Game review: Fast Racing League (Wii, Demo)

Fast Racing League is a WiiWare action, racing game by Shin'en Multimedia. Like most racing games, the premise is to arrive at the end of circuit goal three times ideally faster than the opposition.

Summary of analysis
Awkward but decent new player experience, disappointing gameplay experience, multiple control scheme choices, nice graphics albeit overdeveloped in my opinion, well-accomplished background music and sound effects.

Tutorial/New player experience
While adequate, it seems a bit clumsy to have a text window tutorial pop up in the course of piloting a high-speed vehicle, especially from a third-person point of view. Thankfully, there's very few controls and concepts that need to be taught in the game.

Gameplay experience
In a word, aggravating. I'm imagining that the designers at Shin'en Multimedia either missed the concept of a demo, the concept of player rewards, or they actually enjoy cock-teasing a player and think it's a great way to encourage a player to buy the full version. I say the prior sentence because while the game has a demo level to play through, they pull the opportunity to finish it in the last second or two, leaving the player with a "Buy our game" splash screen and no amount of success for their efforts.

But I digress (bitterly), the game featured a mechanic called phasing, which allowed players to swap between black or white color-schemes in order to exploit speed-boosting track features in addition to building up boost energy. The features are track, ceiling, and ramp pads (unless more are introduced outside the demo) with the first two boosting speed (the ceiling one pulling the player onto itself temporarily) and the ramp pad essentially appears to be a phase or die opportunity on the demo track.

Interface & Controls
There's a choice of three control schemes for the game: WiiMote alone, WiiMote with Nunchuk attachment, or Wii Classic Controler. Controller choice basically is a matter of taste or self-imposed difficulty modification. WiiMote operates on a steering-wheel tilt concept, it and the Classic Controller utilize a three-button control scheme (accelerate, phase, boost), the WiiMote with Nunchuk utilizes a two-button scheme (accelerate and phase) with boost functionality changed into shaking the WiiMote.

Graphics
Judging from the test level and the game's official site gallery, there's a lot of well-developed backgrounds. I cannot imagine this being a point of design focus given that there's effectively no time to enjoy it in the course of a race. By comparison, the tracks are decent and the vehicles are passable. They even took the time to put in particle effects of pieces of track tearing off upon vehicular collisions especially every ramp landing.

Music & Sound
The background music was well-accomplished and the sound effects were engaging, kind of forgettable but probably the best accomplished piece of the whole game.

Commentary
Overall, it's a mediocre game that has the distinguishing feature of being a good concept and, from what I can tell, well-debugged. I'm a bit surprised with the extremely high accolades the game cites in its reviews section, but can easily accept them from a stand-alone point of view. There's also the chance that the full game is a lot better than its very disappointing demo, especially in consideration of how much of the game is kept out of the demo's gameplay experience. Final evaluation: promising gamble.

Game review: Mushroom Madness 3

Mushroom Mandess 3 is an action game by Silen Games. The (usual) player objectives is to protect mushroom patches from various critters through a variety of traps and weaponry.

Summary of analysis
Good new player experience, abundant gameplay modes with mostly good gameplay experience, mouse or mouse and keyboard controls on a mildly-burdened interface, mixed bag graphics, very good music and sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
There's a tutorial section available in the main menu and elements of it appear in the objectives screens of the game's adventure mode. Aside from being a bit rushed to learn the basics in the action, the game has a well-accomplished new player experience.

Gameplay experience
The game features nine gameplay modes, allowing players to improve specific skillsets or indulge in their favorite style of play. Each of the levels also features optional objectives, offering replayability and challenging the player to improve in order to maximize rewards (used mostly to upgrade character skills).

Interface & Controls
Primarily mouse-controlled with keyboard hotkeys that may be opted for instead of clicking on interface buttons. The secondary weapons' interface buttons are helpful for someone that wants to focus on using only the mouse, though I found it to be cluttering the game's interface.

Graphics
Cartoon-style graphics are featured in the game. The choice of graphics creates both a semi-comical detachment at the same time as being potentially guilting having to beat up the cute critters.

Music & Sound
The game has a selection of relaxing background musics, an interesting choice given the fast-paced gameplay. There's also a good selection of sound effects.

Commentary
A definite continuation of improvement over the previous two titles. If anything, the game is getting complex enough that it could either go console/handheld or start splitting up into a number of offshot titles of itself due to the various gameplay modes being nearly enough to be a stand alone game each.

