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Define 'hero' for me.

  • nhubi
  • 03/14/2015 04:17 AM
  • 2183 views
The title of this game is somewhat deceptive. Yes it all takes place in 10 minutes, or at least you have a countdown clock with 10 minutes available, but 'hero' may possibly be pushing it. You play as a vampire, the son of Dracoola who also happened to be the great evil you have been awoken to fight. Though obviously you must have been the last of a list of chosen ones woken up since rather than being given months to trek through harsh and dangerous terrain, honing your skills and recruiting a band of likeminded individuals to aid you on this quest against a pervasive and malicious foe, you've got 10 minutes to show daddy just what you think of him.

I have to say something about the title screen, it's obviously hand drawn and quite a nice piece of art, but the thing I like about it best of all is that it's not pointing to 10 minutes to midnight, the folkloric witching hour that evil seems to wait for before striking, but it's set at a seemingly innocuous 10 minutes past. It's a casual and quite amusing subversion, and I hope it was intentional. If it wasn't well the developer is getting points for it anyway.

So you awaken, and the handy though a little scatterbrained narrator fills you in on the details of what needs to happen next, wouldn't it be good to have one of those when you need one, so off you trot, and I do mean trot you've got 10 minutes, no time to be dilly-dallying about, to foil your father and win the day. Except as this is a demo, you won't actually get to do that.


You are the hero, right?

The game is a puzzle adventure so there are no battles, which is ok since you don't have any equipment, you are faced with a number of locked doors and items and you need to find the keys to open them to gain the next item you need etc. there is also a little maths based puzzle with clues sprinkled around the available mansion rooms either as notes in plain view or as a response dialogue when you interact with the various pieces of furniture and fittings in the game, and they are all interactive. There are some grammatical errors in some of the responses as well as in the opening conversation, mostly missing conjunctions, but comprehension doesn't suffer too much because of it. Almost everything in this game will give you a response, which is of course what eats up most of your available time as there are about 7 maps in the entire game and if you didn't need to check out every nook and cranny for that illusive key or clue you could get through the game in half the time you are allotted. There is no save option either, so you have to make your way through in a straight run.

The maps are done pretty well, with what I believe are Celianna's tiles with a few graphical extras; the spike pit in grandpa's dungeon being a fine albeit grisly example. There is only one room that feels a little off in that I'm not sure why the right wing has a partial stone wall in a place made entirely out of wood, but the lighting effects are used very well. There is enough light to see everything you need to within a certain area but the shadows are looming in all the maps, and really fit the mood of a Vampire's mansion.

The music likewise was pretty well suited. the game page states it's random, and that each run through will give you one of the five available 10 minute themes, but as I made it through the game in one sitting I only got to experience a single composition, so I cannot speak to the remaining pieces.

With a bit of luck and leaning on the shift key you can make it through the game before the time runs out, the only problem in this particular iteration is that you can't confront your father as you run into the end of the current demo.


Really, but I did the puzzle and everything! I want to slap my Dad.

I actually do appreciate the 'you've reached the end of the demo' message; it whets the appetite for the remainder of the game. Though the game should probably go back to the title screen afterwards rather than just wind down the clock, because then you get the failed message instead. For such a short game sawworm has packed in quite a lot of content, and the responses you get from the various items and dialogues help to round out your protagonist. I look forward to seeing where this goes and coming back to it when it is completed so I can stake my dad out in the sun to fry.

Posts

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The content on demo just a tip of the mountain, there will be more interactive stuff, unreachable locations (unless you learn "Bat Transformation"), but I don't want to push the content too much because of the time limit. I don't think anyone can reach the ending in their first try, withing multiple playthroughs taking notes on your journey and remembering the puzzles are crucial to save extra time.

Thank you for playing and taking your time to review, nhubi.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
Yes given the 10 minute restriction there is also a limit in how much you can include. I don't think you should plan for people to need more than 2 to 3 runs to complete it though, because after that no matter how much you are putting in you get gamers ennui. They simply can't be bothered going through and completing the same steps over and over in order to get to the next little piece. As you can see from the above screen shot I got through it in just over 8 minutes, but I leant on the shift key and I was lucky in that I seemed to find the keys pretty easy and enough of the number clues to work out the maths puzzle - though I didn't get them all. If I had to go through that same sequence, even shaving off a few minutes by remembering where the keys and handle is and the answer to the puzzle more than 3 times, then I'd probably stop playing, and I enjoyed the game. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't let the mechanic of the reduced time frame actually detract from the challenge it presents by trying to include too much.
Actually this gave me an idea; extending the timer when a puzzle solved. It would be less stressful for the players and gave enough time to explore places.

T-thanks nhubi~ :~D
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