TOP 10 FREE INDEPENDENT GAMES of 2008 - #2: Psychosomnium

Here we go with <a href="http://64digits.com/users/cactus/psycho1.zip";>Psychosomnium</a>; I'll be tackling this tonight myself.

Impressions? Thoughts?

Bleh. Try this: http://64digits.com/users/cactus/psycho1.zip

Puzzles mostly require random guesswork not logical thought - "do the same thing three times" especially irritating. NPCs annoying, repetitious and pointless. NB I only got the the screen after the bunny rabbits, couldn't figure out how to go on.

i quite liked that puzzle, actually.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

this wz fun, but not so much that i want to spend more time than it takes to play trying to think about it — one kind of wishes that there was a model for the release of games of this sort more akin to short stories, actually — you know, edited collections and then reshuffled single-author collections — such that they might not seem to occur so much in isolation .

also, someone has a thesis to write on the use of faux 8-bit visuals in the games of this decade.

i'm a bit confused, actually, i thought you meant you didn't know how to get past the rabbits. there doesn't seem to be a puzzle on the screen after the rabbits.

nah i got past the rabbits - that was the best puzzle - then a gap, and a wall, 'n' stuff, with blocks too high to jump onto?

uhh. you .. jump on the lowest block, and then the next highest, and then you can reach the highest?

APOLOGIES FOR SPOILER ABOVE EVERYONE

incidentally, it does appear that 17 of this dude's games are available in something called 'cactus game arcade': http://www.cactus-soft.co.nr/

this is the level in question - can't from the lowest to the next one up...

http://i37.tinypic.com/281yira.gif

ah. how are you getting past the bunnies?

can you not jump onto the ledge (lol) onto the right there, and then on top, then on the right.

That's how I did it, but i was the other character - the guy that punches (thats how i got past the rabbits)

xp, yeah how did you manage to get past the bunnies as that character?

the message font is almost unreadable

what, i can be the punchy guy? ... oh yeah, lol!

i got past the bunnies by doing just a v small jump, they still jump full height and you can run under them.

ah, lol i wonder if that's a flaw in the game then. so does the punchy guy jump higher then ?

yup.

i gave up on the bee

yeah fuck that shit.

oh shit, the cactus guy made this? awesome! i can't wait to try this! he also did clean asia and minubeat which are both excellent shmups.

i played this the other night, its a cute little thing but the last section with the bee was kind of annoying

Yeah, this didn't overwhelm me. Generally unintuitive and repetitive. Nice candy-color visuals but hardly innovative. Sorta meh.

I was much more into the new DoubleFine minigame platformer 'Tashas' Game' which is much better than either of the first two we've tackled.
http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/minigames/Tashas_Game

fuck the bee bit. also why does the bee have such a long droopy sack?

This stuff is shades of I Wanna Be The Guy, another indie platformer based on fake 2D platforming rules and overcoming insane repetitious death. Gave up on the bee section.

Karoshi is actually really similar, but far more amusing. At least each screen there is broken up into its own level that you can select, so it's less annoying on that level.

Tasha's Game is FANTASTIC, btw!

Finally passed the bee bit. Not missing anything by giving up there. Crappy ending.