Game review: Enemy 585

Enemy 585 is a puzzle-platformer game by Nitrome.The player's role is as a movable platform, helping to guide the last remaining henchman safely through levels.

Summary of analysis
Interesting but somewhat ineffective new player experience, challenging gameplay experience with potential replayability for optional objectives, simple and effective interface and controls, appeasing graphics, satisfying background music and sounds.

Tutorial/New player experience
There are a number of tutorial elements that will help the player master new skills in order to progress, though they're easily missed given that they're pop-up dialogue boxes that occur during active gameplay. Thankfully, it's easy enough to figure out the basics of the game through trial and error.

Gameplay experience
Reflexes and spatial reasoning are the most important things in progressing within the game. The player's block character has various shapes that will need to be manipulated in order to pursue completion of levels as well as the optional objectives or coins or time scores.

Interface & Controls
Keyboard directional controls and space bar rotation control scheme. There are tracking interface elements in addition to the level completion summary window, but nothing particularly distracting during gameplay moments.

Graphics
The game features an interesting graphical style that's fun, even though it's a little difficult to empathize with Enemy 585 given a complete lack of emotive capaqcity, though the platform will show moments of it when bearing the weight of the henchman.

Music & Sound
There's background musics reminiscent of Nintendo Entertainment System era video games, both well done and nostalgic for those old enough to have played on the system. The sound effects are also quite effectively accomplished in aiding the player experience.

Commentary
It's interesting to see a less directly controlled game design. The player has to compete with the challenges present in the environment and the automated movement scheme of the important objective in order to progress and pursue objectives. I would be ecstatic to see more user reviews and be able to study the specific player demographic appeal of this manner of game in detail.

Game review: Realm of the Mad God

Realm of the Mad God is an fast-paced action game and self-described MMO (presumably Massively Multiplayer Online game). Realm of the Mad God is by Wild Shadow Studios. The player's objective is to slaughter the infinite hordes of Oryx in an attempt to 'call out' the game's end boss and then slay them.

Summary of analysis
Underdeveloped new player experience, gameplay experience lacking in depth and of debatable entertainment value, keyboard and mouse controls and bulky interface, basic and effective graphics, barely adequate music and sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
The game's tutorial elements are outlined with the writing on the wall floor of the tutorial level. While learning to play the game seems easy, cautiously remind yourself that it's intended to be an MMO and that the tutorial level is a pale representation of the rest of the game. After completing the basic lessons, a new player is dropped into an open game world with at least hundreds of players, pointed to a random 'quest creature' and forced to rush to meet objectives before someone else randomly gets it first. But refrain from worrying, there will always be another random objective to chase after should one fail to reach it in time.

Gameplay experience
If you've come to grind in an anarchic collective, kudos on your choice of game. If you've come for anything else... expect disappointment and confusion. Though there may appear to be an economic system in the game, the game currency is only there for non-essential items or account upgrades (in other words, don't bother picking something up unless your character can and will use it).
The game has a guest account system, meaning that a player doesn't need to go to the trouble of registering for an account if they just want to try the game out, the game also seems to randomly assign a character class to guest account players and the rest are unlockable through gameplay.


Interface & Controls
The game's interface takes up about a third of the screen but is probably going to be ignored more than half of the time playing the game. There's also a few menu screens but little reason to reference those outside of learning the hotkeys or changing controls or options. The game's control scheme utilizes both mouse and keyboard controls.
There's also a chat system, though I'd be hesitant to call that a good feature.

Graphics
The game utilizes sprite graphics which can become confusing in highly player-populated areas but will have a very low system demand.

Music & Sound
To the designer's credit, they skimped on background music making the game's file size manageable for flash, so bring your own unless you can stand a tedius grind on the ears to go with like gameplay. The sound effects are okay, much better than the music.

Commentary
Having played a lot of MMOs, Realm of the Mad God appears to be more an attempt at satirizing the genre rather than a legitimate attempt at good game design. While I'll give them points for the attempt of launching an MMO in flash, it's painful to watch the way the game 'works'. There's overabundant player clutter, an overly complicated inventory and class systems, I'd say it's easy to get lost, but the game lacks direction and appears to be ninety-seven percent grind. While there is a replay value, it's more grinding in a barely different character class trying to unlock yet more grind.

