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Arium

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Genius 100 Points

Beat the game

Author Comments

Arium is an almost impossible strategy game based on a knight's movement in Chess.

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I've been playing this game for well over an hour now. In terms of a Challenge, it certainly delivers. And it does so w/o story, dialogue, tutorial, etc. I've shut off AAA Games within 10 minutes BC of terrible gameplay, whether it be loose character control, unintuitive button layout, etc. This game: 1 Button for movement. Goal: Land on every square platform using the Knight's move-set from Chess. I think the Core Gameplay/ Mechanics are set. But ...

The Game has some blanks that need to be filled in. Whilst I appreciate how far one take the minimalist approach, the game is too bare bones & too easy to lose it's appeal if one is stuck on 1 level for too long. As I am. Right Now. And this type of "stuck" is absolute. With every fail & retry, I feel my motivation to succeed being chipped away. I have no alternative but to close the game. Well, no, not quite.

The lack of Save Feature keeps me from closing the game outright. Some devs do this for that very purpose, I imagine - and that's a pitiful tactic to keep the game running, to go back to, sooner than later. Not saying that this was your intention. But w this slow PC I'm still on, I can't keep multiple sites/apps open w/o slowing down everything.

This game has no replay value, at all. No score. No leaderboards. No nifty modes that are unlocked once one beats the "main campaign". There's a lot of options on the table w respect to making this the awesome & tough logical game that it should be.

(1): Offer players the ability to skip a level if it's causing this kind of "stuck period" that I'm in. You could allow more than one skip freely. (2): Allow players to Undo a Move, at the expense of say, a given Score or customary "3-Star" Rating upon beating the level. "3-Stars" would be completing the level w/o any Undo Movements, AND ... well, there's all sorts of possibilities when factoring in a Score, Maybe a Timer, etc. (3): Save Feature. Main Menu Stage Select option could go w this, and would be awesome if the list showed all levels and ur current Star Rating. Replay Value.

TBH: This Game needs MORE. Again, lots of options: Unlockable Modes, for instance, HardCore Mode - whereby you must complete all levels back to back w NO MISTAKES. Problem w these games and the latter is that a walk-through with just arrows could get anybody through the whole game in a minute. To help mitigate this, you could implement Level Randomization, so that every new Play will present levels in a totally different order. Coupled w a Timer that makes level walkthroughs hard to sift through, maybe?!

As it stands, the Challenge is Tough, but Fair. But it needs more in order to make it the Awesome Minimalist Brain Workout it deserves to be!

~ DoctorThrift

Honestly, This shouldn't be a game. There is no challenge in the game, All you do is just click on cubes in a correct orde, And it isn't a challenge because you caņ't lose, you need to just memorize the order and that's it.

monkeywantbananas responds:

This game doesn't require any memory skills, it's logic, you're playing it wrong. You don't click squares at random until you find a pattern that works, you analyse the board and figure out a set of moves that could take you to each piece on the board exactly once.

I like very much the concept of the game. No bugs found so far (didn't beat the game yet xP) but i must say the music gets repetitive and annoying, as much as i like it. A button to mute it would be great.
Also the only way to restart a level is clicking a tile you aren't meant to, but this also means a misclick can be fatal.

4.5 stars overall for the great idea!

Original, no bugs, challenging. It's a great game.

I'd just add a save-option and a level.

So after seeing the controversy below, I played a few times and took some time to think about it. You pissed off a few veteran users, but others seem pleased.

First of all, I want to say that this *is* a good game. I think it's a fun and addictive logic puzzle. I've only gotten to about level 10 because it keeps crashing (not your fault, site ads are messing with my Shockwave player), but I think it's graphically as simple as it needs to be, and the music is comforting. So, I disagree with the angry reviews in that I like the game and the challenge. I agree with you that an "undo" button would oversimplify the challenge, and that's coming from someone who usually demands and "undo" button.

What I also agree with, though, is that the game lacks polish in certain basic areas.

1. You should have a level select option. I personally need one because my browser keeps crashing, but on a more inclusive level, this is a quiet, thoughtful game, and I can see many players finishing it over an extended period of time. Do a few levels, go to work, do a few more, go to sleep, come back to it in a few days. Of course, if there are only like 15 levels, that may be unnecessary.

2. Which brings me to my next point. How long is that game? 10 levels? 20? 50? We have no idea how long this is going to go for. Should I quit because I have something else to do soon? Or am I almost finished?

3. This is a big one: I wish there were some way to identify the most recent tile you've activated. On later levels as patterns get more complex, all it takes is to look away for a second, or move the mouse somewhere else, and the player can lose track of which blue tile was the last one activated.
This is critical, because not only are these levels tough to memorize, but where you can click next is dependent on where you're standing.

Maybe have the the most recent spot you've clicked turn red, then switch to blue once you have moved again?

4. I know this is touchy, but I do understand why there's been some hate regarding the instructions. It took me a while to figure out what to do as well. If read in a certain way, the instructions make it sound like you need to actually pick up the blue tile and move to another spot, or that you have to move the tile using the arrow keys or something. Because there is no sprite moving from square to square, some users are getting confused in what you mean by "move" from square to square.

5. On that note, the problem might be solved if you actually added a sprite. Maybe a Chess Knight that hops around the board as you click on squares. This would solve problem 3, letting the player know which square they're currently at, and problem 4, giving the illusion of movement to the game.

6. The music is nice, but we're beyond forgetting to add a mute button. Unless you made this for a time-limited jam, that's just basic game design.

Honestly, I like the concept. It's a fun game, and I'm not blasting you. But consider what your audience has to say and why. They're the ones you're communicating your ideas to.

Credits & Info

Views
8,697
Faves:
13
Votes
188
Score
2.93 / 5.00

Uploaded
Jun 20, 2016
11:22 AM EDT