shortFree from Loading

I found SkagoGames and subsequently this game from Hold the Noise. I think this developer has a lot of neat, experimental gameplay ideas surrounding the theme of authoritarianism, even though the execution of these ideas are often too shallow or unsatisfactory.

For this game, I can get the of underlying thought of “you can only speak up when (the higher-ups or something) aren’t watching”, and to be honest I quite like that idea. However, the execution was subpar.

The rules of this game determined that the player will have to restart constantly, but every time the player restarts, they would be greeted with another 10 seconds of countdown and doing nothing. This was repetitive, boring, and somewhat punishing to players who keep going, making the gameplay experience a lot worse than it could have been.

There was also basically no incentive to keep playing after I failed once or twice. Even though I am still curious at what would happen if the progress bar reaches 100%, there was just no reason for me to suffer through just to get to the end. If I was to develop this game, I would have put some positive feedbacks for when the player reaches say, every 10% of progress, and/or for when the player reaches a certain score. That would tell the player there’s something ahead of them if they keep playing the game.

(Also though I know it’s probably an engine issue, the game defaulted to using my integrated graphics card on boot, which caused quite a bit of performance issue.)

Overall I hope the dev(s?) will continue making games! I look forward to the day when I play your game because of its innovative gameplay and rich insight, and not just its theme :)