Game review: Swift Turn 2

Swift Turn 2 is an action-puzzle hybrid game by Andriy Vinchkovskiy with art, sound, and music by Volodymyr Dzitsiuk. The objective of the game is to collect all the stars in each level and then reach the level's goal.

Summary of analysis
Originally jarring but later good new player experience, passable gameplay experience, directional-only main game controls with alternates during mini-games, effective graphics, mediocre music.

Tutorial/New player experience
With one notable exception, the game's tutorial elements help the player through newly-introduced elements of gameplay. The exception is that the player is left to guess at the basic controls on the first level of the game. Aside from one glaring error, the new player experience of the game is well-accomplished.

Gameplay experience
Swift Turn 2 has it's ups and downs (pun unintended). At times the controls felt sluggish, likely due to the game's physics resisting changes in motion. Unlike many puzzle games I've played, this one seemed to discourage analyzing a level and encouraged jumping right into the action and adapting or restarting. A number of levels relied on a sort of play and pray mentality where launching the character into the unknown was the only way to progress and probably having to restart with the knowledge of where the landing point is afterwards.

Interface & Controls
Keyboard arrow keys or wasd control scheme with choice of hotkeys or mouse for menu selections. There are a few mini-games scattered that rely on slightly different control schemes such as space bar only or drag and drop mouse action.

Graphics
Simple and consistent art style, with a few animated objects including the player character (an anthropomorphized cube). One thing to watch out for is spiked surfaces, they're sometimes really small but no less deadly spikes.

Music & Sound
The game's background music, while nice to listen to, seems a bit out of place in this game. It's somewhat relaxed whereas the game is largely action-oriented. The game's sounds on the other hand do their job much more effectively than the music.

Commentary
This game might have been better made had there been a larger team. Having one person programming and handling level designing is a frequent route to needlessly hard levels. The mini-games also seemed a bit out of place as they functioned dramatically-different from the rest of the levels. had they been implemented as an extra feature rather than being part of the regular level progression, it's likely they would be less unusual.

Game review: Zombie Goes Up

Zombie Goes Up is a casual, action game produced by Neutronized. The programming and artwork is by Glonathan Pesaresi and music by Sserrac. The player's objective is to get the zombie up to the surface, navigating around obstacles and opposition.

Summary of analysis
Quick learning curve which parallels steep difficulty curve, decent if occasionally unforgiving gameplay, minimal interface and simple keyboard controls, cartoon-style graphics, interesting and amusing sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
With only four in-game controls, it's a fairly quick learning curve to master the basics. As new elements of the game are introduced, the player will be passing by the tutorial elements in the form of underground signs. Be careful about getting confident, as the gameplay difficulty increases just as quickly as the new elements are introduced.

Gameplay experience
After the first few levels, it gets frustrating trying to dodge between obstacles, thankfully there appears to be an infinite lives mechanic at play. Nonetheless, there are quite a lot of times when the game's safe path is tightrope-thin.

Interface & Controls
The interface consists of a progress bar, score, and game menu controls (pause and mute functions). The gameplay controls are just the four arrow keys.

Graphics
Cartoon-style zombie and creatures alongside similarly-styled world objects and animated interactive objects. The graphics definitely help the casual appeal and it's always nice to see Halloween-themed games abstain from the blood and gore tedium.

Music & Sound
Zombie Goes Up has an interesting background music that seems equal parts light-hearted and dramatic tension. The sound effects certainly go along with the graphics with plenty of boings, pops, and tiny explosions.

Commentary
It's a well-made game and decent way to fill a little time. I'd say that after the first few levels, the game's bound to lose appeal to a casual gamer audience but due to the time commitment by that point, it's already starting to tread into hardcore gamer style anyway.

Game review: Kit and the Octopod

Kit and the Octopod is an action-adventure flash game by Jay Armstrong Games. The game's premise is that the "Bad Mood Bear" has kidnapped the beau of the octopod and the player takes on the role of Kit, a helpful, random individual who decided to befriend the octopod.

Summary of analysis
Simple new player experience, amusing though occasionally jarring gameplay experience, simple control scheme and virtually ignorable interface, glaring contrast of graphical elements, decent music and sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
The game's new player experience is easily accomplished through pop-up background elements which are placed at contextual points in the first few levels and indicate which controls to use to progress. The wall jump mechanic seems to have either been redesigned or an overcomplicated variation as a bit of experimentation revealed an easier method of accomplishing the same goal.

