Specter Spelunker Shrinks

Here's a new indie game.

My review, first the negatives. Please don't make a game with right-handed movement only, or even as a default. Please don't make a game with music that doesn't have a mute button.

The positives: I guess this is the best game of 2010, even though it's only 10 minutes long. I'm not sure what would be better, but certainly not an FPS with an RPG ladder. With Specter Spelunker Shrinks, we get a glimpse at an experimental mechanic that really does work, so that's a rare thing. Anyway, I had the shrink/grow mechanic in mind as well for a platform game, but the difference between Ken Grafals and me is that he actually executed the idea. This game is basically a prototype that's a proof of concept of the idea that vastly shrinking and growing on-the-fly makes for fun gameplay. Verdict: concept proven.

I actually think this mechanic itself is, ironically, part of a larger possible idea. Dear Ken: would you like to make the next Portal / Braid together? Not a joke.

--Sirlin

Comments

[Rob]

"certainly not an FPS with an RPG ladder"
Completely agree, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone to say that :)

[Scott Jon Siegel]

Scale in level design has been on my mind since Katamari Damacy. I haven't really played a game since that's captured the scaling sensation and power of zoom the same way. Until this one.

Oof, that was a satisfying ten minutes.

[Frank]

It was good, but I can't say I loved it. As ubiquitous and formulaic as the genre of FPS with an RPG ladder has become, I'm beginning to feel the same way about little platformers with a twist. Indie gaming needs a new "blank canvas".

[LSK]

This is definitely a Portal/Braid-style mechanic. I'd like to see this mechanic with a more populated world.

[Yagamoth]

Excellent concept in my opinion. I love such new ideas (actually, I don't know whether it's new, but at least uncommon, as I didn't encounter anything like that up to now). Too bad I'm not creative enough to develop something like this myself.

However, I think the restrictions required in a more complex environment would be hard to figure out, so it isn't that easily glitched.