The Silksong situation irks me. I have plenty of friends who normally espouse empathy for developers, joining all the voices against crunch and layoffs. Yet when Silksong comes up, they seem to experience some cognitive dissonance. They have no problem channeling their ire toward Team Cherry for being mum on details. Maybe I'd understand it more if folks had already ponied up cash for it, but it appears on what storefronts Silksong is currently listed, there is no pre-order option yet. I get being eager for more information, but I don't understand or agree with the indignation.
If I were advising them I'd probably want to help them come up with a comms strategy that preserves their flexibility while satisfying the fans (the "just stay silent" strategy is actually pretty weak imo). But I do wish more people would just treat them with grace.
The premise behind Fowl Damage is irresistible from a game design point-of-view. If I had conceived such an idea, I would have felt compelled to build it to see what results. I've been wracking my brain to determine why the game hasn't garnered many sales, and I think I've come up with a few ideas:
1. Confusing title. When I first read the game's title, before knowing much/anything about it, I interpreted it as a pun for "Foul Damage" and it is hard to parse meaning from that. I have to wonder how many others also did not immediately read it as a play on "Fall Damage".
2. "Blurry" mechanics. The idea of being able to jump high enough to kill yourself is interesting, but how do players know exactly how high that is? Even if demonstrated in a tutorial, the in-game footage does not seem to indicate that threshold, forcing players to learn to feel their way through what that limit is. Such a prospect may have scared potential buyers away.
3. Abstract setting. I am having a hard time telling where this game takes place. It looks like Samus Aran got replaced with an egg (that would actually be a good tagline). I think maybe there needs to be a more clear bridge between the egg and the sci-fi locations.
Bonus possibility: I have not yet tried the demo, but maybe players felt like they got everything they needed from it without having to purchase the full game?
I'm no businessman or anything, but I've never been bothered by a dev adding a little "check out our new game!" to the start menu of an older game. (maybe they already did that but I haven't played peglin in a good while)
So, I bought and installed Fowl Damage to see what the problem might be. After playing for almost 2 hours, here are my thoughts:
The game's Okay. It's like a B- or a C+ game. That's good enough to get mostly positive reviews, but not good enough to get strong buzz going.
Why do I think it's not a great game? Well, the central game mechanic doesn't play well with branching paths in the levels - backtracking is really painful. It doesn't commit to a vibe either, there's some moody level themes but I'm an egg with a goofy smile on my face. Level design is kind of all over the place, there are a lot of random nooks and crannies that are difficult to jump into but lead to nothing.
It’s aiming more at Celeste, not Animal Well. I agree with you on the backtracking issue, though. I’d be happier if they added some way to navigate quickly to all the rooms with uncollected feathers. I’ll probably beat it but am unlikely to go back through for missing feathers as is.
Celeste might've been an influence, but the frail egg doesn't play similarly at all to Madeline. Fowl Damage necessarily becomes a puzzle-platformer, while Celeste is almost pure micro-intensive platforming action.
I haven't played, but from the trailer it did seem like an unusual combination of character and theme. I was expecting a splatty egg game to have more of a Kirby feel - or even an anarchic, Super Meatboy vibe. Or something closer to Bread & Fred. Silly, basically. :) But from the trailer it looks like a very moody, serious science fiction thing - and they seem to be doing that quite well, too! But put those two things together and my brain struggles a bit.
The Silksong situation irks me. I have plenty of friends who normally espouse empathy for developers, joining all the voices against crunch and layoffs. Yet when Silksong comes up, they seem to experience some cognitive dissonance. They have no problem channeling their ire toward Team Cherry for being mum on details. Maybe I'd understand it more if folks had already ponied up cash for it, but it appears on what storefronts Silksong is currently listed, there is no pre-order option yet. I get being eager for more information, but I don't understand or agree with the indignation.
If I were advising them I'd probably want to help them come up with a comms strategy that preserves their flexibility while satisfying the fans (the "just stay silent" strategy is actually pretty weak imo). But I do wish more people would just treat them with grace.
Fascinating stuff, thanks, Ryan. I've somehow completely missed Peglin, so am now off to investigate that (and Fowl Damage!).
The premise behind Fowl Damage is irresistible from a game design point-of-view. If I had conceived such an idea, I would have felt compelled to build it to see what results. I've been wracking my brain to determine why the game hasn't garnered many sales, and I think I've come up with a few ideas:
1. Confusing title. When I first read the game's title, before knowing much/anything about it, I interpreted it as a pun for "Foul Damage" and it is hard to parse meaning from that. I have to wonder how many others also did not immediately read it as a play on "Fall Damage".
2. "Blurry" mechanics. The idea of being able to jump high enough to kill yourself is interesting, but how do players know exactly how high that is? Even if demonstrated in a tutorial, the in-game footage does not seem to indicate that threshold, forcing players to learn to feel their way through what that limit is. Such a prospect may have scared potential buyers away.
3. Abstract setting. I am having a hard time telling where this game takes place. It looks like Samus Aran got replaced with an egg (that would actually be a good tagline). I think maybe there needs to be a more clear bridge between the egg and the sci-fi locations.
Bonus possibility: I have not yet tried the demo, but maybe players felt like they got everything they needed from it without having to purchase the full game?
I'm no businessman or anything, but I've never been bothered by a dev adding a little "check out our new game!" to the start menu of an older game. (maybe they already did that but I haven't played peglin in a good while)
“Sophmore Slump”in game dev form?
So, I bought and installed Fowl Damage to see what the problem might be. After playing for almost 2 hours, here are my thoughts:
The game's Okay. It's like a B- or a C+ game. That's good enough to get mostly positive reviews, but not good enough to get strong buzz going.
Why do I think it's not a great game? Well, the central game mechanic doesn't play well with branching paths in the levels - backtracking is really painful. It doesn't commit to a vibe either, there's some moody level themes but I'm an egg with a goofy smile on my face. Level design is kind of all over the place, there are a lot of random nooks and crannies that are difficult to jump into but lead to nothing.
This is a poor man's Animal Well.
It’s aiming more at Celeste, not Animal Well. I agree with you on the backtracking issue, though. I’d be happier if they added some way to navigate quickly to all the rooms with uncollected feathers. I’ll probably beat it but am unlikely to go back through for missing feathers as is.
Celeste might've been an influence, but the frail egg doesn't play similarly at all to Madeline. Fowl Damage necessarily becomes a puzzle-platformer, while Celeste is almost pure micro-intensive platforming action.
That's fair—because of the focus on correct routing I was also reminded of Sokoban games.
I haven't played, but from the trailer it did seem like an unusual combination of character and theme. I was expecting a splatty egg game to have more of a Kirby feel - or even an anarchic, Super Meatboy vibe. Or something closer to Bread & Fred. Silly, basically. :) But from the trailer it looks like a very moody, serious science fiction thing - and they seem to be doing that quite well, too! But put those two things together and my brain struggles a bit.