Nah, this game is a lot more niche - I wouldn't have a problem leaving a negative review on a game with as much popularity as Blue Prince.

(That said, I have issues with Blue Prince as well, but for more forgivable, understandable reasons 😄)

Monkey Island did not come out this year :D

I'm not sure how to end this thread but I feel a bit better typing it out. Sorry for rambling, I'm just going to try not think too deeply about it and keep pursuing what I think makes my game interesting. Even if it ends up being aimed at a small, pedantic minority.

I think it also bothers me because everyone's reactions to this game makes me feel disconnected. I'm doing my best with my game, but dislike this other game in a similar genre. But people love this other game. So, if we follow this logically... yeah.

I think the reason this bothers me so much is because people just don't seem to notice or feel or care about this missing "why". That hits me at my core because it runs counter to why I want to make games. I want to inspire people in a very real way.

Rule discovery isn't exciting because you're uncovering weird edge cases, it's exciting because you're uncovering some hidden truth that was always there. That's at least why it's exciting to me. I don't feel that at all with this game; I just find myself constantly asking "why?"

Discovery in Stephen's Sausage Roll feels the same. Nothing fundamentally changes, every discovery is a natural consequence of the moveset, enabled by nothing more than small twists in the level geometry.

The best rule discovery games are so because the consequences you discover appear so naturally. Every Baba Is You discovery feels like, "oh of course that would happen if I arranged the words that way". It was always there, and not just because it was programmed that way.

It's full of mechanics that lead to whacky discoverable interactions, but those mechanics are so arbitrary that I feel like I'm not actually discovering anything. It's the same feeling as playing a backyard game with a 4 year old who's making up rules on the spot. Complexity for complexity's sake.

It's not even that I disagree with the reviews; the game is snappy, the level design is impressive. But the game is missing something, some holistic theme, some reason for the game to exist aside from "because the dev made it". When I play it, this makes me unmotivated and dissatisfied.

I've not been consistent with sharing progress lately, half due to avoiding spoilers, half due to introverted laziness. Maybe some day I will post cool clips again.

I've not been consistent with sharing progress lately, half due to avoiding spoilers, half due to introverted laziness. Maybe some day I will post cool clips again.

Might not follow through this time, the idea I have in my head probably won't work in practice...

I remember beginning to setup an EGS page for Sensorium a little while ago, hitting a minor roadblock, realizing it would probably reach about 1% of the people it did on steam, and gave up

I would have believed it to actually be impossible (and that being the point) if I hadn't seen people online had beaten it already

I did it and the game is already back to being fully playable. Custom level editor really paying dividends.

The question is, though, is it better? 🤔