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Tag: Blendo Games

  • Gaming Week 24: Thirty Flights of Loving (PC)

    Gaming Week 24: Thirty Flights of Loving (PC)

    Following on from last week I decided to play Thirty Flights of Loving, the sequel to Gravity Bone. This one was kickstarted as part of the Idle Thumbs podcast, and eventually was released to steam for download. It follows on from the themes and story outlined in Gravity Bone, and even has more depth than the first.

    EAT THE FUCKING CAKE
    Yayyyyy a wedding, I do love to drink at these

    You start Thirty Flights of Loving as an agent that must find his way into a secret hide out. A small poster on the wall explains the controls, and with this the game sets you on your way. Its once you set out on your mission is where you  Now it may not be a coherent story, but its you that must do the job of making it one, constantly guessing whats coming next only for your presumptions to be turned upside down.

    FUCK THEM
    All the Cats!

    Game mechanics are fairly straight forward, you no longer have to use freeze spray or hammers to unlock things, instead this is a linear experience where you press E to interact with things or use WASD to move around. This isn’t a bad thing at all, but I did like the freeze and hammer combination in Gravity Bone, and would have liked Blendo Games to give it a go at other control systems, breaking them down to their core values.

    Thirty Flights of Loving has all the core values which make up a AAA game, but does so at such a simple level that it’s hard to see them. The story is told in such a fantastic way, but misses a lot of specifics, so you’re left guessing as to why things are happening/what happened. This isn’t a bad thing at all, and in fact makes the player use their brain for once to create a narrative rather than just being a set of eyes. If leaves you feeling genuinely happy when you finish the game, a feeling that is hard to come by with modern games.

    BUT SOFT AS BUTTER
    This guy’s hard as nails

    For its price, Thirty Flights of Loving is worth the investment, and certainly adds a depth to what Gravity Bone started. It’s currently £3.99 on Steam, which is great value, if you’re not sure about that (it is a short game like its predecessor) then it is on sale quite often, I think I picked my copy up for £1.49. Give it a go if you like Gravity Bone, you won’t be disappointed.

    4/5

  • Gaming Week 23: Gravity Bone (Mac & PC)

    Gaming Week 23: Gravity Bone (Mac & PC)

    For this week, I decided to write about something that is renowned for being short, but shouldn’t be disregarded for being so. I’m technically on holiday for the next 3 months, and will definitely continue with my weekly gaming, but they may be smaller games. Hope you enjoy reading this, and I will update this blog more regularly on my game development progress.

    Gravity Bone:

    FUCK THESE BITCHES
    I don’t know what I done, but it couldn’t have been good

    Gravity Bone is a small indie game made by Blendo Games, (A one man team consisting of Brendon Chung) and when I say short, I mean 20 minutes to an hour short. This isn’t detrimental to the game in any way, just be warned and don’t be surprised when it abruptly ends.

    In this short time, Brendon manages to create a narrative that would rival even the biggest of games, something that’s constantly got you questioning what’s going on and what’s the big picture. It’s certainly effective, playing from the “less is more” ideology, but can leave players feeling bummed out that they’re missing something, which is exactly as I felt until I thought it all over to write this review.

    FUCK THESE PEOPLESSSS
    Time to get to work

    Gravity Bone consists of 2 acts: the game starts out at a party, where you have an invitation which tells you to make your way to the furnace room. It’s in here that you find that you’re actually a spy who has a job to do. You need to bring a drink to a person with red hair, whilst dressed like a waiter. This is where you discover this is indeed a game, albeit stripped to it’s core. There’s no tutorials, no set up, you just do the job the game tells you to, and get on with life.

    The second act entails taking pictures of “birds”, bringing new game mechanics into play to open locked doors with your trusty hammer and freeze spray. It’s a pretty good idea, and one that allows you to figure out how to open doors yourself, with no tutorials or instructions. This second act is where the game opens up, and gives you more glimpses of story, but these are merely glimpses, meaning you need to piece it all together yourself to make sense of whats going on.

    FUCK THE LOCKS
    Pretty ingenious to freeze locks before smashing them with a hammer.

    Overall Gravity Bone shows the core mechanics of a game, without bloating itself just for the hell of it. If you want to learn the core mechanics that go into building a game, play Gravity Bone, it’ll show you the way. It’s free to download and play, and will work on Mac and PC, so give it a go.

    4/5