Gameplay experience
Judging from the game's graphics and introductory cut scenes, one of which featured a cephalopod participating in the bro-fist of friendship, I had come to expect a light-hearted romp through a countryside... but it was veiling some dark humor and grit. Upon encountering the first enemy opposition, I wound up knocking out a soldier by tossing a barrel at them, the second, however, I fought using Kit's wrench and was shocked to see blood spurting off of them and taken aback when they exploded into gore. I soon gained a preference for eliminating opposition by means other than the wrench to try and avoid further jarring moments.
Aside from the elements of gore and some occasional reminders of how a level can be designed to entrap a player with optional objectives, the game was largely fun and amusing. There's even a mild degree of replay value by getting to play as a pirate after the first time beating the game, but the parrot trades off offensive utility completely for free-range exploration (pretty much only good for getting coins that would result in suicide normally).

Interface & Controls
Minimal interface elements which can almost all be ignored in the course of play and a similar control scheme. If the game had the ability to customize the control scheme , I'd think it would do a lot better as many players are accustomed to a significantly differing layout from other games (wasd movement) and may occasionally wind up paying for it when trying to adjust to this game's control scheme.

Graphics
The game's graphics is where the jarring element of gameplay comes in. The player character is a very happy and friendly individual and the whole game is rendered in a cartoon style graphical theme, yet the blood and gore elements contrast heavily with what the player is likely to come to expect in the first minutes of gameplay. Falling down a bottomless pit or knocking an opponent out follow the lines of slapstick well-enough, but the sharp death traps and exploding character gore put dampen what could have easily been a fully humorous game. To put it another way, there are more ways to accomplish an active opposition element than to incorporate character to character violence and when a game sets a player's expectations up for betrayal, it's going to have a negative affect on how fun it is.

Music & Sound
For the standard duration of gameplay, the background music keeps the mood of the action-style pacing and the sound effects go along to the game's events proficiently.

Commentary
I can imagine that there is a certain sort of personality that would appreciate this game's dark humor far better than I. Along the lines of one lesson during my college education was to limit the attempted scope of player appeal and this game does just that. The lacking replay value was a disappointing feature to see, but there is a certain fan appeal to following a meme and under the right circumstances is a reward unto itself.

Game review: Bastion (Demo)

Bastion is a smash-'em up style action roleplaying game by Supergiant Games. Unlike many games hailing themselves a part of the roleplaying genre, Bastion prominently features a narrative story where the player character's actions have the most significant impact on the world and the story.

Summary of analysis
Mixed delight/disappointment new player experience, mostly positive gameplay experience which is likely to be improved by playing on primary release platform, adequately accomplished interface and control scheme that really emphasizes a reason to play it on Xbox rather than PC, graphically appealing style that comes to life in the moment, excellent music & sound (especially the third-person narrator element).

Tutorial/New player experience
The new player experience of Bastion is an equal helping of discovering a delightful innovation and unfortunate disorientation. Right from the beginning, the player gets to experience having a fully-voiced narrator guide them along and give them hints. Unfortunately, they're left to learn the controls without ever being taught and often amidst a hostile environment or opposition. Note: this may have been a particular failing of the demo version. In any case, I cautiously respect the way Supergiant Games chose to try and keep the theme of discovery even though it impacts upon tutorial elements of the gameplay.

Gameplay experience
As a disclaimer, I strictly recommend playing the Xbox version instead of the PC, as the gameplay revealed that to be the target platform with the PC version being a notably buggy after thought. Aside from development focus, the gameplay experience was largely entertaining and flowed nicely; there was clearly a lot of thought in the level design with the player being able to have a good idea of current obstacles and dangers due to the third-person narrator present at all times. One particularly amusing point was my first time falling off the world and the narrator playing it off as a joke they were telling instead of what really happened; sadly, later accidents of that nature felt more like being unjustly scolded as I'd never been doing it on purpose.

Interface & Controls
The interface elements, while on hand since starting are learned much like everything else: in the moment and experimental trial and error. Thankfully, some of the elements first become active in contextual pair with learning some of the game's mechanics. The control scheme is why I recommend only ever playing the Xbox version, as being told to hit trigger buttons on a keyboard and mouse scheme is an infuriating and counter-productive issue that really only gets resolved by having to pause and bring up the controls section of the menu. In addition, having to play a 3/4 perspective game when directional keys are running tangent to the entire layout scheme means having to make a lot of over correcting and more than a little accidental occurrences of falling off the world and additional risk of death by key locking..

