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One Luftballon.

This review was written for the contest version. Therefore no star rating.


Story

I'm not 100% sure to be honest, it's really down to interpretation. Am I a possessed obect? What's up with that kid? Who's that nosy person and what's their beef with the attic? It's a game of questions. I did get the bad ending, so there may be some closure for the balloon. Go play and find out =)


Gameplay

The mechanics consist of the sentient balloon floating around, avoiding Lego bricks, nails, broken glass and collecting keys, all in the while answering Frogge's increasingly vague questions about our relationship via text command. There are clever moments with the passage of day turning into night and some ingenious use of your light source that requires proper eye coordination to avoid prematurely popping one self whilst navigating through the darkness. For what it is the gameplay serves it's purpose, however I didn't like how the player respawns around the front door and not in exact room where the balloon met it's grizzly fate, also might be hard to decipher what to do next without resorting to looking up the bullet point walkthrough. Other than that it was a pleasant experience overall.


Graphics

The level design is presented as a 2D scroller. The aesthetics is quite simplified yet detailed at the same time, the balloon itself is the right shade of red and you can easily identify environmental hazards based on how pokey they look. The light overlay provides decent amount of exposure with the stand out moment belonging to the basement segment where there's a sudden shift in your current predicament.


Sound

The normalized living room composition is great in contrast with the voice acting near the beginning, creates a strange atmosphere when floating around. The score for the attic and basement provide tension on what lies ahead for our poor inflatable. Meanwhile the pop sound effect is on point and may cause sudden surprise for the player with the first two or three deaths. The award goes to the voice acting, whilst it may not be the best recording in the world, it does add alot to the game and I'm glad Irog & co went down this route instead of relying upon written text.


Final thoughts

It is certainty the most unique out of the Halloween entries this year. Not really horror, more like a mystery that needs solving. There are certainty interesting mechanics presented in the game and it sort of feels therapeutic? Not too long and not too short, I'm sure Nena would be proud.


Obligational song inclusion.


Posts

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Okay. for some reason this didn't end up in the submission queue =/
Thanks for taking your time to review this! I'm delighted to hear that you also enjoyed the music. The full version just got released, so I definitely recommend you to try it out if you'd like to get to the bottom of the mystery! ;)
Thank you StarSkipp for the constructive review. I'm glad you enjoy our little creation. It is meant to leave the player with questions. The finished version should give you more hints about what is really going on in this house.

author=StarSkipp
Okay. for some reason this didn't end up in the submission queue =/

I started to upload the game 15 minutes before the event deadline and this happened:


Yes, the upload finished one minute too late! Liberty gave a 20 minutes time buffer so she considers we made it on time but the submit button for the event had disappeared.
Oh I was referring to how my review automatically popped up without being approved by Soli beforehand, side effect of being an contributor. It's not a bad thing but I'm not sure if the piece fits in with site standards.
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
author=StarSkipp
The award goes to the voice acting, whilst it may not be the best recording in the world, it does add alot to the game and I'm glad Irog & co went down this route instead of relying upon written text.


Woah man thanks a lot!! My work was quite terrible so i'm happy that other people at least seem to like it ^^
author=Frogge
author=StarSkipp
The award goes to the voice acting, whilst it may not be the best recording in the world, it does add alot to the game and I'm glad Irog & co went down this route instead of relying upon written text.
Woah man thanks a lot!! My work was quite terrible so i'm happy that other people at least seem to like it ^^

...but I really enjoyed the VA. :/ This game really gave me the feels, especially since it was voice-acted by you, buddy. Some of the more violent parts made me really sad. :(
author=Luiishu535
Some of the more violent parts made me really sad. :(

Especially when you know how much slapping went into it ;-)

More seriously, your voice acting really brings life to in-game interactions.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
StarSkipp
Oh I was referring to how my review automatically popped up without being approved by Soli beforehand, side effect of being an contributor. It's not a bad thing but I'm not sure if the piece fits in with site standards.


Looks good to me. It's well past the word limit, the grammar's fine, and it explains your criticisms and how you arrived at them. You're well within site requirements.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=StarSkipp
Oh I was referring to how my review automatically popped up without being approved by Soli beforehand, side effect of being an contributor. It's not a bad thing but I'm not sure if the piece fits in with site standards.


Yeah, I know! I've got a review in the works, and the thought of being auto-accepted is, well, it's a little frightening!
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?
In future, we'll just have to double check with Soli before submitting articles or whatnot.

author=Luiishu535
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?


Balloongate, I'll break in and get rid of the tapes.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=Luiishu535
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?



author=StarSkipp
Balloongate, I'll break in and get rid of the tapes.

author=Marrend
author=Luiishu535
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?


Hep
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
author=Irog
author=Luiishu535
Some of the more violent parts made me really sad. :(
Especially when you know how much slapping went into it ;-)


SERIOUSLY

InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
author=Marrend
author=Luiishu535
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?


Only 5 luftballons, dancing around the room!
author=InfectionFiles
author=Marrend
author=Luiishu535
...wait, is this the balloon's doing?

Only 5 luftballons, dancing around the room!

Nope.



failed_to_load_balloon.exe

I think you counted that wrong.
author=Frogge
author=Irog
author=Luiishu535
Some of the more violent parts made me really sad. :(
Especially when you know how much slapping went into it ;-)
SERIOUSLY

Sorry for the bad joke.
author=StarSkipp
I didn't like how the player respawns around the front door and not in exact room where the balloon met it's grizzly fate
The respaw mechanism was built to fit the story. The following explains why it was built this way and is not intended to make you like a mechanism you dislike.

Spoiler
If you reached the good ending, you know the player is not the balloon. He/she brings a balloon in the house so when it pops, he/she brings a new one by the entrance door. (There was a feature to emphasize it but never developed: leave broken balloons on the ground where it popped). The entrance door also serve another purpose: if the player gives up, he/she can walk out the front door.
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