Comments on: It’s A Small World. Let’s Keep It That Way.

By: Iucounu

Iucounu — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:31:13 +0000

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.

By: Soren Johnson

Soren Johnson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:29:31 +0000

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…

By: Glove

Glove — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:54:45 +0000

If the picture did any more justice it’d make it less fun to actually play, (y’know, sense of wondrous discovery and all).

By: Imagery

Imagery — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:40:47 +0000

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).

By: lobo_tuerto

lobo_tuerto — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:35:23 +0000

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.

By: mootpoint

mootpoint — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:52:55 +0000

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.

By: TCM

TCM — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:10:52 +0000

He’s thinking of the modern PoP games, not the classic ones.

By: Huggster

Huggster — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:52:47 +0000

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.

By: Urthman

Urthman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:24:44 +0000

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.

By: nam

nam — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:58:25 +0000

i agree with cypher. nice soundtrack.

By: lalahsghost

lalahsghost — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:48:33 +0000

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~

By: Kakksakkamaddafakka

Kakksakkamaddafakka — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:42:09 +0000

Uh, you could die in PoP.