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Neat ideas, but not fully developed.


Introduction

Schroden is a platform/puzzle game made by Beaker. The game is centered around solving puzzles by using two characters, both with special properties, and guiding them through a maze. The idea of the game is very neat, but it seems like a lot more should have been done with it - the idea is undeveloped.

Presentation

The game is presented without real dialog. All the controls are displayed on panels on the screen, for example left, right, tab, space, and its up to you to figure out what they do (which is not hard).

Everything is well drawn - there are red lazers, blue lazers, and the two main characters. The maps are pretty done and laid out in a way to promote the puzzle nature of the game. The position of every object is chosen with care.

There's not much more to say, because the game is so short. The page itself says it should take about 10 minutes to beat. This is actually my main complaint about the game - so little content that it's hard to get into the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay revolves around using the two characters - the ghost and the scientist - to set up and solve puzzles. The ghost can walk through blue lazers, and red lazers swap the location of the ghost/scientist when the scientist walks into it. The puzzles involve putting the ghost into unreachable spots and swapping in, because the ghost also cannot push switches.

It's nice gameplay! I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, so it's originality is nice. Also, the platforming elements work fine. The jump is well made, the collision works. There is no way to die, and also no way to save as far as I can tell.

Yet, despite the gameplay being well made, I can't recommend this game because of the very limited amount of content. The amount of content here shouldn't even be a level, much less a full game. The maker is not kidding when he says it should take 10 minutes to complete.

A side-effect of this is that the mechanic - swapping between the characters - is not developed. It's only ever used for swapping through walls and pushing switches. The maker could have done so much more with this idea, if there was more content in the game.

Overall the game is far too short to really get used to and enjoy.

Summary

Very neat ideas, but far too little content to be fun. 2/5.