Board 8 > Animal Well is quite good

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you platforming, puzzles, and Metroidvania, it does all of these pretty well

I'm very much enjoying it

Best Halo game since Reach.

Legit though , absolutely floored this game was made by one person, and actually one person not "Well someone else did the music and I had help on the animations". Not that I'm downplaying other games just because they had a couple of helpers.

It's so unbelievably gorgeous.

Got about 25 eggs so far and cleared two of the icons from the map

I went about half the game not realizing what the Stamp did so I might end up having to backtrack all over the place

My gaming plate is full for the moment but this seemed cool and I will probably play it eventually.

It's pretty interesting for the first ever Animalvania and Open-Well Type game

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Got about 25 eggs so far and cleared two of the icons from the map

I went about half the game not realizing what the Stamp did so I might end up having to backtrack all over the place

Yeah I am regretting not marking the locations of certain things

Did you know it took inspiration from Super Mario Bros. 2?

Platforming, puzzles, and Metroidvania? I know nothing about this game - any similarity to La-Mulana?

NBIceman posted...

Platforming, puzzles, and Metroidvania? I know nothing about this game - any similarity to La-Mulana?

It is much more forgiving than La Mulana. The puzzles are also less obtuse, and there's not really any combat. There are some similarities in that the game does not explicitly tell you how items and other stuff works.

I've played through most of this game today since starting it, which is a good sign.

I do have to admit that while Im enjoying this game, Im not seeing whatever is causing everyone else to heap such extreme praise on it. Its just a regular good game to me

WazzupGenius00 posted...

I do have to admit that while Im enjoying this game, Im not seeing whatever is causing everyone else to heap such extreme praise on it. Its just a regular good game to me

What if FEZ was good and not made by Phil Fish?

Got credits, got 32 eggs, when I collected the reward for that I thought I did not see a single place in this game where I thought something like this would help so I have no idea what to do now. The two places it did something so far, there was nothing to indicate that it would have any effect beforehand. That will probably be the end of my time playing this because Im not just gonna go through the entire map using the item in every spot

Again fun game, but I am not seeing what elevates it to the level that people are giving it 10/10

I wouldn't say 10/10, but it's a well-made, unique and charming game.

the praise is coming because of who the publisher is.
big mode is dunkey's project of going from youtuber to gaming publisher and this is their first game released. basically he made a promise that games released here would be of a certain quality and he's living up to his standards.

Oh this looks right up my alley. i swore off 8-bit styled indie games but i guess ill make an exception

Wanglicious posted...

the praise is coming because of who the publisher is.
big mode is dunkey's project of going from youtuber to gaming publisher and this is their first game released. basically he made a promise that games released here would be of a certain quality and he's living up to his standards.

that is not at all where the praise is coming from, the game was reviewing extremely well initially, which got amplified by dunkey's extremely loud fanbase because of that

It's probably because people like indie metroidvanias, cute animals, and single dev success stories

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Again fun game, but I am not seeing what elevates it to the level that people are giving it 10/10

some people thought Tunic was a 10/10 too. I don't get it

Wanglicious posted...

the praise is coming because of who the publisher is.
big mode is dunkey's project of going from youtuber to gaming publisher and this is their first game released. basically he made a promise that games released here would be of a certain quality and he's living up to his standards.

I saw this at Day of the Devs before Dunkey launched his publisher business, so that really doesn't have anything to do with it for me.

MacArrowny posted...

some people thought Tunic was a 10/10 too. I don't get it

Tunic is probably a 10/10 game for me, but I love meta-puzzlers like that, and I have very fond memories of the Zelda 1 instruction manual.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e46eebaa.jpg
lmao ok fuck you game

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

It's probably because people like indie metroidvanias, cute animals, and single dev success stories

Most importantly: It looks really good. That's what 90% of opinions/hype are based on. Maybe 95%.

So far the gameplay has been really nice too though. I do wonder what the meta puzzles end up being. Void Stranger was a really slow burn in that regard, but definitely ended up 10/10 material.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

that is not at all where the praise is coming from, the game was reviewing extremely well initially, which got amplified by dunkey's extremely loud fanbase because of that

...that's just a rephrase of what i'm saying.
it's a good game, is reviewing well, but if you're seeing an excessive amount of people praising an 8/10 game and calling it a 10/10 one, you gotta look at the fanbase and realize oh, there's a built in base here and they're going to give additional points to it because of where it's coming from. if the game was bad it'd get dunked on pretty hard too but instead it's a nice indie success story on all fronts, from the one man team to the file size to the publisher. the question was why is it getting extreme praise and all the "10/10!" when it's not and, well, that's the obvious answer.

Yeah, game reviewers are huge fans of Dunkey, that makes sense.

the steam reviewers sure are~

steam reviews are and always have been a joke

I've been doing some post-credits stuff and I don't know what I'm doing any more

I've gotten two rabbits, I guess? I also clearly need to find the last match and light the last candle to open a door...though I no longer have any idea where that candle is.

