It is pretty interesting to play. However, when I got to the first spike thing I didn't realize you needed to avoid it at first. Maybe you should warn the player to avoid them. Also that double spike jump was really hard. You have to jump at the last moment so it gets pretty frustrating since the difficulty went from easy to difficult very quickly. Other than that nice work.
Reviews for "Running out of Power Inc."
These type of games became quite popular since 2010'ish. The core basic jump n run elements, with some added text.
48h is not much time to create a game, and I respect that. On the other hand, I do have to give feedback on a game as well, not only on the input and hard work.
Since there exists thousands of such flashgames, and it does not shine in any particular aspect, 2.5 stars is fair.
The story could have been interesting, but the game-frame itself is too 1-dimensional, and too short, for any kind of story to grow.
Since you are experimenting, I encourage you to look at the prime examples of storytelling in video games:
- Deus Ex
- Gothic 1&2
- Morrowind TES3
- Alan Wake
- Fahrenheit/Heavy Rain
Those are obviously high calibre games, but if you haven't known at least one of them, I am sure you will find creative input there!
Keep up the good work.
StuffedWombat responds:
Thanks for this honest review :)
I know most of the games you suggested. In my opinion they tell stories on a bigger scale and in a different style than I want to.
But yeah, it would probably be a good idea to play them again, even just to understand how i do not want to tell stories :)
First time I ran straight to exit - there was a huge light bulb plugged in the end ( was it sun???) and it all ended with black screen.
Second time I ignored exit, jumped to the other door trough spikes and turned off the machine - the huge orb was still plugged in but game ended (or get stuck?) with light still on. Is that supposed to be the difference?
A confirmation that game has ended and a replay button would be nice.
What I liked was the guys rationalizations why he keeps telling himself that working in this big cubicle company is not so bad. This is how most people actually live - they hate their job but find excuses to convince themselves that it is not so bad. That was nailed. Everything else was underdeveloped.
And Nothing of Importance Was Lost That Day
This game just pissed me right the fuck off. Let's start from the top. I love how instead of music or silence we get just white noise, which I thought was cool and gave the game an ominous feel to it. The presentation was simplistic, you could make out the basics of an office complex. The story I actually kind of liked, except the ending sucked because no matter the path you took or the action you took, nothing happened at the end. I understand you got 48 hours and anything made in that time is ambitious. It doesn't excuse the lackluster ending though. I thought, well if I do this maybe there will be a different outcome... but there isn't. The controls are stiff which isn't too bad until you introduce the spike hazards which are... pointless. The introduction to them was okay, until the next room with them where you have to make a pixel perfect jump to get passed them. Replaying the game to see if there was a different ending based on a different path was awful. It just filled me with rage. Then the room with the text "I had a great time here" must have been some sick joke on your part or part of the story in the message being a lie. I'd believe both honestly because just a drop down into a spike room and another pixel perfect jump to get to the door. Overall the game wasn't that great. I mean come on, I remember playing Shword, a game you did in 7 days, which I absolutely loved.
|| Cheers ||
*Good Presentation
*Good Sound
*Great Music
*Good Story
*Okay Controls
|| Jeers ||
*Bad Gameplay
"I had a good time here"
LIES.
Also, "platformer that talks about the dangers of capitalism" has been done, like, WAY too much already.
StuffedWombat responds:
dangers of captitalism was not the main theme.
i wanted to tell a story about responsability.
maybe I failed :)