenshots I will see this year, but it still managed to inspire me more creatively than most of the games I will play.
I’m just complaining about the stupid comment pagination to help get the spoiler off the front page.
But I really do hate the stupid comment pagination.
And I really really liked this game. Probably would have loved it and cried like John Walker if it hadn’t been for the spoiler.
Thanks for linking to this, Kieron. Really amazingly good.
I’ve just deleted the spoiler. But yeah, would be good to get it fixed, eh?
KG
Thank goodness for being late to the party. I also tend to play these little/big/art/interpretation games before reading comments not because people are inherently mean, but, in a discussion, we tend to talk about the things that make us Think.
Beautiful work. Music went nicely with the story being told through our actions and unveiling of the world we explore. Thanks for the link, Kieron. Wonderful thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning, even if it’s a little bleak. What isn’t in the long run, though? Thank You.
Great little game! For some reason I saw the protagonist as a prisoner trying to find a way out, and in that context the ending was even more confusing. Definitely my kind of gameplay though, being a huge fan of Knytt Stories, Cave Story and all.
Played it a few times now- i thing each level may represent an idea.
MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!
Nuclear winter (snow level)
The war room with the flashing lights connects to an empty missile tube.
Killing babies- (blue level with biological elements)
The level exit looks to be the brain of an inverted dead fetus.
Pollution (fountain city level)
Notice how the water bercomed polluted, then is pumped into the beautiful fountains over the city?
Religion? (rock level with light in middle)
I honestly have no other ideas on this level.
Though i find it interesting that there is a light in the center and you bypass it on you way out.
All these things can drive a person to want to throw themselves into the sun.
Played it a few times now- i thing each level may represent an idea.
MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!
Nuclear winter (snow level)
The war room with the flashing lights connects to an empty missile tube.
Killing babies- (blue level with biological elements)
The level exit looks to be the brain of an inverted dead fetus.
Pollution (fountain city level)
Notice how the water becomes polluted, then is pumped into the beautiful fountains over the city?
Religion? (rock level with light in middle)
I honestly have no other ideas on this level.
Though i find it interesting that there is a light in the center and you bypass it on you way out.
All these things can drive a person to want to throw themselves into the sun.
There should have been a comment thread level, i’m building my rocket now.
Best game I’ve played this year.
Superb, beatiful… proof that games don't need to dilute their central concept with peripherals like aimless violence. Probably the 'browser' game ive most enjoyed since Today.
i agree with cypher. nice soundtrack.
After playing this, I really want someone to make a big no-combat game about exploration where the micro-level exploration is really fun and interesting and beautiful and as you explore you reveal some larger picture. The gameplay can be open-world racing, 2D or 3D platforming like Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mario, Spider-Man, etc., Myst-style puzzle solving. I don’t care. But I want it to feel like this.
Agreed I would love that. However part of its charm is it makes you use your imagination. Crysis is lovely, but it leaves nothing to the imagination.
Agree with Huggster. That’s been my main argument pro old-games vs last generation games.
In the old times, game graphics (because of it’s own limitations) would present abstract representations of things, and you, as the player would use a lot your imagination, and what you experienced would be something not defined, or limited, but somewhat endless.
Now you can see every detail on game characters or environments, don’t take me wrong, some are truly beautiful, but it feels like it doesn’t let anything for our imaginations.
The picture for the article doesn’t do the game justice (looks like those cross-section human anatomy diagrams of the mid section from high school sex-education).
If the picture did any more justice it’d make it less fun to actually play, (y’know, sense of wondrous discovery and all).
What I meant is that Small Worlds gets the exploration and ambience of my ideal PoP game right. I loved Sand of Time but could have gone without either the combat or the linearity. Plus, I wanted to be able to go everywhere I could see…
The linearity of it is intentional. The designer wants you to see the big picture – the fun of it is in the way you seem to discover it naturally. That, along with the fact that you can’t die, provides an interesting control; it proves experimentally that a game can still be engrossing even if it requires almost no challenge to complete and runs on invisible rails.