Really enjoying #AnimalWell having its moment in the spotlight. What a great showcase of how putting passion into an #IndieDev project can capture the attention and interest of so many people.
For such a well-trodden genre, it’s proving there is a lot of fresh ground to cover, and indies seem to be able to do that even better than big industry players.
Makes me excited to put more energy into my own #GameDev projects as well!
#AnimalWell is a lovely #metroidvania type #game. Good vibes, decent puzzles, and that bit of wandering messiness the genre often engenders.
However, I will admit I don't understand the exceptionally high praise for it. It feels pretty standard for the genre. It's just a decent metroidvania that isn't really breaking any new ground I've seen.
Got to the credits screen of #AnimalWell in about 12 hours of play-time. What a lovely game. Strong recommend for a tightly intentional and deeply mysterious puzzle platformer.
It feels like the slightly younger sibling of Tunic. Tunic took the decade-old lessons of Fez and went in one direction with them, and Animal Well showed another path some 18 months later.
Most of the animals in #AnimalWell make goofy synthesizer sounds, but there's a bit involving some trapped critters that is paired with realistic audio, suggesting that they're in distress and crying. It echoes around while you work on a tough and lengthy section, a tonal miss in this otherwise lovely game, far more upsetting than it needs to be.
I asked a Discord for a "Does the dog die?”-style spoiler for whether or not you can help them; was told yes. Whew! (But I haven't got that far yet.)
Modern websites: "You only have 16GB of memory? Forget about reading this website."
Indie games: "This game contains secrets for years and years of play time. It also runs in a custom engine with amazing visuals and top quality sound design. Oh and it also fits in 40MB."