Wanglicious posted...

...that's just a rephrase of what i'm saying.
it's a good game, is reviewing well, but if you're seeing an excessive amount of people praising an 8/10 game and calling it a 10/10 one, you gotta look at the fanbase and realize oh, there's a built in base here and they're going to give additional points to it because of where it's coming from. if the game was bad it'd get dunked on pretty hard too but instead it's a nice indie success story on all fronts, from the one man team to the file size to the publisher. the question was why is it getting extreme praise and all the "10/10!" when it's not and, well, that's the obvious answer.

No, what I'm saying is that the game had tons of word of mouth, acclaim, and hype even before Dunkey made a video promoting it and his fanbase latched on to it. Hope this helps

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

No, what I'm saying is that the game had tons of word of mouth, acclaim, and hype even before Dunkey made a video promoting it and his fanbase latched on to it. Hope this helps

I don't know, citation needed on that. Maybe for people who closely follow the indie scene but...

I saw Animal Well in conferences/streams multiple times before Big Mode even opened up, it's always looked amazing.

Never heard about it before this week, but I'll take you guys' word for it.

Pretty sure it's been on both a Nintendo Direct and a State of Play!

KamikazePotato posted...

I don't know, citation needed on that. Maybe for people who closely follow the indie scene but...

Next you're gonna tell me you never heard of Eiyuden Chronicles until its release...

My gaming news comes from B8 and reddit. Never seen Animal Well talked about in those circles. I rarely ever watch Direct stuff.

Conversely, Eiyuden has been posted about here repeatedly.

KamikazePotato posted...

I don't know, citation needed on that. Maybe for people who closely follow the indie scene but...

the two niche communities at play here are "indie video game enthusiasts" and "videogamedunkey enjoyers"

I assure you this is a battle of the nobodies and the only thing I'm getting at is the former group was attuned to this game before the latter

Dunkey is cringe but also why are yall getting all "Well actually" on some indie game getting acclaim when stuff like BotW and TotK get 10/10s heaved onto them and nobody bats an eye lol

the only reason I'm getting "well actually" on this is due to the weirdly prevalent narrative that Dunkey is responsible for the acclaim and I am but a simple dedicated hater

but I'm a botw hater too so don't you worry

Oh no i meant the people basically going "well actually" to people giving this game 10/10s, because like who fuckin cares lmao let people who think they like it enough for a 10/10 give it a 10/10

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Dunkey is cringe but also why are yall getting all "Well actually" on some indie game getting acclaim when stuff like BotW and TotK get 10/10s heaved onto them and nobody bats an eye lol

This has just become a topic of people hating on games I loved

(Well, BotW, not TotK)

VintageGin posted...

This has just become a topic of people hating on games I loved

(Well, BotW, not TotK)

If the worst part to a game that has weapon durability somehow isn't the weapon durability, you've done something horribly, horribly wrong.

Came in to see some opinions on Animal Well since I am starting to catch buzz on it from different angles and I'm not sure what to make of it.

azuarc posted...

If the worst part to a game that has weapon durability somehow isn't the weapon durability, you've done something horribly, horribly wrong

Not really sure what you mean by this.

Anyway Animal Well is good. I honestly don't want to say too much about it because there's some fun surprises. As I mentioned before, there's no real combat, so that's something to consider-- it is mostly puzzles and platforming.

I will say, as an indie dev, dunkey has sold himself extremely well with his handling of this game. I'm really curious what Billy would say about the backend of the publishing deal, but the public facing stuff has been very attractive and will attract a lot of future indies. I wonder how different things would get if he has like 3 games he's simultaneously trying to promote though.

Animal Well is VVVVVV but slow

I started really enjoying the game once I got the bubble ability and realized you could use it to infinitely jump everywhere

I've been climbing with the disc for which is super fun, but there's too many vines blocking infinite climbs right now

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Dunkey is cringe but also why are yall getting all "Well actually" on some indie game getting acclaim when stuff like BotW and TotK get 10/10s heaved onto them and nobody bats an eye lol

I'm pretty sure people who don't think those are 10/10 games have no problem expressing that opinion!

Post-credits progress

51/64 eggs
8/9 candles lit
4/??? rabbits
3/5? cats

I have the Remote, B.B. Wand, S. Medallion (used), and one K. Fragment (used)

More progress. Got tired of looking for the final match and looked it up, only to find out I missed the very first one in the game.

Got the UV Lantern and the B. Ball. I hate the B. Ball.

VintageGin posted...

lmao ok fuck you game

Just got here lol. Gonna try it later but it doesn't seem too bad.

And I got the 32 egg item and also don't know where to use it. There was one place that I thought made a lot of sense but it did nothing. Those cubes with a face on them in the water area

Yeah that room isnt bad at all, only took like three or four tries. A big timesaver is that you can shoot bubbles downward while falling