Graphics
A lot of work went into the game's particular style and themes through the graphics of Bastion. All the active and passive elements blend together to create an appealing experience that greatly aids a desire to explore the game world. As the player progresses through a level and explores optional side-paths, the world literally comes into view, rising out of the infinite expanse beneath the player and arranging itself emphasizing that feel of a narrated story coming into being as it's been described to an audience.

Music & Sound
Bastion's background music helps evoke the game's exploration and survival themes, but it is (pun warning) instrumental as back up to the game's narrator. As mentioned a number of times by this point, the game's fully-voiced narration is a key element of gameplay and is a masterful attempt of innovation. Even with all the detracting points I encountered in the demo, I'd still recommend playing this game just for the narrated story. The game has a number of triggered nodes that push the narration as the player progresses and also reacts to the player's actions during the course of play.

Commentary
I sincerely hope to have an opportunity to play through the full Xbox version of the game one day but I have no intention of putting myself through the PC experience of Bastion again. It should be applauded any time a game attempts to innovate. When they succeed in contributing to an enjoyable experience and help lend those new elements into the standard, the game studio should be making news in the industry with both player and developer communities alike. As noted in the game's official site, this is the company's first game, lending even more weight to the arguments of why the big studios should be looking to independent studios for hints on how to do things rather than gambling on the ever diminishing appeal of series sequels.
This adds yet another name to my list of companies to keep an eye on in hopes of seeing what they'll accomplish in the future.

Game review: Depths of Peril (Demo)

Depths of Peril is a ambitious action-adventure game combining elements of hack and slash action, roleplaying-style character equipment and stat management, tower defense game's home outpost with defenses, factional real-time strategy, and a rich backstory narrative all with an explorable world. Depths of Peril was developed by Soldak Entertainment and is available to run on Windows and Mac PC platforms.

Summary of analysis
Poorly implemented new player experience, fast-paced and challenging gameplay with hordes of monsters, the lurking threat of factional warfare but the most frightening element is the narrative elements, complicated but rewarding interface and controls, well-detailed graphics with minor obstacles of object distinction, mediocre music with mostly satisfying sound effects.

Tutorial/New player experience
I imagine that the one thing that got me through this part of the game was an abundance of comparable game experience, the new player experience was bordering on painful.
After creating a character I was dropped into the game without a clue about the controls and considerable curiosity about what I was supposed to do first. Within the first ten minutes of gameplay, I was over my head with a long line of tutorial help windows waiting for my attention and in need of industrial machinery to deal with all the walls of text I was expected to read through. If you're new to this style of game, I recommend its competition first, they'll ease a player into the game much better than Depths of Peril does.
I can understand that there's a lot to teach the player as there's a lot to manage in the game and quite a bit of mechanics and interactions that they'll need to learn (kind of quickly, too, lest they fall behind the opposition), but more succinct explanations and walking a player through things is an art, not a chore list.

Gameplay experience
After getting the hang of everything, things ran much more smoothly, though the feeling of having to outrace impending doom never went away. Personally, I love being able to multi-task in a hardcore style game and managing a constant flow of quests, preparing for invasion from opposing forces, managing a main character and companion, and slaughtering hordes of monsters in exploration really let this game shine after the grueling new player experience. This game appears to be designed to keep a player going, unrelentingly, so keep an alarm handy if you have any upcoming plans while playing.
Probably the major detractor to ongoing gameplay are the tomes, which are an interesting read and show that the designers really wanted to draw players into the game's world, they're just cumbersome and out of place given the game's pacing and themes. If they could have implemented a telling of these narratives through high-level or epic quests in which the player character is transported back to participate in the events depicted, I would applaud the narrative, but they wound up being the most dreaded usable item a player would come across (whatever you do, don't right click the tomes... just stuff them in the bookshelf for their bonuses) and did more to break immersion than was really tolerable.

Interface & Controls
Complex interface relying on a sizable number of windows to manage (thankfully some of them pause gameplay while active). Primarily mouse-driven controls with abundant, and life-saving, keyboard hotkeys. It takes a significant investment of time to master the gameplay and the interface interactions, but it pays off exponentially with ongoing gameplay and especially in higher difficulty levels.

Graphics
2.5D top-down, angled, third-person perspective with moderately detailed character, object, and environment artwork. While certainly more visually appealing to a seriously-themed game, the interactive elements' graphics have a tendency to blend in with the non-interactive elements causing the targeting system to be an unnecessarily high level of nuisance (in fact, there's a whole keyboard hotkey just to highlight objects that can be picked up and it's probably going to be used more than any other). But even without the distraction-prone environment elements, a mouse-based targeting system in third-person perspective is clumsy at best. Thankfully, death by camera-angle or targeting system never became an issue (so far).

Music & Sound
I think there was background music, but between the rapid pace of gameplay and the sound effects, it may as well have been turned off for all I ever noticed it. The implementation of sound was quite a lot more satisfying, save that damnable knocking of factional management that honestly tempted me to embrace savage massacre of my in-game neighbors.

Commentary
Diablo-esque and it shows; the interface, controls, quite a lot of mechanics, and even some bits of narrative and premise illustrate a high likeliness of inspiration by the works of Blizzard Entertainment. There were also a number of moments where I felt the need to pause and question a few of the game's elements, such as a factionally-divided tribe of barbarians which somehow valued hefty (though abridged) tomes of lore in a hostile environment nearly pouring in on them from all sides. It was also a bit jarring to see the most-used currency was actually a coin-based economy as opposed to the frequently cited crystals of the tutorial and help windows.
To the game's credit, it was mostly well put together and it excels as a hardcore-style game by how it manages to keep a player engaged with only moments of downtime to give the player breathing and strategy time, eventually aiding in the desired player skill development rather than letting inventory management and spreadsheet-planning to detract from the pace.

Game Review: Fault Line

Fault Line is probably the first game in a long time I'd played where I had become obsessed with trying to figure out how to reverse engineer its mechanics. It's an Action-Puzzle style flash game which leans more into hardcore play style (especially in later levels), but still has casual appeal.
As indicated in the credits, the art is by Stefan Åhlin, it's programmed by Chris Burt-Brown, with music by Dave Cowen, and is part of the Nitrome games network.

The game's goal is to bring its protagonist through dynamic environments akin to mazes via manipulation of space.

Summary of analysis
Minimal interactions/mechanics to teach the player, resulting in a quick and in the action tutorial, excellent mix of challenging puzzles and learning how to use the mechanics creatively but lacking replay value, well accomplished music and sound, and uncluttered/non-distracting interface with largely accommodating and simple controls.

Tutorial/New player experience
By the end of the first level, all the game's interactions have been shown to the player, the challenge from that point forward is learning how to use them to solve the various levels ahead.

Gameplay experience
With experimentation and creative logic, I'd have to say that the game is at just the right mix of challenge and learning that really makes a puzzle game shine. The game also forgoes narrating a story and lets the player's own imagination wander if they're so inclined to find a premise that ties together the events of the game.
Levels are timed and scored, but outside of playing the game with an attitude of testing the limits of the mechanics, there's fairly little motivation behind replaying them except to get a few more points.

Interface & Controls
A minimal interface lets the player focus better on the tasks at hand. The most notable part of the interface and controls is the mouse-driven detachable hands of the character, which pull together special node points in the environment, thereby bending the level's space in order to create pathways, avoid or destroy obstacles, navigate the maze, and even have a little fun distorting objects. Character movement consists of keyboard keys for moving left, right, and jumping (with some accommodation of multiple layouts).

Graphics
Sprite-art character and objects/environment with a futuristic style. No character death, relying on a rewinding time to most recent checkpoint mechanic when hazardous conditions are met (including bending the environment into a collapse on the character).

Music & Sound
Unlike a lot of futuristic-style games, the music was neither fast-paced, nor annoyingly repetitive (at least by my tastes and standards). The music and sound evoked a sense of mystery, possibly being meant to entice a player to keep pressing to finish every challenge.

Commentary
As stated earlier, this game has left my designer tendencies working overtime theorizing possible methods of implementing similar mechanics. From incredibly well-written object-draw programming tied together with an adaptive surfaces interpretation to interchangeable level maps to more complicated object-merging interactive systems, this game was engaging as a player and inspirational as a game designer. Also, Fault Line is a testament to breaking away from convention and trying to innovate by making the level itself the focus instead of the character or the character's movements.
Finally, it never hurts to take a mechanic and show how it can be iteratively used to exponential degrees.